Back to Brand Basics
We have all just experienced an unprecedented challenge in our lives - nothing will ever be the same again - and this is true for our brands too. Coming out of Level 4 has meant our businesses, products and brands are at play again. Having spent weeks in isolation online, we return to an unfamiliar normality - one where iconic brands are no more, publishing houses have closed down, consumers have adapted to the opportunities offered by being online and so we find ourselves having to reassess our future and the new ecosystem of our brands.
It would be costly not to reassess. However it need not be daunting – the best advice I can offer is to stick to the basics. I have outlined what must seem like a ridiculously oversimplified guideline for brand reassessment but in all my years of experience the below has never failed me.
I briefly outline this process:
Brand procedures and branding principles are a necessity to establish an effective brand campaign.
Kotler and Pfoertsch argue that successful branding relies on the utmost importance of five branding principles
(Kotler & Pfoertsch, 2006: 162-163):
1. Consistency
This is the most important branding principle for B2B organizations. To become consistent organizations should leverage this with a holistic approach, far beyond the product or brand. It affects each and every single contact point between the organization and her stakeholders.
2. Clarity
Clarity makes the brand more tangible and understandable. Clarity is based on the vision, mission, core values and core competencies of the organization. These should be easy to communicate and understand in such a way, that it enables stakeholders to position the brand relevance in their mind.
3.Continuity
Stakeholders (people) trust the brand that it will deliver what ever it promised based on past experience, they know what to expect. Hence continuity is an important principle to develop brand equity and trust on the long term. Stable brands and predictable outputs will contribute significant to risk reduction.
4. Visibility
Brand visibility is all about increasing brand exposure and developing brand awareness.
5. Authenticity
Brand authenticity is the undisputed origin of behaviourism of all organizational members with the objective of creating the feeling for the customer to own, use or direct a unique valuable product and/or service.
Brand building requires a long term vision and planning, supported by top management and executed thoroughly across all managerial processes. To embed brand consistency and brand clarity (and brand leadership as we will see later) in the strategy process Kotler and Pfoertsch argue to follow a five-step brand building process:
(1) brand planning
(2) brand analysis
(3) brand strategy
(4) brand building
(5) brand audit
(Kotler & Pfoertsch, 2006:158-160).It's that simple!
Good luck.