Creating A Brand, Not Just Company

The first few years, every entrepreneur is busy creating a company which has
a healthy growth and ensuring he adds customers who will keep the profits coming
in. Then at some point in time, he realizes that he has a company which is well
established, processes and people which work without too many of his
intervention and how he wants to differentiate his company from that of his
competition. This is when this thoughts turn to how to create a brand identity
for either his company or the products he offers.

Discussing this issue with the top solution providers, who had gathered at
the SP Summit, Hemant Mishrra, MD, Neeti Brand Solutions noted that the first
step for any entrepreneur is to get a grip on why they want to create this
brand. "You need to have a mission and vision statement, which will then act as
your template on what activities you should undertake to create a brand," he
extolled.

Having a unique brand identity is vital for every business, irrespective of
its size. And the elements that go into building this brand identity are the
company's name, logos and design. The right brand, visibility and PR can attract
the needed attention from the target set of customers who are looking for the
solution in an already overcrowded market.

Hemant Mishrra MD, Neeti Brand SolutioNS

Getting started

First on the job list for the SP who wants to have a brand identity is to
conceptualize their thoughts and put in down in very concise and precise terms
and then move on to planning, The next step is publicity, which could include
print, audio, visual and other media.

These days, when new and innovative tools like social networking sites are
easily available to reach out to target audience, SPs can definitely utilize
this platform to enhance the marketing activities of their company. This is all
the more critical in their brand outreach program because with a dynamic and
fast approach towards revolutionizing the IT implementation across various
sectors in the country, SPs have developed a niche zone. They are capable of
adopting new technology, carrying out challenging projects and providing
state-of-the-art solutions to customers with innovations involved. And online is
one of the best medium to voice this out to the right and select target
audience.

To drive home the point about selecting the right approach for disseminating
information about a company, Mishrra took the case study of Hyderabad-based
Choice Solutions that touched the revenue of Rs 85 crore from Rs 50 crore in the
last five years. He demonstrated that planned concentration on a specialized
area can bring recognition and success in the competitive environ-ment, if
backed with the right marketing strategies.

Supporting this opinion KV Jagannath, MD, Choice Solutions mentioned, "In the
last five years, we internally understood our limitations and charted the growth
we wanted to achieve. We analyzed the ways to smoothen the cash flow to support
the system.Choice Solutions planned to develop in a niche area to gain
specialization and datacenter became the differen-tiator.

And we decided this distinction is what we wanted our customers and the industry
to know."

Perfection is paralysis

Often SPs are so keen on perfecting their company or their offerings that
they lose the chance to evolve with customer needs. This is why Mishrra said,
"Perfection is a paralysis. It acts as a barricade to growth and improvement.
Players in the IT implementation business should make efforts and move ahead.
This will provide them with a broader area to work and grow."

A clear indication of this evolution is how viral marketing, especially
online, has taken the branding world by storm. Talking on the new ways of doing
marketing, and also discussing about contemporary methods to change the face of
the society, Mishrra pointed out to social media marketing.

He took the instance of Sampath Iyengar from Sam 7 Computers and Services who
is highly active on the social networking sites and has effectively utilized
this platform as a tool to market his company, Mishrra noted that SPs need to
devote a few hours per day on social networking sites. Follow ups can definitely
bring about a difference to ones business. Elaborating on his own experience of
social media networking, Iyengar said, "Through sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or
Twitter, I have interacted with so many people who would not be interested to
meet otherwise. First you need to make friends with them and then they would
follow you. This acts as a platform to market the brand."

While discussing about the new and innovative methods to popularize ones
brand, Mishrra noted that strategy, innovation and manpower are going to be the
key factors for bringing success to a company. Marketing should not be limited
only to large enterprises, small and mid-sized companies can also avail the
benefits by marketing in a right manner.

Amrita Tejasvi

amritat@cybermedia.co.in