The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

Getting people to talk about what product or service you are providing is called “creating buzz”. The hope of every marketer is that you can turn buzz into actual product sales. Building a brand off of ‘buzz’ is really tough, though, because we are really distracted by the hundreds (or thousands) of pieces of advertising that we see every day. This can also be very costly for a small business.

When I was in Cuba, there was little to no commercial advertising in the form of signage or marketing materials. But they sell things by word of mouth, so everyone seemed to be offering some product or service. Now that is the ultimate buzz, when you only have word of mouth to compete with. However, in this country we have to compete with the hundreds or thousands of pieces of marketing material.

So, it is easy to get caught up as a marketer in putting out something that is really “cool”, and what you hope will be catchy. This is called brand marketing, and there is no denying its effectiveness because you see big companies doing this all the time.

They put their brand out there and you see it over and over again. Pretty soon you are looking for their product. Coca-Cola is a good example of this. They have the money to put out brand advertising. So much so that not only can you sing their jingles in your head, you actively seek out their product when you go into a grocery store or restaurant.

Unfortunately, small business owners make the mistake of trying to duplicate this method.

Creating a brand can still work for small business owners without deep pockets if they have widespread distribution. For example, if you are able to get your product or service readily available at every point where someone goes to buy it, then you can use brand marketing.

A guy who is thirsty is looking for water. He is likely to buy any type of bottled water that he can afford. But he is more likely to buy the one he recognises most. So if you can have your water available in more locations, he may soon get used to seeing it and try it.

Another way of creating a brand without a lot of money is if the owner himself becomes the brand. In other words, a personal celebrity can drive business. Creating celebrity does not mean that you become a movie star. You just have to be a star for people who purchase what you offer. Bush’s Baked Beans is a well-known example of this.

On a smaller scale, I was just in one of the Family Islands and everyone I spoke to recommended a particular restaurant named after a gentleman. I tried it a couple of times and was not disappointed. If a small business owner decides to brand his product, he or she should definitely consider distribution and celebrity as two of the best ways to do this.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To contact him he can be reached at DArcyRahmingsr@gmail.com.