THE POWER OF BRAND: BUILDING YOUR OWN PERSONAL BRAND IN THE CORPORATE WORLD

Congratulations , Dear Friend, for even clicking on the link. Get ready, because your life and that of the organization you work with/for is about to drastically transform as you comprehend and apply the lessons inherent in this article. 

I begin this article by saying “Happy Eld Mubarak to all Muslim Faithfuls across the globe. May this Eld fill your lives and families with indescribable joy, blessings and great breakthroughs In-sh-a Allah. I cease this medium to welcome you all into another productive week and also thank God for the position you are occupying in your organization. However, I present this timely and relevant topic that will add value to any unit of business organization when fully understood and applied. To benefit from this topic, a common understanding of “brand” must first be established.

The concept of branding is a very difficult topic that many employees and top executives don’t even clearly understand. Many see brand as the logo, an advert campaign or what’s on product packaging. They are yet to understand the strategic power that a fully articulated brand platform holds when deployed across all areas of the business. Beyond just a memorable logo, permit me to say that good branding increases the value of a company, provides employers and employees with direction and motivation, and makes acquiring new customers easier. 

To fully comprehend the power of brand and how to build your own personal brand in the corporate world, the following headings exist:

What is a brand (ing)? 
The origin of branding
What makes a brand identity
The objectives that a good brand will achieve

WHAT IS BRAND (ING)?

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers”.
Therefore, it makes sense to state that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

Every business has a brand, whether they like it or not, whether they realize it or not, whether or not they have an expensive advert campaign or a new business logo like Fidelity Bank PLC in Nigeria that recently changed their logo (My apology). A company has a brand whether it’s a product driven or service driven company. A company’s brand is the sum of everything the company is, says and do. It should be cleared at this point that a brand is not just a logo, advert campaign or slogan. Rather, a brand is a product of the millions of experiences a company creates with employees, vendors, communities, and customers; alongside the emotional feelings these groups develop as a result of their experiences. I.E. a brand is the totality of all the characteristics that makes a company’s offering unique.

According to Simon Clift, former Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever, “a brand is the contract between a company and consumers. And the consumer is the judge and jury. If (s) he believes a company is in breach of that contract either by underperforming or reducing quality service rendering, the consumer will simply choose to enter a contract with another brand. In the words of James Heaton, “branding is the expression of the essential truth or value of an organization, product or service. It is communication of characteristics, values and attributes that clarify what this particular brand is and is not”. He further stated that a brand will help encourage someone to buy a product, and it directly supports whatever sales or marketing activities are in play, but the brand does not explicitly say “buy me”. Instead, it says, “this is what I am”. This is why I exist. If you agree, if you like me, you can buy me, support me, and recommend me to your friends”.

Simply put, a brand represent the totality of people's’ perception of a company’s customer service, reputation advertising and logo. It tells them what they can expect from a company’s products and services, and differentiates company A’s offering from its competitors. A brand is said to be healthy where every employees understands what the brand is about and their role in delivering that brand.

THE ORIGIN OF BRANDING

Andrew McCrea, a dynamic speaker, Oscar winning radio and TV broadcaster opined that starring in 2,000 BC, there was branding. Then, farmers’ cattle and livestock were branded physically and since then everything has had a “mark” “watermark” or “logo”. Of course, since the industrial revolution, it became clearer that branding is not just a logo or graphical representation of a product or service; branding is the communication of features, benefits, lifestyles fit and the emotional connections it sparks with its audiences.

Marc De Swan Arons (2011) traced the evolution of branding thus: there was a time at least 70 years ago when all it took to be successful in business was to make a product of good quality. And as long as you made sure that your product quality was superior to the competition, you were pretty much set. Thus, a savvy consumer could distinguish between high quality and shabby products quite easily. However, the shift from simple products to brands has not been sudden or inevitable. This shift grew out of the standardization of quality products for consumers in the middle of the 20th century which required companies to find a new way to differentiate themselves from their competitors. 

In the 1950s, consumer packaged goods companies like Procter and Gamble, General foods and Unilever developed the discipline of brand management when they noticed the quality levels of products being offered by competitors around them has improved. A brand manager would be responsible for giving a product an identity that distinguished it from nearly indistinguishable competitors. To do this, required an understanding of the target consumer and what it’s called “branded proposition” that offered not only functional but also emotional value. Over time, the emotional value would create a buffer against functional parity. As long as the brand was perceived to offer superior value to its competitors, the company offering the brand could charge a little more for its products if the brand “bonus” was bigger than the cost of building a brand (the additional staff and often advertising costs), and the company came out ahead.

Branding is the heart of every successful business entity you can ever think of. It is what determines customer loyalty when due diligence (i.e. feasibility study) has been carried out relative to the company’s industry line and its findings (including policy statements) are implemented upon. Branding is strategic and it’s the ultimate determinate factor that increases business turnover and profit. Thus, a bank advert may convince a potential customer to open an account with them (i.e. establish business relationship) but it is the bank’s brand that will determine if the customer will not patronize other banks for the rest of his life. Take for an instance, the current President of Nigeria (Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) who operates a single account with Union Bank of Nigeria only, amidst other financial institutions. 

WHAT MAKES UP A BRAND IDENTITY?

In psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology, identity is a person’s conception and expression of their own (self-identity) and other individuality or group affiliations (such as national identity and cultural identity. (Wikipedia.org). I pose this question at you: what is your self-identity or your company’s identity in that particular industry? 

Recall every company (including the company you are working with/for) has a brand, whether you believe it or not. But the truth is that brands are built by consumers, not companies. Primarily, it’s the way consumers perceive a brand that defines it. It doesn’t matter what a company thinks her brand promises. However, the only thing that matters is how consumers (i.e. the end users of such product(s) or service(s)) perceive their brand. Therefore, every company should work hard and smart to develop consumer perceptions that accurately reflect their brand, or their brand will be doomed to limited growth potential.

According to Shawn Parr, the CEO of Bulldog Drummond, “brands that stands out from the crowd do so because they intrigue people, are memorable and different, compelling brands are relevant, engaging, entertaining and more often than not, courageous. They take a stand for or against something and have the confidence to stand apart from the crowd. People remember compelling brands and know what to expect from them. Your brand is one of the most important assets you possess to drive and differentiate your business. If your brand is not clearly defined, understood and embraced by the entire organization, it will never realize its full potential to impact your business. Your brand is one of the most powerful drivers for engagement and performance across all areas of your business. 
The brand identity of the company you are working with/for is not just their logo, advertisement, spokesperson or slogan. Rather, its brand identity is the composition of what the end users of their product(s) or service(s) perceive of them, ranging from their attitude, reputation, customer service, advertisement and logo/ when all of these parts of the business are working well, the overall brand tends to be healthy.

THE OBJECTIVES THAT A GOOD BRAND WILL ACHIEVE

The following are the objectives that a good brand will achieve:

Good First Impression. A good brand name gives a good first impression, is easy to remember, and evokes positive associations with the brand. The positioning statement tells in one sentence; what a company is into, what benefits it provides, and why it is better than the competition.

Confirms your Credibility. Consumers/customers are more likely to engage in business transactions with a brand (in this case, a company) that appears polished and legitimate. 

Create Customer Loyalty. Customer loyalty is the result of consistently positive experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services. Thus, a good brand should create an attitudinal and behavioural tendency for customers to favour your product(s)/service(s) over all others.

Branding inspires Employees. Recall that a healthy brand is one where every employee understands what the brand is about and their role in delivering that brand. So, it’s needful for top executives never to underestimate any of their staff, for they are the ones who delivers the company’s brand to the world and they should be adequately motivated.

Branding connects your target prospects emotionally. Branding is centered on identifying your target audience and what they want. When you define what your brand stands for, then it becomes easier to establish emotional relationships with existing lovers of your brand and attracting potential prospects. 

I shall conclude with the words of James Heaton “your brand is what you are, but more importantly it is what you are in the minds of your consumers. So the truth and effectiveness of your brand expression matters a great deal. Your brand must have clarity and idea that is strong enough, coherent enough and distinctive enough to be able to lodge in your brand consumers’ mind. This requires expert and persistent articulation and supporting expression across all the constituent elements of your brand, at least those over which you exercise direct and indirect control. This includes but not limited to. Your employees training, your vision statement, your physical spaces if you have them, all of your deployed brand assets such as photography, TV commercials, logos, graphics, colour, how you use language, and of course, your marketing communications expressed through websites, printed materials and all manner of advertisement.” Remember, your brand is you!!!



Your friend,
Onyebuchi Moses.

Watch Out: Cardinal Point Strategies of Leading through Crisis. (A case study of Judy Smith)