I think the big secret small businesses don’t realize when it comes to the marketing world is that direct response advertising and marketing is the only real solution they should prioritize in their time and money budget.

This doesn’t mean that the small business owner shouldn’t invest the time, thought and effort it takes to answer all the strategic marketing questions that create good branding.

They should.

Good branding is merely the integrated and packaged output of a questioning process that delves into what your business delivers uniquely that is valued by the marketplace.

It could be based on price leadership, niche focus, differentiation (breath of selection, high-contact, snob appeal), or unique category re-positioning.

I think your illustrated success of “Selling your way to branding” is the path that is most appropriate for virtually every small business.