Business of Building Brands

Genesis of branding was the practice of putting a unique 'mark' on the cattle with a hot iron stick so that you can differentiate your cattle from that of your neighbors. In fact, the word Brand means 'a burning stick' in old English.

Assuming this is where it all started way back in 2700 BC, we have come a long way. From marks on livestock, now we have millions of marks on products and services including necessities like water and clothes.

According to a study, an average person is exposed to 2700 brand messages a day. Brands are never out of sight in our daily lives. They follow us on our laptop and mobile screens, they are shouting at us on the way to office and they are well entrenched in our homes.

Some brands are successfully lodged in our brains at a place where their creators wanted them to be. Some, on the contrary, are lodged in an undesirable place and we end up not liking and not buying them. And then there are countless brands which have failed to draw our attention towards them completely.

What makes a brand successful? How do you take your brand beyond just a mark or a slogan? Here are a few rules that winning brands have followed for years.

1. Solve a Problem. Brands solve problems for their patrons. They help their customers in meeting their goals. The more successful brands help people meet goals that other brands do not help in. Alternatively, they help in meeting same goals as other brands but in a unique way. People who manage these brands have their fingers on the pulse of their patrons. They know how other brands are performing in solving the problems and which problems are left unsolved for the users. Google solves a problem, and so does Amazon. This keeps them focused on what the consumer wants. The day someone realizes what problems are left unsolved by these brands and finds a way to solve them, a brand idea will be formed.
2. Brands manage their perception. Successful brands know that an image gets created for them irrespective of whether they manage it or not. Hence, it is in their best interest to actively manage how they are perceived. They work hard on their image. Be it the tone they speak in, the colors they use or mediums they communicate through. Everything is thought keeping in mind the perception that has to be created. After all, as they say, perception is reality.
3. Being different is all that matters. As it is famously said - Being different is better than being better. Great brands breathe and live differentiation. They create the uniqueness to secure their position of advantage and maintain it over a long period of time. It is pertinent to add that the uniqueness needs to be relevant to the target audience and must be hard for the competition to replicate. If you are a hospital with modern equipment and latest unique technology, you need to keep that position and stick to that. This may mean sacrificing talking about other elements like friendly care or proximity that the competition may be talking about.
4. Keeping it consistent. Unless the brand promise is delivered consistently, a brand cannot be built. Sporadic performance will fail to make an impact. McDonald's across the globe will deliver the same experience. The yellow arches, Ronald McDonald statue, delivery of the food at the counter, ambiance, etc. are all consistent. Brand needs to perform on the expectations that it creates, over and over again. That is definite prerequisite if there has to be any chance of embedding itself in the minds of the consumers.
5. Brands communicate right. You can hear the powerful brands in the right places. They do not overdo it, yet they are visible. The fact that they are talked about by your friends and peers is not a coincidence. They have worked relentlessly to ensure they are visible and talked about. The channels that they use to reach out to you are carefully selected. The tone of voice, imagery, words, etc. are all engineered keeping in mind myriad factors that will help the cause of building that brand.
6. Evolve and change. Change is the only constant. For strong brands, evolving with the markets they wish to dominate is imperative. It is possible for brands to live forever, even if the product category that they are in dies. Even if the film roll cameras are almost extinct, Fuji as a brand still survived by transitioning into digital cameras. Lifebuoy, Coca Cola and Levi's are more than 100 years old and still market leaders in their categories. However, many brands die because they are rigid and inflexible. They fail to listen to the new demands and preferences of their markets.

Brand building is an exciting and challenging exercise. It makes you sensitive to what your consumers want. It teaches you to be humble and not sit on your laurels for too long. It challenges your boundaries of thinking and creativity.

The 2700 years of evolution in branding will continue for centuries to come, and people like us will continue to watch in fascination.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------About the author: Vivek Shukla is a senior business advisor. He helps healthcare organizations across regions to improve their business performance.

He also supports entrepreneurs and family owned businesses to attain their growth ambitions.

Profile - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/vivek-shukla-80b9535/