The importance of branding for office supplies dealers
A small office supplies business may not see the value in investing in branding for their business. But when you’re competing against bigger companies, your brand is very important. It tells your customers who you are and what your company stands for. What’s more when it comes to your business’ equity value, a strong brand is second in importance only to your financial performance.
When more and more customers are shopping online and anything you need is available at the click of a mouse, it’s important that you can compete not only on price. Branding will allow you to have better management of your margin and avoid the race to the bottom. A strong brand also generates loyalty among your customers and creates feelings of familiarity and trust. It allows for connections to be made by the customer between the brand and the history of the quality of products and service the business has provided in the past.
Local office supplies dealers differentiate from the bigger players with the strong local and personal relationships they have with their customers. However, it’s important to be aware that you need a strong brand too. It’s likely that one of your best sales people is good at their job because of the strong relationships they have. But what happens if they leave? Will your customers stay loyal? A strong brand will help you keep and strengthen those relationships.
There are various things office supplies dealers can do to create a strong brand for their business. Firstly, a well-branded website is extremely important as it’s the ‘shop-window’ of today’s office supplies dealer. A good website will help you differentiate your brand from your competitors as well as ensure your customers can easily find you online. Research shows that as many as 73% of customers search for office supplies online, so it’s imperative that your business appears in the channels they use to research their purchases.
Secondly, for you brand to remain strong, you should avoid any brand-sharing initiatives unless the co-brand does not detract from the ‘ownership’ of the customer. You should also check that it adds significant value to your brand image through the association. The wrong co-branding can put you in danger of diluting your brand identity and confusing your customers.
And finally have a strong brand strategy that incorporates brand awareness and engagement initiatives. This should include strong and consistent branding across all marketing channels – from print to email, from web to telemarketing, from catalogue to social media.
A great example of an Office Power partner who has been taking its brand from strength to strength is Just Office. Consistent investment and time spent on building their brand means that not only have they acquired new customers but retained some since the day they first set up the company. Just Office has successfully created a strong local brand through their functional branded website, both email and print marketing, as well as a strong presence on social media. Consistent branding and messaging helps create effective awareness and engagement for the customers as they move from one channel to another.
To create a brand strategy, you should define why you exist and what your brand represents and the value it provides your customers. By defining this, you’ll have clarity and it will help you shape your brand framework and communicate with your customers in an authentic way. By identifying and living your brand values will help you tell your story and convey the unique personality of your brand through each touchpoint.
