5 Don't s of Branding

A few practices which I believe kill the whole spirit of Branding....


1.Copy – Don’t cheat.. don’t look into your partner’s copy.. write on your own.. these are few words which constantly ring in a classroom full of students writing a test. We adhere to these rules during our school days.. but tend to forget them when the real test of life comes forth. Whenever you are working towards creating a brand of your own you are writing a test where the questions are the same, you know the answers, you have the solution….. but still some tend to copy their competitors branding strategy. It is the biggest mistake that one can make.

With all parameters same.. it is the brand and what it stands for that makes the difference. All of us have 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth but is our overall look, personality and thoughts that define our identity our value. Similarly a brand should always be unique. Copying or “getting inspired” is not the right approach to branding.

There are no shortcuts when you prepare to create an identity for your company. And your product / service / organization has the right to have a unique identity

2.Quantify – What is the percentage increase in revenue? Whats the ROI.. Why isn’t there a hike in sales? These are few questions which unknowingly people associate with a branding activity. These are ideal questions to be associated with a sales / marketing activity. A purely brand building activity is aimed at increasing the awareness among your TG about your brand, your USP.

A branding activity increases your brand value… brand evaluation. Today the mathematical rule where
SP = CP + Profit is slightly modified to SP = CP + Profit + Brand value

Branding helps in increasing the value of your product. It creates a perception among the people about your product. The effectiveness of branding is measured in long term. It is based on customer preference of the brand, the amount the consumer is willing to pay for the product produced under your brand name and the awareness among the consumers about the brand and its product.

3.Dilution - Never ever dilute your brand. Through your brand you create a perception about your company, about your product and what you stand for and what the consumers can expect from you. Dilution leads to confusion and confusing a customer is not such a good idea specially when there are substitutes available at their disposable. There are several reasons why a consumer associates himself to a brand.. it may be because of the quality, emotional attachment, tradition, satisfaction etc. Dilution leads to a conflict of perception.

Suppose you are trained to believe a company X deals with animal food how would you perceive instant noodles for kids produced by the same company??

Another question is diversion into various verticals. How do we convey the message to the consumers? The ideal way is to sub brand the product or the vertical in case it is very different from the existing product / service range. Sub branding and promoting the sub brand creates a fresh image in the minds of the consumer and they form an opinion afresh rather than being biased by their previous apprehensions

4.Force – "This the industry norm or the market practice". This is not a good enough reason for you to practice branding or follow the branding practices

If you don’t believe in a practice or what you are doing for your branding don’t do it. Never force yourself into an activity which has been tried and tested by others. It can be as a back up plan but the ideal scenario would be to come up with your own plan. Chalk out your own strategy.

Your brand is something which you create on your own then why rely on others plan of action to promote it or grow it. Create your own path. For that matter if you are not convinced that you need to brand your product or your company please do not do it. You will not appreciate the practice and it will forever seem like a burden to you. You will never be able to innovate and neither will it be effective.

Branding should be a task full of conviction. Until and unless you believe in your brand why should anyone else.

5.Compromise – You start a business to earn money.. no second thoughts on that. But should revenue drive your brand? No. It should be the other way round. The brand should drive the revenue. This is ideal for future course of action.

Suppose you ve created a product for the niche audience. Due to lack of revenue you compromise on your brand and take it to the masses. Then neither are you able to tap the mass audience properly as they would already have created an opinion that you are expensive and that they are paying more and nor are you able to tap the niche market as the brand image has changed.

As pointed out earlier SP = CP + Profit + Brand Value

Your revenue will automatically increase when your brand value increases. Brand value increases in the long term. Gradually the investment on branding reduces but returns increase and subsequently your profits and your revenues.

At no point should you ever compromise on the essence of your brand. It beats the whole purpose. A brand is much more than a logo. It is the personality of the company, the principles it stands for, the promises it makes to its clients / consumers and above all defines the whole purpose of the company’s existence.



Signing off for now...
Sony
http://www.adwize.in