Abstract
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) create 71% of private sector jobs yet only 40% of them project growth (Ratte, 2015). Believing that a properly constructed brand undergirds SME profitability and sustainability, I asked: What makes strong brands? How might we make these elements accessible to non-experts? I examined these questions through a literature survey spanning 30 years of brand planning models, interviews with contemporary experts, and interviews with current SME executives.

I developed the Brand Actualization Tool (BAT) to make brand development accessible and thereby to enhance SMEs’ opportunities for growth and sustainability. BAT consists of five stages: Motivate – define the organization’s authentic brand vision; Embed – operationalize purpose across the organization; Engage – connect the brand and offering to customers; Evaluate – measure success with analytics; adjust activities; and Impact – project activities’ impact into the future. Next steps include validating the positive impact I found that BAT has by increasing the number of SMEs using it and studying their results.

Key words: brand, branding, marketing, SME branding, brand models, brand planning tool, customer purchase behavior, purpose, vision