Ten essentials for entrepreneurs looking to build a successful brand

Here's what we can learn from the failures and successes of some global brands and entrepreneurs behind them.

1. Innovation is different from invention

What's common between Ferrari, Gmail, Walmart, Ola cabs, and FedEx? None of the founders invented the product or service they are offering. Most did not even move their second, but they managed to innovate and delight customers that resulted in billion dollar businesses.

Pure invention happens at a lab, but innovation is what happens in our minds. It differentiates an entrepreneur from a scientist. Innovation happens when you question the status quo and are driven by the hunger to do things differently and creatively.

2. A different product, not just better product wins customers

Facebook was different from MySpace or Orkut and we all know who's winning this race so far. But, look at Google Maps - it is not just a better navigation product but a different product. It is a platform on top of which thousands of apps like Uber and Zomato are built.

Successful brands are those that carved a niche for themselves or managed to create a category of their own by being different from the rest and not merely trying to win an argument about the brand being better.

3. Few things great rather than everything average

Toys"R"Us, Apple, YouTube, and LEGO are examples of brands that have reinvented themselves by doing a few things great rather than many things average. In fact these brands even came dangerously close to being shut at one point. But, what made them comeback with reigning supremacy is incredibly simple - they focused on solving one problem at a time and shedding the fat called non-core products.

4. No one will cut you any slack

No consumer ever demanded anyone to start a business. They only expect brands to fulfil the promise they made in the first place. We are living in the age of entitlement, where customers are armed with social media to add insult to a brand's injury. The fiasco and outrage surrounding Flipkart's first episode of BigBillionDay sale in 2014 acts as a cautionary tale for all marketers - Make promises that you can fulfill because customer don't cut you any slack.

5. Employees can make or break a brand

Marketers and their campaigns are not alone in building great brands, after all, the only resource that appreciates over time in every organization is its human resource. What current and former employees tell the world about their organization is an acid test for the brand's PR department.

Airbnb surpassed Glassdoor's list of best places to work, a ranking that's based entirely on employee feedback. While this acts as a great catalyst to attract more talent, there are many wakeup call case studies including HMV's staff downsizing gone wrong on twitter (lookup #hmvXFactorFiring) to NYT's sensational report about Amazon's bruising work culture. The report would not have had a huge impact if hundreds of Amazon's former and current employees hadn't dished so much dirt.

6. Creator vs Creation - It's a unison

Richard Branson, Tony Fernandas, Steve Jobs, Ratan Tata, Arianna Huffington, and Elon Musk...some of the CEOs who are synonymous with the brands they have created  Virgin, AirAsia, Apple, Tata, Huffington post, and Tesla respectively. I find it extremely difficult to tell the creator and their creation apart. They are synonymous with their business, it is implied many times that products of Apple were an extension of Steve Jobs himself - immaculate.

7. There's nothing called as a perfect product

If trying to please everyone is a sure way to please none, then trying to get a perfect product (or service) means it will never roll out at all. Have you seen the first version of Ford's car? Facebook sans newsfeed? Successful brands are built over time, when they deliver better than themselves consistently.

A 'perfect' product is a moving target, waiting too long to get it right may lead to either market moving on or competition taking away the potential.

8. Punters, prediction and naysayers can go and take a walk

FedEx founder Fred Smith was told by his professor that the idea of overnight delivery was not feasible. IBM's experts estimated and told Xerox that the need for photocopies at 5000 pieces would be enough to serve the whole world. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft said iPhone doesn't appeal to business users. These are some of the classic cases of entrepreneurs making experts eat their words. Great business are born out of visionary thinking and not by succumbing to conventional wisdom.

Caveat to this - Kodak sleeping until it was too late to weigh in the merit of expert opinions qualifies for myopia and arrogance, which no doubt led to its obsolescence and bankruptcy.

9. Competition is good for business

If there is one thing that's really good for a business, beside customers, is definitely competition. It may sound ridiculous but, imagine this, competitors are what necessitate brands to out innovate and out maneuver the other. Competition is what proves the existence for a category, it's what grows the pie bigger for everyone.

What used to be a monopoly business like space exploration is becoming interesting, thanks to the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin. Brands that offer compulsive value (perceived or real) to its customers will leverage competition to their advantage, and not fend in fear.

10. Building a brand takes commitment, not just campaigns

If consumers really cared about ad campaigns, then every brand out there with firepower to shout the loudest through campaigns should make it to list of most trusted brands. Thankfully, that's not how great brands are built.

Building a brand is an eternal journey, the transformation of a commodity to a 'brand' can only begin when it realizes the purpose why it's in business in first place and then stay committed to deliver on it.

Guess this - a search engine entering the market where twenty others were barely making ends meet goes on to out rank a 120 year old brand called Coca Cola in just 14 years since its inception. You've earned a cookie if you guessed the answer as Google. The differentiating factor of Google from other search engines was more than just a better algorithm, it lies in their mission - 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. Google's commitment to this resulted in search functions previously thought impossible such as books, maps, images, videos and so on.

(Author is Vice President at Publicis Beehive. Views expressed are personal)
Article originally appeared in The Economic Times

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