Post World War-II economic conditions led to the growing competition and customer awareness. This era, which is also termed as golden age of capitalism, resulted in global economic expansion. Free market reforms and deregulations resulted in high economic growth and bourgeoning consumer buying power stimulating the demand for goods and the services. This high demand for the goods and the services in turn resulted in more producers and suppliers to meet this emerging demand adding to economic activity and creating competition in the market. With more and more suppliers coming into the market, the customers had the privilege of choosing from among the various available alternatives. This fast emerging demand resulted in ambitious additions and expansions to the manufacturing capacities subsequently resulting in surplus supplies.
This advent of the surplus capacities shaped an environment of competition among the suppliers. The challenge for the manufacturers and the suppliers was to make their presence felt in the market. It was a stage in the evolution of marketing where the production-centered system started evolving through sales and marketing era to modern relationship of marketing era. The sellers experienced a major revolution during the last century, which can also be termed as disruption of the old age sales concepts. As a result, the producers and suppliers of the goods and services also had to adjust their strategies to remain competitive rather relevant in the emerging market.
The manufacturers and suppliers had to differentiate themselves and their products to beat the competition and to capture and retain their market share. This differentiation was not possible without personifying their company and the product. This emphasized the importance of branding. Branding was not a new concept and its roots lie in the ancient times when people use to mark their livestock to indicate ownership. Initially the brand meant to identify the company and to some extent gave quality assurance as well. However, with the development of the marketing and sales techniques brand management also evolved into a science. Proctor & Gamble is usually recognized as the first company to introduce brand management system.
The strength of the brand relates to how consumers identify your company. Companies use image, graphics, product, reputation to build the brand to reinforce its identity. The brand is used to communicate with the target market and to retain the customer and develop a positive word of mouth. Brand is what name is for a person. Think of a person without name and you will know the importance of branding. However, it was not until 1990s that the companies started to grasp the value of their brands as company assets. It was the time when the senior corporate management stepped into the brand management function recognizing it as an important element of competition. This idea of branding is not confined to the products and corporate entities only but have extended to almost everything. All the entities including universities, museums, musical groups, and religious places, housing societies, government entities and even countries are resorting to branding to strengthen their image. As the concept of branding has migrated to almost everything as mentioned above, there has been a specialized brand management for each category of objects. The crux remains the same but each group has specialized brand management techniques. Our discussion here would specify the consumer brands.
[ads1]
As per Jaff Bezos, CEO of Amazon “The brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by doing hard things well.” Marketers say a recognizable and loved brand is one of the most valuable assets a company owns. There are certain essential prerequisites to create a brand like choosing business name, look of a brand, logo design, company slogan etc. Creating a brand would help the customers identify your product. Physically creating a brand is simple and anybody can do it but making people love your brand and associate themselves to it is altogether a new game. Branding infact is a science; more you know this science of branding more likely are you to create an effective lovable brand in the market.
For amplification of the brand image of a consumer product or company it is important to personify the brand to address the need for self-expression taking into account the emotional signals and status symbol. To be relevant the brand should epitomize the Maslow’s need hierarchy considering the target audience. Among a long list of activities to build a consumer brand, I would prescribe the following three for the brand managers:
- Establish Brand Mission Statement: Start with a clear relevant Brand Mission Statement to keep you focused and to help your customers to know your company. If you do not know where you are going you may end up in a wrong place. Mission Statement helps you to identify the objective and goal of the company. For example, I like Nike’s Mission Statement “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” with a footnote, “If you have a body you are an athlete.” This may give you an idea of a good Mission Statement.
- Build a Customer Community: Company’s most loyal customers are the people who can strengthen the brand building movement of your company. This can be achieved by engaging the customer. Research shows that when the customers feel positive about a brand they are more likely to buy, rebuy and recommend that brand. The role of the sales and service department is vital in creating this positive image. Take feedback as an opportunity for conversation with the customer. Creating occasions for connection with the customer can help build a brand, which enjoys the loyalty of the customers. Experiential marketing can be an effective way to engage the customers.
- Personify your Brand:Â Brand personification is a technique where people think of a brand as if it is human or an animal. It is always easy for the people to connect with a personality than handful of claims and statements. Personification should be based on brand mission and how you want your target customers to see your company. Brand personality cannot be reflected only through living beings but symbols can also be used to build the personality of a brand. Just think of the examples, I may give you some hints like Twitter, Smokey Bear, Dove, Rolex, Johnson & Johnson and you may add to this list.
In addition to the above the use of social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing, e-mail marketing etc is also very important in the modern digital and cyber world. However, the success lies in knowing the optimum use of the relevant brand building techniques keeping in view the nature of your company and the product.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””](The writer is a sales and business specialist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at nadeem_naj@hotmail.com)[/box]