All You Need to Know About Branding

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An Introduction

Marketing has been defined by some in a few words, by some others in many words, and by others in phrases, but whatever the definitions are, it is a simple collection of words that are easily understandable and said many times over many years, which would describe the essence of what it really means and that is simply, “Satisfying customer needs profitably.”

Here two basic actions happen between two entities. First, the customer is satisfied, and the other makes a profit; hence both the seller and the buyer have achieved satisfaction while exchanging the product or service.

Finally, so many issues must be addressed successfully, enabling us to achieve the final positive conclusion. Branding is essential; if not, an absolute positive outcome may not be forthcoming.

Effective Branding is imperative if Marketing strategies are to succeed; hence the two need to work in unison and not in confusion but independent of each other, with one propping the other. 

Confusing Marketing with Branding has been a bone of contention for many years, and recently the comparative confusion has brought a sense of enigma to the latter.

Hence it would be prudent to know what Branding is all about and how best to address it, and the most effective strategy to derive optimum benefit from it in the short, medium, and long term, so that you could place your brand in the public domain, similar to how all the other easily identifiable Brands behave in the marketplace.

There were different meanings attached to Branding in the recent and not too recent past, where some marketing gurus identified it as a symbol or logo, name, slogan, or design, but today it has been identified and elevated as something much more intense and deeply rooted in the minds of the potential customer.

Branding is what the customer preconceives of you and not what you think they should think about you. It is their perspective and how they have construed an image in their minds about everything you represent.

Your total conduct in the marketplace, from the way you are known to conduct your business, your respect and standing in the community or target audience, your product portfolio, in a nutshell, would be practically everything about you that could be defined as Branding.

If you are unable to sustain your image, you could fall from grace in the minds of your target audience, specifically your potential customer, and with that, your brand could also tumble down with you.

In the alternative, if your’ Branding strategies are robust and your brand is unshakeable in the preconceived minds of your potential customers and the public too, no amount of negative and hostile attempts by your competition could bring you down.

A good example would be a very leading brand of carbonated soft drinks which has its origins in the United States of America; in recent years, there has been a sustained campaign to ridicule it, tarnish it, and attack it from every possible quarter, even extending to religious bigotry. Still, the brand has been unshakeable and has stood firm during the many storms, riding them very quickly due to its invincibility in an extensive Brand building that has been in effect over many decades.

This is what Branding is all about, it is the resolve to stay in the public mind, and no matter what is said about it in the negative, a strong Brand would and never could, be brought down from the pedestal it sits.

To achieve that sort of Brand consciousness is not an easy endeavor and would need the right Branding strategies and something to be propagated within the brand.

The right mix has to be achieved in all spheres if your Branding is to be strong in the marketplace, especially in the minds of your target audience, because it is what the potential customers or your target audience thinks and has assimilated over the years and preconceived, that matters and nothing could change that perspective.

Having said that, you could destroy your own brand by adverse conduct on your part and weaning away your potential customers and your target audience from you; hence keeping your brand active at all times and within the public domain would hold you and your brand in good stead.

Branding is essential due to this reason. Once you have won the confidence of your potential customer in the target audience and the public, strategic marketing initiatives could provide you that additional impetus to sway the potential customer when the time comes either to nudge him to action or to get him to engage with your brand and buy, rather than with your competition.

While Branding is everything your company stands for and represents, with all positives put together, it also carries an issue of identity or identification.

Your brand, which is your company and what it represents, as we said before, would also need to be easily identifiable in the eyes of your potential customers. If not, the primary purpose of Branding would be lost somewhere in the wilderness.

Towards that objective, you may need a symbol of your identity. When it is recognizable at the first instance, a substantial part of your endeavor towards successful Branding would be achieved, provided that your symbol or logo represents a positive image in your potential customer's mind.

On the other hand, if your symbol represents a preconceived distaste in the mind of your customer, then they would move their eyes off your symbol or logo, so this is how imperative Branding is in projecting a positive in any mind.

There are many iconic symbols or logos representing superlative Brands, some of which are of recent origin and some in the public domain for decades.

They have been tried and tested, and a very positive preconceived image has been built within the minds of not only their potential customers but among a broad spectrum of the public.

When the symbol or logo is seen, people associate it with good value, good business ethics, trust, quality, and a host of other positives. Because of this, these Brands have survived the test of time and are even today dominant forces to contend with when new competition arrives in the marketplace.

These new competitors would need to bring aggressive Branding strategies and build a positive preconceived image, first in the public domain and then in the minds of their target audience, before they could be successful in challenging the dominant icons.

It is not an impossible task because history records otherwise, where new Brands have given established Brands, with complacency riding high, a good run for their money and carved a niche for themselves.    

How To Market Your Brand

It is imperative that Brand building is given much thought, planned, executed, monitored, and sustained because everything you need to represent is intertwined.

It is not necessary to select your Brand name to be identified with your product. It could be entirely something different. Take, for instance, the conglomerate “Virgin” the brand has nothing to do with the businesses they are involved in; hence selecting a Brand name that would trigger memory or action in public is essential when you choose your Brand name.

The brand name “Virgin” was selected because the two founders were “virgins” in business and had ventured into selling records in a slight up stair shop more than 40 years ago.

Today the brand name “Virgin” and its famous logo stand tall among many others, and they have ventured into many different businesses during the last few decades.  

The Brand name should have many attributes. Some of them should be unique, easy to pronounce, identified, be remembered, extendable and convertible to other languages, and socially acceptable.

It should project positivity, even a quality of the product or a common name that would be easily identifiable with the product or service that you would be offering your target audience.  

With communication and online access at the fingertips of everyone, the broadest possible platforms should be employed in Brand building. Towards this end, Social media, direct marketing strategies like email marketing, and all possible digital marketing platforms should be utilized and effectively to project a positive image building strategy that would build an excellent positive platform for you.

Aggressively building such a wide range of platforms would help to propagate your brand, which is crucial if you are successful in effective Branding.

The public within whom your potential customer is lurking has to be targeted, and who those would be should not be guesswork, but identifying them would be the brand’s prerogative. 

It is really an exercise in image building from the color of your signboard, your visiting cards, the uniforms of staff, the logo, the interior décor and above all the training that you would need to impart on all your team because they would be on the frontline and how they behave would also matter.

Staff needs training in image building and Branding, and they should be well versed in what the company expects from them because one rotten egg in the basket could ruin all the efforts you have put through the years.

It has been identified that the buck begins at the top, and from the Chief Executive Officer downwards, everyone should project the positive image needed for good Brand building.

It will be all in vain if you spend millions on all the paraphernalia, if your staff is de-motivated and project a very negative image to the public, which could be in the way they address potential customers, the service they extend, and many other aspects of good old courteous service that we would expect when we need to engage with another.

If you consider why Branding is essential, it would be prudent to consider the following.

a) Potential customers are today beset with many options to choose from when they decide to engage but have limited time.

b) Most of the options they would have to base their decision on whom they would engage would have similar attributes.

c) The final decision to engage and buy would be based primarily on trust, which would be to engage with someone they would be comfortable dealing with.

Considering the above three, it would be interesting to probe why Branding is necessary and why we would need such an exercise if we are to emerge triumphant with our brand at the forefront.

i) Identifying your Brand:

Customers buy only when they can trust what they are buying and from whom they are buying because impulse buying, which we have been talking about in the past, is slowly waning off with the advent of mobile devices, with which customers could look for those with solid brands to engage with.

Engaging with a Brand that they consider trustworthy would also have an element of emotion involved in it, which would be when they have a positive image preconceived about the brand.

ii) Standing tall among the competition

Competitiveness in business has increased to unprecedented heights. Your brand should stand tall among the competition, and that should be projected loud and clear by showing the potential customer what you could offer that others cannot.

A strong Brand would be able to differentiate itself from its competition, and that is what customers who would want to make that final positive engagement would like to see before they decide.

Customers do not generally go finding for Brands unless they are solid indeed but to get the customer's attention, the brand should be visible to the customer at all times. 

iii) Cultivating referrals

In a recent study, the Word of Mouth Association of the United States of America, concluded that 97% of retail sales are originated from word of mouth referrals.

This is very evident when any conversation about Brands takes place. The leading ones are generally discussed positively,, and those unknown or Brands that have no standing among the public are ignored.

To be a successful Brand, you would need to cultivate positive referrals and that too, regularly, which would keep your brand in the public domain, which is, after all, where your potential customers are.

The bottom line is that good referral bring in business, and bad ones would take your business away; this is true however strong your brand would be; hence it is always best to remember that customers are watching and what they think is what matters most of any Brand.

iv) Sustaining consistency in Branding

There should be consistency in your Branding strategies; it should not be a case of being prominent in the marketplace today and vanishing the next day. Then again, popping up after a few days and then hibernating the other day.

Customers contemplating engaging and buying from you would look for you every day, and when they seek, you should be there to be seen prominently.

If you are lost, they will lose interest in you too, and however much they would like to engage with you, they would go looking for other Brands that they think match your attributes.

If they are hooked by the competition,, it would be quite arduous to get them to come back to you because they would not have time again to seek you.

Hence it is just a case that the first bird would catch the worm, and if you are not on the horizon when needed, you would be the loser and your competition the winner.

v) Keeping promises

Human nature is to believe in promises, and if you are a strong Brand, you would need to make promises to your customers and ensure that you keep your promises.

Branding, as said before, is about you in totality; hence customers need to believe in you only then would they decide to engage with you therefore giving promises you could keep is also a significant aspect of Branding.

For instance, we have often seen and heard about the “30 day Money Back guarantee”, now that is a promise, and customers like that, and they also believe in it.

Imagine your company making this promise, and when the customer, for very valid reasons, calls upon you to keep the contract, but you renege on it, you and your brand would take a heavy tumble down the precipice because the customer would be unhappy. The other they will talk about it at every quorum they would come across.

That old saying “that promises are meant to be broken” would not take your brand anywhere but down the gutters and through the drains; hence when you make a promise, it would be imperative that you keep it, and when you do, the customers are happy with the outcome, there is sure to be reciprocal results, which would be favorable to your brand without an iota of doubt.

vi) Positive representation

You are the brand, and you would need to be represented on a positive note at all times, which is not limited only to you, but everything that your company represents.

From the materials you would use, the staff, the stationery, the colors, practically everything is about your brand; hence, without deviation, you should project a positive image that should be registered in the customer's minds if you are to succeed in your Branding.

Nothing could be left in abeyance; every detail should be gone through with a toothcomb, and the best options selected should be able to register in the minds of your customers and remain there. 

vii) Clear cut goals and objectives

There should be clear-cut goals and objectives within the company, which should be a collective effort from everyone representing the brand. 

The staff should be aware of the vision and the mission of the company and be focused at all times because customers could find time to engage at any time, and at that time, the brand should be ready to accommodate them.

viii) Emotional customer connections

Customers are generally emotional before connecting and engaging with you. Therefore, they would expect it from the brand they would purchase because their ultimate decision to buy would have been tilted towards your brand because of an emotional attachment.

Brand building is just that, and if you keep the customer emotionally attached to your brand, they would definitely be one of your word-of-mouth sales representatives. They will talk about their experience with you positively to everyone they meet.

Imagine they have a terrible experience with you, and that would also play on their emotions, and it would be detrimental to your brand, which could also create a very negative impact on your brand.

Emotions drive customers to engage and make a purchase, and keeping those emotions sky-high is what good effective Branding should expect to achieve.

It may be a tall order, but if you are to be a successful Brand, it is the impossible that has to be made possible because your competition is on the ball and would be doing everything within their grasp to ensure that their brand stands tall among all others.  

ix) Quantifying business value

Every business has a plus or minus value apart from its movable and immovable assets, which is its Brand value. Some may have very high Brand values while others may have minus Brand values depending on how they have been accepted in the public domain and among their customers.

For example, large conglomerates with prominent brands are much more valuable than their fixed assets because of their Branding strategies and the immense values attached to their brands, which would have come at significant cost, perseverance, dedication, and commitment.

Such Brands would not have been built by overnight fly-by-night strategies but from years of providing exemplary services and creating the right emotions within their prospective customers.

If your brand is strong, you could use its goodwill and bring new products and services that the public would accept because of the trust that they envisage around the original brand.

For example, Toyota Motor Company, a leading automobile manufacturer with worldwide acceptance as a producer of quality cars and other vehicles, introduced the Lexus Brand, readily accepted by its target audience because of the immense strength that Toyota had built around it over the years.

The Toyota Brand was strong enough to take the Lexus Brand. As a result, Lexus did take a substantial market share from its target audience, invariably dislodging other Brands in that particular segment which was the high upper end of the complete range of other Toyota car models.

Placing value on your brand and working towards it is what any Brand should be doing because customers are looking intensely at every other competitor and your brand before they decide to engage and buy.

Placing a value would create the impetus to work vigorously towards that objective, and customers prefer to work with known brands rather than unknown ones because they would feel comfortable doing so. 

Personalizing your Brand

It does not matter where your brand is being placed, whether it is online on all the possible platforms, like Social Media, Digital Television, Digital Marketing Platforms, Mobile apps, Email marketing, and others, or even the good old press, it needs to carry a personalized message across to the general public and through them to the prospective customers.

The Branding strategy should be to personalize the brand to distinctly identify you with what you are offering to your customers; whether it is a product, service, or ideology does not matter as long as it is all about your company.

Through the Branding strategy, it should be carried across that the whole entity that is brought across to the customer is everything you have to offer in a total corporate image.

Customers should be able to identify themselves too with the brand you represent. However, there was a time when even legislation was brought in the United States where it was illegal to market two similar products at two different prices.

A survey revealed that a small fraction of customers were not Brand conscious, and the price was their primary reason to purchase a product or service. Still, the majority considered a reputed brand important and acknowledged that they would pay more for it than the cheaper one.

This later changed the course of Branding, with it becoming a significant factor when it came to selling products and buying them, with some Brands standing tall against their competitors. 

Branding took another major turn when it was not only the product or service that was considered necessary but the complete entity behind the product or service.

It was similar to buying a product not knowing much about it but having trust in the manufacturer or marketer that the customers purchased because they had an inherent confidence in the company Branded behind it.

This was how companies with big images in the market were able to introduce new products and services under their umbrella and still be successful because customers believed whatever they said and had no second thoughts about buying or using it.

Trust plays a vital role here because when trust has been built over many years, customers have the preconceived notion that whatever the company sells would be acceptable as they have a reputation to uphold too; hence when buying from such companies, customers would have no second thoughts or bad inklings and hesitations of going ahead.

Personalizing your brand and ensuring that it remains in the public domain would keep the customers too on their toes because they would be waiting eagerly to know the next move the company will make for their brand.

Whether they are introducing anything new and what that would be, and a host of such questions before engaging with them. 

An active Brand is what customers look forward to. With many avenues available today, especially the digital online platform and the proliferation of mobile devices, customers are constantly searching the internet to keep themselves abreast of the latest happenings around them.

Select your target audience

You must select your target audience or market segment that you would want to concentrate on your Branding, without which you would be groping in the dark aimlessly without any proper direction.

For example, if you are a company selling toilet soaps, it would be a waste of time, energy, and money to take your Branding into the soft drinks market and try to build Brand consciousness there.

Your concentration should be in the toiletry market segment because all those using other toiletries would pick up your cake of soap; hence knowing what your product could do and for whom it could is essential even before you create your Branding strategies.

A few decades ago, when market research was conducted in identifying market segments, it was based on sex, civil status, income, age, education, etc., but this has been discarded to a certain extent, and market segmentation to identify potential markets for Branding exercises are much more different, in the present context.

Present market segmentation could depend on behavioral buying patterns, the inclinations and motives to purchase, inherent values held by potential customers, consumer habits and customs of purchase over time, and aesthetic preferences.

There is also the vital concept of Brand loyalty. This is very evident when market segmentation is considered because, in most instances, customers prefer to be with the “known devil rather than go to the unknown angel.”

Breaking into such segments would need very aggressive Branding strategies to lure customers away from the strong Brand loyalties they may exhibit.

Research shows that when it comes to household products and services, Brand loyalty could be in the high 90% because most brands they have been using for ages would be what they would pick up when they are shopping the next time around.

When it comes to very personal products, sex could determine Brand loyalty. Still, it does not matter at most other times, and strategic Branding could sway potential customers to a different Brand if they have been bombarded day in and day out with what, that company or brand has something much better to offer.

It could be by way of service, price, after-sales service, or whatever the customer would be interested in, which could be the point that the customer would change from one brand to the other.

It does not matter much whether the market is male or female; personal preferences could be different, and if that was a factor, there would not be any international Brands.

A successful brand in one country would not sell in another market if it was so, and research shows it is not so, and that is why we have many international Brands selling even in markets which earlier thoughts were that it would not sell.

The quantum could be small compared to other markets. Still, the misconception that it would not sell is not a reality now as anything could be sold if your Branding is exemplary and you take it to the prospective customer on the right note.

Online accessibility has drastically changed some traditional marketing and Branding concepts because customers are today more receptive to change and have up-to-date information at their fingertips before they decide to engage and purchase.

Market segments could move from one to another, which means that Branding strategies should always be aware of these shifts, identify them, and then change plan accordingly. 

For example, personal values and requirements could change for many reasons in a particular target audience. Moreover, a change could happen with it because we live in a very volatile environment, and life has been changing rapidly during the last five decades, and with it the public's perceptions too.   

Identify your target audience.

Once you have selected your target audience, it is necessary to identify your brand with your customers. Finding out which platform they use frequently would be suitable for starters.

Your target audience could shift allegiance to different platforms; hence keeping your brand active on the media that they do go and ensuring that they see your brand and can identify themselves with your brand would leave your competition behind and you one step in front.

Selecting which digital marketing platform they are exposed to and what they prefer would also hold you in good stead when you need to get them on your bandwagon. Of course, they are always allowed to engage with you when they select the time and place.

Your brand should always be practically following your target audience wherever they would be; they could be one time on FaceBook and the next going through their emails.

So if you are on both platforms, it is imperative that they would notice you and when the opportunity avails, they will initiate the action that your brand envisaged.

Every strategy, whether it is Branding, marketing or advertising, etc., has only one objective when they are initiated: to bring the potential customer to engage with you either in a “call to action” (CTA) or to buy.

To ensure that one of these two happens, it is necessary to have your brand effectively positioned and with it to offer the right marketing mix, which would induce the customer to take that positive step and engage.  

Your potential customer or the target audience should have the incentive to engage with you once you have identified and selected the Branding strategies that you would implement to entice them to engage with you. Still, for that, they should be provided the suitable ‘Four Ps”.

“Product, Price, Place, and Promotion” should be suitable if your identified customer in the target audience would be enticed to engage with you.

Whatever the final outcome, you would need to keep your brand at optimum visibility on the platforms that your target audience engages with; this would provide your brand the right impetus to make it available whenever the customer wants to commit himself, which you would know when it does happen, and you need to be there.

That is how you could keep the competition at bay and take your customer for yourself, which would not happen overnight but with prolonged and sustained strategies without any let or lease.

The other factor you would need to consider is that your brand has a target audience and its potential customers; it is never a case that there would not be any customers for any Brand for that matter.

In Hollywood, a few years ago, a jobless man passing a trendy actor’s mansion happened to see his garbage being tossed into the bin. 

He collected it, went home, made some beautiful boxes, sealed and placed a few grams of the rubbish in them, Branded and named them, and took them to the nearest souvenir store and sold them.

He was called the next day and was given an order for more such decorative boxes, and the shopkeeper requested him to get more of them and other celebrities.

He became a millionaire in 2 years, and all he did was sell other people’s garbage, and for a jobless man, that was a success, so it shows that even junk sells.

It is only how you would go about the essential steps to ensure that you select and then target your prospective customers and that too when they are ready to engage with you.

It is fruitless if you strategize your Branding when the customer is not ready or not even considering engaging then; in that case, you would need to look for the customer who is prepared to engage and target them.

That customer is ready; hence the time is right, and the opportunity to engage has opened the window, “to strike while the iron is hot” should be what you should be doing instead of wasting your time on someone else who is still not ready to engage with you. 

This is the tricky part of Branding, and ingenious methods may have to be implemented and adopted to ensure your timing is correct, the customer is ready, and with ample time on his mind to think it is the final decision that is needed.

There could be the possibility that customers who have engaged with your brand could outgrow due to the age factor, and if your Branding is strategized, you would need to grow too and walk alongside those customers.

You could do that by providing the support of your brand, which they are familiar with, to grow with them because leaving a customer after having them with you for many years would be a pity to lose them to someone else.

A good example would be a famous brand of infant milk powder sold from the ages of three months upwards till the baby is two years or more older.

The infant would have been provided the three-month milk powder and then the six-month milk powder, then the nine months, and so on and so forth, allowing the brand to grow with the infant.

There are many such examples, and if your Branding is for a specific age, then looking at the possibility of improving your product line like the milk powder manufacturer would do your Branding a world of good in the future.

If you have a powerful Brand using it strategically is imperative. This would help immensely if you have the pulse of who your target audience is and then identify it precisely; if not, you would be wasting time and money and reaping no returns.

Another example would be the Dictionaries we regularly still use; there are special ones for young children to give them an idea of what a dictionary is.

Then when they grow, they get a bit bigger dictionary with more words, and when they become adults, it becomes more significant with many more words; this shows that age could be a factor and growing with a strong Brand is a possibility, and there many are such instances. 

How To Expand Your Brand

Once you have selected your brand and positioned it in the right target audience, you would need to expand to create more awareness and harness more public appeal and more potential customers.

Expanding your brand also has to be done diligently, and much thought needs to be put into what strategy you would adopt to ensure that you succeed in your challenging endeavor.

There is an extreme need to bring the positives of the brand when expanding, for instance, what relevance it has to the target audience and how a customer would benefit when engaging with the brand.

The brand should be strong enough to project to the customer and register in his mind what benefits he would derive when he engages with you, which he would not be able to avail with a competitor.

The customer should be able to see consistency in your brand, and he should build a confident streak within himself that by engaging with you, he would benefit and receive value for money.

Your base that your brand began with would be crucial as it is there that you would have learned some of the pitfalls that you are liable to experience when expanding, and correcting them at the initial stages should hold you in good stead.

You should not attempt expansion for its sake unless you are confident that it would succeed because doing so without brushing up the ends at fault would only take you and your brand down an abyss.

The brand should carry with it heaps of credibility. It should be able to hold its own against the competition and have an excellent ethical background before attempting expansion into the unknown.

It should also have the strength to sustain the competition because the moment you step out of the comfort zone where you have been accepted and have built up a reasonably decent reputation stepping out of it and going into another domain would need to be backed up by a lot of positives.

It should also draw inspiration because your target audience should have had some need that you could fulfill and inspire their attention that you could offer what others failed to do before your entry.

It would also be imperative that you expand with a distinct purpose in mind, hence finding what the competition is doing and how they are fairing, what mistakes they are making,, and everything else about them.

It is not only their negatives, but their positives also have to be taken into account and quantified with what you have as advantages and your negatives.

It could be a significant minus if you do not brush up on your negatives. For example, suppose you go into the expanded market as it is. In that case, you are sure to draw the attention of the competition who would take you to the cleaners, and that would not be a good situation, especially during the first few days or months of your expansion into a new niche market.

Categorizing your Brand

It would be prudent to understand which category of Branding we would succeed in and what type of strategy we would need to plan and implement.

The birth of Branding was in the American Wild West as we know it, where ranchers needed to identify their cattle from those of the other farmers because they sometimes grazed on common land or strayed and intermingled and, in the worst scenario, were robbed by cattle thieves.

When these happened, they had no way of differentiating which cattle belonged to whom and bringing them home or identifying them when stolen.

Every farmer began Branding his cattle with a heated red hot iron Brand, which depicted his initials or that of his farm;. However, this was unbearable to the cattle, it was the ways of the Wild West, but today more humane methods have been devised in United States farms.

Branding in marketing has taken over from there. Unlike the US farms today, the competition in the marketplace is very harsh and severe, with no quarter given or taken by marketing and Branding professionals when they need to get their brand on top.

Branding has also expanded from products or services to encompass the whole organization responsible for bringing the product or service to the public domain and through it to the prospective customer.

Such Branding is identified as “standalone brands” when a name of a product or service is recalled. There is an immediate recognition in the minds of the general public of a particular Brand.

An example would be when the name “Toyota” is mentioned, we know that they are cars, and immediately our attention is drawn in that direction. Likewise, when the phrase “Pepsi” crops up, we identify it with soft drinks of a particular taste and type.

The above are powerful brands. However, suppose you plan to expand your brand by projecting a standalone brand. In that case, it will take you to a particular strategy where all your concentration should be directed towards achieving that objective.

You may also need to select an appropriate name, logo, slogan, design, etc. To ensure that from the time you launch your brand, it should be working what your product represents in the public's minds.

It has taken decades for “Toyota” and “Pepsi” to achieve the hallmark status they command today as standalone brands. Yet, it would be difficult to dislodge them as these two brands are practically embedded in the public perception.

The next of the many categories we have are “line brands,” which is one strong brand that is very well accepted in the public domain representing a range of other similar product lines.

Utilizing the image strength of the brand, similar products are added to complete a range of exclusive products which help each other by representing a collective image to the public and the target audience.

We could take the Brand “Avon,” which we know is a range of cosmetics, and the strength of the brand has brought many exclusive product lines under the same Brand name.

Then we have what we call “range brands” here; an utterly new Brand is brought in on the strength of the original brand creating its own niche in the market.

This brand could be another similar product but only a bit different, “Toyota’s” introduction of “Lexus” and its success story could be equated to a range brand.

“Lexus” are cars, and “Toyota” also manufactures cars, so why was the need for “Toyota” to introduce another Brand of the car when they already had a firm brand name behind them.

The strategy was to compete in the high-end market with the Mercedes, BMWs, and other luxury cars manufactured in Europe and America.

The Brand name “Toyota,” though strong, was identified in the public perception as affordable and low priced, far below the above luxury cars, and if “Toyota” had to compete in that market with a high-end car, they could not do so with the Brand name “Toyota,” hence the name “Lexus.”

Depending on the strategy you would have for the future, another category to pursue would be “umbrella branding,” where one firm's Brand name is built up. Still, it would have many product lines of diverse subjects and areas under it encompassing strength and stability to each one of them.

One of the best examples would be the Virgin Group led by Sir Richard Branson, which had a humble beginning in the early 1970s and is a worldwide conglomerate with a colossal UK Pounds 20.0 Billion annual revenue.

The “Virgin” brand encompasses many diverse business interests from commercial aviation, banking, music, radio, retail, films, health care, internet, consumer electronics, books, etc.

The portfolio is diverse, to say the least, and every business is encompassed on the strength of the “Virgin” brand and is all successful but individual business enterprises.

Another category that has been successful for many businesses is “corporate branding,” and we could bring conglomerates like Nestle, Proctor & Gamble (P&G), and even banks like Citibank, which are some of the powerful corporate brands that have made a mark in the public domain.

They maintain a highly reputed and respected niche in their own right and are trusted the world over for their way of conducting business and delivering good value for money.

They have been in their line of business for decades, and the sheer strength of their name and corporate identity stirs a business interest in the public. So when they bring out any product in their line of business, the public does take positive notice.

They have built up a corporate identity for their Brands and hold a very high pedestal among their peers; and are corporate brands that are unshakeable unless they misbehave but could wither any competition that comes their way, and have been doing so for decades and have survived.       

Segment your Brand

Choosing the right segment in the market for Branding is necessary, and it is the biggest challenge when you are stepping into the unknown.

Careful research and all available information about the public and the target audience would need to be studied before choosing what market segment you would aspire to place your brand.

Every brand has a market segment, and that is what is needed to be identified and the brand placed strategically if you are to be successful with it in the short, medium, and long time.

For example, you cannot sell a “Porsche” in a “Maruti” market and vice versa because the two market segments are pole apart, and those who could afford a “Maruti” would never be “Porsche” customers.

Hence, selecting the market segment is very important, and once you have achieved that, taking your brand across should be well planned as there would be reasonable times that Brands could create an immediate impression. That initial boost could propel it to success.

Each market segment to accommodate Brands already exists. It is only a case of you entering it and trying to carve out a market share for yourself because markets are determined dramatically by population.

For instance, China and India are huge markets with a combined population of nearly 2.5 billion. It has diversity in economics, culture, behavior. Much if your brand is contemplating entering these two markets, it would be prudent where you would place it and carve out which part of the vast population, you could succeed.

That would be an arduous task, but you must do it for effective and successful Branding; if not, you would have to hit the dust.

The brand expansion would entail effective Brand positioning, which would need to take the human traits of inquisitiveness and curiosity to create something new, that would stand out from the rest.

You would have seen some newspapers carrying advertisements upside down, and it is invariably turned around and read by those who see them. Initially, this is more out of curiosity and inquisitiveness than anything else.

This is what you should aspire to when you want to segment your brand, select the right moment to create the impression in the customer's minds in the target audience that you are special and are offering something different and unique from what the competition could provide.  

Using influence

Using others to help you sell your Brands is not a new concept, as most of the large conglomerates, especially in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods or FMCG sector, have been doing it for ages.

The distribution channels are outsourced for optimum efficiency and monitored extensively to ensure that the brand’s presence in the market is maintained while also providing a better service to the customers.

Distribution channels became more efficient than when the Brands were singularly handling it because new expertise in channel distribution came into the system.

Branding in the online sector too caught up with the system when Alibab.com and Amazon.com entered the online marketing platform where they did not research, develop or manufacture Brands but took over products of other companies onto their platform and helped sell what they were entrusted with.

It works very well because it is a collective effort mutually beneficial to both entities. On the other hand, the customer could see a range of competitive brands on the same platform and decide with which brand they would engage.

Every business entrepreneur anywhere in the world would like their brand to be presented in good style to their customers. Customers too prefer engaging with Brands that have a reputation and projects trust.

The requirements are mutual, and only when both parties are satisfied with what they give and what they get, in more simple, understandable terms, it is the seller and the buyer that a business can be concluded successfully.

Today digital Branding strategies employing the internet, which takes precedence amongst all other mediums and where marketing professionals pitch their efforts to get their messages first and fast to their customers, are helping to bring the business community and customers together as never seen before.

Google, the leading search engine provider globally and respected as the innovator of some superlative digital Branding platforms, chips in helping those who would want to help themselves.

When strategic online website Branding is the essence of getting the message across to the target audience on that platform, it may be required to use your website along with those of others, linking them so that they are available to take your brand and the cost factor would be advantageous, to you.

Most Brands use other brands' websites by linking together, creating an integrated web of information for the prospective customer to choose from when they need it.

The internet is wholly integrated where every brand is connected to each other, so none of the Brands could grumble that they are being used; it is free for all on the online digital market.

It does not mean that one brand would have an advantage over the other. On the contrary, it is an equal opportunity for anyone with the customer as the pivot in the center who has all the power to decide and engage at the flick of a button with whomsoever they would like.

Using influence is one thing but influencing the customer is another thing that is poles apart because just because one brand uses another, there is no guarantee that one would win over the other. 

Updating to achieve Search Engine Optimization –SEO

Branding is essential to identify a brand, but with the advent of the internet, the opportunities to bring your brand to the public domain have been revolutionized.

Any product backed even by the best Branding strategies needs to be on the online market as this is where the action in Branding is happening. Without an online presence, survival in the present competitive market would be nearly impossible because digital marketing is rapidly taking over traditional marketing strategies.

A well-planned and aggressively implemented social media marketing strategy, encompassing all social mediums like FaceBook, Twitter, Skype, and the many others prominent on the internet, would be a good bet to take Branding messages swiftly to the prospective target audience, through it to the individual customers.

The social circuit brings “birds of a feather to flock together” as they share common ideology or interests, making it an ideal hunting ground for online Branding to get targeted messages using the various internet digital marketing channels directed effectively within the group.

Social groups are known to rely on “word of mouth” Branding information that could swing their purchase decisions. This could be effectively managed by sustaining continuous digital marketing strategies and other available channels to keep the brand in conversation within the selected group.

It is also imperative that while strategically targeting social groups, your brand must be simultaneously visible on the search engines. 

The search engines are what anyone with access to the internet would look to when they need to obtain Branding, product, and service information.

A high-ranking search engine optimization or SEO platform is essential if you take your brand to great heights, giving it constant and frequent visibility, pushing the brand onto the first page of the search engine.

Your search engine optimization or SEO would need to work round the clock as competitors would also do so similarly to shore up their brand as the search engines are 24×7 active mediums.

The whole gamut of Branding strategies precipitates how you would handle your SEO, which needs to be formulated effectively. You would need to think out of the box to counter every gimmick thrown by the competition.

Search engine optimization is becoming a very important and legal issue. If your brand is optimized, it is sure to be quickly noticed by target customers searching on the internet for what they need, pushing out others whose SEO is not at the optimum level.

This is now being construed by regulatory authorities as unethical Branding,, but how they could monitor and implement its illegality and how the primary search engine provider Google would react and circumvent it would be exciting to see in the future.

Till such time any decision or an outcome to this issue takes effect, Branding needs to use effective SEO to ensure that they procure the optimum benefits of what the search engines are offering, and that is to be noticed quickly by potential customers on their first page in their computer or mobile devices.

Identify With Your Brand

Whether it is on the shelf of a grocery, departmental store, or even online, any product or service has to have a face, and customers would also like to know the person or entity behind the facade.

Before a customer engages and either picks a product from the shelf or online, they would ensure that the person behind the face is known, trustworthy, and is reputed because if they need to come back, they would desire to engage with such a person.

This goes from a small grocer to a large conglomerate. With the considerable unrest we see around us as to what is happening on the online digital marketing platform, Brands are under severe pressure to be what they profess to be.

Hence it is imperative today to be completely frank with your target audience; there is no possibility to hide behind a curtain and still doing business.

Customers need to see your brand and what you are before they attempt to engage, which has become an imperative strategy for all brands.

Corporate Branding has been the answer meted out by the high business houses where they have established themselves as the entity bringing the service or product to the customer.

For instance, “Virgin” is one recognizable brand. With many business interests under their belt, they ensure that while they are seen by the public everywhere, their customers heave a sigh of relief when they want to engage with “Virgin” because they know that they are dealing with a company that would uphold their reputation at any cost.

Corporate Branding is a well-entrenched idea. Most large conglomerates are seriously considering or have already stepped into it as they know that it is the future of the business world.

You need to project positively to survive in this volatile and competitive marketplace as it is the tough who would get going when the going gets tough.   

Consistency in Branding  

There needs to be consistency in Branding, and when you achieve such great heights, your target audience will reciprocate with Brand loyalty because they know you are trustworthy and an excellent partner to engage with.

All the big brands that have made their mark around us and even on the online platform have done so because of the consistency they have projected over the years.

It is not an easy task but needs total commitment and perseverance, which also needs to have been sustained over the years. Some Brands have survived in the competitive business world, there have been others that have come and gone without a trace, just because they failed in being consistent.

The public from whom our target audience is derived is very knowledgeable. Though some of them may not be a particular Brand’s prospective customers, they are well aware of what is happening in the marketplace.

Though they may not be prospective customers for a Brand today, they could shift economic status, location, or even behavioral patterns to be potential customers tomorrow.

Hence it is the brand's prerogative to sustain consistency and ensure that they project a positive image just like what they profess.

Customers are human, and though they would sometimes interact only through the digital medium, for instance, ordering products online, buying airline tickets, it does not mean that Brands could forget them once they have engaged and the deal is done and completed.

There is always another day that they would come back, and being ready for that day is not what is needed, but to be consistently engaging with the customer to ensure you keep the relationship on a high so that when they do want to hire again, you are at hand to engage with them.

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