If you’re unsure of the concept of branding and frequently ask yourself, ‘What is a brand? – don’t despair! A great many businesspeople still have difficulty in coming to grips with branding too! Some equate branding with advertising, public relations or promotions – while the cynical simply view it as yet another unquantifiable marketing expense. Certainly, branding touches on all of these and brand strategy in the corporate environment will typically fall under the day-to-day control of the Marketing Director or Chief Marketing Officer.
What is Branding?
But many experts argue that branding precedes the other elements of the marketing mix and even extends way beyond it into almost all aspects of the business. ‘Branding’, they say, is at the very heart of the company’s reason for existing in the first place, and therefore must be articulated before any advertising, promotion, pricing activities – or even product development – can be brought into play.
It must clarify such key issues as whether the business exists to sell mass market brands competing purely on price and value-for-money? Or is it technology-driven and focused on getting to market first with the latest and greatest technologies? Or perhaps it wants to be a niche company/brand aimed at the very top end of the market, where image and exclusivity are all-important?
Questions like these cut to the heart of the business and serve to clarify its purpose and, indeed, its very DNA. The answers become the corporate ‘personality’: how the company/brand sees itself; how it acts; how it wishes others to see it; the type of products it deals in and the level of service it provides to the marketplace; the way in which it speaks to its customers and the manner in which it, in turn, expects to be communicated with.
Using this ‘personality’ as a bedrock and a starting point will help create the brand strategy; the organisation’s product developers create products which will appeal to the appropriate markets, pricing planners set acceptable prices, salespeople develop suitable sales strategies, advertising agencies create ad campaigns with the right look and feel, public relations consultants communicate the appropriate image, corporate designers develop business premises and retail outlets that ‘look the part’.
The sum of all of these parts is branding and it becomes the compass by which the business will navigate much of its long-term direction and its strategic communications with its audience. Branding decisions are not to be taken lightly, though, because their legacy will live with a business for many years to come For example, it’s hard to imagine European cut-price airline Ryan Air being able to re-position itself as a credible competitor to stylish Singapore Airlines. Similarly, Indian budget carmaker, Tata, wouldn’t be able to establish itself as an alternative to Rolls-Royce within the next few decades (even if its cars were to become as technically proficient and look as classy as those of the iconic British brand).
Branding articulates your customer promise
Branding, then, is the promise that an organisation or brand makes to its audience, whether by accident or intent. It can be seen as being premium or egalitarian, trustworthy or dubious, customer-focused or technology-driven, nationalistic or a global citizen, risk-averse or a risk-taker, traditional or modern, classy or tacky.
Hopefully the audience likes this promise, which then becomes a competitive advantage for the company/brand as it attempts to out-manoeuvre its opposition.
It’s worth noting, however, that the perceived importance of brand strategy, both to the customer and the organisation, can vary. Branding is generally seen as critical in the consumer market (except where products have become ‘commodities’ and compete solely on price), but less so in the business-to-business and industrial environments, where technological advancement or manufacturing efficiency is frequently more important.
So just how much of an asset can a good brand be? A massive benefit, according to international consulting firm, Millward Brown Optimor, which each year does a Most Valuable Global Brands study.
In its 2011 survey, it named technology company Apple as the most valuable brand, with a staggering brand value of US$153-billion. Google was second with a brand value of US$111-billion. Also among the Top 10 most valuable brands were Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Microsoft.
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