If your product is not “main stream” do you really need branding or are we using “branding” as an excuse for money wasted on non-performing ads and strategies?

Look … I am a fan of branding and I think it’s an amazing art and science to accomplish what big brands have accomplished, but not all products are called Coca-Cola.

Shouldn’t we focus more on ROI rather than branding. The strategy should be …. “We have to be everywhere our potential customer might be researching for the service we provide”. Have you noticed that every time a campaign bombs, people call it a “Branding campaign”?

Want an example?

Google “Site Targeting” offers to display your Text ads (Contextual ads look alike) on relevant sites that you pick. After trying that program and seeing that there was very little profit out of it if at all, Google responded calling this “Site Targeting” strategy a “Branding Purpose Advertising”. I call it a good tool for Joint Ventures, that’s all.
Well, there you go.

No sales? That’s OK, it’s called “B R A N D I N G”, Google rep replied to me.

Look at big name products. Have you noticed on average how many years it took to build a successful brand? How much money it took to do so? Why are small business owners try to do the same with their $200K / year advertising/marketing budget?

The focus should be on finding new and popular channels through which we can showcase our offer. I call it Direct Marketing (as if I am the only one) Stick with it.

P.S. I know that there are exceptions to what’s being said here. If you’re in a competitive field and all your competitors are “out there” you have to stand out and you might argue that you need “branding”.

In reality what you need is … a unique approach, a USP (unique selling proposition), memorable experiences, community building, performance… NOT “let’s spend 40% of our capital towards BRANDING”