Every business needs a memorable, top of category brand name. When your customer and prospects think of a business, you want them to think of you first. Some call this TOMA — top of mind awareness, so when someone thinks of floor covering, for example, your company name — your brand name — pops up in their mind.

Category leaders, from car repair to insurance agents, generally are the most successful businesses. More people remember their name and they ‘win’ in the battle for share of market.

Big companies, such as Nike and Target, spend millions of dollars a day on advertising and promotion and this huge media push builds TOMA and when someone says ‘tennis shoes’, most people think of Nike and see that swoosh logo. Same for Target who made a target their logo. It’s amazing how you can brand a company when you can afford to buy television commercials and billboards and hire sports celebrities by the carload to promote products and services.

Because you are probably lacking a few hundred million dollars to create and maintain your brand name awareness, you will have to do your branding the old fashioned way, one customer at a time.

Fortunately, you can take a page from the book of Nordstrom and Starbucks who have largely eschewed advertising and found their way to the top of their categories.

The secret? There is no secret and for every business owner looking for a complicated solution to branding, you need only to look at Nordstrom who have built and maintained their brand name on providing the highest levels of customer service. They are resolved to make every single customer experience as good as they can make it. In hundreds of business workshops, I have asked if anyone was mad at Nordstrom and only twice has anyone raised their hand to express any dissatisfaction. They walk their talk and they have one of the most exalted brand names in America.

Comes Starbucks, less than 25 years old, known the world over. I walk into a Starbucks in Auckland, New Zealand, in Milan, Paris, London, Detroit or Dallas and in every single instance I am met with a Starbucks smile, a friendly greeting a well-scrubbed face, clean environment and, consistently, a damn fine latte.

Please note, whether you like the ‘bitter’ taste of Starbucks coffee or not, this company does billions of dollars of business and does very (very) little advertising.

And this brings us to the one, simple point and if you are looking for a complicated solution to a simple problem, you won’t find it here.

The simple truth is: branding and TOMA, repeat sales, positive word of mouth, come largely from providing the best customer service in the category. I return to The Park Avenue Cafe because they make me feel welcome; they act like my business is important, whether I am having a single cup of mid-morning coffee or a big breakfast. Same for Hi-Lo Diner where, when I close my eyes, I see everyone smiling, welcoming me, sitting in the cutaway VW or snuggled in a corner booth.

You don’t have to advertise your way to a big, memorable brand name. What you must do is to deliver the best customer service in your category every single time, so when anyone mentions your company name; there are people around who will say, “Let me tell you how they solved my problem.”

In our workshops, we mention Nordstrom, Les Schwab and you hear how the clerk at Nordstrom paid a customer for a tire they wheeled up to the cosmetic counter, complaining, and the clerk never mentioned they don’t sell tires and the dozens of positive stories told about how Les Schwab ran to fix a flat and did not charge, repaired a lawn mower tire.

In the midst of one of these love-ins at a workshop, one person — just one person — stood and refuted one of these stories and told of a horrible incident when her problem was NOT solved and the workshop quieted as she railed on about how poorly she was treated and I thought how much damage she was inflicting to a proud brand name just because one customer, one time, fell through the cracks.

An estimated eighty percent of new business comes from word of mouth, not from fancy and expensive ‘branding’ strategies.

So if you want to build your brand, take care of every customer, every time. Be sure your staff, full and part time, are empowered to solve customer problems. Leave comment cards. Leave a suggestion box. Follow up on every single problem and solve it to the customer’s satisfaction before they leave the store.

Take care of your customers, give them a first class experience, maintain relationships with them honor and thank and reward them and branding will take care of itself.