Summer 2011: by Brent Banda, MBA

Building A Strong Brand

Branding is a term that all business owners come across but few truly understand. Branding is similar to branding on a ranch -- you leave your mark on your customer's mind.

Once you know the few key factors that influence purchase decisions, you can build those traits into your brand.

What is a Brand?
A brand is a reputation. This reputation often is represented by a name, term, symbol or special design (or some combination of these elements) that is intended to identify a company or its product. The most effective way to accurately describe the strength of a brand is by the feeling you get when you see or hear all components of the company's image truly represented within the brand. For example, McDonald's has established a strong brand identity by evoking feelings representative of a fun and cost-effective family dining experience.

The phrases, "Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun" and "I'm loving it!" have lasting staying power as they invoke similar feelings of what McDonald's represents.

Purpose for Branding
A strong brand identity is an effective way to stand out from competitors. If you do your job right, potential customers will know what you have to offer and think of you when the time comes to make a purchase. Take Kleenex for an example. The actual term for the product is a facial tissue, however everyone relates this soft, strong, high-quality product to the brand name.

A successful brand can provide benefits such as a price premium or enhanced brand loyalty. If you are still skeptical of the power of branding, ask yourself whether you use facial tissues or Kleenex.

Defining Your Brand
Branding is the action of portraying the image you believe will attract your target market. When defining what your brand should be, consider why your customers purchase from you. This is much more complex than it first appears. The trick is to clearly define what is important to your customers and then build your competitive advantage around meeting those needs more effectively than the competition.

Once you have defined what your competitive advantage is, it should then be communicated through an appropriate message and tone and reinforced in all exposure with the target market.

For example, McDonald's communicates its fun family atmosphere and fast, affordable food in everything from advertisements and layout of the store to the company's pricing strategy.

How Do I Build A Strong Brand?
When branding a company, product or service, consider all elements that will have an impact on the customer's buying experience. Strategic marketing decisions such as the prices you set, your product attributes, and even where you choose to sell your products can have a direct impact on a customer's opinion.

Brands are largely built through personal experience rather than promotions, because customers tend to trust their own experiences more than advertising. Therefore, a significant component of your marketing strategy should relate to customer experience. You may be justified spending your marketing budget within your own company to help 'live the brand.'

There is no doubt that advertising often does impact the formation of a brand, but it also can play a role in sustaining the brand over time. This type of advertising is usually broad, image-based advertising. Wal-Mart, for example, advertises 'everyday low prices' instead of weekly specials.

When making advertising decisions, carefully consider how people will view your company. Imagine if BMW were to show a 16-year-old driver with green hair and a nose ring in a TV ad. This would not fit with your image of a typical BMW owner, and could cause current BMW owners some concern that their status symbol is in jeopardy. BMW targets high-income adults, and must reinforce this with every experience their customers have with the company.

Although it can take years to successfully build a brand, it can be easily destroyed. If Wal-Mart suddenly started to sell high-end premium priced furniture, its loyal customers would become confused and perhaps think that everyday low prices may not apply to everything in the store. Strategic marketing decisions such as price and advertising message are almost always interconnected.

Know Your Customer
While this advice may sound simplistic, remarkably few owner-managed companies actually consider their customers when making marketing decisions. Who are you trying to attract as a customer, and what is important to that person? This question is fundamental to your marketing effort whether you are selling industrial equipment to Brazil or cutlery in a mall retail store.

Why do these people buy? What is motivating them to purchase? Once you know the few key factors that influence purchase decisions, you can build those traits into your brand.

This has implications for companies planning to target new segments. If you plan to attract a new type of customer, should you adjust your brand image to include traits that are important to the new market segment? Ideally, yes. But practically this may not be possible. Honda faced this problem when launching a line of luxury vehicles in North America.

The Honda name was well respected as an economy car and likely would not be suitable in the luxury segment. The solution was to launch an entirely new brand under the name Acura.

Most Acura owners realize they are driving a Honda product, but the fact it's an Acura adds some credibility to the vehicle as a luxury car.

Know What Is Important
Define what your brand should mean to the customer. Again, it seems like a simple step but few business owners have a clear understanding of what they want their customers to know about their company. A company or product's brand should emphasize a few key traits. Sure, you can emphasize many traits that might be valuable over time (i.e., known for quick delivery, competitive price, or great service) but a select few will truly differentiate you from the competition and will also be valuable to the customer.

Remember, different people view brands in different ways. Too often, marketers speak about their brand as if all customers in one market segment are clones.

Every person walking down the street has been influenced in different ways. Some people have had good experiences with your company, and others have not. Some have seen your advertising and others have only heard of you through word of mouth. Keep an open mind when trying to understand how the market views your brand.

What Makes One Brand Superior to Another?
Customers purchase one brand over another for one main reason: they trust that the product or service will meet their expectations. In order to create a lasting brand name, you must ensure that all elements of your brand reflect the reason your customers buy from you. A focused branding strategy is one effective component of a comprehensive marketing plan.

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