SMEs: make your difference your calling card!
While large corporations can readily afford to pay strategists who think full-time about their "communication strategy", SMEs tend to treat the subject as something of an afterthought. They are wrong, and here is why.
Self-examination and the search for identity
Switzerland is known for the dynamism of its innovative SMEs. Most were launched straight out of school; their founders champion their innovations with everything they have, charging at markets full of enthusiasm. They believe that creativity alone is enough to carve out a niche and build a reputation effortlessly. While this may work at first, one must acknowledge that the wow effect eventually runs out of steam — even for brilliant ideas — and it is then that the entrepreneur starts thinking about communication to find new growth drivers, often a little too late. This is the ideal moment for self-examination and the search for an identity.
Prioritising authenticity
Whether it is the leaflet cluttering our letterboxes, the interminable television advert during a football half-time, the smartphone listening to our conversations only to serve us targeted adverts moments later, or the repetitive banner ads polluting our browsing, we all agree that advertising is a necessary evil. Does that mean we should reject all communication outright? Of course not. Communication is in the very nature of all living beings. Can one imagine a peacock shedding its feathers? It signals its colours and has thrived evolutionarily thanks to this strategy. This is what is expected of every company: a communicative gesture that fosters transparency in a relationship. The question is therefore not "should a company still communicate" but rather "what should a company communicate and how". It then becomes clear that authenticity is the value to prioritise. We must create images not to say what we wish or claim our company to be, but to convey what it truly is. To communicate is therefore to highlight one's difference.
Know your company well in order to make it known
Before any initiative, a company wishing to communicate must undertake thorough self-reflection in order to know itself better. To achieve this, it must be accompanied by a third party, with the aim of presenting itself to its best advantage, selecting the messages it wishes to prioritise, and keeping an eye on what the competition is doing. These elements contribute to the development of an identity. The communicator's talent then lies in the judicious selection of appropriate means to engage the target audience without alienating them.
Your company's history and values
From its first steps to its mature phase, a company's communication must reflect the milestones of its history and the elements that resonate with its clients. Google's logo is the perfect illustration: cobbled together with whatever was at hand in the early days, with the sole ambition of copying Yahoo, it has continually evolved to become the famous Google Doodle, whose mood shifts according to events worth celebrating (celebrity birthdays, world days, national holidays…), embodying the stature of a brand that has become a true totem, a vehicle for universal values. This example shows just how important it is to communicate and to make the right changes at every new stage of a company's development. The entire framework put in place must follow a genuine dynamic. Above all, one must not be afraid to change and evolve one's image as well as one's messages in line with the company's transformations: graphic identity and value-based communication being the guarantors of continuity.
A company's maturity is a fundamental component that inevitably influences how it should present itself. A twenty-year-old company does not communicate the same way as a start-up that has just launched. While the former must position its communication along a timeline at the intersection of its history and its innovation, the latter must bet everything on the disruption factor and create the illusion of the "never seen before". It is from this perspective that a website redesign emerges as an essential act. Given the importance of digital, relaunching a website is as significant for a company as moving into a new building. That said, this "shop window" cannot be the only tool. Your flagship vessel must be surrounded by a fleet. And above all it must be responsive: equipped with a system that allows it to be updated at any time to keep your community informed of your events. This is where speaking out in the media and distributing content across digital channels comes in. With today's tools, what was once available only to the largest corporations is now within reach of every SME. They would be wrong not to take advantage of it.
fiveco.ch, the new flagship of our communication
A theory about communication is nothing without practice. I therefore invite my readers to discover fiveco.ch, our new website — the flagship of the company I co-founded, which is about to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. A perfect embodiment of our identity and a showcase for our values and achievements, it is also the platform from which you can connect to all our social spaces (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube) and find all our media coverage. Those who already know us will rediscover everything that makes us different; as for the others — they are about to find out.
Antoine Lorotte
