Building your Product/Service Brand
from Marketing19.com 2/16 Enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
Brand building is not an easy task because it involves co ordination and performance on so many levels. The customer only calls a normal product a brand when the company is advertising regularly, it has a fantastic product and the performance over time has been superb. On top of it, if the advertising and marketing communications are able to make a connect with the customer, then branding enters a whole new level with people buying the product because of the brand. That’s the sweet spot for any business, isn’t it? If you were to launch a new product, over a period of time, you would also like that product to be known as a brand. So how do you implement brand building for your product or organization? Here are some powerful brand building tips for you.
1) Start building a brand, only when you are Ready – That’s the number 1 brand building tip I have for you. Each company has a maturing period in which it might have the revenue and the product to build a brand. If you launch brand building activities but do not have the revenue or the supply to support these activities, then your brand can fail. (Example – Flipkart Big billion day) For example, if a festival is just around the corner, and you have the revenue and product in place, then you can immediately go for promotions so that customers get more aware about your product and begin to recognize it. Consequently, if you advertise and you don’t have the revenue for the ads to run its full course, or if the ads run and you don’t have the products ready, then there is no use of the efforts spent on Brand building.
2) Be “passionate” about Brand Building – You cannot build a brand halfway. If you are building a brand because “others are doing it” then you are wrong in your branding approach. You need to understand the core strength of your company and you have to be committed to branding. This means no excuses and complete focus on brand building activities. The best brand building tip I can give you is that the branding should come from your heart.
3) Believe in your own Brand – I might be reiterating the same point, but if the branding efforts are coming from your heart, and if you don’t believe in your own brand, then you are fighting a losing battle. If you don’t think your brand can make it, then there are some differentiating factors, or some other problems with the company which are not resolved. Due to these problems, you don’t have belief in your brand. In such a case, it is better to pay attention to the first point. Start building a brand only when you are ready.
4) Build around your Strengths – Each product or brand has a strength which it roots for. Goodyear has its durability, Duracell has its long lasting battery, Philips has its home appliances, and Samsung has its smart phones. These strong product lines, when involved in brand building, can give a boost to all the different products in your product portfolio.
The Brand-building Tip here is that you should play around your strength and make it the face of your brand. When the customer, through his usage, confirms that the product is strong, he will start trusting all the other products of the same brand, even though they have not been promoted to him. However, if the first experience is bad, the customer is unlikely to try anything else from the same brand house.
5) Improve your Weaknesses, to build a “stronger” brand – If a customer gets attached to your brand when you advertise your strengths, then it is logical, that the more strength you have, the more customers you will get. So in essence, plugging the weaker holes, will make your brand stronger. If, in your product portfolio, you have products which have technical issues, then you need to concentrate on improving those. Many a brands have lost their reputation because they had a cash cow in their portfolio, whereas all the rest were dogs. So you need to improve your strength to have more cash cows.
6) Add “value” to your Products or Services – You need to ask yourself (and also your employees & customers), what can you do to improve the value of the brand. How is the customer interpreting your brand? Is he getting complete value, or for minimal additional cost, can you add more value. Things like a small product enhancement, miniscule product offerings, or changes in the customer service process, can add a lot to build up customer satisfaction. Adding such value to your service is the bases of having a strong brand. Look at any bank, and you will notice that they keep looking internally at their processes, so that they can plan a better service delivery to end customers.
7) Respond & be Reachable, 8) Send the right Message in your Marketing Communications, 9) Stand up during Crisis, 10) Have a strong Online presence, 11) Build Relationships & 3 more in next Post.