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Welcome to my world. This is the
first of a four-part series examining a discipline I like to call Power
Branding. Branding, of course, is the
ongoing process of creating a unique and
compelling brand image in the minds of
current and potential customers. Power
Branding involves taking it to a new level
by evaluating traditional branding philosophy from a multidimensional perspective. Specifically, giving consideration to
four key activities:
- Building brand identity
- Communicating a value proposition
- Cultivating the brand/customer
relationship
- Creating brand equity
In this instalment, let’s consider the first
task. It’s critical when you are marketing a
product or service to always remember
that your brand image is a composite of
impressions delivered at multiple points of
contact with the customer. For example,
my mental image of the Lexus brand is not
one-dimensional. Rather, it is a combination of inputs including advertising, direct
mail, what my brother who owns a Lexus
thinks of his, how the salesman at the dealership treated me when I took a test drive,
and what The New York Times had to say
about Lexus and corporate social responsibility. Doesn’t that ring true in your experience with brands that you like or dislike?
This premise builds a case for integration in marketing messaging that ensures
your overall marketing campaign speaks
with ‘one voice’ in the marketplace. My
point here is that nothing you do in branding your product or service will really matter at all if your messaging is not integrated and focused.
That is clearly job number one,and it happens through a clearly defined marketing
and creative strategy, identifying key messages relating to the features and benefits you
bring to the marketplace, and effectively
coordinating all of your different ‘voices.’
This includes advertising, public relations,
packaging, sales promotion, relationship
marketing and online communications.
WHAT IS BRAND IDENTITY?
Brand identity has to do with how the
consumer views and interacts with your
brand. Consumers perceive and consume
brands on several levels:
Brand as product — This includes the
physical attributes, features and benefits of
your product or service. It might be an
easy-open closure for seniors, a qualified
FDA heart-health claim or a novel new
delivery form.
Brand as organisation — This includes
your policies and procedures, business
practices, and your corporate citizenship
within the community. Customers are
increasingly aware of and interested in
what type of company you are behind the
image they readily see, and with the
Internet, that information is easily
accessed.
Brand as person — We have found
through years of qualitative research that
consumers generally describe brands
using terms that they might use to
describe a friend or acquaintance. For
example, I might describe Maytag as ‘reliable’ or ‘dependable’ or ‘trustworthy’ in
my attempt to characterise the brand as I
perceive it.
Brand as symbol — This refers to the
imagery connected to or projected by a
brand, including graphics, logo or even a
colour scheme. When I think Nexium, I
see purple. When I think Nike, I see the
swoosh. There is a reason for that.
All of these perspectives play into your
customers’ impressions of your brand
image, and each one needs to be considered as you craft and build a memorable
and relevant brand identity.
REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS
There are, of course, many national
marketers who are actively implementing
these types of strategies on an ongoing
basis. Look at the Altoids brand. There is
probably no more compelling brand personality in marketing today. Breath mints
are the epitome of a low-interest category.
No one actively thinks about it. Yet Altoids
has managed to create a unique and memorable niche for ‘curiously strong mints’
and they own it outright.
Each ad maintains the same outrageous
visual style, and the second you see an ad
for Altoids, you recognise it. Even line-extension ads promoting the breath strips
and sours have maintained that same distinctive tone. Masterful. And as a result,
they own the category and brand loyalty is
intense. Ever had someone open a box of
generic mints and say ‘Want an Altoid?’
Enough said.
So to recap, Power Branding begins
with the task of building brand identity.
It’s vital to consider your brand from various perspectives because the consumer
certainly will.
In my April column, I will discuss the
whys and hows of creating and communicating a value proposition.
Jeff Hilton is
president and
co-founder of
Integrated
Marketing Group,
based in Utah. www.imgbranding.com
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