A brand is a complex set of perceptions, expectations, attitudes, associations and emotions in the minds and hearts of a target audience.

It can also be a very valuable corporate asset, because a strong brand reduces the cost and increases the effectiveness of marketing. So every marketing dollar delivers better bottom-line results. Here's why:

• Familiarity breeds comfort. A few years back an academic study ran completely innocuous ads for a brand name. No benefit, no product characteristics, not even an indication of the product category. Then they had products in different categories dummied up with that brand name and put on supermarket shelves. People bought the bogus products simply because they were familiar with the name.
• Brands carry attributes in a kind of shorthand. People associate Mercedes Benz with high quality, even though it does poorly in quality studies like J.D. Powers and Consumer Reports. That’s the power of their brand triggering an association.
• Consumers become habituated. They get used to Tide, Honda, Coca-Cola and ESPN. They know what to expect, and that makes them comfortable. A Yankelovich survey found that 74% of consumers find a brand they like, then resist efforts to change their preference. 
• There is actually a neurological difference in the way consumers' brains process information about strong, familiar brands and less-familiar brands. A more detailed account is in our earlier posting, The billion dollar brand. A quick synopsis: "...[a familiar brand] produced a strong pattern of activity in the part of the brain associated with positive emotions, self-identification and rewards. So consumers immediately feel good about the brand, identify with it and associate it with a reward." A brand that starts with those attitudes and perceptions has a tremendous marketing advantage.

So what's the recipe for building a strong brand?

We reviewed nine books on branding as background research for this posting. They had a total of twenty-one different branding models. One model had thirty-six key components. Plus a lot of circles and arrows on it.

There's a simpler approach. Ten basic factors that build the brands that exist inside consumers' hearts and minds:

1.     Product attributes. There are two kinds of product attributes: facts and perceptions. Contrary to the cliché, perception isn't reality. Actually, it may be harder to change. Ford's quality has climbed to near Japanese levels recently, a spectacular change in the reality of their quality. But more than 40% of new car purchasers still won't even consider a Ford product. Marketers have to start with what a product is and what it's perceived to be and mold the brand image to capitalize on the most desirable aspects of each. Perception has to be recognized, but it can be changed. Otherwise most of what we are all doing in marketing communications would be a complete waste of resources.

2.     Experiential. What do consumers experience when they use a product or service? A high Net Promoter Score always tracks with a strong (and probably successful) brand. On the other hand, no matter how good marketing communications may be, consumers are unlikely to continue using a bank that mistakenly debits their account for a couple thousand dollars, a fast food establishment that gives them dysentery or a hospital that amputates a leg when they were there for an appendectomy. Marketing can't control the quality of experience, but if the experience is good, marketing can certainly capitalize on it. And if the experience isn't good, a bit of spin may be in order. "Unconscionably slow" may become "aged to perfection," for example.

3.    Involvement. Brand involvement ranges from the religious fervor of Harley-Davidson owners to the strong identification of loyalists of a particular brand of cola to a utilitarian outlook by purchasers of products in a low interest/low involvement category. Harley's emotional involvement is so strong it can be presented very lightly.  Coke and Pepsi work harder to forge involvement with their target audiences. And there's no point in even trying in some categories. For example, in several branding seminars we've offered we asked male participants the brand of socks they wear. So far none of them knew.

4.    Target audience. The audience is an important component of brand identity. If communications efforts are all targeted to women, naturally the brand will be perceived as one for women. If brand uses geographically addressable cable, area-specific portals, a zone edition of the newspaper or direct mail, the brand perception may be linked to a specific area.  

5.    Positioning. Brand can be significantly enhanced by the definition of the category in which the product is positioned. Is Subway just another fast food outlet or an alternative, healthier eating choice? Redefining a product or service can be tremendously powerful when a marketer draws a circle that includes the brand and as many consumers as possible while excluding as many competitors as possible.

6.    Visual Identity. An elegantly designed ad or a beautifully produced commercial can be death for a cheap product. Because although most consumers have no design training, many – perhaps most – have an innate awareness of the quality of design. If a product is selling on the basis of price, its creative executions should look either plain and simple or downright cheap. Because the look of marketing communications materials is an important component of brand identity.

7.    Verbal style and characterization. What a product's communications materials say – and the vocabulary, grammar and syntax used to say it – is as important as the look of the materials. "Boots tough as the guys who wear 'em" positions rugged, no-nonsense work/hunting/biking boots a lot more effectively than "Durable, long-lasting boots sure to satisfy the most discerning wearer." The language (and the comprehension level) must be right for the target audience.

8.     Personality of the product. It might seem as if marketing communications can't do much to impact the product's personality. But former Coca-Cola CEO, the late Roberto Goizueta disagreed. He was an engineer who started in the production side of the business. But in speaking with a creative team from Coke’s ad agency he said “We don’t put the flavor into the can. You do.” Meaning that the flavor consumers perceive in Coca-Cola depends more upon their expectations generated by communications than by the flavor components of the product itself. They are tasting the personality of the product. The oneness of the kids on a hillside in Italy, the cuteness of the polar bears.

9.     Personification. The personification of the brand is the way consumers see the user. It may be through celebrities, build-them-yourself spokespeople or mascots in commercials, like Sam Waterston for Ameritrade, Jared Fogle for Subway or the duck for Aflac. Of it may just be the impression we have of actual users. Most people have, or can quickly form, a mental image of someone who dips Skol, wears Birkenstocks, watches MTV, drives a Ford F-150, reads Vogue or drinks Evian. The way consumers picture the users of a product or service determines whether or not they can picture themselves using it.

10.  Consistent focus. Brands don't change in one thirteen-week TV cycle or by being programmed into this month's hot video game. Although those events can have an impact, brand building is a long-term process. Brands aren't built for next quarter. They're built for years or decades, because branding happens in people's minds, and those are slow to change. Avis has been trying harder for over forty years, and that long-term focus has built a huge success.

 Changing a brand image is much more difficult and expensive than strengthening an existing one, or even building a new one from scratch. Because in order to change an image, marketing communications must erase the present image and then (or simultaneously) create the new one. And sometimes that just doesn't work. Fiorello La Guardia changed Sixth Avenue's name to Avenue of the Americas in 1945, but New Yorkers still call it Sixth Avenue.

We don't have solid data to support this observation, but we estimate that changing a brand image costs about two and a half times as much as reinforcing an existing one over the course of two to eight years. That means it's crucial to plan brand strategy carefully, and stick to it consistently.

The largest part of many consumer product and service companies' net worth is the value of their brands. Aligning branding with business plan and goals is probably the most important contribution marketing communications can make to a company's long term success. It doesn't have to be complex. But it's critically important to master the basics.

Want to find out more about branding? Contact BrainPosse at (865) 330-0033 or click here.

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