Branding For Dummies. Chiaravalle Bill

It’s about perception, not the logo

      We want to clear up a branding misconception: A logo isn’t a brand. A logo is a symbol that represents a brand. Your brand isn’t how you look or what you say or even what you sell. Your brand is what people trust and believe you stand for. For example:

      ✔ Starbucks sells coffee and, increasingly, other beverages. It stands for daily inspiration.

      ✔ Apple sells computers. It stands for thinking differently.

      ✔ Disney sells animated and amusement-park family entertainment. It stands for imagination, wholesome fun, and making dreams come true.

      Your brand lives in consumer minds. Branding is the process of developing consumer beliefs and perceptions that are accurate and in alignment with what you want your brand to be.

       What brands do

      Brands create consumer trust and emotional attachments. As a result, they foster relationships between consumers and products that withstand pricing wars, transcend offers from new competitors, and even overcome rare lapses in product or service excellence, as detailed in the next few sections.

      Great brands aren’t just known and trusted. They’re loved.

      

For examples of brands that enjoy strong bonds with customers, the next time you’re stuck in traffic, look at the logos posted in the windows of the cars around you. Each time you see a logo decal, try to think of that brand’s chief competitor. Then ask yourself, “What’s the chance that a buyer of the competing brand would display the brand’s logo with such pride?” Only brands that strike deep emotional chords with customers make their way into hearts, minds – and car windows. Chapters 13 and 14 provide a playbook to follow as you cultivate brand enthusiasts inside and outside your organization.

      As you develop your brand and it gains strength and loyalty in your market area, look forward to reaping the following benefits.

       Brands make selling easier

      People prefer to buy from companies they feel they know and can trust. Brands put forth that assurance.

      

Whether you’re selling products to consumers, investment opportunities to stockholders, job opportunities to applicants, freelance or consulting services to clients, or ideas to constituents, a brand paves the way for success by establishing positive awareness of your unique and meaningful promise before you ever present your sales proposition.

      When people are aware of your brand and its unique and positive attributes, they understand what you stand for and what unique value they can count on you to deliver. As a result, when it comes time to make a sale, brand owners can concentrate on the wants and needs of the consumer because they don’t need to explain themselves.

      Without positive brand awareness, you have to build a case for the value you deliver every single time you get ready to make a sale. While brand owners are closing the deal, those without strong brands are still introducing themselves.

       Brands prevail over no-name offerings

      In the marketplace, you have either a one-of-a-kind brand or a one-is-as-good-as-any-other commodity.

      ✔ Brands are products defined by and chosen for their unique distinguishing attributes and promise. Consumers are willing to spend extra effort and money to obtain the brands they believe in.

      ✔ Commodities are products that are easy to substitute and hard to differentiate. Oil, coffee beans, wheat flour, and milk are commodities. Consumers buy commodities because they meet minimum standards and are available when and where they’re needed and at the lowest price. Only commodity items that are distinguished by a unique attribute and promise – think of Pillsbury flour as an example – develop into strong brands.

      

As proof of how brands pave the way for positive decisions, imagine you’re setting out to buy a computer and you see one emblazoned with a known logo – the face of a known brand. It’s likely that your next step is to dive into a discussion with the salesperson of how much memory the particular model you’re viewing contains, how the machine can be customized to your needs, what software is included, and other details that will move you to the purchase decision. On the other hand, if you see a no-name model – even at a dramatically lower price – you’re likely to first try to assess the quality of the manufacturer. You may ask the salesperson where the computer was made, how long the manufacturer’s been in business, whether the manufacturer is reliable, whether other customers have been satisfied, and other mind-calming questions about consumer satisfaction levels, warranties, and return programs that you wouldn’t raise when dealing with the known entity of an established brand.

      

Selling a no-name item is a costly route to a sale in a brick-and-mortar setting, and it’s even a tougher proposition online, where no one is standing by to offer explanations, inspire confidence, counter resistance, or break down barriers for your consumers.

      Flip to Chapter 2 for more on outselling budget-busting commodities with your brand.

       Brands build equity

      Brands that are preferred and valued by consumers deliver a long list of business benefits that translate to higher sales, higher profit margins, and higher owner value. Consider these brand advantages as proof:

      ✔ People are willing to pay more to buy brands that they believe deliver outstanding and desirable benefits. This is true for business brands, product brands, and personal brands, which are the focus of Chapter 4.

      ✔ Consumers stay loyal to brands, buying them more often, in greater volume, and without the need for promotional incentives.

      ✔ Retailers provide brands greater store visibility because they know that brands drive sales and result in higher store revenues.

      ✔ Brand owners can grow their businesses by leveraging their brands into product and line extensions rather than having to introduce new products from scratch.

      ✔ Brand owners find it easier to attract and retain good employees because applicants believe in the quality of the workplace based on advance knowledge of the caliber of the brand.

      ✔ Brand owners run more efficient operations because they align decisions with the mission, vision, and values that underpin the brand promise.

      ✔ Brand owners benefit from increased market share, increased investor support, and increased company value.

       Why brands are a big deal

      With more new businesses and products than ever before, and with a competitive arena that – thanks to the Internet – stretches all the way around the world, brands are more necessary today than ever before. Here are a few of the reasons why:

      ✔

Brands unlock profitability. Today’s marketplace is full of more products than ever before, and, overwhelmed by the selection, people choose and pay premium prices only for products they’ve heard of, trust, and believe deliver higher value than the others. If consumers think all products in a category are virtually the same and no offering is better or distinctly different from the others, they simply grab whichever one is available at the lowest price. That’s a profit-squeezing reality that brand marketers gratefully avoid.

      ✔ Brands prompt consumer selection. For the first time in shopping history, consumers can shop and buy without any geographic limitation. The Internet and other