Branding

Branding as part of marketing activity is a key fact in order to get the right product placement, below  I reproduce a good article about it written by David Thorp of The Chartered Insitute of Marketing who explains why around the world brands mean business and should be taken seriously.

It is tempting to think of ‘a brand’ as something that only matters to the multinational giants whose products fill our supermarket shelves. Many people, especially those outside the traditional ‘fast moving consumer goods’ arena such as those in business to business environments, government organisations or the not-for-profit sector, dismiss branding as the preserve of the likes of Coke and Cadbury’s.

But branding is important to all organisations, operating in any environment, anywhere in the world. The specialist medical company that is a leader in its field or the respected local authority can both offer the same reassurance and guarantee of quality that consumers seek when choosing an internationally recognised brand name.

Even in the business to business sector, customers do not make decisions on the facts and figures alone, and often irrational, intangible forces will prompt them to choose one product over the other. Brands such as IBM have succeeded because they appeal to the heart as well as the head. And in a crowded marketplace, brand identity may be all that separates one company from its competitors.

A strong brand inspires loyalty. It prompts a customer to return time and time again. It helps a company to maintain price – consumers will pay more for a t-shirt from a recognised high street store than they will for a similar garment from a market stall. It opens doors - the well known company will find it easier to secure a sales meeting, will find it easier to break into new markets or to secure the larger contracts. And when things go wrong, a company with a recognised name will be forgiven more readily.

So what is a brand and how to we create a brand that can really boost a business. A brand is more than a corporate colour and should not be confused with corporate identity. A brand is the consequence of a user’s experience of a product gained over many years. This experience is comprised of a multitude of separate experiences – good, bad and indifferent. These could range from the pleasant smile of a sales assistant, to a piece of unfavourable press coverage. A brand is not what the owner of a company tells customers, it is the genuine sentiments in those customer’s hearts.

And it is more than gloss and hype. And like beauty, it rests in the eye of the beholder. We may have a clear picture of what our company stands for. But this is only a true reflection our brand if that perception is shared by our customers, employees and our competitors. And a brand is not a veneer to disguise a shoddy product – if it does not deliver what it promises it is doomed to failure.

Great brands are consistent. The values and motivations that make them stand out from the crowd run through everything they say and do. At drinks company Innocent for example, the fun and funky attitude that made the smoothie brand such a hit is woven through all the company’s activities. This includes everything from the titles of the managers - the HR director is called the People Person - to a scholarship system that gives employees cash to achieve personal ambitions such as learning to drive or doing charity work.

Today’s savvy consumer knows when the truth is not being told. In the past, a brand provided customers with a product they could trust – the Volvo that was safe, the Persil that washed whiter. Then, as we began to take quality for granted, branding became about making an emotional connection with a customer – Mini sparked the affection of those nostalgic for the sixties, and Oxo created a family that we all wanted to join for Sunday lunch.

But now consumers are becoming increasing sceptical about the artificial lifestyles portrayed in carefully filmed TV ads, and they are looking for something that has real relevance and real meaning. The beautiful young things cavorting in sand dunes have been rejected in favour of ordinary people who have the same concerns and problems as us lesser mortals. The campaign to promote Dove Body Firming Wash stared ‘real’ women with real curves, and its strap line explained that there would be little challenge in smoothing the thighs of size eight super-models.

Escapism will always have a role to play. We all want to believe that we can become more gorgeous if we use a particular shampoo. But we recognise the difference between fantasy and reality. By tapping into the true needs and concerns of our customers, we can turn our brand into something that will strike a chord.

Smart branding is about going back to basics. It means giving our customers something they can rely on. A brand that delivers its promise and has real meaning for the way customers live their lives, is one that is genuinely powerful.