- · UNDERSTANDING THE FOUNDATION
‘When you brand yourself properly, the competition
becomes irrelevant.’ It’s very challenging and strenuous work to own a company
and turn it into a brand. Your brand is your commitment to your consumers. It
communicates what you will be delivering from products and services in the
future and how it’s innovative from the competitors. Your brand is forged from
who you are, what you aim to be and how people discern you. Branding using
strategies and techniques leads to constructing concrete brand identity that is
foolproof for future obstacles and transition. This means that you can gain
monopoly in the market and don’t have to worry about competition if you are
always delivering your values in a new contemporary system. What it implies is
sticking to your brand’s roots and promises; yet at same time have the
influencing power among competitors in the market.
- · INTERNAL BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity is the aggregate quality of what your
organization does and what it’s all about. It’s what you internally think of
your brand and how you communicate it across your consumers. It’s the combined
equation of perception, feelings and beliefs of your target audiences which
should never reciprocate. That’s what a powerful brand is about. It is
something that doesn’t perish or alter with advances in technologies or trends.
And it’s crucial communicate its internal image to be one of the strongest
brands. In short, a strong brand is one that is able to reach the brains of its
consumers as the way it is. To support this statement, I would like to
highlight Coca-Cola. Ever since its inception, Coca- cola always stood as a symbol
of happiness, fun, friendly, trustworthy, and young. So many years have passed
on, competitors have came ; but coca-cola still is the same happy, friendly,
and youthful brand that promises to cherish your moments in life. It delivered
its internal brand image across very well. Coca-colas’ foundation was strong in
terms of branding and now is one of the leading beverages brand worldwide.
- · WHAT NOT TO DO
Often it happens that
companies are not able to roll with the punches. They also fail to express their
internal brand image to its target audiences. As a result, consumers start to
create their own image of your brand. If you are a warm, friendly, and fun
brand but couldn’t communicate it to consumers; what happens is that your set
target market perceives that you are rich, sophisticated, and luxury
brand. That’s why it’s important to do
groundwork and proper branding before going to your target market. This
happened with Budweiser. They came up with a hash tag and slogan that was pun
intended and to be taken as a comedy. But it backfired and was slashed on the
social media platform. #UpforWhatever was perceived by Budweiser’s target market
as a slogan that promoted date rape and woman who is carefree doesn’t pay much
attention on what happens to her. This campaign was unsuccessful and created
negative brand identity it the minds of their consumers.
- · DAMAGE CONTROL
Some brands are
equipped with updated and innovative branding strategies, yet some fall into
the same cliché trap of branding. Your company has to have the resources to
recover from all the changes and also aim at developing itself. A consumer will
have the experience of what emotions and personality you deliver over your
products. They might not use your service/product but they surely will connect
to your brand’s identity via your branding and marketing strategies. If you
want to build an empire, strengthen your brand identity before your consumes do
it for you.
