One fundamental law of branding is that the power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope; the narrower the focus of a brand, the more memorable and powerful it will become. Hence the astonishing success of companies like Starbucks (the first coffee shop which specialized in coffee), Subway (the first delicatessen to feature just one kind of sandwich), Victoria's Secret (the first women's clothing chain to specialize in lingerie) and Toys "R" Us (a chain which eliminated children's clothing and children's furniture to concentrate solely on toys).

Narrow the Focus of Your Brand
Companies ignore this law at their own peril: Boston Chicken became a successful brand by being the first fast-food restaurant to feature rotisserie chicken; when they added turkey, meatloaf, and other items to their menu, and adopted the more generic name "Boston Market" they diluted their brand and lost market share. American Express, a brand built on the idea of prestige, tried to increase their profits by offering a wide range of less exclusive credit cards, thereby decreasing the prestige of their brand and ultimately losing market share to MasterCard and Visa.

Narrowing the focus of your brand may be the most important thing you can do to stand out from other local or regional competitors, and if you can narrow it to the point where you present your company as a truly different kind of company that will be even better. At Flywheel Design, my graphic design and marketing company, we're constantly touting the fact that we're the only design firm in our region where all the designers began as fine artists. Not many of our clients actually want painted, drawn, or collaged imagery, but they like seeing that stuff in our portfolio, because it implies that we're more talented than other rank-and-file designers, and everybody wants the most talented designer working on their project, even if their project is completely mundane.

Make Your Brand Unique
Your challenge now is to distinguish yourself from all of your potential competitors so that your business is perceived not simply as higher in quality or lower in price, but as a different kind of business from theirs.
This may seem too difficult, especially for an ordinary, service-based business, but in fact there are many tricks one can use to stand out from the crowd. Here are five that are especially well suited to small businesses:

1. A unique niche in the marketplace
It may seem counterintuitive to concentrate on a particular type of client/project, because in the beginning you want every job you can get your hands on. But remember: your brand becomes more powerful as it becomes more focused. A professional translator I know was equally proficient in Spanish, French and Russian, but people assumed she was the proverbial "jack-of-all-trades, master of none". Her business didn't really take off until she positioned herself as the premier Russian-only translator in her region.

2. A unique promotion
Promotional items emblazoned with your logo (hats, coffee mugs, key chains) can look cheesy, of course, but if done well they can actually be very helpful in creating recognition for your brand. Just make sure the promotional item you choose is something people will actually use. One nice giveaway for high-end clients is a bottle of wine affixed with your own cool-looking label. (But be sure to hire a graphic design firm for help with this.)

3. A unique persona
Clients like to see a face associated with your business, so consider adding headshots and brief bios to your web site, or run an ad which includes a picture of you hard at work. (This persona can be featured in your ads, flyers, web site etc.)

4. A unique pricing system
This may or may not be possible in your field. But to give you an example of this kind of thinking: an ad agency in our areas got lots of positive press coverage for offering a guarantee on the results of their advertising campaigns. Hardly any clients took them up on this offer, once they read the fine print, but the sheer novelty of the idea brought in a large number of new accounts.

5. A unique role in your community
Donate your products or services to worthy causes, then use that as the basis for media coverage and positive word of mouth. As in the case of a charity event my own company has sponsored (DesignAThon), the idea isn't simply to do charity work, but to do charity work which is branded or publicized in such a way that it makes a catchy story. Our event garnered a full-page feature article with photos, advertising we couldn't have afforded to buy at that time.

Follow these simple branding strategies, and you're sure to see a dramatic improvement in your business!