Branding a Local vs National Company

I had the opportunity the other day to chat with a friend who is a national brand marketer. During our conversation, I was struck (again) by the sameness and, simultaneously, the differentness of branding a national vs. local brand.

At its core, branding is about developing a message and sticking to it. That is the same regardless of the size of your business. You have to find a way to represent your business in the public’s eye – and hopefully, that representation is well received by your target audience.

Understandably, the single most significant difference between branding a local vs a national company is resources. The discrepancy in resources is most notable in research budgets. National brands have the resources to conduct research on their customers, their perceptions of the brand, and how both change throughout the branding campaign. Local companies often don’t have the luxury of costly research studies to determine the statistically valid behaviors their clients participate in, who their customers are, and why they like them.

But local businesses have one huge advantage that national brands don’t—you know their customers! You see who walks through your doors daily; you know what they like, don’t like, and why they chose you (or at least you should!) That’s something national brands don’t have; they’re selling products through many different resellers all across the nation or the world.

They have a good reason for hiring someone to tell them who is buying their product. But for local companies, there’s no reason to spend $5,000, $50,000, or more learning about who your customers are. If you don’t know – it’s time to get out and start talking to your customers. Even regional brands can and should employ this technique rather than spending money on research in this economy.

It’s a little dated, but Robert E. Hall’s book The Streetcorner Strategy for Winning Local Markets spells out how and why making this effort is critical to success. If you have some time, it is worth the read—it is definitely one I go back to on a regular basis when I need a little direction.

There are, of course, other differences: ordering 100’s of signs vs. 1 or 2, big television production budgets with top-flight placements, entire departments devoted to a presence on social media, and the need to prove ROIs to picky CFOs who guard the bottom-line vigilantly.

But the remainder remains the same. Large or small, branding is about knowing who you are and who you serve and speaking it consistently and often.