• Any message communicated by any means that creates an expectation is an act of branding.
• Any brand intended to dominate a micro-market is a MicroBrand.
• A micro-market can be as small as a one-on-one personal relationship.
Everything you do impacts the value of your brand. If you are managing a company or even a department you need to be thinking about how the individual MicroBrands of the players impact the overall brand.
It’s a surprise to discover that in many instances a MicroBrand is stronger than big name international brands.
For example, think about your local auto dealer. Outside you’ll see the global brand of Ford or Toyota. Underneath the logo you are likely to see the name of the dealer principal. But what brand carries the most weight when you are deciding where to go for service? Probably the MicroBrand of the service writer who is your initial point of contact.
In the restaurant business in a bow to the power of MicroBrands there is a saying: there are no low volume restaurants only low volume managers. It looks like the concept applies elsewhere.
When the manager of a new Home Depot was interviewed, he showed a keen understanding of the power of a MicroBrand. “What’s it like to work for a huge company like Home Depot? he was asked.
“Home Depot?” The manager acted as if he had never heard the name of the company that wrote his paycheck.
The reporter continued to press while the manager continued to play before finally saying, “Oh, that Home Depot! That’s their sign but the store is mine. It’s mine to turn into a miserable failure or a runaway success!
Over the door of a Subway sandwich shop hung a banner that is an anthem to the idea of a MicroBrand. It said simply, “Open under old management.” Someone had figured that the MicroBrand of a popular local manager was more powerful than the internationally known brand that is Subway.
On an even smaller scale, think about your brand as a professional at work or even as a partner at home. Your appearance, your language, everything about you serves as your logo and influences your MicroBrand in the mind of those you want to influence. Do you own the mental real estate you want to own in the mind of your boss, your spouse, your children?
It’s all about you Powerful MicroBrands are usually not built by slick marketing with high-dollar graphics. MicroBrands are more likely built with strategic networking, clever public relations, and sometimes event marketing. We’ll save the details for another time. For now, to put the power of MicroBranding to work for you take these three steps:
• First, take an inventory of all the brands that may be associated with you. In addition to your brand as a professional at work, don’t forget the brand you own as husband or wife, a mom or a dad.
• Second, decide if your brands are in harmony with one another and who you want to be.
• Third, stop letting your brands manage themselves and start being proactive about the mental real estate you want to own in the minds of the people you know and love.
In an over-messaged under-communicated world it’s getting more an more difficult to stand out. The good news is that you don’t have to conquer the world to succeed. All you need to do is own the micro-market that is your market. And that’s why it’s critical thatyou understand the power of your brand, your MicroBrand!
