When running a business, you must make many decisions: what business plan to use, how to manage your staff, where to locate your storefront, which vendors to work with, and which brands and products to sell. Manufacturers offer great incentives which lead you to believe that you can build a business on the support of a well known and trusted brand name. You might even think that by representing this certain product or brand you will have a successful business and make it big. Oh what glory to revel in the moment when you start thinking that this will fill the bank account, send the kids to college, and buy your honey a new car (yellow Mustang , please). Hey, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, but there is more to it. Did you really think by signing up for a program and carrying a brand name, customers will come busting through the door begging for your wares?

Do potential customers that drive by your store even know who you are? Is your front show room window plastered with cool looking manufacturer’s advertisements? Are you advertising the name of your business, or are you actively branding the big name manufacturers? How much effort are you putting into branding your business? Do you have a budget for marketing and branding your business?

You may think you’re too small to have a need for branding. But branding is not just for big businesses. If you don’t brand yourself, you end up marketing products and manufacturers instead of yourself. Even as a sole proprietor, branding is what makes your name instantly recognizable. Names like Nike, Microsoft, or Madonna instantly invoke a powerful image representing their identity. Why am I making a big deal of this? A brand is the essence of who you are. It describes you and what you do in life. It will position you in the minds of your customers by letting them know exactly what you are able to offer them.

As a small business, you should use branding techniques to further your own brand and ensure your own success, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Branding is just one of the techniques available to differentiate your business from the competition.

Alright, I think you got it and I can get off my soap box now. Although are you really doing all you can to promote your business? One of the ways to set your business apart is to break free of conformity. Yes, think outside of the box. We have all read the same marketing books and been to the same marketing seminars. Consumers have become immune to most marketing techniques which are now ineffective because they have been overused. So why am I talking about marketing and branding in one sentence? Because branding should be a key component of your marketing.

Before you start branding your business, you should first focus on an area of specialization. Marketing dollars are thrown out the window if consumers get a mixed or inconsistent message. One extreme example of this: A new computer store that started out as part of a franchise, just went through this recently. Let’s call the franchise just XYZ PC Doctor. They had all their marketing and messaging clear and consistent, including the nationwide branding. Shortly after starting to be successful and gaining name recognition, the franchise owners decided to rename the franchise and add to their service offerings. Former XYZ PC Doctor changed into an indiscernible name (you wouldn’t be able to tell what they are doing), and their marketing message and color scheme changed completely. It was like a whole new business. The new local franchisee got so fed up with all the changes and confusion it created that he got out of the contract, went solo, and renamed the computer store again. That is three times in three years! You think customers got confused?

Also know your customers and understand their expectations. Anticipate and satisfy their product needs and wants. Do you cater to gamers with PCs that are optimized with the latest game technology or do you sell to businesses offering reliable value PCs? Naturally, you sell to both, but your advertising should be consistent with your company’s positioning and overall plans. This is where branding comes in.

A great personal brand must be precise and concentrated on a single core strength. Most people say, “Do what you like and everything will fall into place.” Allegedly that is true, but what if you like so many things that you can’t decide which one to chose as your core? Being in the IT industry is like being a kid in a toy store, and opportunities are in abundance, but what direction to choose, that is the million dollar question. You will eventually have to make a decision on your core strength specialization. Being everything to everyone will hurt you. While your biggest strength is your energy and your new ideas, it is also your biggest weakness, especially if you have trouble staying focused and continuously chase the latest fads.

The best branding is built around one area of expertise. You should know your domain, your customers, and what their needs are. Position your brand to answer their needs. Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it?

PC building alone is too broad, and everyone already does that. Instead, built PCs and try adding one of your unique abilities for a personalized and distinctive flavor.

Branding experts recommend using one out of several key areas. Specializing in behavior is one of the options. Do you have personality, integrity, dedication, and persistence? When people meet you, do they get the immediate feeling they can trust you?

You could also specialize by a lifestyle that may be unique. Do you have a mission or an objective behind the business? Do you support a good cause or want to be known as an outstanding corporate citizen? I know of one business that consistently volunteers time and money to local 5K runs. Not bike rides, not the chamber, not the church, but all the running events.

You can also choose to specialize by offering a unique product, an absolute professional service, or a different way of satisfying customer expectations than the competition. Only you know what makes you special and different from other people. Use it.

The key is to create your personal brand and stay with it. Think of Eddie Murphy. He made his career in the early 80’s by being known as an outrageous and edgy comedian in movies like 48 hours, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. Then came films like Dr. Doolittle and Vampires in Brooklyn. Think about hilarious and outrageous comedian Jim Carrey with Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, and then The Truman show. Ouch. Talk about diluting your personal brand. Now I don’t know what to expect when going to the movies.

It only takes three steps: specialize, brand and market. First, find a void and fill it. Next, deliver a product, service, or behavior that will fill the void. Finally, focus on delivering that service or product. Now you think, where do I find a void? Business procedures and processes are all in place, everything is running fine, and where could you add to or change something?

What are the key frustrations of doing business with people like you? What frustrations do customers experience over and over again when they purchase from a business like yours? Forget about your frustrations for a moment and look at it from the other side. Then what are your frustrations, and is there a way you can implement a change that would benefit you and the customer? By finding an underserved need in the marketplace, you could change the way the industry operates.

Most new products or process changes are born through key frustrations. You don’t have to be an inventor to create change. Most innovations come through people that were fed up and frustrated and found a way to improve a product or service. A perfect example of this is Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers.

As the saga goes, the service that Bubba provides was born out of key frustrations that bicycle riders experienced when going on a week-long or longer tour (sort of like a Tour de France). Bubba, an avid cyclist, while touring many states himself, kept hearing the same complaint from fellow riders over and over again. After spending a day pedaling sixty or seventy miles on the bike, riders were not looking forward to setting up their own tents in the evening just to break them down again the next morning, packing it all up, and then hauling their stuff with them for another long mileage day. A nasty head wind, a rainy day, or a strenuous route just made it worse.

The best branding is built around one area of expertise. You should know your domain, your customers, and what their needs are. Position your brand to answer their needs. Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it?

So when Bubba retired from his day job, he invested in the idea to drive a truck ahead of the tour each day setting up tents, air mattresses, and clean towels for riders that request his service. After a long day of riding, you can just plop down in your ready made bed. Bubba breaks the camp down the next morning while riders are already well on their way and then transports the camping gear to the next location. The side of Bubba’s truck reads: “No Bull, Just Bike: We Haul the Bacon.” What else does a bike rider need to know? Bubba also developed his way of personalized branding: greeting strangers in his camp by dropping his shorts and mooning them. Turns out bike riders are a hard core bunch for guys in spandex tights.

So there you have it, three essential factors for a successful business model: Bubba fills a void (pampered services), he has a slick marketing slogan (No Bull, just Bike), and has a specialized behavioral way of branding himself (by mooning people). How much do you think Bubba needs to spend on marketing and sales? Most bikers that have done a tour have heard of Bubba’s services, and his name is infamous in the riding circle.

A business operating on a shoestring budget could use an inexpensive marketing and branding technique like free recorded messages to educate consumers and fill a void.

While I am not suggesting that you should expose your posterior to your customers, you should find a way to differentiate your business and focus on that single compelling reason why customers will choose your business over someone else’s. Is there something absolutely critical that you do different or better or something extraordinary that will set you apart? Then take it and run with it. Remember, think outside of the box. Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Burdines all sell the same items, but distinguish themselves by the way they do business. The customers identify with the brand name atmosphere each store creates.

Even when purchasing hardware or a computer-related service, the customer has an emotional investment in what he is buying. The customer purchases a new PC to satisfy a desire, and then rationalizes the purchase with a fitting explanation.

You don’t need a psychology degree or dig into the psychological sphere of consumer purchasing behavior, but you should be able to translate the features of your product or service into benefits your customer can easily identify.

Your customer only cares about what your product or service will do for him. Therefore you have to distinguish between product features like NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT, 550 Mhz core clock, 128MB, 128-bit GDDR3 SDRAM, and the derived benefit of “vibrant, lifelike, and elegant graphics.” You always will have customers that want to talk tech (do they really just want to talk tech or feed their egos?), but the majority don’t care about the specs as long as they get the most vibrant, lifelike, and elegant graphics at an acceptable price.

Reaching the pie in the sky will require branding your business as the one that delivers answers to the customer’s deepest desires and manages their key frustrations. One of the main frustrations consumers have is that they don’t know much about PCs, but they want to have one (got to keep up with the Joneses). Potential customers may be afraid to come into the store and ask questions because they feel embarrassed not knowing anything about technology and wouldn’t even know what to ask for. They ask friends and relatives, who don’t really know either, but make recommendations from information that is often second- or third-hand. Here, limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome.

A business operating on a shoestring budget could use an inexpensive marketing and branding technique like free recorded messages to educate consumers and fill a void. This is social marketing and involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling something. Often, many customers will ask you the same questions about your products. Instead of having you or your sales staff spend more time than necessary answering the same questions, you could educate the buying public and brand your business with a recorded message.

You can drive potential customers to an 800 number or a local phone number by advertising on your Web site, in newspaper flyers, or on a company van. List the 800 number and below put “Free recorded message: The five biggest mistakes consumers make when buying a PC” or “Free recorded message: Learn what questions to ask before buying a PC” or “Free recorded message: What to know before hiring a PC technician.” The variations are endless. Now you are making consumers aware that there could be a caveat and that there is something to look out for.

You can educate potential customers about your business and about common misconceptions, both of which will help them make their purchase. Consider that the majority of PC users are not very computer literate and they are scared of anything PC. They will be appreciative and relived that they can listen to a message that gives them information without making them feel pressured to buy. In a way, you are providing a public service, something which instills trust in your business name. Your customers will remember this and tell other people about this service when asked about their PC purchase. You also save the time that you would have spent manually selling your business. You are educating your clientele, providing knowledge (it’s nothing to you, but great insight for them) and differentiating from the competition. A recording works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and never calls in sick.

This is just one example of how you can help brand your business. How many competitors do you have that offer this kind of service?

Finding the pot of gold? Don’t rely on anyone to lead you there. Be your own lead. Specialize, market, don’t slam the competition, and, most importantly, don’t drop your shorts unless you are branding to cyclists.