The smart race to construction of a sustainable identity

(Entrepreneur, this is with you)

By Ricardo Alberto Antequera for magazine Business Venezuela, edition N° 362

In times where creativity and technology are necessary –and close- allies for people with initiative, sometimes we put our energy trying to re-invent the wheel to find “the century business”.

Doing omission of what we are living in the country, this reflections are the result of conviction and experience, after 25 years working with projects from all levels, where my advice as assessor never change. This means that budget can change but not the premise we try to share with those who start a project: be different and search sustainability in the offer as essential elements to get attention, fist of your potential client, and then add reasons for that desirable fidelity.

If in this globalize world big massive consume corporation look for making relationship “personal” between brand and audience (think for 5 minutes about how many campaign in traditional media and social networks construct messages where “experience” is fundamental), how not include entrepreneurship (without distinction of the theme, with or without lucrative purpose)?, narrative and history under the brand, are paradigms under initiatives of this nature must be build?

Is well known that without quality in the product or service, success results chimerical, but does the entrepreneur know that presentation of the initiative, branding, packaging, colors selections, skillful use of social networks, are the main needs once we are sure of having a promising offer that competes or satisfied a need?

In a lot of cases the answer is negative. If we do not work protecting all distinctive elements of the product or service, entry cost will be even higher, and, ever worse, a possible success in short term could be affected by the absence of protection of identifier elements that make, to the eyes of consumers, something “good, but also unique in their identity”, to strengthen that approach to captive market.

For that reason, brands, as one of many elements of Intellectual Property, must be treated as essential allies of entrepreneurs, who should dedicate as much time as they invest in development and execution of the idea, in how narrative will be, and other elements that will identify their own commercial or institutional promise.

Celebrities are, by itself, personal brands capable of generate interest of millions of people and enterprise who want to be related to success. Entrepreneurs also can get to this level through premise “I am/We are the product or service “, and be part of brand positioning strategy.

Venezuelans have to lose fear to the challenge of making a brand. Does not exist a public initiative, commercial or not, who does not need a set of distinctive elements that make them different from similar offers. The dare is to apply ingenuity and creativity to construct a DNA of image, sustainable in time, and attractive to public. Only whit that, entrepreneurs will stop being “children of the crisis” to become in valuable alternatives projectable in time. We are on time!

In summary, it’s all about making it personal. We know that in a lot of cases entrepreneurships are children of the crisis, who take the risk of develop an idea and sharing it whit public, does it whit fear as copilot. Those same fears have to end in strengths to list values that will identify that new alternative and be part of entrepreneur’s DNA.