If you work in technology, you may have routinely come across consultants who market themselves as specialists in Oracle, NetSuite or SAP. Notice how nobody calls themselves as just ‘ERP consultants’. It’s always a ‘SAP consultant’, or ‘NetSuite consultant’. Given that ERP implementations from various providers are vastly different and the fact that every installation is unique, it makes sense that you have specialist ERP consultants who are experts with one provider. But there is also a branding lesson here – every time someone introduces themselves as an SAP consultant, it is an advertisement for SAP as an ERP product and helps reinforce the product among its target customers. It is a subtle but important way to brand the product.
There are dozens of such ways to brand your product, regardless of the industry you operate in. Here are three little known ways to achieve this.
Promote Product Expertise As A Specialty : Let us assume you make accounting software for businesses. Accounting software are all the same, right? If you are an accountant, you only need minimal training on any new tool to get started on them. But look through the accounting jobs page on popular career portals, you shall come across job listings that require specialists in specific accounting software. For instance, ‘QuickBooks Accountant’ is an accounting job position requiring expertise in the QuickBooks tool. One way to execute this successfully is by building a communication strategy that reinforces the expertise in your product as a specialty that differentiates the user from the rest of the crowd. Measure the success of your strategy by the number of end users who use your product knowledge as a skillset in their resume. Alternately, you can also offer certifications to end-users and measure the number of applicants as a measure of this branding strategy.
Create Consultant Positions For Affiliated Areas : How much does a layman customer know about the paint they buy for their house or office? An expert in the industry will know to evaluate the various alternatives using factors like pigment volume concentrate, binder type, mildewcide, finish selection, etc. But none of those matter to an end-user who is mostly driven to a product based on brand-recall. You can however induce better branding through consultants for affiliated areas. For instance, Dulux has color consultants who are basically interior designers who will recommend specific colors and shades to customers. Such consultants are good replacements for run-of-the-mill interior designers since they can also provide recommendations for the actual shades of paint. Plus, such consulting positions help enhance the brand equity of the product.
Webinars : A number of businesses today have a video content strategy. Mostly, this entails creating video channels that demonstrate using the product to solve various issues. While this does help reaching out to prospects to an extent, this is mostly useful for existing customers. What every B2B company must do is organize webinars that discuss topics that are relevant to your target audience. You may tie up with industry associations to organize periodic webinars for their members. It’s a win-win for both the parties and helps your business build brand equity among the association members who may also be targeted prospects.
Building a good brand is a long term process and does not happen overnight. The examples above may seem inconsequential in a short period. But they help build a brand and enables your company to establish yourself as an authority in the industry over the long term. That’s an important objective of branding and the tips above should drive you towards this objective.
