Product and brand management Brand building strategies Brand building is an integral aspect of personal and business development.

It not only increases the voice and consumer awareness of a brand, but it also gives it an identity and worth. The advent of participatory and interactive platforms has given many businesses the chance to enhance brand awareness and equity. If you have been thinking of building a personal or business brand, then it is important for you to know that brand building takes a great deal of time and resources. In the section that follows, we shall define brand building and also look at different types of brands and the steps to create a successful brand. What Is Brand Building? 5 Effective Brand Building trategies to !ttract "ustomers There is no one definition that actually captures the essence of brand building in its entirety. #any people think that brand building is all about communicating and e$posing your brand. That is %ust one side of it. The best way we can define it is that it is a process of creating value to consumers. It encompasses all things that consumers know, feel, and e$perience about your business in its entirety. &aving defined brand building, we shall now look at ' popular types of brands and what they stand for.

Service brand- this brand is built on knowledge, culture, and e$perience that one has with the service delivering agency(company(people. Think of )eek quad or #olly #aid. Retail brand- this brand is built on a mi$ture of products and service e$perience. Think of "hick*fil*a, +roger, or +," Product brand- is built on the e$perience that one has with a specific product. Think of -ike, ,ord, or ony.

&aving looked at the ' popular types of brands, we shall now proceed to look at steps involved in brand building. 1. Define Your Brand The first stage in brand building is defining your brand. This is a very critical step as it ultimately determines what your brand truly stands for. .hen defining your business brand, you should create a checklist of its core strengths. imilarly, if you/re defining a personal brand, you should look at the skills and e$pertise that you possess especially those which stand out. 0n the same token, you also need to know what your brand stands for and what is important for your brand 1brand values2. 3our values should in one way or another show that you are contributing to environmental, social, and economic well*

being of consumers. 3ou may not reali4e some of these important aspects of brand building immediately, until you look at them ob%ectively. . Differentiate and Position Your Brand Before embarking on brand building, you have to take time to differentiate it so that you can attract attention and stand out from competitors. To differentiate your brand, you have to create a unique advantage in the mind of consumers not merely getting attention by brand building colors or logos or other superficial elements. 0nce you come up with a unique value proposition, you should use a good branding strategy to position your brand in a way that will help consumers see and appreciate the greater value of your brand over competing ones in the market. '. Build and E$pose your Brand !s I indicated earlier, brand building is not a one off thing. Building a unique and powerful personal or business brand takes time and consistency. To build your personal brand, you have to keep reinforcing your values and skills by taking up new roles and assignments that will give you more e$posure. !lternatively, you can use promotional channels, blogs, forums, and social media 15inkedIn, Twitter and ,acebook2 to create a voice for your personal or business brand..hen building your brand, you should also endeavor to develop brand personality 1what people know, think, and say about you2. This is what drives or motivates people to identify with and engage with your brand. The truth is6 if you e$ecute your brand building strategies consistently, then you will easily establish a pattern that will forever be associated with your brand name. !. Personali"e #our Brand If you want your brand building campaign or brand to be successful, then you have to personali4e it. It is important to give your brand an identity. 5et consumers see and e$perience the personality of your brand in its entirety. 5ook at your brand as something that a consumer wants to identify with pretty much as they would with their favorite cars, cellphones, or computers.!s you engage in brand building, you should also invite customers to be co*creators of brand values so that they can feel that they also own it and relate with it. Top brands encourage consumer*brand interaction by personali4ing products to meet the needs and preferences of consumers. .hen you personali4e your brand, you give consumers reason to participate and engage with your brand for a lifetime. $. Revie% Your Brand 3our brand is not static6 it will go through a range of motions in its lifetime. 7epending on your brand strategies, your brand will either grow in strength, or remain dormant, or recede with time. In the brand cycle, new events, changes, and circumstances bring challenges and opportunities to enhance the value of your brand or re*establish it. !ll these possibilities should give you the impetus to take charge of your brand building

activities.!s your brand name grows, so do the responsibilities and e$pectations to continue with brand building. The best way of ensuring brand growth is reviewing your activities and evaluating your successes through metrics such as levels of brand awareness and levels of engagements. 8egular reviews will help you sei4e and e$ploit new opportunities while upholding your commitment to remain true to your vision and brand strategy. It will also help you steer your brand in the right direction and keep it relevant as you move into the future.!s you can see, brand building is not a one off thing. 3ou have to define your brand, differentiate, present it, and review what your brand stands for from time to time. It is very important to be clear about your branding strategies and how you/re going to implement them. 3ou should also adopt brand strategies that will add value to your consumers and help them develop the right impression of your company and what it truly stands for. Brand dilution Brand dilution is the weakening of a brand though its overuse. This frequently happens as a result of ill*%udged brand e$tension. 9rice cutting that increases volumes but moves a brand down*market can be similarly damage a brand. Brand dilution is an ever present risk for companies that rely on a strong brand for high margins. ! company that owns a strong brand obviously wants to leverage it to sell as much as possible, but the very strategies used to purse this end often also bring the danger of brand dilution. Investors need to look at strategies designed to e$ploit brands by e$tension 1or through otherwise increasing the market served by a brand2 in order to be warned of dangers of brand dilution. In :;<5, launched a computerproduct, =ero$ 7ata ystems,which had been researched at=ero$ 9!8". It failed disastrously =ero$ lost > ?@5 million A years later, Early version of a fa$ machine calleda Telecopier.

!nother disastrous failure =ero$ is associated almoste$clusively with copier machines

E$amplesB

.hen a company does all that work to build a brand youCd think theyCd be careful about letting it go to crap for a couple of e$tra bucks. But companies love e$tra bucks and, when nothing else is going for them, they can always leverage awareness. Take the D. "addy "arrera, a special edition D. van from 9orscheE 8eallyE Though we admit it looks sort of hot. ! classic e$ample is the "adillac "imarron which answered the question F"ould people still respect a lu$ury car company if they made a version of the 0lds ,iren4aEF That one took a while to recover from. G2Setting the Scene& ,rank 5ucas/ HBlue #agicI heroin became the market leader in -ew 3ork "ity. 8ivals said he had upended the natural order of things by selling heroin that is twice as good for half as much. "ompetitors left the heroin market because nobody wants to compete with a monopoly. To accelerate growth of the HBlue #agicI business, ,rank arranged wholesale distribution agreements with other drug lords and mafia families. This shift in business strategy made competitors part of the HBlue #agicI family, with ,rank 5ucas as the all* powerful "E0 and "hairman of the Board. 'ever Dilute a Brand -icky Barnes competed with ,rank 5ucas and the success of HBlue #agicI hurt the financial viability of -icky/s operation. )rudgingly, -icky signed on as distributor of HBlue #agic.I In an effort to increase profits of his HBlue #agicI sales, -icky began diluting the purity of the heroin to increase his inventory and his margins. &e sold the diluted heroin as HBlue #agic.I ,rank 5ucas wasn/t pleased and addressed his concerns %ust like a top*notch "hief #arketing 0fficer would to any rogue field marketing manager, maverick product manager, or renegade franchisee. +ellogg/s chopped down its ,ruit 5oops cereal package si4e from :;.<*o4. to :<.J*o4. Price remained the same.

Iams chopped down its K*o4. package of cat food to a 5.5*o4 package. Price remained the same. L 0>8"E B > ! Today 6 -ew 3ork TimesM&owever, customers have noticed all this chopping down. !ccording to a "onsumer 8eports study, <5N of shoppers surveyed said they have noticed smaller package si4es from their favorite brands. !nd, <:N of shoppers believe the package downsi4ing is a clear attempt by brands to hide price increases. It/s interesting to note, 5JN of shoppers prefer brands stop chopping down their products and instead, keep their old package si4e and simply raise the price. L 0>8"EB "onsumer 8eportsMThe takeaway lesson is simple O when a business decides to dilute its products, it runs the risk of drawing ire from customers. The action step is also simple O if you find yourself saying or thinking, H! customer will never notice that.I "hances are, they will. Be prepared to deal with their reaction. That/s %ust one angle to this HBrand 7ilutionI lesson from ,rank 5ucas. Brand a%areness is the e$tent to which a brand is recogni4ed by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product. E$pressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a productCs introduction.L:M Brand awareness is the e$tent to which the consumer associates the brand with the product that they wish to purchase. It is the brand recall and the brand recognition of the company to the consumers. Brand recall is the ability of the consumer to recollect the brand with reference to the product whereas brand recognition is the potential of the consumer to retrieve the past knowledge of the brand when enquired about the brand or shown an image of the brand logo. Brand awareness is an essential part of brand development which helps the brand to stand out from the others in this monopolistically competitive market. ! brand name that is well known to the great ma%ority of households is also called a household name. But ho% do #ou achieve great brand a%areness( li)e coca cola has? ,rom :;;' until GJJK "oca "ola spent ? GK.< billion on advertising and it is one of the first companies ever to spend more money on marketing than on the product itself. !nother factor is its authenticity. "oca cola marks itself as the PThe 8eal ThingH with the formula being created :G5 years ago and kept a secret since. Its strong self*belief and consistent identity also helped achieve its position in the market. "oca "ola has shown great fle$ibility and innovativeness, they adapted their drink to the various markets around the world and thereby achieved to satisfy the different tastes of the consumers. "oca "ola is also a very aesthetic product. The design of the curvaceous glass bottle design and the red*and*white branding of the cans is recogni4ed all over the world..hat I e$perienced when entering the .orld of "oca "ola in !tlanta was not the drink itself 1which was really only trivial2, the emphasis was on the various commercials they showed, the hype around the huge safe where the secret formula was in and other

marketing trappings 1like the "oca "ola polar bear, the happiness factory etc.2 To sum up, one can say that it is not the product itself that made "oca "ola one of the most recogni4able brands in the world6 it is the e$ceptional marketing around it. 0ne might ask how Broadgate is trying to achieve brand awareness in the outheast !sian marketE .ell, even though Broadgate is a fairly young and small company, it is already well established and well known in the Thai market. -ot only with its diverse service offerings but also with its unique corporate image and slogan 1H9assionate !bout InvestingI2 Broadgate is differentiating itself from the competition. The company also has a vast presence on the social media websites ,acebook and Twitter which helped raising the company/s brand awareness and achieving the great brand recognition it has now in the outheast !sian market. o even here at Broadgate, an investment service company, it/s not all about finance but #arketing and Brand #anagement plays a big role as well. Brand Images The brand image refers to the way a market as a whole views a given company or product. #any companies attempt to create a strong brand that people identify with a given product. ome of the best e$amples of this include =ero$, whose name has become synonymous with making a copy, and +leene$, whose name has come to mean FtissueF in general. In addition to desiring to create brand recognition in general, most companies also want their product or company to have a specific image or to be looked upon in a certain way. This brand image can shape how they release a product, the type of product they released, the type of advertising they do, and the type of customers they cater to. ,or e$ample, a company may decide it wishes to have a brand image as a lu$ury brand. In such cases, it would cater to a high end market. Its products would be priced at an e$pensive price point, it would advertise only in high end maga4ines and it would be sold only in boutiques or high end stores, not at discount warehouse stores or outlet locations. 8ole$ watches, for e$ample, have done a good %ob of creating an image as a high end and e$pensive brand, and as such people will pay a premium to purchase these watches because of what they stand for. "hoosing a brand image is very important for a company, so that the corporate entity can appropriately target its market. "hoosing too many different images or trying to represent too many different things can create a problem for a company. ,or e$ample, if the company tries to target itself as both a lu$ury item and as a discount brand, then it will not have a clear*cut marketing strategy. ince there would be no target market for such a product since the lu$ury market wouldnCt want a discount item and the discount market wouldnCt want to pay lu$ury prices, the product might find itself a failure as a result of the muddled image it was presenting to customers. Brand Identity Q: R IB#

IB#/s iconic first "E0, Thomas S. .atson said, HThe toughest thing about the power of trust is that it/s very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasi4e the similarities between you and the customer.I ,ind out which archetype defines the :JJ year*old brand and keeps it fresh. Brand Identit# * + ,--le !pple "omputer chose a KJ*second uper Bowl commercial ad spot in :;@A to establish the foundation of the company/s brand identity. ome considered the concept a risk. It remains one of the most talked about, meticulously e$ecuted, brand identity e$amples today and is often the archetypal model that technology companies strive to emulate.T Brand identity * he visible elements of a brand 1such as colors, design, logotype, name, symbol2 that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumersC mind. brand equity ! brandCs power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands. !n e$ample of a brand with a high equity is "hristian 5ouboutin. "hristian 5ouboutin is a footwear designer who launched his line of high*end womenCs shoes in ,rance in :;;:. ince :;;G, his designs have incorporated the shiny, red*lacquered soles that have become his signature. 8eferring to the four consumer perception of brand equity, 5ouboutin fulfills all four factors. .ith shiny, red*lacquered soles and high stillettos that differentiate 5ouboutin from other posh and lu$urious shoe brands, 5ouboutin has lured women all over the world who deemed themselves to be brand conscious consumers, wearing only and only high*end fashion brand shoes. In terms of the relevance power, 5ouboutin carries a high level of satisfaction that meets womenCs needs when living their e$pensive lifestyle standard and simultaneously, showing power as they go out and about sociali4ing. !dditionally, 5ouboutin has done a great %ob in endorsing their brands by attracting celebrities to get to throw their 5oubs on when attending special occasions, such as in movie premiere events, gala dinner, etc. This concept sinks into customersC mind that by putting on their 5oubs, they are as classy and fancy as they could be. !las, the better off the name of the ,rench red clogs will be. !s of the knowledge factor of the brand equity, "hristian 5ouboutin has a strong background and qualifications of shoes, who then finally in :;;G opened his flagship store in 9aris. The fact that his first store showed up based off of 9aris, a city known best with its glamour fashion brands 1&ermes, "hanel, 7ior, and Duitton, to name a few2, has furthermore added valuable points in the eyes of target consumers. The %oy of owning and walking in their 5oubs makes women feel more respectable, that this feeling puts a personal integrity value atop of ?@JJ * ?:JJJ 5ouboutinsC price range. "onsumers clearly

regard and respect the brand that they are willing to spend that much money out of their pocket to be able to feel the mental power 5ouboutins offer. It is not over*e$aggerating to say that "hristian 5ouboutin has built a deep connection with both its current and prospective consumers. Brand images ubscribe to my ,8EE e*newsletter, Affordable Branding, and get monthly tips .hen you think Dolvo, you might think and techniques to take your brand to the safety. .hen you think -ike, you might bank. think of Tiger .oods or FSust 7o It.F .hen you think IB#, you might think FBig Blue.F The fact that you remember the brand name Enter 3our E*mail !ddress and have positive associations with that brand makes your product selection easier and enhances the value and satisfaction you Enter 3our ,irst -ame 1optional2 get from the product or service. .hen 7onCt worry T your e*mail address is totally secure. I promise to use it onl# to send you !ffordable Branding.

.hile Brand = cola, or even 9epsi*"ola, may win blind taste tests over "oca "ola, the fact is that more people buy "oke than any other cola and, most importantly, they en%oy the e$perience of buying and drinking "oca "ola. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment that people have when they drink "oke is often more important than a little bit better cola taste. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful. ! brand is not %ust a logo, ad campaign, spokesperson or slogan. 8ather a brand is a product of the millions of e$periences a company creates with employees, vendors, reporters, communities, and customersTand the emotional feelings these groups develop as a result of their e$periences.

! brand is the sum of all the characteristics that make your offering uniqueB

8eputation "ustomer ervice ! 9romise 9rice ,eeling !ttitude 5ogo 9roduct 5ine

The New Product Development Process Idea9aint , a paint that turns any surface into a dry*erase board, is a good e$ample showing how students take advantage of the environment and have it invented. It is now found in :J,JJJ locations around the world, including #IT, #TD -etworks and The 5imited Brands. I would like to use this to illustrate the new product development process. It first starts from Idea /eneration which came by brainstorming by a student, Seff !vallon and his friends in a study room with walls covered in 9ost*it notes. They thought walls could act as collaboration tools. They came out many ideas to have the concept of being able to write over an entire wall. !fter Idea Screening, they decided to devise an erasable paint to satisfy their want. To testify the feasibility of the idea, they seek help from two professors, a college*board member and a parent to see if they believed in the idea and put investment. This is called 0once-t Develo-ment and .esting. !fter that, they started to find the target market, not only for school, but also for work and home. 7uring 1ar)eting Strateg# Develo-ment, they need to plan the potential price, distribution, and marketing budget. 9rofits goal and marketing mi$ strategy were planned in the business plan and would be evaluated in Business ,nal#sis. -ow, they were going out of concept but take actions by producing a prototype, Product Develo-ment. !s they said, when Idea9aint finally had a prototype, Hthey had a conversation with everybody at school, Babson, who could be a potential customer or user.I .hen the final product was ready, they let the school be the first customer. This was the way they tested the 1ar)et. ,inally, 0ommerciali"ation means to introduce Idea9aint into the market. New product development strategy 9rint this page In this guide: :. -ew product development G. 'e% -roduct develo-ment strateg# '. )enerating and screening ideas for new products A. -ew product concept development and screening 5. Business analysis of new products K. -ew product prototypes and market testing <. 5aunching and commercialising new products

9rint entire guide .ith a well*considered new product development 1-972 strategy, you can avoid wasting time, money and business resources. !n -97 strategy will help you organise your product planning and research, capture your customersC views and e$pectations, and accurately plan and resource your -97 pro%ect. 3our strategy will also help you avoidB

overestimating and misreading your target market launching a poorly designed product, or a product that doesnCt meet the needs of your target customers incorrectly pricing products spending resources you donCt have on higher*than*anticipated development costs e$posing your business to risks and threats from une$pected competition.

There are several important steps you will need to plan into your -97 strategy. Define #our -roduct !n accurate description of the product you are planning will help keep you and your team focused and avoid -97 pitfalls such as developing too many products at once, or running out of resources to develop the product. Identif# mar)et needs uccessful -97 requires a thorough knowledge of your target market and its needs and wants. ! targeted, strategic and purposeful approach to -97 will ensure your products fit your market. !sk yourselfB

.hat is the target market for the product I am proposingE .hat does that market needE .hat is the benefit of my proposed new productE .hat are the marketCs frustrations of e$isting products of its typeE &ow will the product fit into the current marketE .hat sets this product apart from its competitionE

7raw on your e$isting market research. 3ou may need to undertake additional research to test your new product proposal with your customers. ,or e$ample, you could set up focus groups or a customer survey. 2stablish time frames 3ou need to allow adequate time to develop and implement your new products. 3our ob%ectives for developing new products will inform your time frames and your deadlines for implementation. Be thoughtful and realistic. ome ob%ectives might overlap but others will be mutually e$clusive.

3our ob%ective to race against your competition will require efficiency from your team. 3our aim to achieve a specific launch date will be influenced by demand for seasonal products and calendar events. 3our aim to be responsive to your customersC needs and demands will require time for research to ensure you develop the right products at the right time. 3our ob%ective to stick to business as usual and maintain other schedules will affect the resources you make available for -97.

Identif# )e# issues and a--roaches There are many tasks involved in developing a product that is appropriate for your customers. The nature of your business and your idea will determine how many of these steps you need to take. 3ou may be able to skip or duplicate certain stages, or start some of them simultaneously. +ey tasks includeB

generating and screening ideas developing and screening concepts testing concepts analysing market and business strategy developing and market testing products implementing and commercialising products. cDonald!s

roduct Development Strategy for by Wendel Clark, emand !edia

.hen you are running a small business, it is easy to look at chains like #c7onaldCs with disdain, but there is a lot that you can learn from their success. 9art of the success en%oyed by #c7onaldCs stems from their product development strategy. By familiari4ing yourself with the way #c7onaldCs develops products, you can apply the same methods to your own products whether they are food products or other consumer goods. !ds by )oogle UuickBooks ,rom Intuit #ust &ave Tool for Business 0wners. !ccess !nywhere. Try it for ,reeV quickbooks.in Permanent Product Strateg# #c7onaldCs features several products on their menu that are permanent and do not change. E$amples of this include their basic hamburger and cheeseburger, the Big #ac and the Uuarter 9ounder. !fter the initial development, these items remain on the menu for e$tended periods of time without undergoing significant changes. This strategy ensures that there is always something familiar for consumers on the menu. .em-orar# Product Strateg#

In addition to its permanent product offerings, #c7onaldCs regularly develops temporary products. The #c8ib, for e$ample, is a product that is offered only seasonally. The Big 0cean burger is an e$ample of a burger that was developed as a temporary product, offered only for a few months in GJJ<. The purpose of this product development strategy is to give customers something new to e$perience on each visit and to e$periment with new items that may become permanent. Related Reading& 8etail 9roduct trategy 3ocal Product Develo-ment Strateg# !s #c7onaldCs has e$panded internationally, it has created several products to meet consumer demand in the local markets. In the -etherlands, for e$ample, they have developed the #c+roket, a burger featuring a typically 7utch kroket, a deep*fried, ragout*filled patty. In the "anadian province of Uuebec, #c7onaldCs offers poutine, a traditional dish of french fries, gravy and curd cheese. Even in parts of -ew England and !tlantic "anada, they have developed the #c5obster, their version of the local lobster roll sandwich. This strategy ensures that local customers have foods to fit their tastes. 3ocal ,da-tation Strateg# In addition to developing new products for local markets, #c7onaldCs will also use an adaptation strategy whereby they take a product and modify it to fit local tastes. In India, for instance, the Big #ac has been modified into the #ahara%a #ac which contains no beef, in keeping with local diets. In )reece, the Big #ac has been adapted to use a pita bread instead of a bun. Even the #c5obster has been adapted to the #c"rab in some >. . markets where crab is a common food.

"hat are P#Ds and P#Ps$ % ar&eting'

19oints 0f 9arity2

19oints 0f 7ifference2 Points-of-difference (PODs) Attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate and believe they could not find to the same e tent with a competing brand i!e! points where you are claiming superiority or e clusiveness over other products in the category! "n a crowded mar#et place, products that stand out and get noticed! $Point of Difference$ % a difference that competitors do not have have in their product or &rand! 'he assessment of consumer desirability criteria for PODs should be against(

)elevance Distinctiveness &elievability

Points-of-parity (POPs) Associations that are not necessarily uni*ue to the brand but may be shared by other brands i!e! where you can at least match the competitors claimed benefits! +hile POPs may usually not be the reason to choose a brand, their absence can certainly be a reason to drop a brand! +hilst when assessing the deliverability criteria for POPs loo# at their(

,easibility -ommunicability .ustainability

Points-of-difference (POD) and points-of-parity (POP) examples

To see how POD and POP work in real life, lets look at two examples. The first example looks at a possible way that a chain of fast food outlets could challenge the market leader (in this case lets assume that the market leader is cDonalds!. The center circle in the diagram below highlights the points"of"parity that the ri#al chain wants to duplicate (which includes a similar menu choice, similar in"store dining facilities, and pricing around the same le#el!. $owe#er, the ri#al firm chain still needs to gi#e consumers a reason to switch, so they ha#e identified two points"of"difference to highlight as part of their o#erall positioning (which are built around high"%uality ingredients and ha#ing more flexibility in the menu for the indi#idual!. The o#erall combination of POP and POD creates their o#erall positioning.