One of the favorite questions I ask chief executives during profile interviews is, How is your firm different today from what you originally envisioned? That question is based on the inevitable revisions any business plan goes through, either based on miscalculations or evolutionary changes required to respond to the ever-changing industry environment.

The brain trust at Institutional Real Estate, Inc., parent company to this magazine, is not immune to the occasional need for such revisions. As we move into the new year, IREI is planning a new focus for Real Assets Adviser. We are placing a renewed emphasis on branding, the most powerful force in business development. As our founder and CEO Geoffrey Dohrmann likes to say, it’s why you can look at so many corporate logos (sans the company’s name) and instantly know the organization. But it gets better than that. Not only do we instantly know the companies represented by the logos on this page, we also know which one stands for excellence in German automotive engineering, or revolutionary product and packaging design, or innovation in athletic gear, or the totem associated with the organization that turned the coffeehouse into a global corporation. No name or explanation required. These are companies that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to create a brand worth tens or hundreds of billions.

Once a brand is well established and it occupies the dominant position, it is highly resistant to competitive challenges. Think about the mammoth and historic undertaking it would take to supplant Starbucks or Nike as the dominant companies in their industries.

Unfortunately, organizations of far lesser scale too often think the same dynamics don’t apply to them, that what works for major corporations is a bridge too far for them to aspire to. That is simply not the case. The power of branding works on scales large and small.

Real Assets Adviser has already spent nearly $2 million branding itself, and the results have been manifest. We entered the private wealth business an unknown and today are widely recognized, read and our mission understood. And very much in line with that effort, we are also replacing our traditional sponsorship program with an advisory council program, offering different levels of programs for different organizations, such as RIAs, broker/dealers, product sponsors, etc. So there are many different ways people and their organizations can participate. The gist of it is two things — brand building and connecting with the right people. Powerful brands attract people, attention and capital. Branding has become essential to the private wealth business, which has more than 5,000 real asset–related product sponsors in the market competing for time and attention from broker/dealers and RIAs to promote several thousand different investment offerings. Most of those potential distribution channels and most of these advisers claim that almost all of those investment managers and their investment offerings sound pretty much alike. Broker/dealers and RIAs have very limited time to assess new products. Consider that the RIA market is the fastest-growing sector of the market, but still a cottage industry and therefore extremely difficult to reach on any meaningful scale. Try getting a phone call or email returned. The difficulty getting replies is compounded when you’re a stranger or only marginally known.

A well-developed brand makes the job of business development far easier and more productive. Do you think Blackstone struggles to get its phone calls or emails returned? The power of its brand precedes its people’s market outreach.

An intimidating factor in efforts to brand is cost. But, as Geoff Dohrmann emphasizes: “We have spent more than $1.7 million to establish our own brand, and it has worked. Now, people don’t have to spend that money, they can spend a fraction of that, because we’ve already established a brand and they can ride on the back of our brand. We can help deliver their branding message in a vehicle that’s very cost-efficient because the audience has been custom tailored to meet the audience they want to reach. People should be investing in building their brand, and we’ve got some great programs to help carry their message.”

There are three conditions for successful branding: 1) reaching the right audience at an affordable price, 2) delivering a persuasive, credible message consistently over time, and 3) repeating that message with great frequency.

There is much more to say about the Real Assets Adviser branding and advisory council programs that is far beyond the scope of this column, though I would direct you to contact Jennifer Dohrmann-Alpert, the magazine’s managing director, at either 925-244-0500, ext. 134, or jda@irei.com. She will detail the options and cost structures. We look forward to serving you — and your brand — in the private wealth marketplace.

Mike Consol (m.consol@irei.com) is editor of Real Assets Adviser. Follow him on Twitter @mikeconsol to read his latest postings.