How Business and Brand Differ in the Digital Economy

Anyone can start a business in the creative digital economy. But it takes a creative and innovative entrepreneur to turn it into a brand. Have you ever wondered what business is and how it differs from a brand? You are not alone. Most entrepreneurs and creators in the present-day creative digital economy are in the same boat regarding whether their entrepreneurship can be a business or a brand. That alone compromises and limits what to do and what not to do in marketing your entrepreneurial venture.

So, how best can you make sure at the inception of your venture how to define what you are doing in the market? The brief explanation would be you start with a business concept and need to work smart to transform it into a brand of recognition and influence. Now what are the elements of a business that can make it transformable into a brand? Let’s dig in and explore these five elements that most successful entrepreneurs believe in and swear by in their hungry pursuit of creating and building successful brands.

Novel idea

They say the secret of business is knowing something that nobody else knows. And better if you can create and build it into a brand of well-packaged value for brand equity in the market. Hard as it might be in the business space where duplicating and copying business ideas is the order of the day to the peril of quality provision in the market, but still, most visionaries are always searching for novel ideas that small players can hardly copy. That points to the Elon Musk business model mindset and approach to personal branding. He is untouchable in his thinking and hunger for transformation in creating a better world of what he believes in. 

It is not about money first; money comes from novel ideas you enjoy and are passionate about. And can easily inject your branding power into them and turn them into brands of recognition and influence in the digital world. It is the same concept as the old money business mindset that believed in keeping their businesses family oriented. That was the traditional way of brand building. A brand is not as fancy as most people seem to understand it. Branding is the sustainable quality of consistency to provide value for creating wealth for generations. So, dive in and explore quality in entrepreneurship.   

Quality

Quality does not happen by duplicating business ideas. When you copy what the other person is doing, what do you call your business then? And do you use the same name? What about your intellectual capacity that embodies your critical and creative thinking skills? You are killing your opportunity to create great stuff from your creativity. Copying and duplicating practiced ideas will never enable you to build a brand but a business that anyone can duplicate. That way, loss of quality in value provision. There can never be some high-quality degree in duplicated product or service ideas. That is why the world economy is collapsing with fake notes, clothes, shoes, and education systems. That is because people copy without understanding the business concept of the original creator and initiator of the business model.

 Quality is the degree of originality in any product or service to meet and satisfy the needs and benefits you created it for without compromising its standard quality at the level of its inception and creation. Most currencies lose value in the market because they are duplicated and burnt fake notes. Quality is the high value of anything original and novel in the market. It’s an intellectual property of someone’s ingenuity and creativity in value creation. Quality is what builds brands, not just businesses, for businesses are duplicable. Brands transform and evolve guided by the creator’s standing principles and values that maintain brand value and equity in the market.

Purpose

Most businesses are not clear about their purpose. People never identified Apple as a business. It was a vision. And it was and is a brand. You don’t become a visionary with a duplicated business idea. Never. A new novel idea has the drive to steer you out of your comfort zone in creativity and value creation in the market. It fires your imagination to greater heights of wanting to serve and being of service. Money is not the driving force here when you are purpose-driven. Purpose-driven entrepreneurs are visionary with novel ideas that seek to transform industries and the world. You cannot change and transform your industry and your target market by photocopied business ideas. A business mindset is not purpose-driven but profit-centered and self-centered for instant and short-term self-gratification. 

A brand is purpose-driven and designed through long-term brand-building strategies that impact the world. Purpose fires your imagination for creating new solutions in the market. You develop a hunger for the meaning, sense, and essence of your business concept and how best you can position it in the market with clarity of how it can transform your industry and the business world. That inspires and empowers you to present it into the market, not just as a business, but as a brand of authority and influence that can transform your audience for a better future in a better business world.

Scalable Value

There are five fundamental truths for strategizing the provision of scalable value in the market. These are;

• You know something no one else knows and how to market and deliver it in the market.
• You identify a problem and solve it through systematic branding.
• Packaging and marketing it as a need, benefit, and valuable solution.
• You develop the business into systems for scalability and brand building.
• You make the creation and provision of the value not easy to duplicate but scalable with uncompromised consistency in the market. 

A duplicated business concept is not scalable if you are not the creator and initiator of the business concept in the market. You lack the intellectual capacity to understand its purpose and the ingredients for maintaining consistency in its value creation at a larger scale. You are bound to miss some of the stuff along the way. That means missing its meaning and essence, quality provision, and fulfilling its purpose in the market. You can never scale a business idea you see on every corner of every town in the world. Or a business concept that is flooding the online business space. Scalability in value comes with consistency of value and sticking to the purpose of the original business idea.

Timeless 

In a disruptive digital economy, the timelessness of your business concept means no threats from tech innovations. Timelessness does not mean overlooking necessary changes, especially in the present-day digital economy, where technology has evolved with emerging AI tech tools and applications. Your business concept and model remain relevant and appropriate with its solutions to its target audience. You always adopt, adapt, innovate, and transition with any tech changes in the creative digital economy. And fit the changes into your timeless brand. That makes me go back again to reflect on the old money concept. That I see as noble. Here you do not confuse the old money business model with the industrial time traditional business model.

The old money business model is connected and based on family generational business development. They teach their children to grow with the business and stick to its protection of wealth for generational blessings. The most recognized and cited examples of such kind of business models that to me have stayed on and stood the test of time to be considered timeless brands in the 21st century modern times are the Rothchild and Ford family business models that have resorted to modern business principles guided by strong family values, integrity, and industry relevance and growth. Timelessness means your brand remains true to its initial core value and value proposition for sustainability in brand building and impact in the market over a long period. And relevantly serving and being of service in its industry and niche market.