Bigger – BART – Billboards

In a Small Business Administration report of Sep 2002, estimations of the net share of total wealth of small business versus large corporations in the US was a healthy 42%. As a small business owner and consultant for other growing businesses, I find this an encouraging figure.

Yet daily I’m confronted with evidence that ‘bigger is somehow better’, and there seems to be a collective amnesia that all large companies were once very small companies – which means that small companies are often overlooked when media is reporting or rewarding excellence and innovation. That can be discouraging.

Example: the upcoming 2nd Annual Marketing Roundtable (sponsored by the Economist) in NYC features exclusively global marketing leaders from Dow Corning, GE, Harrah’s, Hewlett Packard, McDonald’s, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, Reebok, Home Depot and WaMu. An elite crowd indeed, and I’m sure they have a great deal of wisdom to impart, especially around one of the stated topics of ‘How do profitable companies keep brands fresh?’ (Yes, BigMac and HP, that question is directed right at you.) Though I wonder very loudly whether any of these acknowledged giants, if starting out today, would have the same strategies or use the same tactics that their large bank accounts now afford them.

HP has gone balls-out to re-focus their brand – by plastering not only magazines with 16 page inserts, but the entire surface of San Francisco BART stations with their younger, hipper, digital world images. I have a rough idea of what that might cost. More than an entire year’s marketing and sales budget for several smaller firms combined.

So what could we possibly have in common with Big Players when it comes to marketing? Kind of simple really. Small companies still need to get the word out – about themselves, about their products and services, about the value they bring… and to do their homework around WHO they bring it to.

Maybe you can’t afford a series of silhouetted billboard images (congrats to TBWA Chiat Day/LA) – but you can create buzz – and demand – in your world if you work at it. If you need some ideas, we have a few.