Battle of the Brand Is image really everything when it comes to your business? Listen as entrepreneurs and experts sound off about whether branding is crucial for success, then decide for yourself.

Entrepreneur Chrissy Azzaro has business down to a"T." Well, down to a T-shirt, actually. Azzaro, 28, isfounder of My-Tee, a 4-year-old Los Angeles fashion company.Besides its signature product-the My-Tee T-shirt-the six-employeecompany makes its own line of skirts, shoes, tank tops andaccessories that retail from $32 to $78. Publicists and buyersbrowse My-Tee's trendy showroom in Los Angeles for the latesttrends and clothing lines. The company has built considerable buzz:Celebrities from Hilary Duff to Courteney Cox have beenphotographed in My-Tee clothing. This exposure helped the companyrack up $1 million in sales in 2003.

Azzaro defines her brand as sassy clothing that's casual yetsexy. Branding, she says, has built her business. "It pushedus out of the pile of other people," Azzaro contends."Instead of being underneath 100 T-shirt companies, it pushesyou to the top. Branding is very important for any smallbusiness."

Or is it? Ask a group of entrepreneurs how much branding reallymatters, and you'll get different answers. Some think it'sreally important, while others don't. Each entrepreneur couldhave a slightly different definition of branding, and a few mightnot even know, or really care, what branding is. To brand or not tobrand-that's the question. And everyone has an opinion.

"Of course people are going to say 'Well, brandingdoesn't really matter.' It's the most misunderstoodconcept in all of marketing," says Rob Frankel, a Los Angelesbranding expert and author of The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build a Big Time Brand on the Webor Anywhere Else (Frankel & Anderson). "Too many[businesses] dismiss branding as just identity. But it's somuch more than that."

Branding, say experts, is your raison d'être, thewell-planned coordination of every single touch point with thecustomer to create consistency of service within your company. Inthe end, branding isn't about getting prospects to choose youover someone else, Frankel says; it's about getting them to seeyou as the only solution to their problem amid today's mediaclutter and price wars. Without it, you're dead in the waterfrom Day One. The way to get new business today is by turning yourcurrent customers into evangelists. If you don't give themsomething to evangelize-like your brand message-they'll have noway to communicate it to the next guy, Frankel says. "Yourbrand strategy should be in your business plan."

Many companies are branding-whether or not they know it, saysBob Phibbs, a Long Beach, California, retail marketing and salesexpert, and author of You Can Compete: Double Sales WithoutDiscounting (Greenleaf Book Group). Are you going to be theTiffany & Co. of small gift shops or the 99-cent bargain store?If you don't know, your customers will decide for you-andthat's a risky move for a growing company. "Think aboutthe kids you knew in high school, the dorks and the [popular kids].We always categorize and want to get a bead on things," Phibbssays. "The most successful businesses are doing well becausethey have a consistent image of what their brand means. Brandingalways matters."

Branding, Schmanding

On the other side are those who say focusing on brand is a wasteof time and money for a growing company trying to create repeatbusiness in a crowded marketplace. "People spend far too muchtime early on saying 'I want to build a brand.' Forgetabout building a brand. Build customers first," says Barry J.Moltz, a serial entrepreneur and author of You Need to Be a Little Crazy: The Truth AboutStarting and Growing Your Business (Dearborn TradePublishing).

Moltz says he's seen too many entrepreneurs end up with"analysis paralysis": pondering for months on end whattheir brands will mean to consumers before they open for business,only to enter the marketplace and find they need a new strategy.Entrepreneurship requires flexibility, say the anti-branders,because your original brand strategy could be completely wrong.Listen closely to your customers, because they will help you figureout your brand. "There are a lot of businesses that start outbeing one thing and end up being something else," Moltz says."If you listen to the market, it will tell you what yourbranding should be."

Azzaro has learned to be flexible with her strategy. Initially,she thought My-Tee's customers were women ages 24 to 38.She's since learned they range in age from 14 to 56. She'salso veering toward product lines, such as accessories, that shenever imagined the company doing. "You have to go where [thebusiness] takes you," Azzaro says. "Sometimes itwasn't in the plan."

The decision to brand as a growing business also depends on yourindustry and the size of your immediate market. Branding is lessimportant if you're the only game in town, says SeanO'Connor, vice president of Magnet ID, a brand consulting and identityagency in New York City. But if you own a coffee shop in a smalltown, and Starbucks moves onto your turf, then differentiating yourbusiness suddenly becomes extremely important. Branding can alsodistinguish small retail companies selling products or servicessimilar in features, benefits and price vis-à-vis thecompetition. But in other industries, such as technology, customersmay not need brand differentiation as much as they just need aspecific solution. "If your product doesn't meet theparameters, [technology customers] aren't going to buy fromyou," says Jim Schakenbach, managing partner of SCT Group Inc., atechnology marketing communications firm in Northborough,Massachusetts.

Heavy investment in branding can be the kiss of death forgrowing companies with limited resources, says Schakenbach, whocounsels technology start-ups. He compares modern branding to the1980s Jack Trout and Al Ries advertising classic Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind(McGraw-Hill Trade), which theorized that companies that win arethe ones that best define and capture a particular position in themarketplace. Branding "is positioning strategy dressed up innew clothes," he says skeptically.

Your time is better spent, he contends, figuring out yourcustomers and their pain-that is, the problem they would payto make go away. Your value lies in the solutions you provide, notyour branding. "You can build brand all you want, but if thecustomer doesn't connect with the fact that this won't maketheir pain go away, they won't be interested," Schakenbachsays. "People don't particularly care what brand anaspirin is as long as it makes the headache go away."

Mike Duda, 35, has built his technology company without awell-defined branding strategy. "As a start-up in B2B, how doyou communicate a brand?" says Duda, co-founder and presidentof Pennant Inc., a Chicago B2B Web site development, hosting andmaintenance company.

Duda, who sees branding as the emotional connection companiesforge with customers, points to Harley-Davidson as an example of agreat brand. But creating a big-name technology brand is different,he says. Just look at Microsoft, which cared more about hiringskilled software developers than creating heavy name awareness inits early years. "[Microsoft] was able to become a marketleader. But did their brand get them there? Probably not,"Duda says. "In technology, brand evolves over time. People arebuying what a technology product will do, not the marketing. Brandcan't really deliver value to the customer in the first year ofbusiness."

At Pennant, getting referrals from clients was far moreimportant than concentrating on how to build a brand. But Duda saysthe eight-employee company is reaching enough critical mass to makea branding strategy worthwhile, as it gears up to become one of thetop B2B hosting companies in the Midwest. "We're planningto leverage our brand more in 2004. We're working through whatthat strategy is going to be," he says. "For the vastmajority of small businesses, the business takes three years toevolve before you can really sit there and say 'Here's whatwe do; here's what we're really good at' and build abrand around it."

The Branding Paradox

There's a paradox to branding, says Michael R. Solomon, ahuman sciences professor of consumer behavior at Auburn Universityand author of Conquering Consumerspace: Marketing Strategiesfor a Branded World (AMACOM). The more intangible yourproduct or service, the more you need to brand. Consider insurance,which people buy because they have to, not because they want to.The most successful insurers have developed tangible symbols tohumanize an intangible and arcane industry. Traveler'sInsurance is known for its umbrella logo; Prudential, meanwhile,touted the instantly recognizable slogan "Get a piece of therock."

Consumers are bombarded with messages, but they're alsolooking for brands that speak to them as individuals, Solomon says.Just like Coca-Cola, entrepreneurs should think in terms of brandequity, the value of their company's image factored into thebottom line. The worth of the brand literally becomes a line itemin the spreadsheet. Nike's brand alone has been estimated to beworth more than $1 billion. "You can take this logic and applyit to a small company as well," Solomon says. "If someoneis willing to pay a dollar extra to get the same food at [yourrestaurant] than they would at any other place, that's thevalue of [your brand]."

Shelly Mars believes in the value of branding. Mars, 42, left acareer in high-tech research four years ago to launch a high-endorganic dry-cleaning company, Ecoluxe, with four locations around the Bostonarea. Branding played a big role from the get-go. "I alwaysthought branding was important because of my corporatebackground," she says. "I never thought of it as anegative."

Mars estimates she spent $60,000 on branding in her first year,from graphics and letterhead to signage and public relations. Shewas very strategic about selecting upscale neighborhoods and givingeach location a distinctive look. She decided cleaning would bedone at an off-site facility so the stores stay brighter, cleanerand friendlier. She's avoided coupons, thinking they woulddilute the brand by focusing customers on price rather than thecompany's services. And within the community, Ecoluxe hasaligned itself with events such as Earth Day to build identityaround the brand.

Mars thinks her branding strategy has been worth the investment:Sales increased from $85,000 in 1999 to more than $1 million in2003, and Ecoluxe was voted best dry cleaner in Bostonmagazine's "Best of Boston" reader's poll for2002 and 2003. "Once you're very clear about your message,[branding] is important. And that should be from day one," shesays. It's a brand of thinking sure to stir debate for years tocome.