If you think only big corporate names need to think about things like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you and your business, and that’s as true for a one person home-based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. In this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay the right foundation for the future growth of your business.

WHAT IS A BRAND?

Your brand is more than just the logo on your letterhead and business cards or your business name. It is your corporate identity. An effective brand tells the world who you are, what you do and how you do it, while at the same time establishing your relevance to and credibility with your prospective customers.

Your brand is also something more ethereal. It is how your business is perceived by its customers. If your brand has a high perceived value, you enjoy many advantages over your competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Why do you think people are prepared to pay stupid money for items of clothing with the initials “CK” on them? Perceived value. Perceived value as a result of very effective brand promotion resulting in very high brand awareness.

Now, I’m not saying we all need to rush out and start creating brands that are going to be recognized the world over. Most of us simply don’t have the time or other resources necessary. What I am suggesting, however, is that it is possible for your brand to dominate your niche.

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

=> Differentiation

We touched on this in the previous section when we looked at what a brand is and how it can be used to increase the perceived value of your products and services. The main reason for creating your own brand is to differentiate yourself from your competition. New websites are a dime a dozen. So are home-based businesses. You need to constantly be looking for ways to set yourself apart from your competition. Your brand can do that for you.

=> More Effective, Efficient Marketing

Another good reason for creating your own brand is to make your sales force (even if that’s a sales force of one – you) more effective and efficient.

Imagine if you didn’t have to spend the first 50% of your time with a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how you do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for you? You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather than educating your prospects about your business

Another benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend increasing your brand awareness through promoting and marketing your brand to your target market automatically transfers to your products and services. So, even when you’re advertising your brand, you’re indirectly also marketing your products and services.

HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

OK, so you’re convinced you need to create your own brand. Where on earth do you start?

We saw earlier that your brand needs to say who you are, what you do and how you do it. It needs to do all these things at the same time as establishing your relevance to and building credibilty with your prospective customers. Needless to say, it is absolutely essential, if you are to build your own brand, that *you yourself* have a firm grasp of who you are, what you do and how you do it. If not, you’re going to have the devil’s own time getting that message across to anyone else, let alone establishing your relevance and credibility.

=> Write A Mission Statement

So, let’s start by creating a mission statement. What is the mission of your business? Obviously you’re in business to make a profit. But making a profit is a byproduct of a successful business. Focus instead on how you choose to achieve that profit. What are your core values?

A good place to begin thinking about your mission is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Put yourself in their target market. Let’s say your business is web hosting. If you’re in the market for a web host, what things are important to you? Different people will be looking for different benefits but you can bet that they want their website to be accessible to site visitors so reliability will be high on their list. Price is also likely to be high on the list as is 24/7 technical support. What about add-on features such as unlimited email aliases, cgi support and what-not? These things will be highly important to some and less important to others. So focus on the benefits that are likely to be highly relevant to the majority of your target market. Let’s settle for our purposes on reliability, price and technical support.

Your mission statement might read something like this: “I strive to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support”. That’s a pretty general statement and if you decide to focus on a particular niche of the webhosting market, such as small business, you may want to more narrowly focus on that group in your mission statement.Now that you’ve written your mission statement, you can begin thinking about creating a brand that reinforces and supports your mission. So, getting back to the fundamental questions of who you are, what you do and how you do it, you can now begin to think of your business in these terms. You’re a webhosting provider, you host websites of small businesses and you do that by offering cost-effective webhosting solutions, guaranteed 99% uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support.

When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what and how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your relevance to your target market and build credibility with that market.

Let’s turn now to the nuts and bolts of creating your brand.

=> Describe What You Are Branding

List out your business’s key features and characteristics, your competitive advantages and anything else that sets you apart from your competition.

Using our webhosting example, you’ll focus primarily on the objectives from your mission statement namely, reliable, cost-effective webhosting solutions supported by 24/7 technical support.

=> Identify and Describe Your Target Market

Decide whether you want to target lthe entire webhosting community or only a segment of it such as small business websites. Describe your market.

=> List Names that Suggest the Key Elements from Your Mission Statement

The key elements from your mission statement were reliability, cost-effectiveness and customer service. List names that are suggestive of these elements. Let’s use Reliable Webhosting for our example. (I don’t claim to be a creative genius.)

Don’t limit yourself to real words, though. A coined name with no obvious meaning is a perfectly legitimate name provided it conveys something about your business. You will find coined names easier to trademark and secure domain names for too – a definite plus!

=> List Tag Lines that Reinforce Your Mission Statement

We’ll use: “Outstanding reliability and technical support at a price your small business can afford”. I know, I know. You can do much better, I’m sure.

HOW SHOULD I USE MY BRAND?

=> Create a Logo for Your Brand

Your logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand awareness.

The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing mishmash of logos and banners and heaven knows what else. Everything you produce needs to use the same, consistent style of logo so that, over time, your logo becomes synonymous with your brand. Instant recognition is what you’re going for here, so don’t dilute it by using several different logos for different purposes.

=> Consistent Usage of Company Name, Logo and Tag Line

Going back to our webhosting example, putting the brand name and tagline together, the physical manifestation of your brand will be:

RELIABLE WEBHOSTING Outstanding reliability and technical support at a price your small business can afford.

To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used consistently and frequently in everything your produce, whether that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures, quotations, invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website, on the front door of your principal place of business and on your products. And don’t forget to be consistent in your use of color schemes. These can be powerful brand reinforcers.

=> Marketing and Promotion of Your Brand

Once you’ve created your brand, you need to market and promote it, in addition to your products and services. This is how you establish your credibility and relevance to your target market. You can hopefully see why your brand needs to be suggestive of your mission statement.

If, at the same time as you’re selling your products and services you also push your brand, your brand becomes synonymous with your products and services. And vice versa.

A properly descriptive brand and high brand awareness amongst your target market will allow you to more easily introduce a wider range of products and services when they’re developed without having to start by again selling who you are, what you do and how you do it first. Your brand has already presold YOU. Your job then is to sell your products and services.



By: Jose Carocho

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China’s such a big country, the current economic status is to enter the world as early as seven. China’s auto industry produced 4.4 million motor vehicles in 2003, who has become the world’s fourth largest car producer. But China has not a world-renowned automotive brand at all, which is not match the economic status today. None of our car brands is a worldwide brand, even the worst of our brands in the domestic influence is so limited, the current domestic auto market is further being swallowed by foreign car manufacturers. Here, mainly analysis the current status of the own brand and how to create a big global brands.

Some scholars believe that the brand can be sustained much longer than the company’s specific products, they recognized that brand is a more long-term company’s principal assets. Therefore, when our country is making famous in the automotive brand, we should look at the world, and we should have the global automotive brand Daizo strategic vision and courage.

20 years ago,  the idea that was to use the domestic market to exchange for advanced technology, so that China’s national automotive industry to catch up with international advanced level. After 20 years, China has finally produced the world’s third largest automobile market, the number of National Automobile self-made business has grown up from more than 10 to over 120, auto industry become one of the important industry for stimulating national economic development. China’s own brand car did not move toward the world only, but also lost most of the domestic market. China Steam brand has fallen into a “marginalized”, “de-China” dilemma!.

Look from the latest Chinese automobile and world-renowned automobile brand value rankings In 2004, the top three of Chinese automobile brand value is: monoxide (28.978 billion yuan), SAIC (18.389 billion yuan), Dongfeng (8,945,000,000 yuan ). the top three of World-renowned automobile brand value: Toyota (22.67 billion U.S. dollars), Mercedes (21.33 billion U.S. dollars), BMW (15.886 billion U.S. dollars). We can see that the Chinese auto brand value is far below the world-renowned brand through the comparison above, there’s a difference of disparity. Therefore, there is still a long way to go for creating China’s own brand car world.

The disadvantaged of own brand has attracted wide attention, but most concern is the intellectual property rights with Chinese trademarks, not the concerns and thinking for brand value. this is an important reason for China’s auto enterprises to ignored or even give up their own brands. At present, the introduction of CIS corporate identity system is not few,  but the introduction of BIS brand identity Strategy is extremely scarce.

But unfortunately, like Chery, Geely, Great Wall these emerging domestic car companies,while they are creating their own brands, they profoundly awareness the importance of brand strategy. Because it is original, they can create a new brand freely, which is favorable conditions that state-owned conglomerates and joint ventures do not have. However, they also face their own problems, the product is too new, yet to be market and customer testing. If people quickly forgotten as yolio and qiyun such products, don’t they understand the brand? If the product does not exist for a long time value, it is not brand strategy.

But now, many manufacturers are also feeling somewhat helpless when they insist on support of self-developed own-brand. Self-development is currently facing some of the biggest problem: First, there are not much support from state’s policies; the second: It is now many companies did not dare to talk about self-development, but not a lack of sense of responsibility, the reasons also due to appraisal system and accounting system. Third, at present, China’s consumer culture, consumer psychology and consumer concept have malformations, for example, many consumers do not want to see Chinese characters on cars, it is necessary to know that the characters in the land of China is not a shame.

In short, it should not be so anxious in the development of own national brand of motor vehicles.

This requires the generation or even the next generation efforts. Although own well-known brands still has a long way to go, I believe China will have an even number of world-class well-known car brands in the near future.



By: yy

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A product is a blend of multiple features which is positioned and distinguished by way of some special offering to establish it as a brand. And, if a customer is loyal towards a particular brand, it means a product has fulfilled all the requirements of a customer and satisfying a customer translates the brand into a pivotal product to lend the organization the leading edge over its competitors. The brand loyalists have the power to make or break the image of a brand by word of mouth publicity.

Any brand in the market thrives or survives based on its effective usage by the customer. Since the advertising for a brand has taken off new dimensions with online advertising tools as one of the potent mediums, the end user has evolved with time immemorial and hence it has become rather difficult to prevent the customer from brand switching.

The brands that have been continuously nurtured and innovated over a period of time has been the insistent choice of a consumer. And, so apart from this what other constituents hold the customer’s loyalty towards a brand is an important question? How to retain the existing customer is the key concern of every organization? What mechanism should be used for each customer?

In Toto, there are 4 types of brand users who reflect the following tendencies which has been highlighted by the marketing legend, Philip Kotler.

 



The Hard Core loyalists: Who is keen to buy one single brand every time.

Soft Core loyalists: A consumer is loyal to 2-4 brands at a time.

Shifting loyalists: Although a consumer is loyal towards a brand, but may keep shifting from one brand to another and keep coming back to the first brand towards which he was loyal.

Switchers: Who always are on the lookout for a new brand. Perhaps here the consumer tries to experiment with new brands each time and also he may switch over because of pricing or some other reasons.



 

Here are the main Key constituents on the Brand Loyalty:



Customer’s set of logical and emotional conditioning: Even though a brand may not be doing well in the market and might be having few customers, a brand occupies a place in the customer’s mind by continuous advertising using all the available mediums existing today. Today, a lot of viral marketing techniques have been utilized in order to create brand awareness and maintain brand loyalty.



 



Good Relationship with the customer: Once the brand has been used by the customer, the organization focuses on establishing and maintaining a cordial relationship with the customer by the use of emails, direct mails or telephone. And the essence of this relationship is brand loyalty.



 



Leveraging a brand by offering brand extensions : Either the brand extensions or the line extensions are introduced in order to keep up with the customer loyalty.

For example, a detergent like Rin was expanded by extensions to its brand name, like Rin Advanced and Rin washing powder.



 



Rebranding by offering a different marketing mix: The brand may often be delivered into a new packaging form. For example, under the category of fast food, Maggi was offered in a new packaging form. Earlier it was available in a single packing form, later was reintroduced in the market in a double packing form. Often the price may be reduced by offering the brand through a scheme which would entail the brand being packaged in a set of 3-4 and deducting the overall price. For e.g. most of the soaps are today being offered in a pack of 2-3 or 4.





Brands supporting a good cause: There are consumers who would like to remain attached to a brand which supports social cause or any other good cause for the betterment of the general public. For example, the Kingfisher Airlines floated by Vijay Mallya swayed the Indians by sponsoring the cricket T20 match.



Now, the important thing to note is in what situations, a customer is not brand loyal.

Here are some of the vicarious situations under which a customer is unlikely to purchase one single brand all the time:



Non-availability of a product: At times, a customer may switch over to a different brand because of locational constraints like the non-availability of a product in certain locations due to which a customer may buy another brand.





Non-conformity with the latest fad/trend: Apple has launched 3G iphones to budge or transform the customer from the earlier mobile phone applications to the latest introduction which is sure to appeal the customer. So, the companies which innovate ad infinitum are sure to remain there is the market for a long time as well as retain their existing customers. At the same time also build up new customers.



The congregation of options available to a consumer: The customer may be price conscious and whenever he is offered the least priced brand, he is lured towards it. A customer may get a host of benefits from the new brand launched in the market as much as the brand which he was using so may try to experiment with the new one.

No doubt that, a brand always faces a tiff competition from the other brands in the market and suffers from the perils of downslide, so a marketer should keep an eye on his competitors’ brands. And, a marketer should capitalize on his brand by offering a unique set of propositions to maintain his brand loyalists.



By: jaya sinha

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By Bradly Montague President & CEO NOMAMONT, Inc.

 Branding is all the rage; therefore, people are tempted to think that it is a new idea. A commonly used term in marketing, branding is often the subliminal process by which a business employs marketing strategies to guide people to easily remember their products and services over a competitor’s.  Essentially, it’s applied psychology. Branding is also a method to leverage success, expand market share, and fend off competition. The problem is, companies are turning to branding as a panacea and the cold, hard fact is branding will not create a spike in cash flow or market share. Therefore, it makes sense to understand that the purpose of branding is not to make your target market choose you over the competition, but rather to urge your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem.

 A strong brand is invaluable, as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. Brands of the future will be those able to surround their products and services with ardent advocates and loyalists: passion brands. All other brands will be left to compete in the price wars. It is important that the online and offline images of your business be harmonious and that time is invested in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all, your brand is your promise to your consumer. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions regarding your company, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.

 How do you connect with the consumer when they’re calling all the shots? View your consumers as both customer and collaborator and employ game-changing thinking. In order to change the game, you need to audit how you think, comparing rational versus intuitive decision-making strategies and identifying common mistakes made by even the most experienced professionals. The process is based on the premise that the answers to your company’s brand strategy reside in the heads of the CEO and the key management group.  Your company’s brand strategy must be owned by every employee from the top down. Eleven key attributes necessary to become a passion brand include:

 

1.       You must recognize that your brand is a key asset in delivering strategic targets at a level that is higher than the industry standard.

 

2.       Do not consider the brand as merely a communications issue—your brand must be recognized as the key platform to link the company strategy with customers and employees.

 

3.       Make sure your brand management processes are integrated seamlessly into the company’s processes—i.e., “branding” is not a separate activity.

 

4.       Your senior management is accountable for the brand’s continued health—brand responsibility resides at C-level.

 

5.       All of your employees need to share a belief in the brand as well as a common understanding of the brand.  With this mindset in place, the power of the brand will act as an incentive to employees.

 

6.       Ensure your employees’ activities are aligned with the brand values and contribute to the building and strengthening of the brand.

 

7.        Your employees should be measured and rewarded by the success of these brand-guided activities.

 

8.       Your marketing department must be able to talk in terms of expected return on their investments and marketers must be able to leverage customer insights to make the most effective marketing decisions.  Future strategy should be built based on knowledge of the customer, product and practices.

 

9.       All marketing activities should be closely aligned with the core brand values.

 

10.   It is necessary to invest in sufficient IT capability to capture data on customers, segment customers in order to efficiently respond to their needs, and implement marketing techniques to deliver increased ROI.

 

11.   You must identify your company’s brand equity (the financial value of your brand) by understanding the brand’s value drivers and the levers required to influence these drivers.  This action leads to success.



By: Bradly Montague President & CEO NOMAMONT, Inc.

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How to brand

With the advent of Internet the marketing communications environment has changed profoundly and there is a recognised need of continuous conceptual addition to the existing branding theory. Some authors pronounced the advent of the “experience economy” and the “experience marketing”, while others have taken more extreme postmodern stance and have denied the validity of the traditional branding inferences. Encompassing all these perspectives and drawing on the traditional branding concepts from customer- based perspective this paper will concentrate on the construct of the online brand experience (OBE) as a central part of the contemporary branding strategy. In particular, building on the existing ideas, gathering insights from observation of contemporary online branding campaigns and conducting qualitative study among consumers, I am intending to explore the phenomenon of OBE. Central points in a future theoretical framework will be the notion of the brand as experience, the dimensions around which brand experiences are built online and the very

technology of OBE process.

The central theme of a future research is the challenges faced by companies in their decision-making about branding in online environment. The focal point of the research would be the creation of brand experience as the most important element of the firm’s online branding strategy. The first sub-question evolves around the definition of brand experience; to what extent is the notion of brand identical to experience and are there any grounds to believe that we are entering experience economy? The second sub-question refers to the main dimensions of the online brand experience. The last objective of the paper could be to create a theoretical model of the online brand experience in accordance with the above findings. The paper’s focus on the notion of online brand experience would be based on the view of the brand as “a cluster of functional and emotional values which promise a particular experience” (de Chernatony and Segal-Horn, 2003). The importance of the issue is underscored by the view of the brand not as an identifier, but as an experience (Schmitt, 1999). Since this shift of definition and focus of branding is triggered namely by the incessant technological and communication change, the importance of building a theoretical reference to brands as online experiences is exigent.

In view of the new communications environment there is a need of rebranding and more

importantly rethinking of the traditional branding concepts. A number of authors (Ibeh et al.

, 2005; Christodoulides and de Chernatony, 2004; Bergstrom, 2000) propose addition to the existing branding theory instead of replacement with the warning that Internet is not just another distribution and communications channel, but rather a branding tool with new unique features. The central in this paper notion of online brand experience is discussed from different perspectives by several authors. Ibeh et al. (2005) describe the “high-impact customer online experience” as “a key source of added value in the internet

economy”. Going even further, Pine II and Gilmore (1998, 2000) define the experience as the “fourth economic offering” in the “progression of economic value” after commodities, goods and services. Drawing on their ideas, Schmitt (1999) classifies five different types of experiences. For Cova (1996) the consumer is not only a target for, but also “a producer of experiences”. Furthermore, various authors discuss the importance of issues affecting brands online such as interactivity, connectivity, creativity, vividness, customisation, community, relevance, engagement (Cova et al., 2007; Coyle and Thorson, 2001; Christodoulites and De Chernatony, 2004). However, there is a need of systematising the primary dimensions of the OBE as perceived by the consumer. Hence, one of the primary tasks of the future paper is to reveal the most important dimensions around which brand equity is built online. The notion of online brand experience will be reviewed from the following perspectives: traditional branding theory from customer-based perspective (Keller,1993; Aaker, 1996), experiential marketing (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, 2000), and postmodern marketing (Brown, 1993; Firat and Venkatesh, 1993). The rationale behind this decision is the need of theoretical anchor in the research (traditional line), the focus on the experience (experiential perspective) and the need of an updated view of the contemporary consumer behaviour (postmodern marketing). The principal aim of a research paper would be to build an integrated conceptual model for the notion of online brand experience. In attempt to systematise the findings about the OBE and provide further theoretical clarity for branding managers and researchers the following objectives have been set:

- To explore the nature of the experience as a new notion for brand;

- To explore in detail the dimensions around which online brand experiences are built;

- To propose a theoretical model of online brand experience based on the above findings.

The exploration of the online brand experience and its main dimensions would be also the main object of the qualitative study to be undertaken as part of the future research. In accordance with the complexity of the explored area I am considering to employ the method of laddering interview. This qualitative technique has proven useful in allowing “the evaluation of ongoing experience” (Orsingher and Marzocchi, 2003) and “in uncovering insights related to the source and the nature of a brand equity” (Wansink, 2003). Furthermore, I have decided to use laddering since it allows in-depth research of the reasons for expressing certain attitudes. Unlike the factor analysis where the focus is more on the generalisation of gathered items as factors, successful laddering permits the discovery of the underlying values behind consumer behaviour. In order to thoroughly address the object of the study, a convenience sample of 20 respondents will be selected. One should keep in mind, that the purpose of the laddering method is not to be “representative of the population”, but rather to focus on the technique’s purpose – “to show how they [the respondents' answers] can be used to understand a brand’s equity” and to “find the root reasons for the consumer’s purchase” (Wansink, 2003).

The main question of the interview will refer to the dimensions around which online brand experiences should be built. In order to uncover the dimensions, the interviewers will probe according to the criteria recommended by Reynolds and Gutman (1988). Respondents will be asked to specify no more and no less than four dimensions. If fewer than four dimensions are given, questions such as “What other dimensions can you think of?” will be used for probing. Then, the respondents will be asked to state three reasons for each of the four dimensions. The result of this technique, known as hard laddering, will be 4 x 3 matrix of idiographic responses. During the hard laddering “[r]espondents are forced to fill a grid of predetermined dimensionality” (Orsingher and Marzocchi, 2003; Bagozzi and Edwards, 1998) and in this case each respondent will indicate up to 12 superordinate reasons and 6 linkages. After the content analysis of the results, these will be input in “Decision Explorer” and the formal output will be twenty individual causal maps. Additionally, a number of websites of renowned brands will be observed and a list of experience messages/promises will be compiled. In such a manner, the other side of the relation consumer-marketer will also be represented. As a result, dimensions and characteristics of the online brand experience will be gathered from three angles: literature review, consumer testimonials and observation of online branding campaigns.

A number of limitations would apply to such a research. One practical limitation of the hard laddering technique “is the forced directionality of the probing process: starting form the first level of stated attributes respondents cannot be probed downward (asking ‘what’) in addition to be probed upward (asking ‘why’)” (Orsingher and Marzocchi, 2003). Further obstacle to the generalisation of the qualitative results is the nature of the sample which could not be representative for the population. However, considering the purpose and the domain of the research it is unlikely that a statistically representative/reliable quantitative technique could be meaningfully used. Additionally, it is always possible that the respondents find it difficult to express their attitudes and feelings towards an issue.

Hence, unveiling the underlying values might prove a hard task. Another impediment is the different level of Internet awareness and usage among demographic groups. In other words, not everyone could be tagged as “Internet savvy”. Nevertheless, considering the fact that the awareness of Internet is higher among younger consumers, we may easily predict that the importance of the World Wide Web as marketing branding tool and communication channel will be even more significant in the future. In accordance with the set objectives I will select respondents who access Internet on a regular basis.

A potential conceptual obstacle could be the lack of agreed upon theoretical base for the notion of experience in the context of branding. Further impediment may be the fact that “the literature on internet branding ? is currently in a formative stage” (Simmons, 2007).

Another problem is the tendency of “[m]arketing communications in the e-business context” to go “beyond the traditional boundaries of marketing communications and marketing departments” (Rowley, 2004). In particular, we should bear in mind that the process of conveying brands as experiences is an anthropological phenomenon as much as it is a

technological one. Consequently, much broader view and an approach that accounts for the social, ethical, moral and philosophical shift in the contemporary western societies are required for the appraisal of the role of experience branding.

With regard to the ethical aspect of the research, I do not envisage any implicit pitfalls for the respondents participating in the survey. Nevertheless, the exploration of the notion of brand experience could entangle the issues of hedonism, narcissism, etc. and one should be careful during elicitation and translation of the results. The respondents will be informed about the purpose of the study and their responses will be anonomised so their identity is not revealed. I am aware of the political nature of the observed organisations and I will attempt to be unbiased and seek robust conclusions by the use of triangulation of data sources. In such a manner it will be more difficult for respondents to influence the results by inconsistent statements.

One of my first immediate actions will be a review of the major ideas in the field from all the aforementioned perspectives (traditional, experiential and postmodern). I will look for common threads which might help in achieving the objectives of the paper. I will also immediately begin the compilation of a list with URLs of major brands in several industries. Simultaneously with the compilation I will commence observation of the websites of the selected brands with the goal of eliciting and grouping messages/promises of particular experiences which are currently used in branding campaigns. These initial steps, along with the qualitative study, will aim at analysing the phenomenon of experience branding as: a new firm offering (the emotional core of the offer); a new notion for brand (reinforcing the brand effects beyond name and symbol); and a new process (executed online). The context of the exploration will be further defined by two general considerations: the possible substitution of the widely proclaimed marketing goal “to add value” (in order to win the customer) with a new one, i.e. “to deliver experience”; and the future role of the marketer – a screenwriter who “designs” the experience and leaves the

“directing” to the consumer.

Please help this research by completing the short survey.

http://boboxjordan.com/publicfolder/obesurvey/obe.htm



By: Boyan Yordanof

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What is a Brand?

Brands are the identification that differentiates one business from another (through name, symbol etc.). However, today brands can also be defined as the personality they reflect to people in relation to status, emotional characteristics and subjective quality. They give the consumers a perceived knowledge of the product, its quality and uniqueness before they buy it.

Brands give the surety for deliverance of the service as promised by them. For example, Pizza company A claims to deliver pizza within a certain time and Pizza company B claims to deliver most delicious Pizzas. It makes easy for the consumers to identify what they want and which brand to choose for it.

It is important for a brand to accomplish the claim advertised by it to attain a good Brand Image. Apart from consistently rewarding the confidence, brands also works towards delivering expected emotional response.

Building a Brand

Know Yourself

Before building a brand, you should analyze what is that you achieve for your customer and how it affects their lives. Where you stand and what is your current position in the market. You should identify your target market and identify their preferences and interests. It is crucial to know opinions of customers as well as employees about your business. Find out what is customer perception about your business, what is the first thing that comes to their mind when your brand is mentioned to them. Are they aware of the services you offer and do they trust your business, product or service? Such research will later help in forming the basis of your brand message.

Know Your Competitors

You should know what your competitors are doing and what are their strengths and weaknesses. How your brand is different from your competitors and what is your brand’s position as compared to them. Find out what your competitors are missing and what you can do to achieve it.

Define Your Goal

Once you know your current status as well as that of your competitors, you can start defining your goals. You should have a clear idea of what do you aspire your business to become. Define your goals on a timeline, divide your plans in phases and set targets with deadlines. While setting up goals, one shouldn’t forget to keep them relevant to consumer needs and preference.

Personalize the Looks

This is one of the most important parts of Brand Building. All major brands have unique visual and verbal identities such as logos, fonts, slogans, etc. Design every aspect of your brand and make sure that they match each other. This will help create a personality that encompasses all the characteristics the brand is supposed to have.

Protect Your Brand

Register your brand in the key market you are entering. Measures should be taken to prevent your brand from being confused with other similar brands as it can result in loss of business. Hire a good lawyer to help you with legal formalities.

Deliver the Branded Experience

Establish your brand with strategic thinking and careful use of resources like SEM, PR, online advertising, blogs, influential advisers and strategic email campaigns. The brand experience totally depends upon how consistently you present your brand. It should be instilled into all your products and services; and at every customer touchpoint. Customer’s notion of your brand is formed with their first experience with your company, products or services. Every customer interaction is a chance to enrich the brand.

Evaluate your Success

Evaluate performance of your staff from time to time. Hire a third party quality analysis team to keep a track of the quality of your products and services. Provide your clients with feedback forms after every project. Request feedback from your customers and find out if your products and services are meeting their expectations. Add feedback form to your website. You can also carry out surveys to find out any change in customer preferences.

Extend your Brand

Offer new products and services from time to time to keep your brand relevant to the target audience. Modify looks visual and verbal identities to relate to changing needs of the consumer. However, make sure that the brand message is delivered consistently. If you are introducing a new product or service which doesn’t lie under your brand values, you should launch a separate brand for it.



By: michael

About the Author:

Website content

We work hard to run an honest business and build a good brand, but there will be times when even the most sincere brands will face a disgruntled and unsatisfied customer.

In the olden days this customer would write angry letters to the CEO, and spread the bad word about your brand and services through his network of friends and peers. The damage they could do as an individual was relatively low.

Today, this customer can easily start a negative blog about your company (e.g. yourbrand.blogspot.com), or initiate a new topic on a public forum to trash your brand, and even use the services of online customer complaint websites like ripoffreport.com, complaintsboard.com etc to hit you where it hurts most.

Now not all negative publicity starts with the customer, your brand could easily be a victim of a brand-hijacking or spam attack orchestrated by your competitor to drag your goodwill down the drain.

Either way, your brand image and reputation online is at stake here.

How does this affect my brand?



Today online buyers of products, services or information, often search for your brand name to check for negative reports and previous complaints before deciding to do business with you. So when a potential customer is searching for your brand, other than finding your website, he will find the negative branding and complaints as well listed on the search results page.

Search engines give a lot of ranking prominence to complaints, and to sites like ripoffreport.com etc to protect their users from the many fraudulent brands and ill-managed companies online. Since these complaint sites have a high page rank and reputation, they are often misused and can cause damage to your brand reputation.

An easy way to check if your brand is under “attack” is to type your brand name, or brand name.com in the search box and see

the results. You can also track your brand reputation by setting up a Google Alert for your brand name/s, so when there is any news about your brand, you get the information immediately, and can take corrective action.

What to do when facing negative publicity? Is preparation is better than cure

1. Assuming you are a sincere company, first always try to talk to the customer and see if you can sort out the problem, even if the customer has already been taking extra effort to spoil your brand reputation. Something it’s as simple as listening to your customer’s complaints and trying to resolve them can make the bad publicity go away like a bad dream. Plus you have a happy customer now, who will be more than eager to retract their negative comments from their personal blog, public forum or complaints sites.

2. If the customer is not responding to your requests to make peace, then try and reduce the affect of the negative comments by telling your side of the story, with a little peace offering (discount coupon, gift certificate etc) for the irritate customer. Other users will see this as a positive thing – that your brand is willing to take an extra step to resolve issues with unhappy customers.

3. Sometimes you can’t please everyone no matter how hard you try, and it’s time to take corrective measures immediately. “The best way to beat negative publicity is to increase the positive publicity”.

4. Get your happy customers to give you a testimonial, and display the testimonials on your website and blog. People always say good things and bad things about any brand; the idea is to get more of the good stuff visible for other potential customers to see.

5. Creating great content that can rank highly will surely push the negative stuff further down the search listings.

6. Participate by writing on prominent article submissions sites like ezinearticles, articlesbase, goarticles etc. Create an account with your company name, and give your company profile in the space for author, and a neat link back to your website.

7. Build your social reputation by promoting your content across social bookmarking sites like dig, delicious, propeller, reddit, folkd, furl it, blink list etc.

8. Release some good PR using prominent PR submissions sites like PrWeb, and get your brand name in the title of the press releases. In addition if a journalist picks up your press release for his publication, that’s a ton of positive publicity right there.

9. Create mini-brands for your brand by creating your company profiles on websites like hubpages, squidoo, aboutus, wiki, facebook, twitter etc and participating actively in these communities.

10. Start a corporate blog. Other than search engines loving you for your content, you can use the blog to spread the good word about your company, while offering other useful information. Ask you existing customers to take a satisfaction poll on the blog?

11. Create innovative videos of your promos, how to resources, training videos etc and submit to sites like YouTube. If you videos become popular, then your brand becomes popular.

12. Hire an Expert SEO, or a SEO company thats has the experience and understanding to manage your brand reputataion online.

13. Preparation is better than Cure. Even if your brand is safe right now from negative attacks, don’t wait till it happens. Use the ideas listed above to build a better brand and a stronger brand online. Start today!



By: Nevil Darukhanawala

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

Brand name,in a nutshell,is the essence of your business.If we follow the dictionary of business management brand is “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the sellers and to differentiate them from goods of competitors”.Simply speaking,brand is the image of the company developed in the mind of consumers.It helps customers to identify the company’s products or services from the others.

In this highly competitive business world it is essential to develop good marketing strategies and follow them religiously.Therefore,brand identity marketing is an essential part of the business.But there is a thin line between brand identity and corporate identity that one needs to understand in order to develop effective branding strategy.

Differentiate between Brand Identity and Corporate Identity

Brand identity is the total proposition that include the performance quality,services and support along with the promisesthe company makes to its customers.The brand can be perceived as a set of values that helps to acquire a place in people’s mind.Brand image is how people see the brand while brand identity is very much what the company wants their brand to be perceived by the consumers out there.

Corporate identity,on the other hand, can be translated into the visual aspects of a company’s existence.Building or reviving corporate identity entails modifying and modernizing logo,image designs and security aspects while keeping the core of the brand– that is,the name and image to its customers as it is.Unfortunately many companies get lead astray by various business consultancies while building their corporate identity.It is a m

isconception that changing logos,posters,advertisements and outlet designs of the company will help in popularizing brand.

Develop Brand Identity

There are several aspects of building and marketing brand identity.Systematic and practical approach can definitely earn you a good name to stand out in the constantly varying consumer world.To promote brand identity you can buy ‘brand kit’ that comprises logo,business cards,letterhead,envelope,brochure and most importantly website.All are uniquely designed to create distinct identity of your company.

Create a Personality

Branding can be given a personality to represent the business.If you are the sole owner of your business your brand name could reflect the positive sides of your personality while for joint ventures focus would be on consumer psychology and the quality of products and services.

Identify Unique Qualities

While exercising brand identity development find out and highlight some unique qualities of your products or services that will make you stand out in the crowd.

Remind Customers

Branding strategy implies creating an impression of your company with consumers and potential customers.Repeated use and display of the brand name definitely helps in constantly reminding consumers about your company and might kindle the desire to buy your products.Internet branding opens up multiple avenues to reach target audience and convey your product message in a cost-effective way.

Professional Approach

Apart from the creative side the brand needs to maintain corporate professionalism.Professionalism entails quality.Quality is the ultimate thing that the customers look for in your products and services.So,there is no better alternative to good service and quality products.

In reality,brand is that intangible association between company and the consumers that develops with time and creates a difference to the customers’ view towards the company.Changes to visual aspects of the business are not enough to change customers’ opinion regarding quality of products and services of a company.Such changes can only increase awareness and assure people about the company’s concern about it looks and presentation.Therefore,the key factor behind the success of brand is evolution and not revolution.



By: Steve McMains

About the Author:

Website content

Human mind is a strange thing. It combines the conscious and the unconscious, the rational and the irrational. People act as the mind asks them to do. If somebody can influence the human mind he/she can get the desired result. This is very much true in case of branding your company.

Whether you have a small business or a big business, the customers have developed certain ideas about your company, product or service and this is called brand in a nutshell. The best way of improving your business is spreading awareness about your brand among the consumers.

It seems that many of the companies have lost sight of the significance of establishing brand loyalty and it is mainly reflected in the poor quality of their product and inadequate customer service. So firstly you should improve the quality of your product as well as offer satisfactory customer service.

Another important factor that contributes a lot in developing brand loyalty is advertisement and marketing. In present time wherever we look TV ads, banners, hoardings, magazines, billboards draw our attention and we find some or the other brand is reminding us of our need and promising to provide us with more than our expectations.

When a customer comes to buy a product a number of factors mold his/her decision of buying a product of a particular brand. The decisive factors include past experience of quality, price, word-of-mouth, customer service, brand connotation and so on. Brand loyalty occurs only when the customer is satisfied.

Brand loyalty can be divided into two broad categories: behavioral brand loyalty and attitudinal brand loyalty.

Behavioral Brand Loyalty

Behavioral brand loyalty is mainly determined by repeat purchase. If a customer buys your product over and again it means that the customer is loyal towards your brand. But at times it might not be true and the customer might be forced to buy your products because of situational constrains. However customer behavior always reflects his/her perception about a brand. Depending on a customer’s perception a company develops its branding strategy.

Attitudinal Brand Loyalty

Attitudinal brand loyalty should be the ultimate goal of any company. It determines a customer’s favorable attitude towards a brand. It is not only indicated by repeat purchase but much more than that. If a customer is completely committed to a brand he/she will be indifferent to price change. They will be ready to pay high for a product when they know that the company offers value for money. Not only that he/she will also recommend your brand to others when they realize that your brand actually keeps the promise it makes.

When the customers are committed to your brand they will not only look for their own interest but also the interest of the brand. So be honest to your customers and don’t fool them. You can be benefited by doing so (e.g. selling a bad product at a high price) for once but you will loose that customer for ever.

Brand loyalty is an asset for a company.



By: Steve McMains

About the Author:

How to brand

PRODUCT BRANDING

This is of the type one-brand one product. In terms of customer perception and information processing, the most effective way to designate a product is to give it an exclusive name, which would not be available to any other product. In the product branding strategy the brand is promoted exclusively so that it acquires its own identity and image. This way the brand is able to acquire a distinct position in the customer’s mind. The thrust is on making the brand acquire its ‘own’ set of associations and stand on its own. Product branding allows a brand achieve exclusivity and differentiation.

It does not share other products and does not take on company associations. The company’s name takes a backseat and the product does not get benefits from the company name. The greatest advantage in this case is that a brand can be targeted accurately to a distinct target market or customers because its positioning can be precise unambiguous. Customers connect easily with product brands since what the brand represents tends to be clear.

P&G have been follower of the product branding strategy. P& G’ s into baby care, beauty care, feminine care, health care, fabric care, home care, food and beverages, etc. P&G has been an ardent follower of the product brand strategy. Its brands are stand alones; people don’t even know that they all share a common root in P&G. the company does not share a common identity. Thus, a company following product branding is better positioned to venture into unrelated areas of activity without being a subject of market scrutiny.

Another advantage is that with an identifiable brand uniquely positioned and directed at a segment, the firm is able to cover an entire market spectrum by making multiple brand entries.

The drawbacks of product brands are essentially cost based. Creating individual brand is costly exercise. Only the firms that have deep pockets and long staying power can adopt this strategy.

LINE BRANDING

This is of the type ‘One brand many products’. Sometimes a brand is launched with a distinct concept e.g. Lakme (“source of radiant beauty”) Winter Care lotion .The brand appeals to a distinct market segment who appreciate and like the brand concept. The core idea is that the brand connects with the consumer group. Now the customers do not tend to be content with the one product, which the brand offers. Rather they want additional product which go hand in hand with the brand concept or application; for example a Lakme user wants all the products which enhance beauty-beauty lotion, deep pore cleansing cream, lipsticks, nail enamel, eye make up etc.

 

Line branding strategy illustrates how well cultivated brand can be extended on to a host of related products under a common concept. This strategy seeks to penetrate the customer rather than penetrating the market. It seeks to fulfill all complementary needs that surround a basic need. Line brands start with a product but later extend too a whole range of complementary products. The products in the line draw their identity from the main brand. Marketing products as a line enhances the brand’s marketing power rather than selling them as an individual brand.



Colgate has a whole range of dental care products. Colgate Total, Colgate Gel, Colgate toothpowder, as well as the various toothbrushes.

BRAND EXTENSION

Brand extensions, which are a popular means of introducing new products to the marketplace, fall under the ‘One brand all products’ type of brand strategies. In a typical brand extension situation, an established brand name is applied to a new product in a category either related or unrelated, in order to capitalize on the equity of the core brand name. Consumer familiarity with the existing core brand name aids new product entry into the marketplace, and helps the brand extension to capture new market segments quickly.

Brand extensions come in two primary forms: horizontal and vertical. In a horizontal brand extension situation, an existing brand name is applied to a new product introduction in either a related product class, or in a product category completely new to the firm. A vertical brand extension, on the other hand, involves introducing a brand extension. In the same product category as the core brand, but at a different price point and quality level. In a vertical brand extension situation, a second brand name or descriptor is usually introduced alongside the core brand name, in order to demonstrate the link between the brand extension and the core brand name (e.g. Marriott Hotels, Courtyard Inn by Marriott). Although a brand extension aids in generating consumer acceptance for a new product by linking the new product with a known brand or company name, it also risks diluting the core brand image by depleting or harming the equity, which has been built up within the core brand name. An inappropriate brand extension could create damaging associations, which may be very difficult for a company to overcome. The different types of brand extensions are:

 

Product form extension:

Product launched in a different form usually means line extension rather than brand extension. But if different product form constitutes entirely a different product category from customer behavior perspective, it would be called brand extension. For e.g. liquid milk and dried milk may not be perceived as the product category. Similarly chocolate bars and chocolate powder belong to different product categories.

 

Companion Product:

Brand extension is in the form of companion products is perhaps the most common. The idea perhaps is to capitalize on product complementarily. The consumer may view both products jointly and hence, provide scope for launching brand extension.

Customer franchise:

A marketer may extend a product range in order to meet the needs of a specific customer group. For instance, a company may launch a variety of products meant for e.g. nursery going school children. The focus here is not customer base but their diverse needs.

Company expertise:

Brand extensions often come in the forms of different product category introductions using a common name but emanating from a common expertise pool. This strategy is particularly true in Japanese countries.



Brand distinction:

Many brands achieve distinction in the form of a unique attribute, benefit or feature, which gets uniquely associated with the brand. In such situations the company can work backwards to launch different products, which essentially cash in on this distinction. For example, Parachute may have the expertise of coconut nourishment in customers mind over time. This would give the company Marico the opportunity to launch a variety of products exploiting this distinction.

 

Brand image or prestige:

A brand extension may involve a foray in to unrelated product categories based on a brand’s exclusive image or prestige. Brand exclusivity or prestige bestows great extension opportunities. This is particularly true of designers and artist brands.

 

UMBRELLA BRANDING

This again is of the type ‘One brand all products’. An umbrella brand is a parent brand that appears on a number of products that may each have separate brand images. Firms have a short-run incentive to reduce quality and save costs, as consumers can only observe quality ex post.

Videocon’s range of home appliances – air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, etc. Phillips also has a whole range of home appliances under the brand name Phillips-the mixers, irons, televisions, etc.

Umbrella branding scored well on the dimension of economics. Investing in a single brand is less costly than trying to build a number of brands. By leveraging a common name across a variety of products, the brand distributes its investment. Hence umbrella branding works out to be an economical strategy. Using an umbrella brand to enter into new markets (Tata making a foray into the automobile car market) allows considerable savings. The brand bestows the new product advantages of brand awareness, associations and instant goodwill.

One first explanation for brand extensions is that umbrella branding is a form of economies of scope, as it economizes on the costs of creating a new brand. Brands have an intrinsic value (status or otherwise) and are therefore like a “public good” in the sense that the more products are sold under the same brand the greater the total value created. A different perspective on brand extensions is that, in a world where consumers are uncertain about product characteristics (due to horizontal or vertical differentiation), brands may play an informational role. Umbrella branding may reduce uncertainty about a new product’s attributes,

a fact that increases value if consumers are risk averse. Considering these factors it can be said that umbrella branding is a superior strategy when there is a significant overlap between the set of buyers of each of the firm’s products. This result extends the well-known notion that brand extensions and umbrella branding are only successful if there is a good fit between the different products under the same umbrella.

The main danger associated with umbrella branding is that since many products share the common name, a debacle in one product category may influence the products because of shared identity.

 

ENDORSEMENT BRANDING

Endorsement branding strategy is a modified version of double branding. It makes the product brand name more significant and corporate brand name is relegated to a lesser status. The umbrella brand is made to play an indirect role of passing on certain common generic associations. It is only mentioned as an endorsement to the product brand. By and large, the brand seeks to stand on its own.

 

The brand gets the endorsement that it belongs to specified company.

 

Kit Kat gives the signal that it belongs to Nestle and Dairy Milk conveys that it belongs to Cadburys. Cinthol’s communication stresses that it is a Godrej product.

 

Though these brands enjoy their unique image, somewhere in the image the makers association is also a part. Endorsement branding strikes a balance between umbrella and product branding.

In case of Cadbury’s and Nestle, the brands mentioned above have their own unique position and image. Cadbury’s or Nestle support the brands to the extent that they transfer certain qualities or associations, which enhance customer’s trust. Brands are identified by their own name.

 



By: drypen

About the Author:

Create a video blog…instantly.