Background: Brands belong to “the most important intangible assets” of companies. Brand management has a positive correlation with the commercial growth of SMEs. But the understanding of how brand-building is carried out in small and medium-sized enterprises is not sufficient explored yet. This leads to an ongoing discussion in current related research. Moreover, present literature points out the crucial role of managers in SMEs and their impact on activities such as brand-building. Because of that it is a subject of matter.

Purpose: The literature of brand-building in SMEs does not differentiate between industries. The impact of the managers motivations on the process is not explored in-depth yet. The purpose of our study therefore is to investigate on how SMEs of the food and beverage industry build brands and how the managers motivations influence brand-building.

Method: We use a multiple case study approach to study brand-building in the food and beverage industry. Through in-depth interviews in three small-sized enterprises we collect qualitative data. The data-analysis results in a cross-case analysis and concludes in a new brand-building process.

Conclusion: Our study shows that brands of small-sized enterprises in the food and beverage industry are built in a four-phased and two-staged process. Phase one and two represent the basic requirements to build brands. Furthermore, the initial phase is influenced by the managers pull and push motivations while the subsequent three steps are affected by pull motivations only.