Leadership Branding For Small And Medium Enterprises By Benson Agoha

Come to think of it, we all survive by `selling something’, at least this is the case in every market economy, and I can’t think of many exchange environments where this does not take place. Pricing standards and convertibility issues aside, the marketability of most products, and the value you derive from their sale depends, to a large extent, on branding.



Branding helps positioning and emotional connection with your prospects. It enables the delivery of messages to your stakeholders, confirms your credibility and even motivates purchases in the mind of the onlooker. Branding assists easy decision making and enhances consumer loyalty. It is not just about your prospects but rather, it is about all stakeholders, being able to identify with, and be assured that, this `mark’ is able to solve their problems. An organisation needs its prospects as much as it needs its loyal customers.



`Name’ sells! is a common saying, but `name’ can only sell, when it has become a brand. Oftentimes, I find myself annoyed each time I log onto my twitter account only to discover that I have lost followers, even as I gain a few more. This is in spite of the fact that I sign in and tweet nearly every day. No organisation is happy to regularly lose clients even if they are gaining a few more.



When leadership is properly branded, it sales, not just the organisation, but its products. But to properly brand leadership, it has to be weighed against the competition. That is, against externalities, Like organisations that provide alternative solution programmes.



Leadership branding is the articulate and masterful presentation of the exceptional skills of management as an iconic unit. It is an assurance quality profile and mark, needed for any organisation that desires trust and to be taken seriously at the market place. Leadership branding is ensuring that the management acquires a reputation, known out there for its excellence and ability to solve customer – and investor - problems and deliver consistent qualitative and satisfying results.



Leadership branding for the small and medium enterprise takes the same procedure as the big organisation. The difference is in the amount of investment that will be required to pull it off. Every customer wants value for the money they are paying for the product or service and getting satisfied means they can learn to trust the organisation and the leadership.



To successfully brand your leadership as iconic, ensure that you define your aim and set your targets accordingly. Design and communicate understandable strategies for achieving that target, while acquiring qualified skills and talents, as well as dedicated human resources that can provide broad-based solution to clients’ requirements and needs. Institute a culture of excellence by which every member of the organisation must operate and build in contingency loops that can enable the introduction and attachment of new techniques and technologies without necessarily disrupting activities.



Management must also introduce continuing and broad-based assessment programme to ensure that staff are continually brought up to date with their skills. And as I always encourage my medium sized clients, develop and introduce an easy-to-recognise `mark’, an `icon’ that can be easily associated with,and seen, as the representative of the organisation. Ensure that this `Mark’, also sometimes called `Logo’, is not yet in use and that you are not infringing on a patented intellectual property. If desirable, make sure that the Mark is registered with the Intellectual Property Office and, continually evaluate the programme with a view to correcting slack points.



Iconic leadership brands presents the stakeholder with a mark that is recognisable and instantly trusted. Organisations that have successfully branded leadership insist that if their `Mark is not on it, the quality is not in it’, a claim that can only be made possible by the trust accruable from the consistent delivery of high quality services to their clients and investors.