Branding Guide: Key concepts and strategies to craft strong Brand Identity

Consumers today have several options to choose from, be it a product or a service. Whether you want to buy a product or book a hotel room, there are several brands out there waiting to serve you. As a result, firms use innovative marketing strategies to help consumers make a decision.

Key Concepts

Before understanding the concept of branding, here are some key concepts related to a Brand.

What is a Brand?

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. The different components of a brand – brand name, logo, symbol, package design and so on, these all are brand elements.

Brands are valuable intangible assets that need to be managed carefully. Brands offer a number of benefits to customers and companies.

Read more on brand here.

Brand Identity

Brand identity refers to the elements that a brand uses to project its unique personality, values, and image to consumers. The objective of creating a strong brand identity is to distinguish a brand from its competitors and to create a consistent experience for customers.

Models such as Aaker’s Brand Identity Planning Model and Kapferer Brand Identity Prism Explained show how to create strong brand identity.

Read more on Brand Identity here.

Brand Equity

Brand equity is the commercial value and strength of a brand name in the marketplace. It encompasses several things such as perception of consumers towards the brand, their loyalty, recognition, and associations with it. Strong brand equity results in higher sales, increased customer loyalty, and resilience against competition.

Read more on brand equity here.

Brand management

Brand management is the ongoing activity of maintaining a brand’s image and reputation in the market (Branding is the initial process of creating a brand’s identity).

Brand management is about consistently delivering the brand’s promise across all touchpoints and interactions with customers. This is done through activities such as marketing campaigns, advertising, public relations, customer service.

Branding Concepts

What is Branding?

Branding is what separates similar products from each other, it is the process of creating a brand image that engages the hearts and minds of customers.

It refers to all of the activities that shape customer perceptions, particularly the firm’s activities. Branding then is the “management perspective” that focuses on perceived value of the product as found in a society.

In recent times the society has witnessed a brand explosion thanks to improves communication and easy access to mass-broadcasting systems. The manner in which companies brand/market their products has also evolved a lot over the years.

“Branding is a process by which manufacturers and retailers help customers to differentiate between various offerings. It enables customers to make associations between certain attributes and or feelings and a particular brand”.

“Positioning is concerned with the processes associated with creating and altering the perceptions customers have about a firm’s products or brands” (Crawford, 1985, in Baines, Fill and Rosengren, 2017, p.490)

“…brand positioning is not about a brand’s physicality, it is about the place the brand occupies in a consumer’s mind” (Baines, Fill and Rosengren, 2017)

“What distinguishes a brand from its unbranded commodity counterparts is the consumers’ perceptions and feelings about the product’s attributes and how they perform. Ultimately, the brand resides in the minds of consumers” (Keller, 2002, in Kotler, 2003)

The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product category.

Branding vs Marketing

In most cases, without marketing communication, there would be no brand. ‘Advertising’ is any message where the primary objective is to build and sustain brand awareness and brand attitude, regardless of how that message is delivered.

It is marketing communication in some form that raises awareness for a brand, and gives it ‘meaning’. This meaning is informed by brand attitude and learning from marketing communication, which in turn builds its brand equity.

Marketing may contribute to a brand, but the brand is bigger than any particular marketing effort. The brand = remains after the marketing has swept through the room. It’s what sticks in your mind associated with a product, service, or organization—whether or not, at that particular moment, you bought or did not buy.

The brand is ultimately what determines if you will become a loyal customer or not.
The marketing may convince you to buy a particular Toyota, but it is the brand that will determine if you will only buy Toyotas for the rest of your life.

On the surface, branding seems to be a cost centre, but the return is loyalty, and more:

• Sales people whose jobs are easier and more effective,
• Employees who stay longer and work harder,
• Customers who become ambassadors and advocates for the organization.

Video on brand value and marketing

Related: Global Branding and Glocal Branding Strategies

How Brands are Created?

• Determine the desired Brand Position
• Develop a Brand Identification
• Creating Brand Image

Two strategic elements are essential to establishing and maintaining the desired meaning of a brand: an effective positioning and a strong positive brand attitude.

• Brand Positioning is about creating a distinct image for brand in the marketplace. Its about how a consumer sees a brand relative t its competitors.
• Brand attitude refers to a consumers’ overall feelings, evaluation and perception of a brand. It includes broader perceptions beyond just positioning.

It is the job of a brand manager to effectively manage how consumers see their brand versus competitive alternatives, and they do this with marketing communication.

Brand Positioning

In Marketing, Positioning is the technique in which marketers try to create an image or identity for a product, brand or a company. Brand Positioning is the standing of a brand in comparison with its competitors in the minds of consumers, prospects and other stake holders.

A positioning statement follows a format similar to: XYZ is the brand for (target audience) that satisfies (category need) by offering (benefit).

Positioning Strategies:

• Category Positioning: Here, the Brand defines, creates or owns a category or sub product category. Xerox, Pepsi, Dominos; these names help easily identify the product category, and have become a generic name. A smaller sized Pepsi or Coke can be another sub product category.
• Image Positioning: Positioning differentiates on the basis of a created association. Image has to be creative, realistic and should be able to build an association with the brand. Example, Marlboro cowboy.
• Unique Product Feature Positioning: Based on elements unique to a product or a company. May highlight tangible or intangible product features. E.g. Wal-Mart’s ‘Always low prices’ positioning.
• Benefit Positioning: Based on benefits, advantages that allow a product to satisfy customers’ needs, wants, or desires. Experiential, functional or symbolic benefits can be the basis of brand positioning. Example: For adults concerned about oral hygiene, Listerine is the one brand of mouthwash that not only stops bad breath but also helps prevent gum disease.

Steps for positioning a brand in marketing communications:

• Step 1: Relate the brand to a category need for effective brand awareness.
• Step 2: Relate the brand to an overall benefit to build positive brand attitude.
• Step 3: Select a specific benefit in terms of its importance, delivery, and uniqueness.
• Step 4: Correctly focus upon the benefit relative to the appropriate motivation driving behaviour in the category.

Developing Brand Identification

Brand Name and Symbol chosen to represent a brand need to reflect the position of the brand. They work as identification cues. Memorable Brand names and symbols go a long way in building the brand image.

Choosing a Brand Name

What does it mean? What performance/ expectations/ associations does it evoke? What degree of preference does it create?

Deciding on Brand Name

Suggest something about the product’s benefits – e.g. Head and Shoulders

Suggest product qualities – e.g. KFC

Simple and Easy to pronounce – e.g. Nike

Distinctive – e.g. Monster

May create imagery

Brand Symbols

Symbols greatly increase brand recognition. Symbols could mean logos, trade marks, characters, etc.

Pillsbury’s Doughboy Creates an Identity for the Brand

Brands are represented by Logos

Logos are distinctive graphic designs used to communicate a product, company, or organisation identity.

Creating a Brand Image

Brand image is everything. It is the sum of all tangible & intangible traits — the ideas, beliefs, values, prejudices, interests, features & ancestry that make it unique. It is an impression created by brand messages and experiences and assimilated into a perception or impression of the brand.

Creating or revitalizing a positive brand image is a basic component of every business — and lays a foundation on which companies can build their future.

Brand image is everything. It is the sum of all tangible & intangible traits — the ideas, beliefs, values, prejudices, interests, features & ancestry that make it unique.

A brand image visually & collectively represents all internal & external characteristics — the name, symbol, packaging, literature, signs, vehicles & culture.

It’s anything & everything that influences how a brand or a company is perceived by target constituencies — or even a single customer.

Its about experience

Starbucks: “We have identified a third place, and I really believe that sets us apart. The third place is that place that’s not work or home. It’s the place our customers come for refuge.”

Harley Davidson: “What we sell is the ability for an 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him/her.”

Hertz Rental Car: “Renting a car changed into a convenient and time-saving experience. The car itself doesn’t matter.”

Branding policies

Individual branding – eg Dove, Fairy, Crest

Family branding – Heinz, Microsoft, Google Maps

Corporate brands – BBC, Tesco, IBM, HSBC

Key Differentiating Factors for a New Product

DIFFERENTIATION is the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish the company’s offering from competitors’ offerings.
– Kotler (1997)

Differentiation of a product is usually carried out in these ways:

• The product represents a functional improvement on competing or substitute products
• The product and/or its labeling has an attractive design
• The new product is properly branded, promoted and advertised
• The new product is readily available to customers in the main retail shops
• A number of after-sales services are provided that make the product appealing to consumers

Challenges to Brand Builders

Here are some of the challenges that brand builders face:

• Customers are increasingly becoming more Savvy.
• More complex brand families and portfolios.
• Markets are becoming Mature.
• More sophisticated and increasing competition.
• Difficulty in differentiating.
• Decreasing brand loyalty in many categories.
• Growth of private labels.
• Increasing trade power.
• Eroding traditional media effectiveness.
• Fragmenting media coverage.
• Emerging new communication options.
• Increasing promotional expenditures.
• Decreasing advertising expenditures.
• Increasing cost of product introduction and support.
• Short-term performance orientation.

Strategic Brand Management Process

Here are the steps in Strategic Brand Management:

• Identify and Establish Brand Positioning and Values.
• Plan and Implement Brand Marketing Programs. This is done by mixing and matching of brand elements, and integrating brand marketing activities
• Measure and Interpret Brand Performance: Brand Value Chain, Brand audits, Brand tracking, Brand equity management system
• Grow and Sustain Brand Equity: Brand portfolios, Brand expansion strategies, Brand reinforcement and revitalization

Brand Experiences & Society

The latest trend in branding is experiences where companies let potential buyers experience their products in an engaging environment so that he gets a more hands-on experience of the product or service. Expert marketers acknowledge that today most consumers seek brands that provide them with unique and memorable experiences.

For example, it is common for buyers to go to a store and try out the various trendy outfits so that they can see for themselves how they look wearing those attire. Full length mirrors all around, lights at strategic places further enhances the consumers overall experience. Same goes for gym-wear; when consumers walk into Reebok stores and try out the shoes and the various gym wear in a gym like setting, it makes it easier for the buyer to make a decision. Visits to the art gallery, attending a concert, are other examples of experiences.

Luxury weddings is another upmarket segment where organizers creating fantasies and dreams for the couple. Through these romantic fantasies, the couple also flaunt their aesthetic values and lifestyle choices. Sellers of luxury goods are particularly good at arousing strong emotions that we generally attach to expensive products. On several occasions, despite feeling the financial pinch, people buy luxury items to show off, or to be part of an elite group, or to reward oneself for an accomplishment. So if you’re planning to buy a high-end car, the feeling is even more aroused when you take a test drive of the car.

Marketers know that customers are emotional people, and in this style of branding the focus is more on customer experiences, and so the marketing efforts are designed to appeal to the various senses. Companies use the various Experience Providers (logo, design, packaging, building, website) to create the create feeling during a potential customers consumption experience.

While ‘experience’ is definitely a promising trend, next we take a look at the importance of design for any business and its impact on the society.

Recommended Reading

Keller, K.L. (2012), Strategic Brand Management: A European Perspective, FT Pearson

Strategic Brand Management by Richard Rosenbaum-Elliott, Larry Percy, Simon Pervan