7 reasons why you need to pursue your brand

Delusion

There is a widespread opinion that a brand is something that only applies to large companies and requires millions of marketing budgets so that the buyer, when he saw your product on the store shelf, unconsciously chose it. And the brand itself is just a graphic logo that needs to be “expanded”.



Mistake! Wrong! Dismiss!



Despite the fact that most people on the Internet and "on the street" think so, I assure you that the care of the brand should be carried out by companies of all sizes , not just by corporations.

And what is a brand?

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For a start, look at Wikipedia. Wikipedia provides the following brand definitions:

A brand is more than advertising or marketing. This is all that comes to mind about a product when a person sees his logo or hears the name.

Still.

A brand is not a thing, product, company or organization. Brands do not exist in the real world - they are mental constructs. A brand is best described as the sum of a person’s entire experience, perception of a thing, product, company or organization. Brands exist in the form of consciousness or specific people or society.

Cool! I want to emphasize: the sum of the person’s experience, his perception of the product, the company .

We define a brand as a trademark, which in the eyes of the consumer incorporates a clear and meaningful set of values ​​and attributes. Products are made in a factory. But a product becomes a brand only when it acquires many tangible, imperceptible and psychological factors. The main thing to remember is that brands are not created by the manufacturer. They exist only in the minds of the consumer.

In other words, a brand is not just a name and a picture, it is a set of psychological factors. And the last:

Brand is a name that influences the behavior of market consumers / buyers.

So brands are more than a publicized and recognizable logo. It’s rather a set of expectations, associations and brand attitudes. That is, thanks to advertising, personal experience and recommendations of acquaintances, a person already expects that this car will not travel more than 1000 km, they will cheat at this bank to customers, and this search engine will give the best result, etc.



Even the start-up team with a team of 2 people needs to be engaged in the formation of psychological attitudes. Moreover, the construction of a brand should be of concern not only to marketers (he himself recently learned that, unlike marketers who are engaged in the theory of marketing, marketers are just practicing), but also top management.



At a minimum, you need to determine the set of complementary values ​​that your brand carries. Do you want to create an image of a conservative, reliable company that respects tradition? Or do you want to look in the eyes of buyers as a company that knows the best about a particular product? Maybe your brand better positioning, as bold, fashionable and democratic?







In any case, starting work on a brand, you need to determine: who is your target group of consumers, what unites them, what repels them, what values ​​are close to them, what advertising appeal do they respond to, will your product meet their expectations? If your brand has already lived its small life, then I recommend always checking who your customers are now, what is their perception of your brand? Indeed, it often happens that managers and consumers perceive a brand in a completely different way. For example, the former may consider that mothers buy their super soft cookies to their young children, so they try to “shout” about themselves wherever mothers appear, and in fact older people buy it with false jaws, since it is more convenient for them to chew on them . The result of such a difference in perception will be failed advertising campaigns. And you need it?



But let's move from the lyrics to the case. What is the benefit of developing a brand for players of any size?

7 reasons to develop your brand

1. Customer return

Thanks to a strong brand, you are more likely to attract a customer again. This is particularly the case with the release of a new product, an additional product and a new version of your product. A great example is the mobile phone market.

2. Allocate yourself (differentiation)

Proper work with the brand allows you to stand out from the competition. To the buyer noticed you, you should always be different from others.



In this regard, it is interesting to consider a marketing tool such as Benchmarking. Its essence lies in the fact that you compare yourself with your competitors in the chosen parameters. According to the results of the comparison, you improve the parameters for which you are lagging behind. But what is the result? All companies are starting to sell equally good products, no different from each other. This is especially noticeable in the technology market. And how should a consumer notice you in this variety of identical goods ?



Another differentiation target is copy protection. Everyone knows that if you only implement a good idea that will begin to gain popularity, competitors will immediately copy it. And only a significant difference in your brand in the eyes of consumers can save you users.



As an example, give Michael Jackson. He had a fantastic difference from all other musical artists. And therefore, whatever he sings (about love, social injustice, children, etc.), he always stood out from the crowd of other musicians singing on the same themes. The “Michael Jackson” brand had such strong psychological associations and expectations that when he decided to give the last tour, he immediately sold all the tickets for 50 concerts in advance at prices above market prices. I note that we are not talking about the influence on the minds and hearts of each person, but about the number of people to whom this influence extends.

3. Increase revenue

A powerful brand can add significant value to your products / services. Therefore, if the buyer sees greater value in what you sell to him, he is willing to pay a higher price. Increasing the price increases revenue and profit. A good example of high added value and, consequently, high price is Lebedev Studio.

4. Transfer of value between products

If you have built a brand that creates positive associations and expectations, you can transfer it to your other products or services, thereby increasing their usefulness in the eyes of consumers. We look at how Apple does it.

5. Attracting the best employees

The brand attracts the most talented and professional people. Therefore, the desire of the strongest employees to work for you, not least depends on the perception of your brand. I recommend to get acquainted with the results of the corresponding research of the consulting company McKinsey & Company.



For example, other things being equal, would you agree to work in Odnoklassniki or on Vkontakte? Your choice will be influenced solely by the strength of the brand.

6. Reducing marketing costs

Of course, in order to build a brand, we need investments. But these investments do not have to be big, they should be commensurate with your opportunities and ambitions in the market. When your brand becomes popular, you can already easily reduce marketing budgets and at the same time have the desired level of sales. This increases your ROI (return on investment) on your marketing campaigns.



When McDonald's opens a new restaurant, they don’t need to invest at all in an advertising campaign to inform consumers that “a new fast food restaurant has opened with an incredible menu, etc.”. Everyone already knows what McDonald's is, and they will go to the “free ticket office” without further ado.

7. Increase brand value

Have you ever thought about selling a share in your company to investors? Or about a 100% exit from the business? When the time comes to evaluate your company and brand value, then the time and money spent on the brand will have an impact. If you didn’t pay any attention to this at all, then the value of your company will tend to the book value of your tangible assets.



Let's see how the brand value is assessed.

1. The financial indicators of the brand are calculated on the basis of the financial statements, that is, expenses and taxes are deducted from the brand's revenues for the reporting period.
2. Evaluated the income that brings the brand in itself. The brand's “strength” is measured: how the brand in question influences the choice of the buyer.
3. Based on the revenue that the brand generates, its value is determined. The same tools are used to determine the value as for the assessment of any other asset, that is, the discounted estimate of future income.

Read more about the brand valuation methodology (in English).



In the end, proper brand management and brand investment can give you multiple returns in the form of your brand value growth.



In the TOP 100 brands of 2009, 2 companies in the top ten are representatives of our industry: Microsoft (4th place) and Google (7th place), which means that for IT business a brand has the same strong meaning as for fashion business.

Conclusion

Branding should be done from the cradle of creating your company in order to promote faster business development and increase profits. But you should not forget that the product and the quality of service go first and foremost. Do not repeat the mistakes of many companies, which, as soon as they receive investments or the first significant financial success, immediately spend huge sums on the development of corporate identity, brand, on the purchase of signboards before entering the office and on souvenirs.



The construction of the brand itself, as well as the appearance of the logo, must come from the hearts of the people who make this business and promote certain values. Because by and large it is not as important as the logo looks, it is important with what emotions it ultimately is associated.