Author: indiafreenotes

Most evaluations of Brand Equity involve utility estimation. Specifically, we attempt to measure the value (utility) of a product’s features and price level and also measure the overall utility of a product when including brand name. The difference between total utility and utility of the product features is the value of the brand.

According to a customer-based brand equity perspective, the indirect approach to measuring brand equity attempts to assess potential sources for brand equity by measuring consumer mindset or brand knowledge.

The indirect approach is useful in identifying what aspects of the brand what aspect of the brand knowledge may potentially cause the differential response that creates brand equity in the marketplace. Because any one measure typically only captures one particular aspect of brand knowledge, multiple measures need not to be employed to account for the multi-dimensional nature of brand knowledge:

Brand awareness can be accessed through a variety of aided and unaided memory measures that can be applied to test brand recall and recognition; brand image can be assessed through a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques. We next review several these various approaches.

1. Qualitative Research Techniques

There are many different ways to uncover and characterize the types of associations linked to the brand. Qualitative research techniques are often employed to identify possible brand associations and sources of brand equity. Qualitative research techniques are relatively unstructured measurement approaches whereby range possible consumer responses are permitted.

Consider the following three qualitative research techniques that can be employed to identify source of brand equity.

(i) Free Association

The simplest and often most powerful way to profile brand association

involves free association tasks whereby subjects are asked what comes to mind when they think of the brand without any more specific probe or cue than perhaps the associated product category (e.g. “what does the Relox name mean to you?” or “Tell me what comes to mind when you think of Rolex watches.”)

(ii) Projective Technique

Uncovering the sources of brand equity requires that consumers’ brand knowledge structures be profiled as accurately and completely as possible. Unfortunately, under certain situations, consumers may feel that it would be socially unacceptable or undesirable to express their true feelings.

Projective techniques are diagnostic tools to uncover the true opinions and feelings of consumers when they are unwilling or otherwise unable to express themselves on these matters.

(iii) Ethnographic and Observational Approaches

Fresh data can be gathered by directly observing relative actors and settings. Consumers can be unobtrusively observed as they shop or as they consume products to capture every shade of their behavior. Marketers such as Procter & Gamble seek consumers’ permission to spend time with them in their homes to see how they actually use and experience products.

2. Quantitative Research technique

Although quantitative measures are useful to identify and characterize the range of possible associations to a brand, more quantitative portrait of the brand often is also desirable to permit more confident and defensible strategic and tactical recommendations.

Quantitative research typically rings out some type of verbal responses from consumers, quantitative research typically employees various types of scale questions so that numerical representations and summaries can be made.

Quantitative measures are often the primary ingredient tracking studies that monitor brand knowledge structures of consumers overtime.

(i) Awareness

Brand awareness is related to the strength of a brand in memory, as reflected by consumers’ ability to identify various brand elements (i.e., the brand name, logo, symbol, character, packaging, and slogan) under different conditions.

(ii) Recognition

In short recognition processes require that consumers be able to discriminate a stimulus a word, object, image, etc. as something they have previously seen. Brand recognition relates to consumers’ ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances and can involve identification of any of the brand elements.

(iii) Recall

Brand recall relates to consumers’ ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances. With brand recall, consumers must retrieve the actual brand element from memory when given some related probe or cue. Thus brand recall is a more demanding memory task than brand recognition because consumers are not just given a brand element and asked to identify or discriminate it as one they had or had not already seen.

(iv) Image

Brand Awareness is an important first step in building brand equity, but usually not sufficient. For most customers in most situations, other considerations, such as the meaning or image of the brand, also come into play. One vitally important aspect of the brand is its image, as reflected by the associations that consumers hold toward the brand. Brand associations come in many different forms and can be classified along many different dimensions.

Brand equity is the value of your brand for your company. It’s based on the idea that a recognised brand that’s firmly established and reputable is more successful than a generic equivalent. It’s based on customer perception: customers will tend to buy a product they recognise and trust. When a brand is recognised and trusted to the point that the customer recognises it and feels a deep psychological bond with it, your brand equity is valuable indeed.

Here are four steps towards building your own brand equity.

1. Build greater awareness

You need to make sure your customers recognise your brand identity when they’re looking for goods or services, and that they perceive it in the way you intend. There are several ways you can do this:

• Using the same logo or image to ensure your branding is consistent
• Great customer service
• A heart-warming story behind the brand
• Keeping the brand in front of your market
• Providing ongoing value
• Keeping in touch via email or newsletters
• Tap into social media and share blogs, tweets, Facebook groups, Instagram photos

Word of mouth, positive customer experience and targeted marketing all help you develop greater brand awareness.

2. Communicate brand meaning and what it stands for

There are two things to bear in mind here: how well your product meets the needs of customers and its social and psychological aspects. A company that produces a useful product, and genuinely commits to social or environmental responsibility will attract customers and employees who share those values. And who will be sufficiently connected and enthusiastic to be advocates. IKEA, for example, has invested in sustainability throughout its entire business operation: 50% of its wood is from sustainable sources, 100% of its cotton is Better Cotton standard and 700,000 solar panels power its stores. With feel-good eco-credentials like these, spending a Sunday afternoon assembling an IKEA flat pack seems more a pleasure than a chore when the product comes from such a reputable brand. 

3. Foster positive customer feelings and judgments

When customers have a warm feeling towards your product, they’re more likely to become loyal customers and pass the word on. Judgments are made about a brand’s credibility, capability, quality, relevance to need, and superiority over the competition, so it’s important to maintain the integrity of all of these. Positive feelings can be excitement, fun, peer approval, security, trust, self-respect.

A brand that can maintain positive judgments and feelings is onto a winner. For example, the Apple iPad: did you think you needed one before you saw one and appreciated its capabilities? Now, for many of us, it’s our computer, games console, TV, radio, alarm clock, mobile bank, messaging service… we love our iPads.

4. Build a strong bond of loyalty with your customers

This is powerful, yet the most difficult aspect of brand equity to attain and maintain. Customers have formed a psychological bond and feel attached to your brand and make repeat purchases. They may feel part of a community with fellow consumers and act as your brand ambassadors by engaging in social media chats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, online forums and even events. Brand equity connection that borders on customer evangelism is valuable.

Measure brand equity

There are three core brand equity drivers that you need to track: financial, strength and consumer metrics:

1. Financial metrics

The C-suite will always want to see a positive balance sheet to confirm that the brand is profitable and viable. You should be able to extrapolate from the data market share, profitability, revenue, price, growth rate, cost to retain customers, cost to acquire new customers and branding investment. You can use solid financial metrics data to demonstrate how important your brand is to the business and secure higher marketing budgets to continue growing.

2. Strength metrics

Strong brands are more likely to survive despite change and deliver more brand equity, so it’s essential you measure its strength. You’ll need to track awareness and knowledge of the brand, accessibility, customer loyalty and retention, licensing potential and brand ‘buzz’. As well as surveys that use open text questions, social media monitoring will be able to give you a picture of how your brand is known and loved (or not).

3. Consumer metrics

Companies don’t build brands, customers do, so it’s essential that you track consumer purchasing behaviour and sentiment towards your brand. Track and measure brand relevance, emotional connection, value and brand perception through surveys and social media monitoring. The right text analytics software that can interpret open text comments is particularly useful here to gather sentiment and suggestions.

Brand equity is defined and a comprehensive framework is described that incorporates recent theoretical advances and managerial practices in understanding and influencing consumer behavior. This framework identifies sources and outcomes of brand equity and permits tactical guidelines as to how to build, measure, and manage brand equity, as will be developed further in other sections of the paper.

Customer-Based Brand Equity

Understanding the needs and wants of consumers and customers is at the heart of marketing. A brand equity framework should therefore recognize the importance of the customer in the creation and management of brand equity. Accordingly, customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. A brand is said to have positive customer-based brand equity when customers react more favorably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified as compared to when it is not (e.g., when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product). Accordingly, the key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among different products in a category. As noted above, brand differences often are related to attributes or benefits of the product itself. In other cases, however, brand differences may be related to more intangible image considerations.

There are three key ingredients to this definition “differential effect,” “brand knowledge,” and “consumer response to marketing.” First, brand equity arises from differences in consumer response. If no differences occur, then the brand name product can essentially be classified as a commodity or generic version of the product. Second, these differences in response are a result of consumer’s knowledge about the brand. Thus, although strongly influenced by the marketing activity of the firm, brand equity ultimately depends on what resides in the minds of consumers. In other words, “customers own brands and your brand is what customers will permit you to have.” Third, the differential response by consumers that makes up the brand equity is reflected in perceptions, preferences, and behavior related to all aspects of the marketing of a brand (e.g., product evaluations or choice, recall of copy points from an ad, actions in response to a sales promotion, or evaluations of a proposed brand extension).

Sources of Brand Equity

Customer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer has a high level of awareness and familiarity with the brand and holds some strong, favorable, and unique brand associations in memory. The latter consideration is critical. For branding strategies to be successful and brand equity to be created, consumers must be convinced that there are meaningful differences among brands in the product or service category. The key to branding is that consumers must not think that all brands in the category are the same.

Thus, establishing brand awareness and a positive brand image in consumer memory in terms of strong, favorable, and unique brand associations produces the knowledge structures that can affect consumer response and produce different types of customer-based brand equity. In some cases, brand awareness alone is sufficient to result in more favorable consumer response, e.g., in low involvement decision settings where consumers are willing to base their choices merely on familiar brands. In other cases, the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of the brand associations play a critical role in determining the differential.

Benefits of Brand Equity

Customer-based brand equity occurs when consumer response to marketing activity differs when consumers know the brand from when they do not. The actual nature of how that response differs will depend on the level of brand awareness and how favorably and uniquely consumers evaluate brand associations, as well as the particular marketing activity under consideration. A number of benefits can result from a strong brand, both in terms of greater revenue and lower costs for the firm, including the following:

• Greater customer loyalty
• Less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions
• Less vulnerability to marketing crises
• Larger price margins
• More inelastic consumer response to price increases
• More elastic consumer response to price decreases
• Greater trade cooperation and support
• Increased marketing communication effectiveness
• Possible licensing opportunities
• Additional brand extension opportunities.

Most Common Branding Challenges

1. Treating brands as assets

The ongoing pressure to deliver short-term financial results coupled with the fragmentation of media will tempt organizations to focus on tactics and measurables and neglect the objective of building assets.

2. Possessing a compelling vision

A brand vision needs to differentiate itself, resonate with customers and inspire employees. It needs to be feasible to implement, work over time in a dynamic marketplace and drive brand-building programs. Visions that work are usually multidimensional and adaptable to different contexts. They employ concepts such as brand personality, organizational values, a higher purpose and in general they simply move beyond functional benefits.

3. Creating new subcategories

The only way to grow, with rare exceptions, is to develop “must have” innovations that define new subcategories and build barriers to inhibit competitors from gaining relevance. That requires substantial or transformational innovation and a new ability to manage the perceptions of a subcategory so that it wins.

4. Generating breakthrough brand building

Exceptional ideas and executions that break out of the clutter are necessary in order to bring the brand vision to life. These ideas and the execution of them are more critical than the size of your budget. “Good” is just not good enough. That means making sure you get more ideas from more sources, and that you make sure you have the mechanisms in place to recognize brilliance and bring those ideas to market quickly.

5. Achieving integrated marketing communication (IMC)

IMC is more elusive and difficult than ever in light of the various methods you have to choose from such as advertising, sponsorships, digital, mobile, social media and more. These methods tend to compete with each other rather than reinforce because the media scene and options have become so complex, so dynamic, and because product and country silos reflect competition and isolation rather than cooperation and communication.

6. Building a digital strategy

This arena is complex, dynamic and in need of a different mindset. The reality is, the audience is in control here. New capabilities, creative initiatives and new ways to work with other marketing modalities are required. Adjust the digital marketing focus from the offering and the brand to the customer’s sweet spot, which is to say the activities and opinions in which they are interested or even passionate about. Develop programs around that sweet spot in which the brand is an active partner, such as Pampers did with Pampers Village or what Avon did with their Walk for Breast Cancer.

7. Building your brand internally

It is hard to achieve successful integrated marketing communications or breakthrough marketing without employees both knowing the vision and caring about it. The brand vision that lacks a higher purpose will find the inspiration challenge almost impossible.

8. Maintaining brand relevance

Brands face three relevance threats: Fewer customers buying what the brand is offering, emerging reasons not-to-buy, and loss of energy. Detecting and responding to each requires an in-depth knowledge of the market, plus a willingness to invest and change.

9. Creating a brand-portfolio strategy that yields synergy and clarity

Brands need well-defined roles and visions that support those roles. Strategic brands should be identified and resourced, and branded differentiators and energizers should be created and managed.

10. Leveraging brand assets to enable growth

A brand portfolio should foster growth by enabling new offerings, extending the brand vertically or extending the brand into another product class. The goal is to apply the brand to new contexts where the brand both adds value and enhances itself.

Brand Opportunities

1. Customize your office space

Customers and employees interact with your brand whenever they’re in your office. That’s why your office space offers a great opportunity to reinforce your brand image.

2. Leverage the networks of your most satisfied customers

Much like employees, satisfied customers can have a huge impact on how others see your brand. From word of mouth and social media to online reviews and testimonials, consumers have an ever-expanding range of opportunities to share their thoughts about your company. Channel your happy customers’ positive vibes by encouraging them to provide testimonials, refer your product to their friends, and share your content on social media.

3. Be strategic and creative on social media

Most companies use social media these days, but not always as effectively as they could. Don’t overlook the power of leveraging influencers, running paid campaigns, and sharing content that your customers find valuable.

4. “Get out, join, and volunteer”

When building a personal brand, people are often advised to get out into the world by volunteering, networking, and joining groups. The same strategies can work for building your company’s brand. Make connections with stakeholders and relevant groups and businesses as a way to convey your company’s image to others.

5. Harness the power of video

Especially with the rise of mobile, video is an incredibly powerful branding tool. It offers a unique and dynamic format for connecting with current and future customers.

Retailer

Retailers are basically sellers, who are at the end position of any business management system and who sell the products to customers. They are direct representative of the consumers, that is, they help the manufacturers to know about the need and requirements of the consumer. They are ‘a business or person that sells goods to the Retailer consumer, as opposed to a wholesaler or supplier, who normally sells their goods to another business’.

Generally, a retailer buys a small quantity of items from a distributor or a wholesaler, in order to gain profit, which would coincide with their business objectives. They purchase the products at a competitive prize from the suppliers and market them according to their benefits. They are generally shopkeepers, who make the product available to the consumers.

Distributor

A distributor is one who distributes the goods, products and/or services to the respective authorities, which may include any one, the retailer, supplier, etc. In business, a distributor acts as an ‘an entity that buys non-competing products or product lines, warehouses them, and resells them to retailers or directly to the end users or customers’. They provide strong manpower and cash support to the supplier or manufacturer’s promotional efforts.

They supply the services such as product information, estimations, technical supports, after-sales services and credits to the customer. They also supply goods directly to the stores or other businesses, who sell to the consumers. Their distribution of products takes place in channels, which are interdependent organizations and are designed by firms with the help of proper path-orientation. They also maintain an exclusive buying agreement, which limits their participants and enable them to cover a certain territory.

	Retailer	Distributor
Who are they	A retailer is a person or business who sells the products or services directly to end customers.	A distributor is a person who distributes and supplies the products to the other respective authorities.
Relation with	They have a direct relation with the consumers.	They frequently have a relationship with the manufacturers.
Functions	They sell the goods, products and services to the end-users.	They supply the goods, products and services to the retailers.
Knowledge about the consumer’s need.	They know about the end-users needs and demands.	They are unaware about the local needs and demands of the end-users.
Link between	They act as a link between the supplier and consumers.	They act as a link between the manufacturer and the retailer.
Systems	Their sale does not include any such management.	They supply the products through a chain management system.
What roles they can be	They cannot be manufacturers.	The distributors may be manufacturers.
Prize at which they sell the products	They sell the products with their profit margin and also along with the recognized price.	The prices at which they supply the products are the overall wholesale prices.
Receives goods from	They commonly buy from the distributors.	They commonly buy from the manufacturer.

The product life cycle is associated with changes in the marketing situation, thus impacting the marketing strategy and the marketing mix.

In today’s competitive market, it’s like a war to make good space on the retailer’s shelf. All this indicates that product visibility should be improved; its look should be innovative, premium and eye-catching. So the consumer attracts towards it and raises his hand to pick it up.

By keeping in mind that the brand value correlates with the consumer perception of that particular brand. As Tom Peter said “Perception is reality”.

Brand can be successfully revamped by adapting current styles, while celebrating its history. Correct positioning and appropriate application of marketing mix will enhance the brand value.

Investing capital, time and human resource on relaunching and rebranding exercise, if done thoroughly, is never fruitless; actually it’s a big bang for your marketing strategy and for the business.

7 Advantages of Product relaunch & rebranding

1) Consumer Awareness: By relaunching a product in the market, consumer will be curious and excited to know that what is NEW. It will create awareness and consumer will be informed about the characteristics of the products and the marketing campaign through different mode of channels will be a reason to highlight it.

2) 2nd chance to make a good impression: After completing the product life cycle or a 1st product launch failed, the consumer Product Company is more focused to improve the product quality, design and formulation to compete in the market and to create good brand image and give an impression of a premium product.

3) Acquire more market share: Product is coming with new features and relaunch campaign will give awareness to the consumer. All this effort will help to acquire more market share with the improved product, and will be a boost for revenue generation.

4) Clear the confusion of brand image: A clear product positioning can solve the problem of brand image. Brand identity is very important factor to be unique in the market and to target the audience. Brand image can be develop through specific and targeted marketing campaign by holding an authentic product theme.

5) Mid to Premium Market: One of the interesting stages is transition from one market to another market segment, already having a certain middle level customer, plus now with the premium look and improved formulation, product is shifting to premium market to gain more revenue.

6) Brand Extension: Products relaunch and rebranding usually extend the life cycle of the brand itself. It’s an old brand name with new features, it helps to improve the brand image and consumer acceptance, and extend the brand life.

7) Consumer benefit: To compete in to the market, the companies improve their products by visibility and by characteristics. So ultimately consumer will get the premium product. As consumer not only pays for the product, they value the overall experience of the product.

Brand development is maintaining the consistency in terms of quality, value and trust that consumer finds in the company. Brand is a perception on consumers’ mind. Today market is flooded with competition and none of them is lagging behind in delivering the promises that they make to their respective consumers.

Importance of Brand Development

Brand development is a continuous process which helps a brand grow in the market. There has be a constant plan to develop a brand further, be contemporary and yet be useful to a customer. Brand development has following 4 phases:

1. Brand strategy

How to take your brand into the market? Making brand communications more effective. Brand development can undertaken by enhancing communication strategies for a brand.

2. Brand Identity

Brand identity communicates the company’s vision and mission via Brand. From beginning to end, making brand more memorable.

3. Graphic design

Graphical designs, color schemes, logos etc. differentiates a brand from the competitor and shape consumers’ perception positively, and helps in brand development.

4. Brand management

Just like a stock portfolio, managing the investment done by the company in the brand. Hence, brand management is an effective way of managing the entire life of a brand.

Effectiveness of brand development is also measured by a tool which is known as brand development index (BDI).

Brand Development Model

A Brand Development Model is a diagnostic tool that integrates many proven metrics into a framework that guides strategy. Marketers need to consider six stages of development for a brand, each equating to a different marketing priority, starting with creating basic awareness and concluding with building customer loyalty. The following identifies these stages, recommended metrics, and strategy implications for brand management.

Stage 1: A Brand should be Recognizable

Half the battle in building trust is for buyers to recognize the brand, or say “Yah, I’ve heard of them”. The standard measure for this stage is aided awareness. A weakness in this stage implies a need to get the name out, and can be addressed through advertising and publicity to boost name recognition. It may be hard to imagine a large company like a Fortune 500 with such an issue, but some of Rockbridge’s clients operate in niche markets that are defined by lifecycle, such as higher education services or mortgages, and have low name recognition among first time buyers.

Stage 2: A Brand should be Memorable

Once a brand has recognition, the next logical step is to become salient or “top of mind”, so that buyers may consider it as part of their evoked set of purchase options. The best measures for this stage include unaided awareness and top-of-mind awareness (mentioned first) within a product or service category, and perceived level of familiarity. The implication for brands with weakness in this stage is to educate the market about the brand, such as the type of products or services the brand offers.

Stage 3: A Brand should be viewed with Favor

In addition to awareness, a brand should be viewed as meeting the needs of potential buyers and be respected by influencers. This includes a basic trust of the brand as well as belief in its value proposition. A classic measure for gauging this stage of development is an excellence rating (e.g., a scale ranging from poor to outstanding), but the inclusion of “best in class” status and brand momentum metrics provides additional context and variation for tracking. Brands lacking in this area are advised to build trust and respect in messaging. The message may be tangentially related to the value proposition, emphasizing features such as community involvement or concern for the environment, or it may directly establish credibility for the brand in its ability to meet needs, such as stressing its track record or reliability.

Stage 4: A Brand should be Distinctive

When prospective buyers are ready to act, they will choose a brand that fulfills a promise they desire, but this credibility is not sufficient alone to drive choice. The brand promise must be distinctive and unique, or the brand identity will be vague and the brand will become commoditized. Consumers perceive brands at a functional and emotional level. The functional has to do with various promises, such as offering value, having high quality, or being relevant to like minded customers. The emotional delves into aspects of brand personality, such as being edgy, playful, masculine or serious, attributes that can be developed from projective qualitative techniques (e.g., if this brand were a person, what kind of car would they drive?). A solid and tested approach to measurement in these areas is to quantify image by rating the brand and its competitors on a series of carefully selected image attributes. A chief goal for marketers is to position their brand through communications that stresses attributes that drive purchase intent and are unique to the brand. Working with perceptual maps that provide a visual “war map” and with quadrant maps that reveal strengths and weaknesses, marketers can craft and test a message strategy. Over time, the progress in execution of the strategy can be assessed by tracking changes in the image dimensions that are core to strategy.

Stage 5: A Brand should be Preferred

Deep awareness and a clear and distinct value proposition should translate into preference among prospective buyers. Many solid metrics can be used, but two key ones are preference from a set of choices and a measure of behavioral intent qualified with a time frame or context (if you were to buy one today…). If preference is low even if consumers believe in a unique value proposition, the logical strategy is to encourage trial in order to shift purchase inclinations. Many products and services involve habitual buying patterns – for example, a traveler may like one hotel brand but routinely book a competitor, so a special promotion may disrupt the pattern and change preference.

Stage 6: The Market should be Consuming the Brand and be Satisfied

It should be obvious that the best communications strategy can not overcome the fact that a product is inferior or service is poor, while an excellent product may build its own momentum through referrals. The short term outcome of low satisfaction is that repeat purchasing will drop and the brand will have detractors. The long term impact of satisfaction is that the reality of the product or service will drive the perception. Thus, brand equity measurement is not complete without questions about consumption, satisfaction, and willingness to recommend. If the brand suffers in this area, don’t blame the agency. Work needs to be done to improve product or service quality.

To sum it up, there are many facets to brand equity, including awareness, attitude, image, preference and satisfaction. All of these areas need to be considered in order to craft the appropriate marketing strategy for developing a brand. Some brands may merely need to raise awareness of their name, others may need to work on building confidence, while still others may need to work on differentiating themselves from competition.

A solid system for measuring and diagnosing brand equity includes a wide range of measures, including usage and satisfaction. Experienced researchers know what measures to use and how to weave them into a survey to minimize bias. Working with such information, savvy marketers know how to craft a message strategy and direct resources to develop a brand over time.

A brand is a name given to a product and/or service such that it takes on an identity by itself.In today’s marketplace teeming with thousands of products and services, all of which are being rapidly commoditized, a brand stands out from the clutter and attracts attention.

A brand name can create and stand for loyalty, trust, faith, premium ness or mass-market appeal, depending on how the brand is marketed, advertised and promoted.

A brand differentiates a product from similar other products and enables it to charge a higher premium, in return for a clear identity and greater faith in its function. A brand is also likely to survive longer than just an undifferentiated product.

A brand is akin to a living being: it has an identity and personality, name, culture, vision, emotion and intelligence. All these are conferred by the owner of the brand and needs to be continuously looked at to keep the brand relevant to the target it intends to sell to.

Brand as Undefinable

1. Brands mean different things to different people at different times.

A single brand means something unique to each person be it a current consumer, potential consumer, employee, recruit, or just within the world at large. Brands are dynamic. They can play a different role depending on who they interact with and when. Some people connect with certain aspects of a brand, while others connect meaningfully with another. And often times, a person’s relationship with a brand can really develop increasing trust, loyalty, meaning, and engagement. Smart and successful brands work on reaching all the different audiences who matter to their business and aim to further their brand relationships with each individual.

2. Brands are amorphous.

At Emotive Brand, we often think of brands as nebulous and infinite. A brand can be the sum of brand experiences or interactions, but those experiences and interactions have infinite possibilities. Every touchpoint matters. Each moment counts. Although we work on creating structure for brands in the form of brand architecture, that architecture always accommodates for growth and change so the brand can develop, expand, respond, and shift with the times.

3. Brands are about feelings, and feelings are complicated.

When you ask people why they love certain brands, it’s often hard for them to pin down. They might provide a list of rational and logical reasons, but in the end, it often comes down to a feeling. How does that brand really make them feel? And why do they come back for more of that feeling? Why does that feeling mean something to them? Successful brands today are always emotionally infused. They hold great emotional meaning for people and that’s what makes that brand loved and respected.

4. Highly recognizable, well-known brands are often used to define what a brand is.

More often than not, the question of defining what a brand is is answered with a list of popular, well-known, established brands. Think Nike, Apple, Google, etc. Although these examples can reveal a lot about what a brand is, just thinking of the definition in terms of these big names isn’t enough. Consider all types of brands big and small, global and local, new and old. Maybe even consider what businesses lack a brand and what makes them different from businesses who have built a brand they rely on. There’s a lot to learn from all the brands we interact with every day. Each brand is meaningful because of something different, and this is often what differentiates a brand and makes it powerful to the people who matter to it.

5. Defining the impact a brand can have is often easier than defining what a brand is.

When we talk about defining what a brand is, we often talk about what makes a brand impactful for a business: stronger ROI, an aligned leadership, a more engaged workplace, etc. And when we discuss impact whether it’s from a brand refresh, a new positioning, a great campaign, or just further brand engagement that’s where we see the brand really working. That’s where we see it living and doing its job. Take the impact of an engaged workplace. Here, we see the brand in action creating specific meaning and value tailored for employees and recruits of the right fit that increases innovation, productivity, creativity, loyalty.

Establishing A Brand

To create a brand, a truly great brand is one of the most powerful ways a business can differentiate it business, products or services from its competitors. Not only will a strong brand make customers sit up and take notice but it will allow your business to charge a premium over its competitor, build customer loyalty, drive sales and accelerate product differentiation in the market.

Your brand isn’t just an add-on to be considered as and when. It should be right at the centre of your business, affecting everything you do and simultaneously reflecting the sum of everything you do. It is, in essence, both the cause and effect of all your actions.

A brand is not just a logo, it’s the collective emotional response to the logo and other elements. Your branding is all geared towards generating that response.

Branding

A brand is a promise of a particular experience that has been created through the sum of various elements including the logo and tagline, the brand personality, promise, messaging and the visual elements.

The process of branding is building that brand, all the way from designing the logo, doing research into the name, working through the attributes, doing the focus group work branding is part of the business you are building.  Much like a Method actor lives and breathes his or her character, so too should a business live and breathe its brand if it wants to convince customers. Creating a brand, like an individual personality, is based on a set of behaviours and characteristics with the strength and consistency of these impacting on its effectiveness.

Advantages of branding

Branding is one of the most effective ways to separate your business from the rest of the market and build a loyal customer base but it also has many other benefits at the very least helping you to establish and grow your business among many other benefits.

Your business direction

Without the sense of purpose a brand gives you, how do you know if the direction you’re heading in is the right one for your business, or if the decisions you’re making are in keeping with the ideals of your business and customers? The decisions you make and the directions you choose can reinforce or completely undermine what your company stands for.

Nike’s co-founder, Philip Knight, once put it like this: “We wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.”

Your business growth

Every business needs to innovate its approach, products and services to grow. But a brand provides the DNA for that growth, rather than inhibiting it. Your brand is the seed that grows the plant of your growing business. The plant may have different aspects to it like products and services that change with the times. But they’re still underpinned by the DNA in that seed that is your brand. Your core values will always be visible, as will the consistent customer experience you provide. Growth without a brand in mind can see your customers desert you in their droves.

Your customer base

Your brand is the focus that keeps you building a solid, loyal customer base. Because when you consider your brand in everything you do, you’re essentially asking yourself the question: “How will this product [or service] impact on our customers’ lives? How will it make them feel differently than competitor products on the market?” These considerations are fundamental to the success of your business, which is why branding must be considered from the word go.

Your business reputation

Your brand gives you the ability to stand out from the crowd, particularly in competitive markets. How well you deliver on your brand promises and strengthen your brand through every area of your business can help make or break your business reputation. And there are few things more valuable to both maintaining existing customers and attracting new ones than a good, solid reputation.

Your customer communications

Every possible contact your business has with a new or existing customer should enforce your brand values. That doesn’t mean you need to be shoving what you stand for down your customers’ throats every time you answer the phone. It just means the way you interact with customers should be thought through and in keeping with your vision and purpose.

Every time you communicate with a customer or prospect, your brand should be felt whether this is through your advertising and promotional activities or customer-facing communications. Your brand is your DNA so make sure it works its way upwards through every layer of your organization.

What to consider when creating a brand

Coming up with a name and a logo at a minimum requires a huge amount of effort and research, the whole process of creating a brand is even more complex and time-consuming. So in order to help here’s a list of the things you should be aware of and consider when creating and building your brand.

A brand should reflect your core values

Everything you do, or what anyone working with you does, will reflect the brand. If you solve problems fast, save people money, do what you say you will listen to your customers, etc., all of this will be translated in their minds as what your business represents. When I work with any start-up, the last thing on my mind is building the brand. First, I want to know what they do differently and make sure that every form of communication and interaction with the outside world is consistent tone, messages, look and feel of the website, fact sheets, logo, etc. This is a pain and can be tricky but does not cost a fortune to do and is, in essence, how you build your brand.

Ultimately if you wish your business to mean/represent one thing and the feedback you get from the outside world is different, you have what is termed ‘brand dissonance’. In plain terms, listen up and change what needs to be changed! The devil is in the detail here, but it’s a question of making sure everything you are working on is consistent and comes across in the way you want. The next issue is to get those around you to do likewise; another challenge for another day.

In essence, your brand represents both who you are as an individual and what your business is as an enterprise. To start with, there is no difference between the two, but as your business grows this will come to mean different things, which in turn presents other issues. But irrespective of what you think about branding, it is ultimately a measure of your success; do things well, and its valuation will grow and with it.

The desired feeling you wish to communicate

What feeling is your product or service going to give the consumer? What is the desire or need it will fulfil? It might be the desire for freedom, safety, confidence or success, or something completely different. Understanding your audience is key their age, sex, ethnicity, income, education level and locale. What motivates them to buy? How do they think?

Once you’ve identified the purpose, define it as succinctly as you can as it will form the basis of your branding efforts. Consider this commonly used core purpose or mission: “We strive to meet or exceed expectations through exceptional service and a dedication to quality”. The problem with this is that it’s too ambiguous, it could belong to any number of businesses and so doesn’t differentiate the company from its competitors. It doesn’t tap into the hearts and minds of customers. So strive to identify exactly what does and make sure it’s something inspiring, specific and believable.

From this, you will be able to define your values which set out how you get your customers to that ‘place’ you’re taking them in their minds. This is not about your own personal values, this is your company’s values which underpin the purpose you’ve defined. They should reflect the vision, culture, and goals of the company and clarify what you stand for and why you do business the way you do. Core values focus on the “why”, more than the “how”. Why are these qualities the key to success? Leave room for these values to develop into new and exciting interpretations of possibilities later down the line, allowing your company to adjust and adapt in a changing world.

The more work you do in this area, the less you will need to spend on your branding and graphic design in the long run, as you’ll be able to approach your chosen branding or graphic design professionals with a clear outline of your core purpose and values. It costs you more in the long run if you don’t know what your brand is and can’t share it.

Create a brand message that is clear, compelling and consistent

Imagine you don’t know a thing about your company. Now tell yourself the key message you want customers to hear. Do you get a clear picture in your mind of the benefit to you as the customer? If not, why not? Have another look at your proposition and whittle it down to what distinguishes you. Is it price? Quality? Innovation? Or something else.

Use the ‘so what?’ Test to decide whether or not your USP is compelling. Read your USP to yourself. Does it warrant the response ‘so what?’ If so decide what you’re trying to say about the benefit you deliver and repeat the ‘so what?’ test until you have a truly compelling USP.

Once you’ve nailed it, be consistent, both in communication and in practice. You don’t have to be the best, just the most consistent. Few would argue that a Mr. Whippy is the best ice-cream in the world for example. But we know what it is, how it will look and taste and we can see at a glance which ice-cream vans stock it – and it’s been the same as long as we can remember. And these are the factors that sometimes make us want one, even though it’s not necessarily our most favourite ice-cream in the world! Consistency helps build trust and loyalty which are invaluable to your brand.

Understanding your customers

To create a brand that is successful requires you to understand the values of your target audience and focus your offering on these customers. Trying to be all things to all people will only dilute and confuse the strength and message of your brand.

Effective brand positioning and brand promise

The brand positioning is how the brand is perceived in the context of competitive alternatives. Brand positioning needs to remain consistent throughout all your marketing efforts, or customers will become confused. The brand promise addresses customers’ expectations about a product or service. Examples of brand promises include Coke’s, “To inspire moments of optimism and uplift” and Google’s, “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”.

Keeping your brand real

If you want people to buy into your brand, make it believable. Instead of claiming perfection, claim something more unique, justifiable and in keeping with your brand. Again, think of your company as a person. What kind of person goes around claiming perfection? More than likely someone you wouldn’t necessarily want to associate with or believe.

Creating brand elements (Logo, name…)

Creating a brand is about more than just a catchy name it is about creating a whole identity for your business and the products or services it sells. Once you’ve answered some or all of questions above and have some clarity of what you want your brand to me its time to start creating some branding elements, not least a name, logo and visual identity.

Brand name

When choosing your name, it’s a good idea to bear in mind what a useful tool it is in getting across to customers the benefit of using your business instead of your competitors’. After all, it’s the first thing your customers are going to see, and they’ll base split second judgements on it. Which is why it’s so important that it’s memorable and gives the right first impression. The perfect recipe for success is a good name combined with good branding.

One method which can be useful for inspiring trustworthiness is to link your business’ name to the area in which you operate customers associate such firms with strong local roots and a friendly approach. Humour or a play on words can help your business stand out, but the overriding aim is to make sure that whatever you choose is snappy, original and instantly informs the customer what the business does.

You’ll also need to bear in mind that your business name will dictate which Web domain you can register and your trademark if applicable.

Brand logo

Next, you need an eye-catching logo to be used alongside the brand indeed in some cases instead of the brand. Successful logos include the Nike ‘swoosh’, the London Underground symbol and Mcdonald’s golden arches. You know when brand identity is working when consumers can recognise your brand from the logo only they just know it.

Most successful businesses will tell you that logos matter a lot. In the early days of your new business especially, perception is everything. So investing a little money to encourage the perception that you’re professionals is pretty high up the agenda for the vast majority of new businesses.

You’ll want to work toward something smart, not just something pretty. What I mean by that is you need to begin with a thought: What is the emotional response (worked out in step one) that you want your product to elicit? What else can you think of that will help people understand not just what you do but how you’re different from your competitors?

Brand indentity & visual identity

Finally, you need to create a strong identity for your business which runs through everything you do. To do this, you need to firmly establish what your company stands for. Do you want to be seen as a funky cutting-edge high fashion business, for example, or would you rather be seen as solid, dependable and reliable? What is the core idea of the company and the message you want to project? You can come up with the most fantastic name and logo, but if you have no vision or proposition for the company, then it’s just not going to work.

Creating brand assets and marketing materials

If your website, stationery, etc. exude and reinforce your values, your brand will be strengthened. But if they don’t, your brand and your business could be seriously damaged. For example, your product could genuinely be of a high quality. You may have sourced the very best components available. But if you’ve got a naff, clip-art logo and poor quality stationery, that undermine your promises of quality, you’re fighting a losing battle with customers. You can tell them your product is superior until you’re blue in the face. If they do not see that message reflected consistently in every area of your business, they’ll head to a supplier they’re more sure of instead.

Protecting your brand

Branding isn’t a one-off event your brand needs to be continually protected. Take out trademarks to safeguard your brand name, logo and tagline. You can also use trademarks to protect phrases and groups of words that you use as part of your brand. You can apply for trademarks online via the Intellectual Property Office website. Protect designs associated with your business by registering them under UK Design Protection, again through the Intellectual Property Office. Make sure you continually monitor your brand identity to ensure that it remains relevant. Remember that brands can be tweaked and refreshed along the way.