These three small business branding examples show that you don’t need to be a large company to take care of your brand.

Small business branding is a controversial topic. Small companies usually think they don’t have the money, the time, or even the necessity to properly brand themselves. After all, small businesses are built on trust and word of mouth, aren’t they? Well, this used to be true but the scenario has changed.

In a connected economy, competition is fierce and not limited by local boundaries. Search and aggregation platforms created a context collapse, where players of different sizes can be found side by side. In this context, your brand can make a big difference.

Small Business Branding Example #1: Focale

Young and small companies usually don’t have a lot of resources for their startup, let alone for branding. It was the case of Focale, a small photo studio with big ambitions.

We developed a light and flexible identity that could easily be adapted for future brand extensions. This allowed the studio to easily launch its wedding-focused sub-brand.

Small Business Branding Example #2: A Tavola con lo Chef

Even successful small businesses can need a rebranding at a certain point in their life. Take, for example, A Tavola con lo Chef, one of the most known and prestigious cooking schools in Rome.

Its fame and standing had long outgrown the brand, which was showing some signs of aging since the school was already 25 years old. At the same time – being a success case – we couldn’t simply erase all that had existed before.

In this case, we elevated the brand to its actual level. We started from the original visual concept – a reference to Mondrian that hinted at a modern approach to cooking – and made it into a more contemporary, minimal, and dynamic visual system. The shapes in primary colors that made the school recognizable still existed, but became free-moving elements, reminiscing of a tangram. Modernity was fused with the idea of creativity and combination, which speaks to people who want to become chefs.

The new identity was then applied to all the brand’s touchpoints, both physical and digital.

Small Business Branding Example #3: My Wedding Mirror

Bride-styling agencies are often very small businesses, identified with the name of a single person, but they handle something important and challenging. Their image is of the utmost importance, as it serves as an anticipation of the quality of the final result.

For My Wedding Mirror we created a name and a brand from scratch, taking inspiration from the style of the classiest weddings: the styling of the bride, after all, is part of a larger effort to make the wedding perfect and unforgettable.

Takeaway: is your business too small for branding?

You might be thinking, now, that small business branding is – after all – worth your consideration. If not, take a look at your competitors and you will find that most of them are neglecting their brand. This is a huge opportunity for your business to stand out and grow its market, don’t sleep on it.