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Branding is a way to differentiate your company, product or service from competitors, and to provide it with a personality that is both unique and appealing to potential customers. It is a
multifaceted, multilayered process and discipline.
Benefit of branding: For smaller companies, well-focused and consistent attention to branding, and to creating favorable, memorable positioning of your product/service in the minds of prospects and customers is the most effective way to compete, to rise above the static and become a factor in the competitive arena in which you’ve chosen to participate.
Importance of branding: Branding has taken on a greater significance in the past decade as companies begin to see their brands as assets - as valuable and as tangible as their factories and patents. So brands have become more than marketing slogans and icons today: they are now closely monitored by the CEO and CFO, and assessed by industry analysts and pundits.
Yet many business-to-business marketers and service providers have yet to practice, or even appreciate, the value of branding in their particular businesses. The truth is every business,
even a commodity supplier, is building a brand through their actions and their presence even if that brand is not being intentionally created and nurtured. They acquire a “position” in the minds of
customers and prospects, a position or identity based on exposure and experience with the provider in the context of a competitive marketplace.
Additional considerations: Some decisions about branding are required at the outset. For instance, should the corporate name be branded and promoted, and if so, to what extent. If products and services are also branded, what should be the balance between the two. Then, how do acquisitions and mergers affect brands? If brands are indeed assets, how can they best be managed when merged into another corporation?
Nomenclature systems can help an organization keep track of brands within a structure of divisions and subsidiaries, but don’t expect customers to become familiar with, or even interested
in, your artificial and internal organization.
As has been suggested, branding is interactive with customers perceptions and expectations making a large contribution to the identity, and certainly the position, of a brand.
Elements of branding: The following are elements that should be considered and incorporated into your branding strategy. They will take on a different mix of importance depending on factors such as product life cycles, competitive activity, importance to consumers, loyalty patterns of consumers, commodity/custom perception and others. But within this product environment, these elements will all have to be addressed.
- Existing perceptions of the product category by target market segments.
- Existing structure and infrastructure in this product category.
- Competition for the same dollar from other product categories.
- Product attributes deemed important to target market segments.
- The positions currently occupied by you and your competitors in the collective minds of target market segments.
- Product differentials, real or perceived by target market segments.
- Corporate images of the marketers of products in your category.
- Expectations of buyers about products in your category.
- The programs, activities and policies in support of your brand. They include names, logos, packaging, slogans, ad content, ad media, ad specialties, trade shows, contests sponsored,
public relations, literature, promotions, events sponsored, distribution channels used, charities and causes supported, web site activity, guarantees, return policies, co-branding activities,
graphic standards, customer relations policies and personnel, audio symbols/themes, trade association and standards committee participation, and any other activities that provide exposure of
the brand to your markets by you and by your competitors.
- Relation of a particular brand with other brands from the same company (line extensions, brand adaptations, co-offerings etc.).
- Budget and financial considerations.
- Product expectations for volume, profit, longevity.
The mix of elements and environment make branding a complex and ongoing activity, but it can lead to focused, consistent, powerful and cost-effective marketing performance which in turn
can lead to increased market share and profits.
We have developed a Brand Audit Checklist to aid you in evaluating the branding/positioning elements relative to your situation. You may wish to do your own evaluation, or to have an impartial entity like Signature Strategies perform the audit: See Branding Services for more detail.
Quite likely, Signature Strategies can help your organization develop or reposition a brand, whether that be a corporate brand, a product or a service. Contact us by phone
(303-796-9458) or email to explore this possibility, and to receive an hour of FREE consultation by phone.
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