Brand with impact: Why SMEs often overlook their most important competitive advantage
Many medium-sized companies focus on quality, technology and customer proximity - and yet they are coming under pressure from the competition. Why? Because they often fail to use a key strategic lever: their own brand. In this episode of "Hope is not a strategy", Christian Underwood talks to Prof. Dr. Franz-Rudolf Esch and Dr. Dennis Esch about brand management, strategic clarity and the dangerous underestimation of an intangible asset.
A brand is more than just a logo
Many companies reduce brand to what is visible: colors, fonts, a new logo. However, brand is not a design project, but a strategic management tool. The Eschs show how a strong brand creates trust, provides orientation and takes the pressure off sales. If you want to win customers, keep prices stable and attract talent, you not only have to know your brand, you have to actively manage it.
Strategy needs more than pretty pictures
What is often lacking is not the marketing budget, but the right focus. Instead of investing in exhibition walls and product brochures, what is needed is clarity about target groups, brand identity and positioning. Many SMEs invest 100% of their budget in the 5% of customers who are currently ready to buy and lose sight of 95%. The result: short-term activity with no long-term effect.
Brand as an investment - especially during the crisis
A key topic: why brands should not be cut back in difficult times. Franz-Rudolf Esch and Dennis Esch know that companies that continue to invest in brand work during the crisis will later return with more growth and market share. But this requires courage, strategic vision and an understanding of the long-term impact of good brand management.
Brand starts inside
Strong brands are not created in the agency, but in the company itself - through what is lived, decided and exemplified internally. This is precisely why brand management is also a matter for the boss. It doesn't need expensive rebranding, but a clear picture of what the company stands for. Anyone who does not clarify this internally will only create confusion externally.
For whom this episode is worthwhile
For entrepreneurs, managing directors and decision-makers who have realized: Good products and pretty logos alone won't get you far these days. This podcast episode shows how brand really works - in the market, in sales, in positioning and in day-to-day management. Listen in now - and discover why brand is not a cost factor, but a strategic lever.
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