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I wonder why businesses, especially service firms want any less from their brands? Nowadays a brand means a name, design, symbol or feature that makes your offering different from the competition. Brand names may identify your company, one of your services, a family of services or your entire range of services. You may wonder why I am using the word services and not products. The reason is that product based firms do it fairly well as they have a longer history in branding. They also have a longer history of competitive pressures. Powerful brands capture customer imagination and this is what marketing is about! Next time you stroll through the supermarket, please take note of the features of products that capture your imagination. HOW DOES BRANDING CAPTURE AND KEEP YOUR ATTENTION? There are two schools of thought. Power brands capture mind share by supplying information or evoking emotion. I would like to punt on the prominence of emotion as the major force behind strong brands without discounting the importance of information. The more powerful the emotion evoked the more powerful the branding, and the weaker the emotions evoked the blander the brand. To put brands into a tighter context - the emotions you need to capture are those of your target audience, prospects or referrers. Some of my customers argue that they have a discrete number of contract customers hence branding is unnecessary. This argument goes down the tube at about the same time as the business – when the contracts end. Branding is critical in keeping customer loyalty, contacts and increasing awareness amongst potential customers and influencers (including referrers). Products with strong brands can withstand occasional marketing failures such as the tampering fears of Herron Paracetamol in Australia. Great brands command premium prices and have a built safeguard against competitive attacks. Protecting brand names has become a growth industry - especially for patent attorneys. Registration of your brand safeguards ownership within your industry category and avoids the risks of competitor "passing off". Even with strong brands, inappropriate usage may result in lowering of brand value. Take the case of the Australian department store, David Jones that became zealous in house branding of its fashion clothing. As this initiative acted against customer desire for brand diversity and customer choice, David Jones lost ground to the competition. It is the total brand impression created in the minds of your target audience that add value to products and services and provide market standing. If we were to eliminate the Johnson & Johnson babies powder brand, what we have left are simple ingredients. If we strip Volvo of its safety brand, we have a car. Powerful brands can be used in other ways. If you want instant market entry, you may like to consider buying or leasing a strong brand such as McDonald's, Elle or Yves St Laurent. From a communications perspective, branding provides power to and vital links between different promotional initiatives. Products become more memorable! New product launches are more predictable when introduced under the banner of established brands. NOW FOR 3 HINTS ON ESTABLISHING STRONG BRANDS
I could go on and give you the element of branding but I run the
risk of being bland! So if you want this information, you have the
choice of opening up a marketing text or contact me on the details
below.
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