The why and how of building a strong brand

What is a brand?

WHAT IS A BRAND?

It’s not your logo

WHAT IS A BRAND?

It’s not a slogan

WHAT IS A BRAND?

Neither is it a corporate identity, patent, name or trademark.

These things are purely

Symbols of a brand

SO WHAT IS A BRAND?There are lots of definitions – here are some detailed below

A brand is about what a business stands for, its values, its vision, the personality of the business and the promise it makes to its customers.

It can be a product, a service, a cause or an organization, but it must have perceived intangible attributes.

When you don’t perceive an intangible, a brand becomes purely a commodity to you.

A credible brand will align the way a business behaves with the way it is portrayed.

This symmetry between behavior and portrayal ensure that customers instinctive reaction is one of trust and belief in the brand, not one of doubt and uncertainty.

SO WHAT IS A BRAND?

A companies brand is the equivalent to a person’s reputation.

It has been described as “everything you say or do”

A Brand is a collection of your thoughts and feelings about your experiences with it.

How you feel about a brand is what the brand becomes in your mind. A brand can represent different things to different people.

“… A set of mental associations, held by the consumer, which add to the perceived value of a product or service.” - Kevin Lane Keller (1998)

SO WHAT IS A BRAND?

“A brand is more than a name or a logo – it is a promise and a contract with every customer with whom you are dealing. And if people feel that the offering does not live up to what they expect from the brand, they will decide to stop buying.”

- Richard Branson

“A brand is a set of assets and liabilities linked to a name/symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by that product or service.” - David Aaker Professor of Marketing

University of California at Berkeley

COMMON TRAITS OF GREAT BRANDS

THEY ARE PERCEIVED AS GENUINE

THEY ARE MEANINGFUL

THERE IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM

THEY ARE CONSISTENT IN EXPERIENCE

THEY ARE INNOVATIVE

AN IMAGE PRECEDES THE WORD

THEY HAVE DEVELOPED A SENSE OF TRUST

THEY ARE RELIABLE AND SUSTAINABLE

THEY ARE MORE THAN JUST A COMMODITY

BRAND FALLACY

Building a great brand is something that only large

corporations should be interested in. XSmall companies should be able to build strong brands as well

Brands are only for consumer products XWith a product you have tangible benefits to sell but with a service there is nothing to see, taste or touch, which means you have to build a level of trust and confidence which is much easier with a strong brand.

Why do you need to develop a strong brand?

TO PROVIDE A VITAL DIFFERENTIATOR

Strong brands develop intangible qualities that help prevent them from becoming a commodity. (e.g. APPLE)

If the consumer doesn’t perceive there is an intangible benefit to a product then that product becomes a commodity to them. (e.g. banks or insurance companies, petrol, most bottled water)

Commodities are judged on price alone whereas brands compete on intangible attributes.

People pay for the brand , not the products of the brand

TO CREATE TRUST WITH THE CONSUMER

A brand is about character, it’s about integrity, it’s about trust of promise and what a strong brand stands for is something that people instantly recognise. It is a person’s gut feel about what the product, service or company is all about.

Consumers will usually pay a premium for a product or service they trust.

TO INFLUENCE CHOICE

A strong instantly recognisable brand can short cut the decision making process of the indecisive consumer.

Instead of meticulously weighing up the pros and cons of similar products where there is no clear point of difference, a strong brand will influence the consumer to select yours because they know what your brand stand for.

TO CREATE LOYALTY AND ADVOCACY

Tangible benefits of a product or service can easily be copied where as the emotional, intangible benefits of a brand can not.

A strong brand will go beyond making promises of tangible benefits, they will create an emotional bond which leads to Loyalty and advocacy.

Brand Loyalty drives up to 70% of all purchase decisions. - Kuczmarski & Associates

TO COMMAND A PREMIUM PRICE

In any market there can only be one business that is the cheapest in that sector. If you’re not that business then you need to find out what your brand stands for.

Marketing yourself as the 2nd or 3rd cheapest in a sector or ‘almost the cheapest’ in a sector is not going to work.

A strong brand will give you the opportunity to charge more than your competitor for a similar product or service.

Loyal customers, on average, are willing to pay a 20% premium for their brand of choice. – Kuczmarski & Associates

TO HELP GROWTH COME EASIER

A strong brand precedes you and works on your behalf

Opportunities will find you, you won’t have to find them

You won’t always be starting from scratch with each product release or exploration into new territory.

TO ACT AS A BARRIER TO COMPETITION

Having a strong brand and owning a loyal position in the minds of the consumer can discourage competitors from entering the market in direct competition.

How do you develop a strong brand?

WORK OUT WHAT YOUR BRAND VALUES ARE

Base decisions on them

Align everything behind the brand

You cannot develop a strong brand without knowing what your brand stands for.

Live and breath your brand values, no short cuts, no deviations

COMMUNICATE YOUR BRAND VALUES

Make sure your staff know your brand values

Do they truly represent them or just their own personalised diluted version?

If your staff don’t fit your brand values or can be easily molded to fit them then they don’t belong with your brand and could be damaging to it.

You must consistently communicate your brand values to the public. It is not always about spelling them out literally but simply by conveying them in the way you conduct your business.

POSITION AND THEN REINFORCE

Strong brands successfully position themselves in the mind of the consumer by carefully developing and promoting their image, by aligning consumers’ perceptions through a clear, cohesive and uniform definition of what the brand is and what it does and by delivering upon expectations which define the core benefits of using that brand.

All staff inside a company must enforce the brand’s value, image, position and service guarantee.

This is especially true in a service industry where people are perceived as the brand.

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION“What you make people feel is just as important as what you make.” BMW

“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions” – Donald Caine (Neurologist)

If you want customers to come back to you and advocate you then you need them to make an emotional connection to your brand. There is no single way to make a bond with consumers but the easiest thing to do is to put the customer at the forefront of everything you do.

With every customer transaction ask yourself “If I were the customer in this situation, how would this experience feel for me?”

The answer to this questions determines whether you have made an emotional connection or not?

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

“The idea that business is just a numbers affair has always struck me as preposterous. For one thing, I’ve never been particularly good at numbers, but I think I’ve done a reasonable job with feelings. And I’m convinced that it is feelings and feelings alone – that account for the success of the Virgin brand in all of its myriad forms.” - Richard Branson

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

People will forget what you said

People will forget

how?

where?

when you said it?

But what they won’t forget

is how you made them feel

CREATE TRUST

Creating trust takes time but consistently delivering on your promise will eventually create a bond of trust.

Great brands never chase short term business at the detriment of long term business.

Creating trust is about being genuine in your brand promise and living up to that promise consistently over a period of time.

It is about going that extra mile when there is no real benefit for you to do so.

TRUST EQUATION

Trust = C + R + L

-------------

PSI

C - Credibility

R - Reliability

L - Likability

PSI = Perceived self interest

CREATE A COOL FACTORIn the early 90’s fashion brand French Connection was getting smashed by a range of inferior but cheaper competitors. It just couldn’t compete on price and even worse it was starting to lose it’s cool youthful edge which is so important in the fashion business.

One night a creative director intercepted a fax from the Hong Kong branch (FCHK) to the UK branch (FCUK) and experienced a light bulb moment. Within weeks the letters fcuk appeared on every new item of clothing, in every shop window and on every ad.

Some people were outraged but most, particularly the young loved the sexy new look and all of a sudden price was no longer an issue as people were prepared to pay more for something cool.

CREATE A COOL BRAND AND PRICE BECOMES IRRELEVANT

TRANSLATING BRAND INTO DOLLARS

If your brand can create an emotional response you will always achieve a higher price than a brand that creates a rational one.

Creating a brand that is based on quality of product or expertise of services is the simplest way to justify a higher retail price.

A brand that delivers an established product or service in a new or innovative manner will always justify a higher price.

Brands that have established a reputation for going the extra mile or delivering extra service will always give the public plenty of reason to pay more.

TRANSLATING BRAND INTO DOLLARS

Creating a brand that represents a niche in the market will allow you to dictate price.

Consumers will always pay a premium for a brand that has developed a sense of trust through their products or services.

EVERYBODY’S RESPONSIBILITY

Anything anyone within your

Organisation says or does

has an impact on your

BRAND.

Never underestimate the power of a strong brand

THE LAUNCH OF THE LATEST APPLE PRODUCT

THANK YOU

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Tony Morrison