Artefact’s
Introduction to Brand Development
O Lord, won’t you buy
me a Mercedes Benz
My Friends all drive Porches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
O Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz
Branding
is one of the most crucial aspects of marketing. The importance
of effective branding cannot be overstated. Good brands are often
the biggest - sometimes the only - differentiator between products.
An obvious signature of a brand is a name and /or logo, but that's
just the tip of the iceberg. Many companies invest huge resources
in developing their brands - often more than they put into developing
their products. Think of the cola marketing wars, the Nike check
mark. Nike does not manufacture running shoes - that's all contracted
out - it brands and markets them.
Brand
is a big concept. It is about the whole set of attitudes, values
and reputation your name conveys. It communicates the essence
of the company. It is managed carefully and communicated in a
range of ways. Your branding effort is the net effect of promises,statements
about yourself, images and impressions you deliberately put out
in the market place. It is not the same as the company’s
image which can include negative perceptions about things like,
say, pollution you are held to be responsible for. Causing is
not part of your branding. However, if you are working hard to
minimise pollution and are ensuring that everyone knows that you
are environmentally friendly, that is part of your branding.
A strong brand is a very valuable asset, so much so
that in many cases the brand has a financial value attributed
to it on some corporate balance sheets. Familiarity leads to feelings
of connectedness. People who feel they know you are more likely
to deal with you than with someone they don’t know.
You
walk into a store on a hot day looking for a can of cola. In the
cooler there are some cans of Coca Cola side by side with some
cans of Bill Hick's Country Cola. The Coca Cola is more expensive
by 10 pence. The storekeeper tells you that there's really no
difference between the two - he's held blind tastings and no-one
can tell the difference! Most often, you'll pay the extra for
the 'real thing'. You know the product, the dependability, the
taste, the reputation, the advertising. You know there's a big
corporation standing behind it. You know that everyone goes for
it. There's only one 'Coke'! Bill Hick's Country Cola may be a
terrific brew but why risk it when you know the brand you want
is there for you? That's the power of branding.
Online brands have rapidly become established to the point where some
are household names. Think of Yahoo and Amazon. If I want to buy
a book I'll most likely head straight for Amazon or Barnes and
Noble. They may or may not be the best on inventory, price and
service - but they certainly have the strongest brands. I feel
confident that the item will ship pretty efficiently, that I won't
be the victim of credit card fraud, that I won't get the wrong
item due to incompetence. That's brand - it's not just the name
but what the name says about the people you will be dealing with,
the value, the consistency.
Your brand does not have to be a huge mass-market brand. You may have
a niche product or service aimed a select market. Have you heard
of Kindle? No? Well, if you were in the market for banking system
software you would be well aware of that company and you would
know it as a top brand in its field. It has built a name for sophistication,
expertise, track record, professionalism. Here's the important
point - they didn't do it by massive advertising but by the quality
of their product and their effectiveness at communicating and
delivering that product to their chosen market.
So there's more
than one way to build a brand. In fact a lot of effort in many
different directions goes into building any successful brand.
If you talk the talk but don't walk the walk
your customers experience what is called 'cognitive dissonance'
- that's a psychologist's way of saying that they're hearing one
thing about your product but their experience of it does not match
up - and they don't like that so they don't like you and they
won't be back for more!
With the technology and knowledge available nowadays it's relatively
easy to replicate a competitor's successful product in a short
space of time. You can match his price too if that's what it takes.
If he gets the jump on you in terms of delivery time or service
quality you can take some rapid measures to catch up. BUT - if
your competitor is better regarded than you are, if he has a better
all around reputation - in short a better brand image, then you've
got a real mountain to climb. Bill Hick's Country Cola will have
to work very hard and for a very long time to get the sort of
market credibility that Coca Cola has spent decades nurturing
and building!
From the point of view of your business, your brand can identify your
product and enable your customer to remember who to come back
to for repeat purchases. It can generate loyalty to give you ongoing
stable cash flow. If it becomes strong enough your brand can allow
you to charge a premium price. The reputation that you build into
your brand can enable you to introduce new products
which will be perceived to have less risk, so customers will at
least give it a try.
Customers like
brands. It makes it easy for them to distinguish between products,
sometimes just for simple functional reasons — you may happen
to like one brand of tea better than another and it is by the
brand that you distinguish one from the other. Sometimes the brand
is used to deliver psychological values of
status, image or just plain feel-good - that's why people like
the idea of owning a Mercedes Benz. A car just gets you from A
to B but a Mercedes Benz car says something about You!
Various branding strategies are possible. Germany's Aldi supermarket chain
is well known in Europe. The stores are designed to a basic low
cost model, the selection is limited and the emphasis is firmly
on no frills economy. It's a perfectly good business strategy.
Its market positioning is mirrored in its brand image. Harrods
of London has a very different top end business strategy. A classy
Dublin restaurant used to put the word about that its menus did
not display the prices of the various courses on offer. The logic
was that hosts would not wish to embarrass their guests by making
them conscious of the costs. It was also put about that this was
done on the basis that 'if you need to ask the price, you can't
afford it!' That was a branding strategy - of course the food
had to be pretty special to sustain such a branding strategy.
What's your branding strategy?
Unless your ambitions are very modest indeed, you have to start thinking
brand from Day 1. Ask the question "What words would I like my
customers to use when they are talking about me, my business and
my product or service?" Come up with a list of words... they'll
probably be words like professional, the best, the quickest, the
best value, highest spec, great service, good people, great product.
Maybe they'll be words like no nonsense, cheap and cheerful, basic
but functional. Once you know what you want your market to think
and say when it is thinking or talking about you, you are already
on the way to developing a branding strategy.
If
you would like to study branding in more detail, here are a few
useful links
to help you.
David
A. Aaker's book on 'Building Strong Brands' is described at this
next link, and there are some free excerpts from the book on the
site:
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/~market/PAPERS/AAKER/BOOKS/build.html
You can read about the brand building strategies of Nike here:
http://www.pipelinemarketing.com/extra2.html
And why not visit netcommercemag for a good article by Gerry Gottlieb
for a good article called 'Internet Branding Builds Traffic and
Identity' at http://www.netcommercemag.com/march/2.html
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