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BRANDING:
The
Magic Bullet
24 nwflbusinessclimate.com
APRIL 2009
By Chip Henderson
Marketing paradigms are shifting.
Photo copyright bigstockphotos.com
Consumers and technology are evolving at a rapid
pace. And the economy is becoming a tougher,
more competitive landscape. Many businesses
are struggling to adapt to the ever-changing
marketplace and are searching for the magic
bullet to solve their marketing and sales woes.
Once reserved for corporate boardrooms and strategy
sessions with marketing and advertising agencies, branding
has become today’s business buzzword. It seems as if
everyone is getting in on the branding discussion these
days, even consumers. Smart companies are listening.
With the right insight, planning and execution, the magic
bullet may very well be branding.
Brand Definition
Just a few years ago, identity was all the rage. Before
that, a funny word icon was in vogue. It seems that the
advertising industry was trying to elevate the value of a
logo. Many agencies focused on the aesthetic, creative
parts of the marketing process: designing logos, brochures,
ads, etc. As companies began to examine their return on
investment (ROI), agency services evolved to include
consulting aspects and strategies that would yield
It’s kind of like what people say about you when you are
not in the room.
Tropicana recently “rebranded” its juice products,
introducing new packaging just months ago. The redesign
caused a stir among loyal consumers who didn’t care for
the new look. Customers on social networks referred to
the packaging update as “generic” or a store brand.
Tropicana was not in tune with its consumers’ brand
ownership and were caught off guard by the reaction. To
Tropicana’s credit, they heard what consumers were saying
and they quickly reintroduced the old design.
The Benefits of Branding
There are many benefits to having a brand. Branding
allows a company to differentiate itself from its
competitors by creating and reinforcing a relevant and
meaningful position in the consumer’s mind. A strong
The first rule in defining
your brand is to be truthful.
Take a cold, hard look at your
organization and be honest.
economic and market impact. What we all discovered is
that having a logo does not mean you have a brand.
While the term branding has become more mainstream,
a lot of confusion exists surrounding the actual meaning of
the word. A brand is not a logo, company name, marketing
tagline or an advertising campaign. While these elements
impact branding, they are merely visual expressions or
symbols of the brand itself. A logo assists consumers in
recognizing your brand.
David Ogilvy is widely known as the father of
advertising and created successful campaigns for
Schweppes, Dove, Rolls-Royce and American Express
(Don’t Leave Home Without It) to name a few. Ogilvy
defined a brand as “the intangible sum of a product’s
attributes: its name, packaging, price, its history, its
reputation and the way it’s advertised.”
My simple definition of branding is “everything you do.”
Okay, that’s a lot, but it really is true. Branding is what
your logo looks like. It’s the design of your letterhead and
external forms (such as invoices, memos or fax cover
sheets). It’s the message conveyed in your marketing
materials (ads, brochures, web site, etc.). It’s the way you
answer your phone. It’s the quality of goods and services
you provide. Branding is the impression, feeling or
meaning that your product or service leaves on a
customer. It’s how people feel and think of their
experience with your company. It’s what a customer would
say about your company when describing it to a friend.
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brand elevates a product or service from being a
commodity. A commodity is a product or service that a
variety of companies can provide and the buying decision
is solely based upon the lowest price. For instance, most
people purchase gas based on price.
As the purse strings tighten, price is becoming more of
a factor than ever. Today, banks, hospitals, attorneys,
restaurants, telephone companies and the like are being
seen as commodities. Which bank has the lowest fees or
loan rates? Which telephone company has the lowest long
distance charges?
A well-defined brand creates a unique impression of
your company and compels people to do business with
you.
Recognition & Loyalty
A unique, recognizable brand name and logo will go a
long way in making your company relevant to current and
prospective customers. Branding will make your company
easily recognizable and memorable in your prospect’s
mind. Having an established identity can easily mean the
difference between a no-sale and a sale. When faced with
a choice among similar, yet unfamiliar products, customers
are more likely to choose the product produced by the
brand they trust. If a customer is happy with their brand
experience, they tend to be loyal re-purchasers and are
hesitant to try other brands.
An Image of Strength & Size
A strong brand projects a professional image
and establishes credibility for your business. Since
branding is traditionally associated with larger
companies that are well capitalized and have
staying power in the market, having a professional
brand in place can make your business look larger
than it is in reality.
An Image of Quality
When comparing two identical products, only
one of which is branded, the branded product is
almost always seen as the higher quality item.
Branding must be based in truth in order to
remain effective and build over time.
An Image of Experience & Reliability
A well-conceived brand identity creates an
image of a business that has been around longer
than it really has and one that has expertise in its
field. People want to purchase goods that are well
made and services that are reliable. Great
branding can help you put your customer at ease
and evoke trustworthiness.
Cross-Selling Opportunities
If your brand is truthful and relevant, you can
reap many rewards from your existing customer
base by cross-selling additional goods and services
within your brand. It is easier and less costly to
increase your business with existing customers
that are known than it is to target and convert the
unknown masses.
Defining Your Brand
Photo copyright bigstockphotos.com
The first rule in defining your brand is to be
truthful. Take a cold, hard look at your
organization and be honest. Use the following
questions as a guide to define your brand:
1. What is the mission of your company?
2. What are the core values of your company?
3. What products and/or services do you offer?
List the qualities of each.
4. Who is the target market for each product
and/or service you offer?
5. What does your company specialize in?
6. What is your company’s personality? Is your
company innovative, creative, energetic,
sophisticated, traditional, conservative?
7. How do your customers describe their
experiences with your company?
When considering the questions above, you will
ultimately need feedback from within your
organization, but don’t fall into the top-only
approach. A common pitfall is to only take
management’s viewpoint into consideration. You
need to involve employees and shareholders from
APRIL 2009 The Magazine of NW Florida’s Business 27
all levels, especially your frontline people. They are the
primary liaisons with your customers.
Input from current and prospective customers often
leads to revelations beyond the expected. During a focus
group for a local credit union with which my company was
consulting, members (their current customers) revealed
that they neither understood nor related to the market
position that had been previously implemented. It’s
amazing what you can find out if you just ask.
It is also important to research your competition and
develop a competitive analysis. You need to know what
customer’s mind is known as positioning. You want to be
the first choice based on attributes that are so compelling
that price alone is not the determining factor. Coke is the
Real Thing. Volvo is the safe car. BMW is the Ultimate
Driving Machine. Nike is Just Do It.
Do You Need A Logo?
While it is not absolutely necessary to have a logo in
order to have a brand, it sure makes the marketing job a
lot easier. A logo is one step in your branding process
and, remember, customers view branded products as
Make sure that your logo is
custom and that you own all
rights to the finished design.
your competition is doing, what their strengths and
weaknesses are, and what their customers think. By doing
a little recon work, you can better differentiate your
business and refine your products and services.
higher quality and worth more. Your logo is usually the
first impression a customer has of your business, so make
sure you invest the resources necessary to develop a
professional image.
Marketing Position
A few tips on developing a logo:
It’s time to get customers (current and prospective) to
fall in love with your brand. So, what’s love got to do with
it? Everything… if you plan to develop brand synergy
between your company and your customers. Branding and
good marketing create emotional connections that are
difficult to break.
Advertising Age recently published an article using ‘love’
as an analogy for the branding process. To illustrate his
point, Al Ries, the article’s author explains, “Falling in love
with a person is an emotion that has consequences that
can last for years. People don’t usually fall in love a
second time without falling out of love first. Falling in love
with a brand has similar consequences. Just because you
run across a ‘better’ brand doesn’t necessarily mean you
will switch.”
Think about it. This really makes sense. If you have an
emotional bond with your customers, it is like getting a
divorce if and when a customer switches brands. As a
consumer, I am in love with ‘my’ brands: Apple, Samsung
and Disney.
Your interest in exploring other brand options is
suppressed, if not eliminated, when you love the brand
that is number one in your mind. Being first is a powerful
position to be in. This emotional connection is hard to
beat. So, if you are the number two or other number
brand in a given category, your brand will most likely be
based on attributes or advantages rather than emotion.
The concept of establishing your brand in your
Find a designer or agency that has an extensive
portfolio of logo samples. If there is a vast body of work
that is excellent, they will more than likely be able to
create a great symbol for you.
Print, clip and save samples of logos that you like from
other companies. They don’t have to be in your industry.
This is not an effort to copy but to determine your
personal style.
Share information about your company, the brand
personality, your customer base and your competitors. A
professional developer will take that information into
account and conduct research on your industry prior to
beginning the design process.
Commission the development of original art for your logo.
Some designers and online services utilize ‘clip art,’ borrow
graphics from another source, or even re-sell designs to other
companies. Make sure that your logo is custom and that you
own all rights to the finished design.
Confirm that your name and logo are unique and that
there isn’t a potential infringement. I always check the United
States Patent and Trademark Office web site (www.uspto.gov)
to search for any possible conflicts. If there is any doubt,
consult a trademark attorney and determine if you need a
formal, professional search.
Your logo should work well when blown up on a billboard
or reduced in size to fit on a ballpoint pen. It should also
work as well in black-and-white as it does in color. Prior to
final sign off, you should view various sizes and color options
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APRIL 2009
of your logo to ensure that your logo will meet your needs.
Developing A Formal Marketing Plan
Your brand is defined, you know your brand position and
you have a great logo. A great brand is meaningless if no
one knows about it. Now what? A formal marketing plan is
critical to your branding success.
Situation Analysis
This is a snapshot of where your business is in terms of
size, customer base, products and services, market share
and sales.
Research
Both primary and secondary research will help you
shape your plan. Know your competition’s strengths and
weaknesses, understand what makes your target market
tick and follow market trends so that you can stay ahead
of the curve.
Marketing Goals & Objectives
Marketing is often mistaken as sales. Not true. Marketing
is a mixture of strategic planning, target market
development, advertising, public relations, sales promotion,
etc. It’s the big picture, umbrella plan that encompasses
everything you do to communicate your brand and generate
results. Marketing goals must be specific, measurable and
realistic. One goal for a bottled water distributor may be to
increase residential sales in a specified geographic territory
by 20 percent by end of year.
Target Market
In order to effectively develop advertising plans and
other communication materials, you have to know to
whom you are speaking. As business owners, we want to
market to the world; we want everyone to buy our product
or service. Unless you are Disney, you probably don’t have
Advertising Goals & Objectives
The objective of your advertising plan is to generate
interest in your product or service among a specified
target market and create a strong desire for that consumer
to take action. Advertising should be designed to assist
your business in achieving its marketing goals. In our
bottled water distributor example, one advertising goal
may be to communicate to 50 percent of the residents of
the specified territory at least three times and generate
inquires from 25 percent of those reached.
Advertising & Media Tactics
Quite simply, this means the method(s) you choose to
employ to deliver your message to the desired audience.
Most successful advertising campaigns utilize a media mix
comprised of one or more elements such as direct mail,
email, television, newspaper, radio, billboards, etc. Specific
tactics are chosen based on budget resources, a clear
understanding of the demographics and psychographics of
your target market and the ability of a particular tactic to
reach your intended audience. Based on the goals
outlined above, our bottled water company does not need
to reach the entire community. Therefore, a more targeted
tactic such as direct mail or email campaign would be
more effective in this case.
I firmly believe in an integrated media mix presenting a
consistent brand message and/or call to action. Each
media has inherent strengths and weaknesses and should
be evaluated based on its ability to reach your target
market with enough frequency to generate the desired
impressions in a cost-effective manner. A seasoned media
buyer can alleviate the burden of fielding sales calls,
evaluating media options and negotiating best placement
and price for businesses across the board—and, in most
cases, will not cost any more than purchasing directly from
the media.
Advertising should be designed
to assist your business in
achieving its marketing goals.
the capital to market to everyone, and, in reality, not
everyone wants to buy your product or service. Our
bottled water company may want more residential
customers, but they need to target their ideal customers:
the ones with the ability to buy. Based on research, the list
of prospects can be narrowed down based on their
income, education level, home value, etc., so that they
reach the greatest number of qualified prospects with as
little waste as possible.
Budget
Once your goals are in place at all levels, formulate
your budget. I don’t believe there is a true, accurate
percentage of sales upon which to base your budget. I’ve
seen businesses commit 3-5 percent of their annual
budget to marketing, while others stretch upwards beyond
15 percent. The approach I recommend is to go back to
your goals and determine what it’s going to take to do
APRIL 2009 The Magazine of NW Florida’s Business 29
everything you need to do to reach your market. Then
tally the numbers. Based upon this ‘ideal’ budget, what
sales can you expect to achieve and does that number
justify the investment? If not, adjust accordingly, scaling
back and eliminating as appropriate.
Evaluation
This is the most skipped part of many marketing plans.
Return on investment (ROI) is often difficult to manage and
somewhat subjective depending upon your company size,
territories, sales force, customer interfaces, etc. However,
evaluation on a regular basis allows you to check and
adjust your plan before its too late. I prefer a monthly
evaluation that recaps the specific month, the quarter, the
year and the last five years. This will give you insight in
terms of budget spent during each of these timeframes,
where sales leads and inquiries are coming from, and what
results (sales) you have gotten along the way.
The Bottom Line
Branding, when done right, can be the magic bullet to
build and sustain your business. It creates preference, builds
loyalty and ultimately creates market value, yielding a strong
customer base. Happy, loyal customers tend to cost less to
serve, are less price-sensitive and increase their spending
over time. This treasured group also tends to be your
greatest source of referrals, in essence creating an outside
sales force. In good times and in bad, you can always count
on loyal customers to feed your economic engine.
About the author: Chip Henderson is President/CEO of Emagination Unlimited, Inc., a
full service marketing and advertising consulting firm. He has more than 20 years of
experience in brand management, strategy development, marketing planning, creative
direction, media buying, public relations and special events planning. Chip is past president
of the Pensacola Bay Area Advertising Federation, the Pensacola Chapter of the Florida
Public Relations Association and the Northwest Florida American Marketing Association.
Visit www.EmaginationUnlimited.com or email: [email protected] for
information about marketing and advertising strategies.
Photo copyright bigstockphotos.com
Branding, when done right,
can be the magic bullet to build
and sustain your business.
30 nwflbusinessclimate.com
APRIL 2009