Brand Marketing

We are all very much familiar with the word “Brand” but do we really know what it is actually. Is it just the name of the company or is just defined by the logo? We always tend to compare and talk which brand is better. Don’t we? But are we really talking about the specifics or are we just going with the popular perception. So what is a ‘brand’ basically? Let’s see! 

What is a Brand?

Brand is a name developed for a product or service to successfully connect with the customers and distinguish the product / service from the other alternatives in the market with unique symbol, logo, phrase, mark etc.

In the earlier days, brand was just referred to the company’s logo or may be even their tagline and nothing more. Over the years, it has evolved a lot. Though even today its primary strength is the logo and name, but it has included other aspects and has become more dynamic in nature. A brand now provides the audience everything the company does or can do. It also conveys the core values of the company and makes the customer feel reliable about your products. 

“Products are made in a factory, but brands are created in the mind” 

— WALTER LANDOR

What is Brand Marketing?

“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business” 

— STEVE FORBES, EDITOR IN CHIEF OF FORBES MAGAZINE 

Brand Marketing is a marketing practice that involves primarily creating a name, symbol and logo to your company (product/service) and creating various strategies to promote them into the market to attract the customers. Brand Marketing also involves creating a strong perception in the mind of your customers and establish clear communication channels. 

Brand Marketing should not be overlooked. It is long term investment which fetches guaranteed results if strategized and applied well. It is very important for everyone, especially entrepreneurs to understand that spending money on Brand Marketing is not an expense but an investment. It is same like investing to get an asset. Brand is an asset. A powerful tool to sell your product or service. 

What are the Objectives of Brand Marketing?

 

There are various objectives of Brand Marketing while the primary objectives are– 

Brand Awareness– Customers should be aware of our brand and as soon as they hear or see anything related to us, it should strike a chord. 

Brand Reliability– Customers should always feel that the products or services from our company are reliable and it should be very difficult to change this perception. 

Brand Loyalty– It is very important for our customer to stick with our brand for long. Our brand should become a part of their life.

Brand Cycle 

The above is the brand cycle and it is important for the company to make sure that the customers would want to repurchase the products of their brand.

How to decide our Brand Marketing Strategies?

It is important to not just have the vision to develop a brand name but also to use the right strategies. While planning and executing various strategies there are few factors to be kept in our mind. 

First, we need to establish what is the problem we are trying to solve for the customers or how our product is going to affect their life. It is basically about promoting our company’s vision. 

Second, we need to rightly identify our target audience. We should understand the basic demographics. 

Third, we need to find the emotional chord that we should strike with our customers in order to capture their attention and get their loyalty. It is very important for customers to have an emotional bond with our product or service so that they get strongly connected with our brand. 

Fourth, we need to be consistent in our communications and interactions with our customers. The message we want to convey, the visual and audio means we use, the overall aesthetics and the brand undertone should be consistent throughout or at least over a good amount of time, so that customers can get associated well. Our strategy should be for the long term and not short term.

Below are the 2 successful brand marketing examples 

Coco – Cola

Coco – Cola is the world’s third most valuable brand. The uniqueness of Coco – Cola is their bottle shape which has become the part of its iconic logo as well.

Coca-Cola’s made a mark for itself by designing a unique bottle design that made such a strong impact in customer's mind that even today their product can be well identified with the bottle shape. It was the year 1915 and company was losing its market share and then they came up with a competition for a fresh bottle design. This was done in order to let the consumers know that Coke is a exclusive product unlike the many other cola drinks existing at that time.

The winner of the contest came up with a sketch of a cocoa pod with its peculiar and appealing shape. Coco – Cola then started designing the bottles in this shape and in no time started advertising this new version even in its logo. Thus, Coca Cola with its unique bottle shape became household product in all most all the countries in the world.

Louis - Vuitton

Louis Vuitton is the world's most well-known and profitable luxury brand. This brand is considered to be a Premier brand like the class of Mercedes in automobiles. It is an elegant and very well recognized brand.

It has achieved this status of being in a league of its own by projecting itself as the best quality and esteemed Handmade product. It projects itself as a great example of best craftsmanship in this age of machine production. In reality though it was found out in 2010 by Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ‘handmade quality’ ads were misleading because they use sewing machines, the reputation of the brand wasn’t affected in the public as there was no compromise on the quality and people accepted the argument of the company that in 21st century, using hand sewing machines will come under handmade products only.

They also achieved the Premier product status by marketing and promoting their product by great talents. Selena Gomez, Helmut Lang, Sybilla, Manolo Blahnik etc. were some of the famous people of fashion industry involved with LV.

Brand marketing has transformed greatly over the years. From just being a name & logo of the company, brand marketing has now become the most important part of selling an idea or product successfully as everyone realized that the perception of the brand plays a great impact on the minds of customers in choosing to buy or not to buy. It has been proven that to get an edge over other brands where there is high competition or to get a great initial boost for early start ups, proper and strategic brand marketing is a sure shot winner.