One UNDERSTANDING BRANDING
What is a brand?
A brand is a promise
It is not only a logo or brand name.
Rather they are the visual cues to trigger that locus of emotions that the brand promises you.
The brand promise are the emotional feelings and cravings that are triggered when you think of the brand.
You must keep your brand promise at every touchpoint you have with your customers.
If you want to create a brand, start by thinking of your brand promise. What experience do you want your customers to have when they encounter the brand.
Four Keys to Successful Brands:
1. Authentic.
It must be truly tied to what you are as a company, meaning your values and core purpose.
2. Relevant.
Your promise must be relevant to consumers and you must be perceived as to deliver better than the competition.
3. Consistency
You must keep your brand promise consistent across every touchpoint you have with consumers.
4. Commitment
You must have total commitment to keep the brand promise.
Everybody in the company needs to live the brand, support it and continue to invest in it.
What experience do you want your customers when they encounter your brand?
Brand benefits
Builds customer loyalty
Increases value
Allows higher prices
Builds market share
Easier launch of new products
Lower employee turnover
Helps in talent recruitment
Creates esteem
Difficult Branding Situations
New market categories with few customers
Highly fragmented industries
Understanding the branding process
1. Define the brand
Define the promise and the key values behind it.
Think of the values as the DNA of the brand.
Define the brand drivers, brand drivers define how the core values will be manifested into the marketing mix or key business processes the support the brand. Drivers translate the values into action.
2. Position the brand.
At this step we are making the link between the products value preposition and the brand promise
Shape how the customers think about the brand.
3. Express the brand.
Create an identity.
We create name and logo to get easy recognition.
4. Build awareness of the brand.
Communicate the brand internally and externally.
Employees have a critical role in delivering the brand promise.
Communicate continuously and consistently or the brand loses its value.
The value of the brand is called brand equity.
Keep an eye on the brand performance. Is it living up to the promise.
5.Measure the Brand
You want to measure the value of the brand or what is called the brand equity. It’s what you accrue when you develop, promote and deliver an authentic brand promise.
Two DEFINING THE BRAND
Identify the values of the brand
A brand is a promise, underneath the promise is a supporting set of values.
Brand values are the key behaviors or virtues or the brand.
That need to be expressed consistently day in and out.
These values are the essence or the team of the brand.
Determining the brand values starts by understanding the overall marketing strategy of you business.
What kinds of products and services do you offer? And, who are your competitors.
What are the trends and opportunities in your market?
Who are your customers?
What is your overall value proposition in the market place.
Have a solid marketing strategy before you build a solid branding strategy.
What is the belief system underneath your brands. Is it linked to your marketing strategy?
Is it clear what your brand stands for now, and what it wants to be in the future.
Brand Drivers
Detailed and descriptive aspects of the brand.
Functional or emotional benefits of the brand. Self expressive benefits, what is the customer saying about themselves when they consume the brand.
How to create brand Drivers:
Make an exhaustive list of phrases or sentences about the brand that stretches the brand purpose.
Put them in categories:
Functional benefits
The basic job that the product does.
Emotional benefits
How does the product make the customer feel.
Economic Benefits
How a product saves time and money.
Self-expressive benefits
How a product makes us appear to others.
Or benefits to society or the environment.
Brand drivers put more meaning into the brand, they communicate what your brand is all about.
YOU DON”T BRAND THINGS
You create a brand with its core promise and list of associations. Then you attach something to that promise like a product or a company name.
By attaching the product to the brand your customers associate it with the brand.
Again, branding is not slapping a name on the product.
What kind of things can I attach to the brand?
A brand is a locus of emotions.
It’s all the emotions inside that are triggered by a brand that define it.
Designing your brand architecture
1. Create a house of brands
Customers don’t know the company only brand.
LMVH
2. Create a branded house.
A master brand has under the umbrella many products.
3. Blended House Example
Strong Master Brand with sub brands.
Identifying the brand personality
Brand Persona
A set of human like characteristics describing someone who keeps a brand’s promise.
Personality helps brands maintain loyal customers.
“Dimensions of Brand Personality. by Dr. Jennifer Aaker
5 Main Dimensions of Brand Personality:
Sincerity
Down to earth, honest, genuine and friendly.-
(Warm, happy, cheerful and caring.)
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness
Authentic brands are those that reflect the characteristics of the people who deliver value to the market place.
Three POSITIONING THE BRAND
Identifying your customers
Segmentation
Dividing a market of potential customers into groupings.
Demographic Segmentation
Grouping customers by physical characteristics (gender, age, height, weight, and/ or hair color.
Geographic Segmentation
Grouping people by where they are or where they live.
Behavioral Segmentation
Grouping customers by things they do, or how they behave, such as purchase behavior, lifestyles and the ways they use product.
Attitudinal Segmentation
Grouping customers by how they think.
Understanding your customers beliefs
What do you promise?
When do you promise it?
When people buy product’s and services they are buying a collection of benefits.
Functional Benefits
Economic Benefits
Emotional Benefits
Self Esteem / Status
Purchasing Steps
1. Need Recognition
2. Information Search
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Post Purchase Behavior
This is when customers form opinions about your brands and share their experiences with other customers.
Developing your brand promise:
The value proposition
A single-minded claim made to change a customer’s mind and cause them to do something
The brand promise is your overall value proposition.
It’s a broad, definitive statement of the bundle of benefits to customers by the brand.
Brand Positioning = Long Term, Strategic
Value Proposition = Short Term, Tactical
The connection between brand strategy and marketing strategy.
Value propositions are designed around the brand drivers as RTBs.
Reasons to believe the overall brand strategy.
What features and benefits of your products and services are you emphasizing in your market strategy?
Then look at your brand drivers to find the ones that connect best to those benefits.
Four Expressing the Brand Identity
Creating a name, a visual look, and feel for the brand,
and a total customer experience for the target audience for when they encounter the brand.
The name you select for your brand should
1. Reflect value and purpose
2. Create association with the brand persona
3. Be easy to say
4. Be unique and memorable
Select a name then communicate the name and its associated values and purpose, so that people start to make a connection.
Creating the brand’s look and feel
Creating the logo
The designer needs to know:
The brand values
The core promise
The brand drivers
The persona and the brand name
Logo Lockups
Different logo variations used for various placements and usage
Choosing a Color Palette
Assign colors to the logo
Identify complementary colors
Choosing a Typographic Treatment
Identify how to handle special cases
Image Guidelines
Photography of Illustration.
BW vs Color
Defining a Consistent Tone
Outline specific language and words
Decide if tone should be more formal or more conversational.
Create the Brand Promise Touch Tones
1. Need recognition
2. Information search
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Post-purchase behavior phase
The Customer Experience
Define customer touch points
Select drivers to emphasize
Five Communicating the Brand internally
1. Train your team
2. Reinforce constantly
Match the training to the employee
Employees Need to Know
1. Brand promise
2. Connection to values
3. Drivers
4. Brand Identity
5. Ways to think, feel and act
Brand Champions +
Brand Ambassadors
Influential Company Employees who represent what the company stands for.
Brand Book Components
Overview of brand values, core promise, drivers and persona.
Logo specifications and examples
Logo Lockups
Color Palette
Font Styles
Typography
Image and photography guidelines
Writing Style
Tone of Voice
Brand Book Guidelines
Brochure guidelines
Specifications for signage and outdoor advertising
Design layouts for print and Web Based projects
Store Design
Social media guidelines
Letterhead and business card design
Brand Book Training Resource
Historical Stories
Customer Stories
Brand Goals
Watch out for the Gap between Product Performance and the Brand
Product not delivering promised Benefits
Your product is maybe
Underfeatured or
Overfeatured
1. Make a list of all features in your product and service
2. Write down the main benefits the feature delivers
Six COMMUNICATING THE BRAND EXTERNALLY
Choosing Communication Channels
Why do you wanna communicate?
Are you telling the market your overall strategic brand positioning, the core brand promise? Or are you building tactical awareness around some new feature of benefit of the product?
Who is your target audience?
What are you communicating?
Expressing the brand in digital and social channels
Using Digital Channels
Ensure consistent look and feel
Use the same voice
Define who can post and who can’t
Specify the role of each site
Expressing the brand through packaging
Packaging is the first physical encounter with the brand and the last and maybe the most critical, seconds before the customer is going to pay.
Identify the Functional Role
Choose messaging
Provide guidance on the design
Creating Branded Spaces and Environments
Choose a location
Decide on the role of the space
Choose components which communicate the brand drivers
VI MEASURING THE BRAND PERFORMANCE VALUE
Measuring the Brand
What is the basic awareness of the brand?
How well does the audience understand your brand?
How much loyalty is the brand building
Customer Loyalty Changes
Losing relevance
Lacking differentiation
Lacking Consistency
Internal Factors to Measure
Do employees:
Fully understand your brand
Understand target audience, customer insights and drivers.
Have a commitment to the brand?
Protect the brand?
Managing Brand Equity
Internal Change Examples
Leadership
Acquisition/ Merger
Strategy
Financial Downturn
External Change Examples
New Competitors
New Regulations
Legal Actions
Bad Publicity
Consumer Trends Change
Coping with Change
Identify a Brand Stewart who
manages Brand Compliance
Assign a Brand Champion
CEO or senior officer
Assign a brand champion to represent the company throughout the organization
Choose one from each cross-functional department
Review brand performance
Recommend ways to improve
Create a brand team
Reinforce branding
Energize the company
GUIDELINES
Strategy
Brand Management
Design
Communications
Create a Development Plan
Study the classic and new academic research on branding
Be a lifelong learner
What are other companies doing
New Technology
New trends
Join the Branding Community
Practice your Craft
Have a strong Ethical Base