The internet enables small businesses to use creativity and originality in place of big budgets.
Mark Twain said it’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Truer words can’t be said of the thousands of small- to medium-size businesses (SMB) and sole proprietors looking to develop an effective brand identity. Even nonprofit organizations need to create visibility in order to get a message across to large audiences … and do it on relatively small budgets.
Large commercial enterprises have the financial resources to hire marketers, advertisers, and designers to develop high profile ad campaigns such as Nike’s “Just do it” and MasterCard’s “Priceless,” or assemble a 20-person focus group to debate the merits of using serifs in the corporate logo. Smaller organizations, on the other hand, have to take a do-it-yourself approach—but this doesn’t necessarily translate to lower quality. In some cases, they might even have an advantage over large enterprises.
The digital world has put a lot of fight into the small dog. With a combination of technology, creativity, and innovative design, small operations can develop an effective brand identity. They can make a strong impact and level the playing field using one of marketing’s greatest equalizers: the internet.
The great existential question
Every business, regardless of size, requires an identity. Without one, they’re just strangers on the street trying to hawk their wares. Not only would they lack credibility, potential clients wouldn’t have reason to place their trust in them—and even less reason to hand over their money.
Some businesses go about creating a brand identity with a catchy logo and/or slogan; others rely on tradition or established reputations. While these are important components in developing an identity, the process goes beyond a simple logo. An effective identity needs to reflect the objectives of the business and convey how it helps meet customers’ needs. This includes a marketing and promotional strategy.
But a lot of small businesses think they either don’t need an identity or can’t afford one. They’re wrong in both cases. Problems will arise, however, if a smaller business tries to base its promotional strategies on big business standards. Having a tighter budget isn’t the handicap many think it is—especially with all the digital tools and media available today. So rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses, the focus should shift to a small business model.
The web: Small business’s best friend
SMBs will never be able to keep up with large corporations when it comes to traditional forms of marketing such as print, television, radio, and billboards. Mass media messages are expensive; distribution is even more costly. Large corporations have the financial resources to buy ad space in high profi le media with nationwide or global distribution—a two-page spread in a magazine or 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, advertising’s Holy Grail—that smaller operations won’t be able to afford.
Managed effectively, however, web marketing does away with the disparity between what large companies are able to do and what smaller companies would like to do. Unlike traditional forms of marketing and promotion, the quality of a digital, web-based brand identity and marketing strategy doesn’t have to be limited by the size and budget of the company.
With traditional marketing, more money means reaching more members of the target audience. But on the web everything’s equal. The costs of accessing the medium and distributing the message are the same. Communicating on the web is like dropping a leaf onto a moving stream—momentum will carry the message.
Although it’s possible to spend more money for higher placement in search engines or to advertise a site on related sites, the gap won’t be as wide as that between handing out flyers on the street and having a giant billboard on Times Square.
The web is a great equalizer for small businesses because bigger budgets don’t automatically mean better design. Even some of the biggest companies have fallen prey to this misconception. They try to buy their way to a good design—pouring money into a site believing that more money translates to more quality—only to have the site look like it was cobbled together by a 5-year-old. But a single highly creative web designer working at home can design a site that looks like it’s worth 10 times the cost of initial development. When it comes to a web identity, it’s not necessarily the size of the budget; it’s the ability of the designer.
by Paul Chin
