Branding is not a high priority for most owners of growing companies (and especially for most entrepreneurs, as Martin Jelsema explains at The Branding Blog).

That's understandable, given the many urgent demands these owners face each day: tracking cash flow, managing staff, making new sales, keeping existing customers happy, and much more.

There are other reasons that these owners might tend not to focus on branding: the vagueness of much branding terminology, the notion that a logo and tagline instantly create a brand, and our culture's view of big-company, mass media advertising as the ultimate in branding--an idea reinforced more spectacularly each year on Super Bowl Sunday.

Why Is Branding Important for Growing Companies?

Despite all these reasons, branding may be an even more urgent need for growing companies than it is for large corporations. Smaller companies tend to have far more competitors, so they have to find ways to stand out and be memorable (given the more than 25-million businesses in the U.S. that employ fewer than 100 workers). Brand-building is one solution . . . but what exatcly is a brand, anyway?

In a January 25, 2008 blog post, Brad VanAuken, Chief Strategist at Branding Strategy Insider, defines brand as "the personification of an organization, or of its products or services." On the other hand, BusinessDictionary.com defines brand more specifically as "A unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors."

Both of these definitions are fine as far as they go. They just seem a bit too focused on brand image--the logos, ads, and other well designed, high-profile marketing elements that a company projects in order to attract and retain its audience. These are brand-building tools for sure, but I believe they are not the brand itself.

Instead, the brand is everything the audience perceives and believes about the company or product(s). Marketing communications certainly play a role in creating that perception and belief. But many other factors can be just as important, if not more so (see the adjoining list). This is why I define a brand as the total of all that is known, felt, and believed, both publicly and privately, by individuals as well as groups, about a company or a product/service.

Case in point: the Tylenol scare of 1982. That September seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra Strength Tylenol capsules which had been tainted with cyanide. As the first known case of deliberate product tampering, it easily could have destroyed the Tylenol brand name.

Instead, Johnson & Johnson saved its most profitable product with a series of moves that had little to do with "personifying" it:

- They suspended all advertising for the product
- They pulled all Tylenol (some 31-million bottles) off retail shelves nationwide
- They promptly enhanced the safety of both the product and its packaging
- They kept the public informed of the scope of the crisis.

As a result, Tylenol not only regained its earlier market share within a year, but went on to become the top-selling non-prescription pain reliever in the U.S.

A Matter of Trust . . . Built Step by Step

The Tylenol episode illustrates another of my favorite definitions of brand: It's a measure of how much your audience trusts you to understand their needs and fulfill them. J&J's response to the crisis showed that the company fully understood the public's need for a safe, effective pain reliever. As a result, the public's trust in Tylenol was not only restored but increased, even though several recent deaths had been linked to the product.

Chances are your growing company will never have its brand tested so severely, of course. But like J&J, your branding efforts will be about building (or regaining) the trust of your target audience. It's important to remember that trust-building is not a one-time event, but a continuous process of removing doubts from your prospect's mind.

As the main driver of that process (along with your sales team, if any), your company's marketing communications have several jobs to do. They must:

1) Establish your presence in the market. Your communications need a consistent look and tone to convey that you are a credible, focused competitor.

2) Make your name(s) memorable to your audience. Building name recognition is the core of branding.

3) Differentiate you from your competition, based mainly on one benefit you deliver better than all your competitors. Lead with a specific benefit.

4) Make you preferable to the competition.

Before you send out any marketing piece about your company, ask yourself if it meets these criteria. If it doesn't, keep working on it. Just remember, that's only part of what you need to do to brand your company. Why?

Because countless "little things" that your company does--customer service, packaging, internal processes, and more--can affect your brand even more powerfully than your marketing communications. We'll cover that topic in the next Squidoo lens on branding your growing company.

In the meantime, think about these branding facts and how they apply to your growing business:

- Because of the Internet every business, no matter how new or small, has a brand just as real as Wal-Mart's or McDonald's. You may not want to focus on your brand, but it's out there, and it has an impact on your business.

- Your company's brand is a living thing. It can grow into a strong competitive advantage, or it can become a genuine liability due to neglect or errors.

- Virtually everything your company does and says can affect your brand, for better or worse.

- Just like an individual's reputation, your company's brand is its most valuable asset. It requires careful nurturing to provide maximum benefit.