Becoming the Mountain: Establishing your Brand Name Annie Kigira-Kinuthia Regional Head Brand & Sponsorship, Africa and Head of Corporate Affairs, East Africa
What is a Brand? • The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. ” • A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. For example, Coca Cola is the name of a brand make by a particular company. • The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. • The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity — it affects the personality of a product, company or service. It is defined by a perception, good or bad, that your customers or prospects have about you. 2
What is a Brand? • A brand is more than just your company image. It also includes your customers' experience and the expectation you set when doing business with your company. In short, it is a promise. • The brand resides within the hearts and minds of donors, customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot. • Importantly, brands enable a buyer to easily identify the offerings of a particular company. Brands are generally developed over time through: • Advertisements containing consistent messaging; • Recommendations from friends, family members or colleagues; • Interactions with a company and its representatives; • Real-life experiences using a product or service (generally considered the most important element of establishing a brand). 3 •
Brand Importance • The brand is an organization’s greatest asset • The brand is • what attracts customers to purchase the products or services of an organization; • what drives investors to continue investing in that company; • what motivates current and potential employees to want to work for that company; • What influences a donor to want to support that organization 4
World Top Ten Most Valuable Brands - 2011 5
World Top Ten Strongest Brands - 2011 6
Attributes of Strong Brands 1. The brand excels at delivering the benefits customers truly desire. • • 7 Consider Starbucks. The company began to focus its efforts on building a coffee bar culture. It maintained control over the coffee from start to finish - from the selection and procurement of the beans to their roasting and blending to their ultimate consumption. Starbucks locations have thus have been successfully delivered superior benefits to customers by appealing to all five senses - through the enticing aroma of beans, the rich taste of the coffee, the product displays and the attractive artwork adorning the walls, the contemporary music playing in the background and even the cozy feel of the tables and chairs.
Attributes of Strong Brands 2. The brand stays relevant. • Strong brands are tied to the actual quality of the products/service and to various intangible factors. Those intangibles include: user imagery - the type of person who uses the brand, the type of situations in which the brand is used, the type of personality the brand portrays etc. • Gillette, pours millions of dollars into R&D to ensure that its razor blades are as technologically advanced as possible, calling advances through sub brands (Trac II, Atra, Sensor, Mach 3) and signaling minor improvements with modifiers (Altra Plus, Sensor. Excel). • At the same time, Gillette has created a consistent, intangible sense of product superiority with its long-running ads, "The best a man can get". 8
Attributes of Strong Brands 3. The pricing strategy is based on consumers' perceptions of value. • The right blend of product quality, design, features and costs and prices is very difficult to achieve but well worth the effort. • With its well-known shift to an "everyday low pricing (EDLP)" strategy, Procter & Gamble did successfully align its prices with consumer perceptions of its products' value while maintaining acceptable profit levels. 9
Attributes of Strong Brands 4. The brand is properly positioned. • • Visa is an example whose managers understand the positioning game. In the 1970 s and 1980 s, American Express maintained the high-profile brand in the credit card market through a series of highly effective marketing programs. Trumpeting that "membership" has its privileges, American Express came to signify status, prestige and quality. • 1 0 Brands that are well positioned occupy particular niches in consumers' minds. They are similar to and different from competing brands in certain reliably identifiable ways. In response, Visa introduced the Gold and Platinum cards and launched an aggressive marketing campaign to build up the status of its cards to match the American Express cards. Visa became the consumer card of choice for family and personal shopping, for personal travel and entertainment and even for international travel, a former American Express stronghold.
Attributes of Strong Brands 5. The brand is consistent. • Maintaining a strong brand means striking the right balance between a continuity in marketing activities and the kind of change needed to stay relevant. Continuity means the brand's image does not get muddled or lost in a cacophony of marketing efforts that confuse customers by sending conflicting messages. • In the 1970 s Michelob ran ads featuring successful young professionals that confidently proclaimed "When you are going, it's Michelob". The company's next ad campaign trumpeted "Weekends are made for Michelob". In the mid-1980 s, managers launched a campaign telling consumers that "The night belongs to Michelob". Then in 1994 we were told, "Some days are better than others, " which went on to explain that "A special day requires a special beer". The slogan was subsequently changed to "Some days were made for Michelob. ” • 1 1 After receiving so many different messages, consumers could hardly be blamed if they had no idea when they were supposed to drink the beer. Predictably sales suffered.
Attributes of Strong Brands 6. The brand portfolio and hierarchy makes sense. • • 1 2 Most companies do not have only one brand; they create and maintain different brands for different market segments. This philosophy led to the creation of Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Pontiac and Chevrolet divisions. The idea was that each division would appeal to a unique market segment on the basis of price, product design, user imagery and so forth. Chevrolet has been positioned as the value-priced, entry-level brand. Saturn represent no-haggle, customer-oriented service. Pontiac is meant to be the sporty, performanceoriented brand for young people. Oldsmobile is the brand for larger, medium-priced cars.
Attributes of Strong Brands 7. The brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build equity. • • 1 3 A brand is made up of all the marketing elements that can be trademarked - logos, symbols, slogans, packaging, signage and so on. Strong brands mix and match these elements to perform a number of brand-related functions, such as enhancing or re-enforcing consumer awareness of the brand or its image and helping the product to protect the brand both competitively and legally. Coca-Cola makes excellent use of many kinds of marketing activities. These include media advertising campaign, promotions and sponsorship. They also include direct response and interactive media. Through it all, the company always reinforces its key values of "originality" , "classic refreshment" and so on.
Attributes of Strong Brands 8. The brand's managers understand what the brand means to consumers. • • 1 4 Managers of strong brands appreciate the totality of their brand's image - that is, all the different perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors customers associate with their brand, whether created internationally by the company or not. As a result, managers are able to make decisions regarding the brand with confidence. Gillette is very protective of the name carried by its razors, blades and associated toiletries. The company's electric razors, for example, use the entirely separate Braun name and its oral care products are marketed under the Oral B name.
Attributes of Strong Brands 9. The brand is given proper support, and that support is sustained over the long run • • Tapping customers' perceptions and beliefs often uncovers the true meaning of a brand. • 1 5 Brand equity must be carefully constructed. A firm foundation for brand equity requires that consumers have the proper depth and awareness and strong, favorable and unique associations with the brand in their memory. A good example of lack of support comes from the oil and gas industry in the 1980 s. In the late 1970 s, consumers had an extremely positive image of Shell Oil and, according to market research, saw clear differences between that brand its major competitors. In the early 1980 s, however for a variety of reasons, Shell cut back considerably on its advertising and marketing. Shell has yet to regain the ground it lost. The brand no longer enjoys the same special status in the eyes of consumers who now view it as similar to other oil companies.
Attributes of Strong Brands 10. The company monitors sources of brand equity • • 1 6 Strong brands generally make good and frequent use of in-depth brand audits and ongoing brand-tracking studies. A brand audit is an exercise designed to assess the health of a given brand. Brand Equity is the sum total of all the different values people attach to the brand, or the holistic value of the brand to its owner as a corporate asset
Characteristics of Strong Brands A strong brand is defined and characterized by the following 9 dimensions: 1. A brand drives shareholder value. 2. The brand is led by the boardroom and managed by brand marketers with an active buy-in from all stakeholders. 3. The brand is a fully integrated part of the entire organisation aligned around multiple touch points. 4. The brand can be valued in financial terms and must reside on the asset side of the balance sheet. 5. The brand can used as collateral for financial loans and can be bought and sold as an asset. 1 7
Characteristics of Strong Brands 6. Customers are willing to pay a substantial and consistent price premium for the brand versus a competing product and service. 7. Customers associate themselves strongly with the brand, its attributes, values and personality, and they fully buy into the concept which is often characterized by a very emotional and intangible relationship (higher customer loyalty). 8. Customers are loyal to the brand would actively seek it and buy it despite several other reasonable and often cheaper options available (higher customer retention rate). 9. A brand is a trademark and marquee (logo, shape, colour etc) which is fiercely and pro-actively protected by the company and its legal advisors. 1 8
Benefits of a Strong Brand • A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience. • Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. § This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion - not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons. • A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium. 1 9
Benefits of a Strong Brand • Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. § In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features • Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category. • A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products. 2 0
Benefits of a Strong Brand • A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. § A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. § A brand impresses your firm's identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products. • Branding builds name recognition for your company or product. • A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market. 2 1
Benefits of a Strong Brand People do not purchase based upon features and benefits. People do not make rational decisions. They attach to a brand the same way they attach to each other: first emotionally and then logically. Similarly, purchase decisions are made the same way - first instinctively and impulsively and then those decisions are rationalized. 2 2
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 1. Clearly articulate your brand identity § Brand Identity means what the brand means to the customer. Brand identity sets the customer expectations. A classic example is from Wal. Mart’s "Everyday Low prices". § This statement sets the customer expectation. Customers expect bargain prices at Wal-Mart. Another classic example is ‘Starbucks’ - Starbuck coffee has a special meaning to its customers; to them Starbucks means excellent coffee served in a warm, relaxing and pleasing environment. § The key is to clearly articulate the brand identity, and that will help you define how customers interpret it. A clear brand identity sets right level of expectations by the customer. 2 3
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 2. Establish a customer value proposition § Customer value proposition is the natural outcome of the brand identity. It is what the customers think of your brand. For example, customers think of Wal-Mart as place to get great bargains. § Then that message must be communicated to the entire organization so that each department and each individual understands what it means to them. The actions of each department will then be aligned with the customer value proposition. § For example only if all employees of Starbucks understand the customer value proposition - then they will be able to deliver an excellent cup of coffee in a warm, relaxing and pleasing environment. 2 4
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 3. Define the optimal customer experience. § Identify all contact points where customers interact with your company. To create a holistic brand experience, you need to create a consistent and compelling experience at each of these touch points. § For example, marketer must work as a mystery shopper and see if the customer experience is consistent with the customer value proposition and brand identity. For example, marketer must see if he/she is getting the kind of coffee at Starbucks in the right environment as expected by the customer. Take an outside-in perspective when aligning each department with your customer value proposition and brand identity. § Note that the marketer can only test the level of customer experience based on his/her understanding of customer’s expectations. There may be an understanding gap between what the customer wanted and what the marketer understood. 2 5
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 4. Cultivate relationships with customers. § Relationship with customers must be treated carefully. Never assume anything about what the customer thinks of your company. It pays to be an active listener to learn and respond to the customer needs. Companies need to respond positively to customer feedback and that will turn casual customers into loyal customers, loyal customers into customer champions. § Here again a classic example will be Starbucks. Customers of starbucks are so loyal that they are even promoting starbucks to others. Starbucks has also responded in kind - by promoting organic farming, ethical purchasing etc. These ideas were given to Starbucks by their customers. 2 6
Steps to Create a Strong Brand § Another very good example is Intel. § Intel sells microprocessors to computer manufacturers, the company releases new products with enhanced features/performance as per its pre-announced product roadmap. § The marketing team of Intel is always listening to customer to learn what features are needed in the future products - that information is passed on the R&D teams - so that the new products will have the feature required by the customer. § As a result Intel enjoys the highest levels of relationships with its customers - a level at which customers are willing to invest and codevelop new products. 2 7
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 5. Strengthen your brand over time. § Enhancing the level of customer-brand relationship will have a direct impact on the brand. To build a strong brand, one needs strong customer relationships. § To begin with, the first time customer starts at a low level of relationship and over a period of time, through series of positive interactions with the brand/company, the level of relationship can be increased to a higher level. § The marketer must have a time bound plan to improve the levels of relationship which the customer enjoys with the company/brand. This will have a direct correlation with the brand value. 2 8
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 6. Monitor industry trends and market conditions. § A strong brand always stays current and relevant. Failure to move with industry or technology shifts can take away from brand equity. 7. Track competitor developments. § Good brand managers should be constantly aware of how the competitive landscape is changing so that their products can be differentiated from competitor products and added value can be maintained. 8. Build on brand equity by constantly improving products and services. § Products and services quickly become outdated. Research and 2 9 development is a constant process that should be monitored by product managers.
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 9. Ensure consistency of the branding message throughout all forms of marketing. § Projecting a consistent brand image through all marketing endeavors is essential to creating a solid brand. 10. Promote! § No matter what the product is, people have to know about it if they are going to buy it. Effective promotion has three elements: a strong brand message, efficiency and repetition. § Brand Message: Emotions are essential to a good brand message. The emotional center of our brain alerts us that something is important and encourages us to remember what our senses take in. § However, emotions just open the door. There must be a rational component as well. A good brand message also needs to promise to do an important job. Emotions can create desire, but when the time comes to open their wallets, rationality comes to the fore. 3 0
Steps to Create a Strong Brand § Efficiency: No matter what the brand message is, it’s not going to be effective unless consumers actually see and hear it. Mass media persists because it allows us to find the right people at the right price and lets us reach a lot of them very quickly. § Repetition: We remember things through repetition. Emotions can give the process a jolt, but chances are that it will take a number of exposures before a consumer will remember our brand continued exposure to stay top of mind. 11. Join the Conversation § Word of mouth was always important, but now with the success of social media we can do a whole lot more about it. § Another good use of social media is listening. Many companies do, and all should, monitor what people are saying about how their brands are keeping their promises. Moreover, social sites like twitter can also be used effectively to contact directly with customers who are having problems and fix them. 3 1
Steps to Create a Strong Brand 12. Track • Often, the most neglected element of brand building is tracking. Research companies offer custom tracking surveys. This data can be plotted against promotional activity to see what’s working and what’s not. • It’s also a good idea to talk directly to consumers, through focus groups and corporate sponsored events. In order to develop a strategy for where you want to take your brand, you first need to know where you are and that’s a lot harder than it 3 2
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