And no. It is not about how fanciful the name is.
So, you know how a lot of times we hear how people miss out on opportunities to gain some awesome benefit and you think, "but how could that be?". Well, I was at one of such places recently and trust me, all those who the event was targeted at and who weren't there, missed out.
For small businesses in Nigerian and pretty much everywhere else, being able to successfully differentiate yourself in the mind of your market can be the difference between life and death, literally.
The two key disciplines that executives (of both small and large businesses) constantly need to execute to achieve this are brand building and brand management. Many a-times, successfully applying the principles of these disciplines have been responsible for taking a brand from small to great.
"Today, business value and competitive advantage arise more often from consumer perceptions of what is "cool" than from physical assets or economies of scale." - Copenhagen Business School.
“Branding is the ability to constantly create a perception in the minds of your audience/market that there is no product/service like yours that meet their needs and wants by providing distinct value”
― Bernard Kelvin Clive
Your product/service has to stand for something in the hearts of your customers. Take that away and it is lost in the sea of competition. Adrift, rudderless...hopelessly lost in the midst of thousands of other hopelessly lost brands.
Customers traditionally do not spend nearly as much time and effort searching for brand as brands do searching for them. In today's world, the competition is tougher as many brands have honed this art, easing the task of the customer and leaving brands who leave finding new business to chance, floundering.
The ability to craft powerful narratives around your brand's areas of strength and channel it with precision to your various target audiences consistently can both ensure you capture the needed territory in their hearts and maintain long term hold on it which is essential for repeat patronage.
- MR's #HeartofYourBusiness 20/1/15