Download How do I: Develop a Brand?

How do I: Develop a Brand?
You’ve got a great product and now you want to make it a great brand. Most people, when they hear the
words brand or branding, think logos – but branding is much more than that. Building a brand involves
blending the image, purpose and focus of your product or business with your core marketing/product
message and coming up with something that will stick in the minds of people who encounter it. The brand is
the essence of your product, packaged clearly and memorably. A logo is only a small part of this.
The guidelines contained in this document will help you on your way to creating a memorable brand which
encourages consumers to become loyal to your product. Bear in mind that a brand is not built overnight. It
builds over time with consistency of use, consistency of message and consistency of product delivery.
BENEFITS
The benefits of having a strong brand include:
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Increased customer loyalty.
A valuable negotiating platform with retail and foodservice buyers.
A strategic platform for brand extension.
The development of skills which can be adapted to other brand development.
Spreading the business risk.
GETTING STARTED
Establish the Market Opportunity. Using a combination of desk-based research and your own market
knowledge, you can begin to measure the size of the potential market for your product. A great source of
market research information and reports can be found in the Information sections of the Marketing & Sales
Zone on the Scotland Food & Drink website. In addition to the size of the market you should also establish
where the market is in terms of life stage e.g. is it a new or maturing market?; at what rate is the market
growing or declining?; etc.
Establish if there are any barriers to entry. You should also determine how crowded the market is in terms
of competition – sometimes called ‘competitive clutter’ (there is more information on how to assess the
competition later in the document) along with any current market trends that could have an impact on your
products.
Determine your target audience. You have probably designed your product with a particular end user in
mind, but in order to ensure that the produce satisfies your customers’ needs you should determine the
exact profile of your end user e.g.:
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Average age and social status
Lifestyle (do they work, are they retired, do they lead active, busy lives, etc.)
Where they shop
What they buy
Sensitivity to price
The more information you have about your audience the easier it will be to develop a brand which appeals to
them. Use the internet and other trade resources, including the Scotland Food & Drink website, to research
your target market and identify any trends that might have future implications.
Identify the problem your product solves for the target audience, or how your product makes
their life easier. This it makes it easier to identify the product benefits that will most appeal to your target.
These benefits can be built into your marketing messages and product story. For example – if your target
has little or no cooking skills then they be more likely to buy pre-prepared foods (e.g. ready to roast joints,
oven-ready roast potatoes). The key benefits to them are convenience and lack of preparation. Other
attributes could be time, health, freshness, naturalness, ease of use, etc.
Decide on your USPs (Unique Selling Points). Are there things about your product that make it unique
and gives it an advantage over competitive products? Again, this could be one, or a combination, of the
following:
Product – is there anyone else who produces a product similar to yours, or is there an element of
your product which is unique, e.g. a unique selling point for Innocent Smoothies when they first
launched was that they provided your recommended daily intake of fruit in one small bottle
Packaging – Muller were the first manufacturer to produce yoghurt and fruit sauce separately, in a
distinctive container
Message – if your product does provide an unique benefit make sure that you let the consumer
know up-front e.g. the health giving benefits of Oats.
Identify your product/brand values. Brand values can also be seen as product strengths. To help you
identify these strengths or brand values ask yourself: What is it about your product that is most important?
What does it ALWAYS deliver? Is it consistency? For example you know what a Big Mac at McDonalds is
going to taste like regardless of where in the world you buy it. Is it freshness? - If you are producing a
product with a short shelf life then freshness may well be a value that the consumer will expect. Also think
about how you want your customers to feel when they buy or use your product. If they are excited to use it
in their food preparation then excitement would become a brand value.
Develop a Brand Personality. Brands, like people can have personalities. For many brands it is their
personality that is the key to them achieving differentiation in the marketplace. Each brand should have a
distinct personality and it is these traits that help to create the ‘image’ of the product in graphical terms i.e.
the product name, the design of the packaging, the tone of the words used on the packaging and supporting
materials. One of the easiest ways to help identify your brand personality is to do a bit of lateral thinking –
ask yourself one or more of the following questions:
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If my product/company was a car what kind of car would it be?
If my product/company was a holiday destination where would it be?
If my product/company was a film which one would it be?
The most important part of this is not your answer, but why you chose that particular answer. If your
product/company was a BMW then it is probably because it is prestigious, premium and exclusive whereas if
it was a SMART car then it is more likely to be young, quirky and fun-loving.
Find a name. You may already have a name for your product, in which case all you have to do is confirm
that it fits with the brand values, brand personality and that your target audience will understand and like it.
If you don’t already have a name, now is the time to brainstorm some ideas. If you want to protect your
name the next step would be to investigate the feasibility of getting the name trademarked. For this you
may need to take advice from an official trademark agency.
Positioning your product. How you position your product in terms of marketing, competition and for sale
will be crucial to its success. To help you determine the optimum position for your product there are three
key tasks which would be beneficial to undertake:
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Write a positioning statement. Once you have identified your USP’s, brand values, personality
and found a name for your brand, you will be able to write a positioning statement for your brand.
A positioning statement is something that you use to help design all of your marketing
communications. The actual words within your statement may never appear on any packaging or
other printed material, but can be used by you as a benchmark to make sure that all of the
marketing communication elements are on the right track.
You should already have decided on your target audience, your product benefits (strengths/values),
and why you are better than the competition (your USP) so you can create your positioning
statement by completing the following:
“For the following customers (target market) our product/brand offers the following benefits (insert
benefits). Unlike our competitors (names) our product is (insert USP).
We can prove our product is the best because (evidence/differences from any research conducted)
2.
Competitor Mapping. Creating a competitive map or landscape for your product can help you
identify a gap in the market and allow you to create or modify your product to fit that gap. It also
helps you to identify your closest competitors. The first stage in competitive mapping is to decide
on the axes for the chart. The axes that you choose should reflect the key features of your product.
For example, if you were considering launching a new range of healthy ready meals your axes may
be Healthy/Indulgent and Fast/Slow. You would then list all the competitive products and place
them on your map. You can see from the map below that the area indicated by the grey circle has
the least number of competitive products and therefore there is a potential gap in the market which
your product might fill.
3.
Decide where your product is positioned in-store. Deciding where to position your product in
store has an impact not only on where your potential customers see your product, but may also
affect the buyer you contact to get it listed within the store. For example, if you have a range of
organic pasta sauces you may need to contact both the buyer for general pasta sauces as well as
the buyer for organic products. More information on how to get your product listed is available in
the How do I: Secure a Retail Listing on the Scotland Food & Drink website.
Develop your marketing strategy. Your brand’s strategic marketing plan will become an invaluable
operational tool to keep your initial brand launch and subsequent support on track. Your marketing plan
should include information on your company and brand strategy, e.g. key objectives and targets which have
been set, product and pricing information, guidelines on distribution and communication plans. It should
include a detailed action plan which will help you to keep to deadlines. To help you write your marketing plan
there is a How do I: Write a Marketing Plan guide on the Scotland Food & Drink Website.
Design your product packaging. The importance of packaging should not be underestimated. It is one of
the key interactions that the consumer has with your product and is likely to be the final decision point prior
to purchase. Unless you have an in-house creative team it would be best to employ the services of a design
agency. The agency will need direction and advice to ensure they design the best packaging for your
product. The best way to give them this direction is to write a ‘creative brief’ which gives them all the
information about your product including name, target market, brand values, personality – all the elements
which you have been working on. It should also contain guidelines on information which, by law, must be on
the packaging e.g. ingredients, product weight. For detailed information on how to design your packaging,
refer to the How do I: Choose Packaging on the Scotland Food & Drink website.
Research. Researching your customers and their reactions to your product/brand can provide vital clues to
creating a successful brand. Plan as much research as you can into your available budget and time-plan.
Research should be ongoing throughout the brand development process to verify findings, assumptions and
to gather consumer reactions.
There are three key areas of research that you should consider:
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Target Market. Information gathered at this stage will help you to confirm that there is a place in
the market for your brand
Consumer reaction to your product. Get customers in your target market to try your product – even
in prototype stage. Assess what they think of the product – taste, texture, colour and also how they
interact with the product. This will help you refine your product to meet their exact requirements
3.
Consider using focus groups to gather consumer opinions on the current range of products available
in the market place, their reactions to your proposed price, product name and packaging
Develop supporting materials. Once you are on the road to finalising your product and packaging,
consider developing the materials which will help communicate the brand. This includes supporting product
literature, point of sale material, sales briefs to provide background information for buyers within your
targeted retail outlets. Like your product/brand these should have consistent messages and a consistent look
and feel.
Selling your product. In conjunction with developing your brand you should be developing a sales channel
to sell your product. Depending on your brand this may be via major multiples, independent stores, or
perhaps even into foodservice. Regardless of the channel you choose, you should develop materials to help
you to sell you product to them e.g. sales guides, marketing plans. You should also provide the buyers with
samples of your product to test.
For more detail on managing this side of the business refer to the How Do I guides on the Scotland Food &
Drink website:
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How do I: Manage Retail Business
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How do I: Supply the Foodservice Industry
HOW DO I DEVELOP A BRAND - SUMMARY
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Establish the market opportunity.
Understand your target audience.
Consider research throughout the development process. This may take a variety of formats. For more
information see the How Do I: Conduct Market Research guide.
4. Determine the Unique Selling Point(s) of your product.
5. Identify your brand values and brand personality.
6. Name your product. Remember to make it understandable and memorable to your target audience.
7. Decide the positioning for your product.
8. Plan your Brand Marketing Strategy.
9. Design your product packaging.
10. Determine appropriate sales channels to launch your product.
11. Develop tools to support the launch of your brand to both consumers and trade.
OTHER USEFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Visit www.scotlandfoodanddrink.org
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INSIGHTS: you can access all the relevant data sources available on markets,
consumers, retailers, foodservice operators, specific product sectors and more
There are many other How Do I? Guides which can help you grow your business
Business Gateway:
www.bgateway.com
Scottish Development International:
www.sdi.co.uk
Chambers of Commerce:
www.chamberonline.co.uk
HM Revenue & Customs:
www.hmrc.gov.uk
www.scotlandfoodanddrink.org - The information service tailored to the food and drink industry.
Contact the Scotland Food & Drink Helpline on 0845 601 3752.