Decoding Branding for a business

As we walk around the streets of Thamel or Khicha Pokhari, we are barraged with a countless number of hoarding boards of various shops and businesses. There’s at least two for every block. How many do we remember? How many have we been to? How many do we trust?

Every organization must strive to become a brand, one that is recognized, adopted and trusted by everyone. But it’s easier said than done.

So, what exactly is “brand”?

By definition, brand is the perception of the company/product/service in the mind of the customer. It is an image that the customer has created. The definition of the brand can be categorized on three different levels. As such, the creation of a brand is a long term and can be an expensive process. 

Levels of Branding

1.  At a surface level, it is the awareness about the product or an organization. What are the names that pop in your mind when someone says, ‘toothpaste’, ‘mobile phone’, ’noodles’? 
2. Go deeper and it’s more about making an emotional connection with the product/service/company, it’s how you feel when you are using that expensive iPhone, it’s what makes you wait and not purchase that bottle of cola , it’s what makes you go to that specific shop even though there are several around it. 
3. Ultimately, it the trust that for the product/service. You know you can count on that product; it will satisfy your needs and you know that it will give you the highest form of satisfaction from its competitors. Ever happened to you? If it did, congratulation you just are a brand loyal person.

Building a brand

A brand is not something that the company or the product defines for itself. It is something that the customer perceives and decides for themselves. As such, creation of a brand is never easy, nor it is cheap. As much as a company wants to create its brand, it is largely dependent on the intended customers and it is a very long term process. It takes years and decades to position yourself positively in the market and for your brand to be built.

Building a brand is something that numerous organizations have tried and failed miserably. Some due to the slight mistake of not responding to the customers. Only after close customer connection and research does the organization know about the product that fits them. And after several positive interactions and delivering of service and product to the customer can a brand be established. Customers, well, they cannot be everyone. Rather than focusing on everyone, the major concern for the startups should be to focus on one segment of the market, one whose problem you are going to solve. The process of segmenting, targeting the customer and making the correct positioning in the mind of the customer is bare basic.

Brand element, brand audit, brand image, association, brand equity, brand personality, one must consider all these for the organization. Continuing the point of parity and improving on the point of difference is what aids in brand development. Only when the value proposition that the product provides is true and meaningful can the customer feel the connection with them. Another focus of the lecture was on was the brand DNA. As the name goes Brand DNA is what makes the brand.

There are 6 components that make up a brand, namely -

Product/benefit

Core purpose,

Vision of the future,

Values,

Personality and

Desired positioning.

How you show your organization should be how your customer perceives you. So, the coordination among them is necessary for one to succeed. These are displayed using images, logo, endorsement and the promotion that is done. The brand-building also should consider the importance of other facets including the color, text, alignment as well as position, which may seem insignificant at first, but it what will be perceived by the customers. The consistency among the values, goals, images, logo as well as the marketing must also be perfect. The misalignment among them can lead to a cascade of failure for the company. Each of these communicates to the customers and the community now and again and it is very important that the company understands the importance of these.

Why create a brand when it requires so much effort and costs you money?

Simple and direct, the brand gives you power, money, and connections. Once a product has had a positive brand image for a customer, the customer will trust that product. This might lead to decreased bargaining from the buyers due to their trust. 

A case of a mobile phone. Despite the tragedy with Samsung Galaxy S7, people didn’t stop purchasing other models. Due to the overwhelming brand image, the sales of Galaxy S8 was unfazed, even being the most pre-ordered smartphone in South Korea with more than a million pre-orders. Now, imagine if that wasn’t Samsung but any other new market entrants. 

When a company or a product becomes a brand, it gives you a pathway to charge a premium price increasing the overall revenue and profit. We have our evergreen example of Samsung, iPhone, Harley Davidson as examples. This is because once a brand is maintained, the company is not selling the product, but the values that are emotionally committed to the customer. 

Things to consider in branding 

To be successful Every organization must strive to become a brand, one that is recognized, adopted and trusted by everyone. Here are some tips to get you started on building your company brand

1. Role of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) in the creation of Brand

Focusing only a certain portion of market means that the concentration is also fixated on those customers for maximum satisfaction. In order to do so, the one thing that the organization must ace at is STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning). 

• Segmentation is the process of segregating the market according to their traits, this can be demographic, geographic, psychographic or any combination of these.
• Under demographics, consider factors like age, gender, income, educational level. 
• For geographics its location
• Psychographics relates to attitude, behavior, values and other activities that they undertake. 
• Among the segment of the customers that we have for potential markets we have to target that person which is most favorable. This can be done by considering the variables like the size of the market, bargaining power of the buyers or the profit margin.

 For example, if we are talking about low priced clothes, we might be segregated people according to their income, age and psychographics like their behavior - how much do they actually change clothes per week. At the end we will target one of the segment that is most profitable to us

• Positioning of the product or the services is how the company wants its customer to perceive it in the market. It is how you establish the image of the company or the product. 

Duracell positions itself as a durable product . Harley Davidson and Royal Enfield do not play in the low tier market as they know their customer is usually mid-high to high-income people, with high brand loyalty and who values the importance of possession as something luxurious and fitting their lifestyle. On the other hand, the model of bikes that are focused on the middle-income office going male has to be positioned such that it will prioritize the features that they want, maybe mileage or price. 

2. Logo 

The most visible aspect of any company is its logo. The logo is what is represented in the marketing materials, hoarding boards, websites, magazines, interviews. Many companies who are starting out underestimates the relevance and construct of the logo. The color, font and even the size must be thought through.

Rules in creation of Logo  

Don't use more than two colors: One can be darker shade while another can be the lighter to maintain the contrast. Using more than two colors can be detrimental to the company as it compromises its brand image and the design. 

Choose the right color: Every color has a different meaning that must be carefully studied before applying. e.g The mineral and processed drinking water almost always have blue label reflecting the water and purity, when it social and environmental aspect, we see the use of green; gold and purple have a royal feel to it

Use consistent spacing: The consistency of space between the logo, the name of the company and the tagline. Another thing to consider is the placement and alignment of the logo in any material. As human eye tends to look from the upper left corner, it is usually where the company puts their logo and that is what should be the target. The clearer and consistent the logo the better.  

After a company has been in the market long enough, the color itself can represent the company if done correctly. When I say purple, did NCell pop up? Airlines and green color!!! Yeti Airlines? So even after the color is selected to represent the company, one must be careful about the meaning that the product offers to the customers.

3. Tell a story 

Creation of a story is very important if one is to create an emotional appeal to the customer and make them associate with the brand. The story can be in terms of the creation of the product, use of a product or raw materials used. 

The process of creating a Rolex watch increases the brand equity, use of Nike and Adidas to emotionally appeal to the athletic nature and use of biodegradable parts in the creation of any products tell a story that is engraved in the mind of the customers. 

 When it comes to social entrepreneurship, the storytelling can be very important. By showing the various aspects relating to the impact on society, environment, the marketing material can depict how the customer is associated with the product or how the customer can bring out positive change. This can be crucial to how they will view the product and ultimately lead to the brand association and usage and loyalty. 

4. Have a solid value proposition

You may have an intriguing story, a very good logo that compliments the marketing materials but it does not account much if you have a very weak value proposition. 

A value proposition is a reason people choose one product after another. It is the reason people treasure the product over the competitors. Often people mistake the product that they are offering for value proposition and are quite natural to fall for it. In order to create a solid value proposition, you have ensured three things in your product

• it must be different
• it must be better (in terms of aesthetics, management, usage)
• it must matter to the customers. 

For this let's consider two more elements: 

Point of parity (POP): List the elements that the product must have. This is the bare essential to become a product. For example: every toothpaste has almost same components, similar ingredients, similar packaging that makes us believe that it is a toothpaste. For a car it may be the engine, tyre, seats or brake.

Point of Differentiation (POD). Iist something that you offer that other does not, or something that you offer better. Moreover, POD should be important to the customer. Do STP and then research on the needs of the customers and you have your value proposition. Different brand of toothpaste excels at different POD. For Colgate, it is stronger gums; for Sensodyne it is specially catering the people with sensitive teeth, Aquafresh is for freshness while for Patanjali, it is more related to use of natural components for natural dental care. 

In order to become a brand, along with having a good point of parity, one must also focus on a point of differentiation that the customer demands.

5. Go Local

To the product that is not targeted to a specific geographical area, going local is a must. If you are targeting the customers in VDCs of Birgunj, English will not contribute at all. The correct thing to do will be to convert into a localized marketing materials, this includes 

1. use the local promotional channel
2. use of local language
3. use the local influencer to promote the product. 

Since the main objective of the company is to solve the customers' problem, it is a must that we can communicate the value that we are offering to them and going local is the best option. 

6. Provide consistent quality and customer service

As stated above, it is a long-term process. If not done correctly, a company may exist for decades and not become a brand. Consider everything above, have an accurate logo, color, consistent contents. Focus on localization and work on telling the strong story with a solid value proposition and it still won’t be any time soon. The fact is a brand is not how the company tells the customer to perceive. A brand is what the customer feels about your product. Focus on the customer and fulfilling the promise by careful consideration of their needs and take each step at a time. It is very important to provide a consistent quality to the customers while maintaining a good customer service. And maybe after a few years, a few more and even more, you will have had established a brand that everyone knows and trust.