Craft Business

5 Things to Avoid When Branding Your Business

Branding is the visual and operational essence of a business, not just in the logo and style but in the products you offer. It is an expression of your character and integrity and having a clear identity (or brand) can add enormous value to your product. However, crafters are in a totally unique position within the market place and are vulnerable to certain branding pitfalls that can compromise their sustainability as a profitable business. 

PITFALL #1: LOW PRICE BRANDING

This is a very precarious brand for crafters to attempt and in most cases is simply unreasonable. In todays retail environment imported items have made the market place extremely competitive when it comes to Low Price Branding. Unless you are able to produce a quality product in huge volumes, competing with imports is practically impossible. Add to this the perception of value and by underpricing your product in order to target this market, you run the risk of people having low expectations an consequently low opinion of the value of the product.

PITFALL #2: GENERIC BRANDING

Your brand should epitomise the difference between your product and that of any other fellow crafter, in line with what makes your product special. Telling people you make hand bags or jewellery is a waste of time; in a saturated market of jewellers, what is going to make your brand stand out? This is where you introduce the specifics of your style or ethos, or skill or personality. Take a charactersitic of your personality and let it become part of your brand to let customers know who you are and why you are special.

PITFALL #3: POOR USE OF TAG LINE (OR NONE AT ALL)

A tag line backs up your brand image in a supremely effective way. Ensure that your tag line uses the split second opportunity to entice the customer, with specific information that 1. Tells people what you do 2. Makes you different from other businesses A tag line that is too generic or bland or one that overpromises will result in poor conversion of sales and low repeat sales.

PITFALL #4: BEING EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE

Branding yourself as "do-anything" type of crafter is a slippery slope to no-where. The temptation to catch every single customer because you don't want to loose a sale, is high but damaging. It dillutes your brand image; customers won't know what it is that makes you special or unique and they will forget about you quickly. By concentrating on a niche market you may be targetting a smaller group of customers, but your brand strength will ensure that you are fist in mind when they are looking for a specific type of product. This is preferable to being totally forgotten because there was nothing interesting or definative about your branding.

PITFALL #5: BRANDING AMBITION

Getting carried away with your brand can be just as damaging as poor branding. Ensure that you can fulfill the claims your branding makes and don't brand yourself as something you are not. If you say your ingredients are 100% natural then ensure they are, or you will be heading for BIG trouble. If you want to claim to be "Proudly South African" then know that that phrase is copyrighted and pay your membership or you are breaking the law. Don't make promises that you can't keep. Even claiming to be the "Best Jewellery Designer in the World" is fatal. Can you really claim that? Do you really want that kind of pressure?

So there you have just 5 branding pitfalls to avoid when establishing yourself as an artistic entrepreneur in South Africa.

40 Ways to Promote your Business

As a micro enterprise or individual artist, advertising your business may not be top of your list of things to spend your hard earned money on; however, without a clear marketing strategy you are greatly compromising your potential business success.

It is not always necessary to spend thousands of Rand's on adverts (this option should only be considered if supported by a regular and planned campaign anyway) - you are a creative entrepreneur so why shouldn't you promote your business in a creative way?

Here are a few ideas that we came up with to help get you noticed and most importantly, remembered:

1. Get your business listed in your local yellow pages phone book. Way too often people running a small business, over look this valuable advertising tool, but offline, it continues to be one of the most popular ways to find businesses. 
2. Make up advertising packs (include a business card, flyer and cheap sample/freebie) and give them out everywhere you go. Take them to every event that you attend and swap them with other small business owners. Ensure that you give them only to people or businesses of benefit to you (either by association or in a complimentary way) so that you don't waste your money or their time. 
3. Visit local hotels and guesthouses, or appropriate business group to build relationships. 
4. Leave your catalogue, business card or some gift vouchers behind if you stay at a guest house, in your room, the lobby and other places that people congregate. 
5. Print out flyers with your business name and contact information along with any specials you are running. Leave these flyers in public places where others can see them. Try Grocery store message boards, community center message boards, employee lounges, etc. 
6. Contact local area bridal stores, bridal supply stores, caterers, rental centers, dj's, photographers, etc. if your company/business offers a bridal service or registry. See if you can leave them your business cards. 
7. Daycare Centers: You can get a lot of business from the parents who use daycare centers so contact them about leaving your business cards or flyers. 
8. Join your local Chamber of Commerce! They always hold local business events in your area; this is a great way to network and to make new business contacts. 
9. College & University Campuses: College Students are always looking to spend money and they are usually on the hunt for a business opportunity to help pay for their school expenses so you can target them for sales and for recruiting into your business opportunity. Most schools have a student center, so that is where you would want to leave your business cards and flyers. 
10. Contact your local Womens Network. There are few more beneficial relationships to generate than a business network group. Not only are all the members in business, they attend the network group to seek new contacts! You could be exactly what they are looking for. 
11. Contact local hospitals and see if you can add your business info to their New Mommy Baby Bags. A lot of hospitals give out free bags filled with goodies to all the new moms who have babies at their facilities! Contact your local medical offices, particularly the Obstetrics & Gynecology Offices and the Pediatrician Offices. Not only are the visitors to these offices your target client, a lot of those offices also give freebies to expecting or new moms. See if you can add your information their freebie packages. 
12. Donate a prize or a gift certificate to your local radio station for their numerous prize giveaways and contests. This gets you free business exposure. Often times, they will also list you as a prize sponsor on their website too, and your gift could lead to free interviews and air time. 
13. Donate a prize to your local area newspapers! They are always looking for prize donations, and this introduces you to any local opportunity. 
14. Call your local Chamber of Commerce to find out when there will be local job fairs in your area and attend one so you can make some new contacts in your local area. Leads like this can open numerous doors. 
15. Call your local colleges and trade schools, to find out when their next local job/employment fair will be. This is a great way to market your home business opportunity to others who might be interested, this is especially good for expanding your sales force! 
16. Contact local car dealerships. Make up small packets of business information, including business card, discount voucher and a small freebie. Ask them if you can drop off 100 packs to them to hand out to others who come in for those free test drives. 
17. Contact your local gyms and fitness centers. A lot of times you can get a table and market your business.or advertise your business on their notice board. 
18. Network with others in your area who have small businesses or are independent artisans. They are usually in the know on local business events that are upcoming in your community. 
19. Contact companies in your local area to see if you can come in and set up a display in their employee lounges or cafeterias for an employee shopping break. This works best if you offer an exclusive discount or deal to their employees. 
20. Does your local area TV Cable Company have a local information channel? If so, contact them to see if you can advertise on their information channel. (check out Cape Town T.V.) 
21. Contact local small companies and shops to see if you can offer an exclusive discount to their employees. Companies like to offer perks to their employees such as shopping discounts from various local businesses. 
22. Target the small local newspapers! It's hard to get a big response from the big city newspaper ads but by placing the ads in a local free newspaper, I can target a select audience and the responses are more visible.  
23. Get a low cost outdoor banner ad printed up to market your business during outside community events such as: sporting events, music concerts and so forth. 
24. Take your business on the road during the nice weather seasons. Contact your local area parks and recreation centers to see what kind of events are coming up and inquire about getting a table or stall at their outdoor events. 
25. Contact local area pizza shops, diners, deli's and coffee shops. These types of businesses have unique opportunities for you to place an ad on their in-house paper or on their table napkins etc. 
26. Run a competition in the local press. Your competition can be worded to reinforce your brand and contact details and the paper will usually sponsor the print space if the prize is valuable enough. 
27. New television stations are always holding on-air contests and website contests for their viewers. Contact them to see if you can donate a prize to get some free business exposure for your business. 
28. Attend local area Holiday Shopping Events. Customers who are ready spend some holiday money and looking to purchase holiday gifts attend these events. 
29. Get a stall or table space and market your business to them. The Edgemead Christmas market is always a popular event. 
30. Get your business information printed up on pencils/pens and hand them out for free to local colleges and adult technical schools. 
31. Get a vehicle banner made for your car. I recommend the vinyl clings so that you can easily remove them when it comes time to wash your vehicle. 
32. If your city has a travel guide that tourists request, make sure you place a business ad in that travel guide. This is a great way to get your business information into the hands of non-local customers. 
33. Get into the local City Maps! These days you can find all kinds of small business advertising printed on the sides and backs of those city maps! You can get really good economically priced ads placed onto those maps. 
34. Get your business information printed up onto balloons. Give these ballons to local sporting events, charity events etc. A great way to get more business exposure. 
35. Find a few home business owners in your local community and team up with them You can all sponsor a local boys/girls sports team, a parade float or other things in your community. This makes it very economical for those who are in small business to get business exposure and to participate in your local community events. 
36. Get T-shirts printed up with your business information printed on them. Hand them out to your friends and family members and ask them to wear them when they are out in the community running their errands. 
37. Get some canvas tote bags printed up with your business information on them. Pass them out to a few lady friends and ask them to use them when they are out and about in the community attending events or running errands. 
38. Get a license plate made up for the front of your car with your business information on it. 
39. Wear a business name tag every time you go out in the community. People do read them and do notice them. 
40. Local Area Magazines! Does your city publish their own local area magazine? If so, contact them about placing some advertising in their magazine. 

How do you promote your business? Do you have other ideas to add to this list? Let us know what works for you.