Building an IT Brand
Branding is a hot topic – from personal branding (what you relay about yourself through your actions and communications), to branding a company or product (through marketing, public relations, and other avenues). Whether for a person, company, or product, branding is necessary to distinguish from the competition and stand out in the market.
And that certainly applies for the IT marketplace. IT consultants, solution providers, and value added resellers (VARs) need to communicate who they are, how they’re different, and provide their clients with a unique and dependable service. Vertical Systems Reseller recently featured a Q&A with Jonathan Fisher, COO of BrandExtract, on ‘The Key to Brand Recognition’ (full article below). Jonathan discusses the key for solution providers to stay competitive with the big IT companies: “Build a value proposition around the big brand” and show the client how valuable your service is.
One way for IT consultants to brand themselves and create added value is through white label online backup. Online backup resellers can provide their clients all the necessary IT services in a one-stop shop, including 100 percent transparent and reliable backup, under their brand name instead of the online backup company’s name.
This added service saves the client time and money and allows the consultant to charge premium pricing for premium service. And if the competition does not provide branded online backup, then you’re already one step ahead in the market.
Full Q&A from Vertical Systems Reseller:
4/5/2011
By Lisa Terry
Everyone knows it’s important to market their business. But what about branding? As the IT marketplace shifts to one based on services rather than product margins, it’s important for solution providers to emphasize their own brand over their software and hardware partners. VSR talks to a branding expert Jonathan Fisher, chairman and COO of BrandExtract, about how technology companies can build and sustain their brands.
What is branding?
A brand is a person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization.
The marketplace has something they want or need, and you have a product or service you want or need to provide. The art of branding is to make those overlap as much as possible. The greater you can align the perception with what the market truly needs, the more compelling. When they are aligned you build loyalty.
