Why defining your brand could be the single most important thing you could do for your company

As companies grow, the number of employees on their payroll do too.

Each employee brings with them a unique set of beliefs and characteristics which they deploy in the organizational setting.

Uniqueness and individuality when directed create a rich and vibrant culture that can spur a company to many great achievements.

If undirected, and left to their own devices, they can be self-destructive however and cause a company’s culture to fragment and eventually implode.

Defining and articulating your brand can prevent this
What a well defined and articulated brand will do is bring discipline to culture and an organization at large.

Take Mercedes Benz for example. What the brand fundamentally stands for is “German engineering, luxury - excellence in every respect.”

When a brand is defined and understood in such clear terms, it leads to behaviour across the organization that is consistent. You can imagine how meticulous the focus on building well engineered cars at Mercedes might be – or ensuring they offer luxury no other vehicle can or does. The importance of consistent behaviour within an organization cannot be emphasised enough. There is a simple reason for this. When behaviour is consistent, customer experience is too - and that leads to increased loyalty, profit and ultimately value to a firm in the long term.

A well defined brand will guide every single aspect of a firm’s decisions
Let’s look at Mercedes again. Do you think they’d ever put out a car that compromised design and engineering principles? Not on your life. Their brand doesn’t permit it – not their factory engineers or quality control technicians.

However the power of a well defined brand is that it influences more than just the products a company puts out. It influences – whether at a conscious or unconscious level - every single aspect of a firm’s activities: the type of people it hires, the suppliers it does business with, the areas in which it invests – even its location and choice of office environment and décor.

Why is it important for every single aspect of a firm’s activities to be aligned? Because together they make up what is its competency – or organizational advantage. And without an advantage a firm will not survive in the long term. It will simply be overcome by a competitor who might do what it does – better.

How to define your brand and what it stands for?
There are many excellent tools you can use. One that I’ve found very useful was developed by Jean-Noel Kapferer.

Kapferer is the father of the Brand Identity Prism. Why I love this tool is because it takes a holistic view of the brand – marrying both its internal and external aspects.

According to Kapferer a brand consists of several facets – physique, personality, culture, relationship, customer reflection and customer self image. The synthesis of each of these elements is what gives rise to its “Essence.” Or, what make it what is – and drives its success.

Physique relates to the perception people have of the brand and what it is in a tangible sense. For example, Mercedes is a luxury German car.

Personality relates to the characteristics of the brand if it were a person. The personality of Virgin for example might be thought of as cheeky (as opposed to friendly) and fun.

Culture relates to the internal brand environment - the principles that people have chosen to adopt to govern the way the way they approach their work every day.

A firm’s culture might be one of excellence (Mercedes), continuous improvement, innovation (Google), thrift or even teamwork and cooperation. Culture is one of the most important (and often overlooked) aspects of a brand as it directly determines a firm’s output and the quality of the products it will ultimately produce.

Relationship relates to the personal equation between a brand and its customers. A relationship can be described as personal and discreet (an upmarket wealth management company), formal, legislative (many Government Departments have this kind of a relationship with their customers), comforting (chicken soup) or mentoring (life coach).

Customer Reflection is the general perception people have of who a brand’s customers are. This is important due to its associative benefit (do I relate to the guy who I think uses the brand?). The Customer Reflection is not the Customer Target – it is the generalization people make about who a brand’s users are. For example, you may think people who buy an expensive whisky like Chivas are rich. They may not be. They may aspire to be seen that way however.

Finally Customer Self Image is the image actual customers have about themselves. The way they think and feel is important to the brand, because if it doesn’t complement their self-image in some way it will not succeed in creating an enduring relationship.

Why Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism works so well
Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism is a complete tool that takes into account both the internal and external aspects of a brand. It not only helps the user define the brand’s Essence, but also its Position.

This is something many advertising agencies don’t get - the difference between Essence and Position. Essence is about the fundamental idea that drives the brand and its success. It is most useful to a brand’s internal audience (staff) – as it gives them focus and ensures their actions are aligned and in step with the brand and what it fundamentally stands for.

Position, on the other hand, is what a brand communicates to its external audience (primarily its customers) through advertising, PR and so on. Position clarifies who the brand is targeted at, how it is different and why its audience should consider its purchase.

What Kapferer’s model does is take both Essence and Position (both complex ideas, not always easy to articulate) and bring them together in a simple, clear and concise framework. It is the simplicity and clarity that the framework offers that is its genius and the reason for its widespread adoption by people with an interest in brands worldwide.

You can read more about the Brand Identity Prism at http://www.12manage.com/methods_kapferer_brand_identity_prism.html

Have you defined and articulated your brand yet?
If you haven’t, there’s never been a better time to do so. You now have the tools, the know-how and the reasons why you shouldn’t delay the exercise a day more.

Defining and articulating your brand is the first step to ensuring it’s understood by both staff and customers alike. After all, if they don’t get your brand – who will?

Needs you may not know your customers have

One-to-one marketers have traditionally focused on satisfying the functional and emotional needs of their customers. A bank knows that a customer who has just taken out a home loan will soon have a need for home insurance. This is a functional need that it quickly moves to serve.

The same bank also knows that all customers are not created equal. Some are worth more than others – and have an emotional need to be recognised as so. The bank caters to this emotional need through loyalty programmes, reward and recognition initiatives and exclusive service privileges.

But consumer needs are not just physical and emotional. They also cover ground that is increasingly social, moral and environmental.


No man is an island – the social needs of consumers
We all feel the need to belong. Be it to a family, country or tribe. When marketers tap into this innate need, they are able to create greater affinity for their products.

The Harley Owners Group (H.O.G) – if everyone could join it, they would
Harley-Davidson is not a motorcycle – it’s a way of life. The company’s focus on the social needs of its customers is one of the reasons why this is the case.

H.O.G. or Harley Owners Group was introduced in the nineties with a simple purpose – ‘to bring Harley owners together – to ride and have fun.’

The more than one million H.O.G members spread across 1200 H.O.G chapters across the world meet monthly and organise events that include dinner rides, parades, toy runs, parties and social get-togethers.

A key objective of Harley’s relationship management strategy is to bring members together to create a sense of kinship and community. It is this kinship and community that has contributed to the fervent loyalty its customers have to their brand.

We all want to sleep at night – the moral and ethical needs of consumers
In the past, we cared less about where and how products were made and profits distributed.

Not any more.

Now, increasingly, we want to know that the money we spend on coffee is reaching the guy who grows it. That the pair of sneakers we wear weren’t made by children the age of our own. And that the money we spend on goods and services funds more than just the lifestyles of an astute few in business.

Project Red – all things being equal they are not
Of 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS across the world, 22 million (or 69%) are from Africa. Worse, the number is growing at the rate of a thousand new infections every day.

Enter Project Red – an initiative of rock-star Bono and social activist Bobby Shriver. The aim of Project Red is very simple – use consumers and the power of choice they wield to make change in the places that need it most.

Brands that sign on to Project Red pledge to donate up to 50% of their profits to AIDS-related projects in Africa; brands that have signed on include American Express (the Red Card), Apple, Motorola, Armani Exchange and Dell.

Think about two credit card mailings you receive. One offers you the chance to win a million rewards points. The other offers you the opportunity to help people afflicted by one of the most terrible diseases of our time.

Which card would you choose?

Again, understanding how customers’ needs are starting to go beyond themselves can help an organisation develop relationship management strategy that is less transactional and more transformational in terms of impact on its business.

What good is progress if we will ultimately have no place to enjoy it?
The environmental needs of consumers
In 2007, the Stern Report and Al Gore’s inconvenient truths made ordinary people – and Governments across the world – sit up and take a closer look at damage being caused to the environment.

The result has been a level of awareness and concern that corporations can no longer ignore. A few have responded positively – strengthening existing customer relationships - and building new ones.

Off to a flying start – the Qantas ‘fly carbon neutral’ programme.
In September this year, Qantas launched a unique new programme that positions it as one of the most progressive airlines in the world.

The programme sees Qantas make serious investments in its business to reduce carbon emissions. It also allows its customers to make a contribution to offset their individual share of emissions. The contribution is as low as $8.40 for a flight from Sydney to Singapore which goes towards carbon abatement projects in Australia.

In 2006/7, Qantas claims to have saved 280,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions through its programme; the target is 870,000 tonnes annually by 2011. To further demonstrate its commitment, the airline earmarked September 19 (2007) as ‘world carbon neutral day’ – funding the carbon emissions of all passengers on all its flights across the world.

Qantas is an airline in touch with reality - and good customer relationship management strategy. Its investment in the programme is likely to be modest compared to the brand and customer equity it is likely to generate for itself through its operations across the world.

Relationship marketing is moving on
You can’t build relationships any more by focusing solely on the functional and emotional needs of your customers. You can’t rely only on loyalty programmes, contact programmes, freebies, offers, price offs, and other exclusive service privileges. To build strong and enduring relationships, organisations need to go beyond the strategies of the past - understand the changing mental and social mindsets of consumers, and tailor their approach accordingly.

Marketing in a Recession

Singapore is in a recession, as are most of the top twenty developed nations of the world. In most organisations, the reaction is predictable. Cut marketing budgets - every one else is. Yet, doing so could be one of the most myopic decisions a business could make.

Why?

When a market is down, prices are too
Marketing any product or service involves a cost. When times are good and economies are booming, this cost is higher than normal. The reason is simple. There are a far greater number of firms competing for the attention of the customer. For a marketer to stand out - or simply be heard - they must put a lot more weight behind their media spend.

In a market that's down, however, many competitors withdraw completely from the market or significantly lower their media spend. This presents the astute marketer with a priceless opportunity to buy media impact at a fraction of what it would normally cost.

Let's illustrate the point with a simple mathematical example.

Let's assume the the total media spend in the banking industry in Singapore in 2008 was 50 million dollars. Bank A's budget was 10 million dollars. What this means is that its category share of voice is 20%.

Let's assume in 2009, all the major banks cut their media spend which drops the total category spend to 40 million dollars. If Bank A maintains its budget of 10 million dollars, its share of voice has increased. It has moved from 20% to 25% - without any additional expense or outlay of funds.

In this situation, the marketer has gained at least in media terms.

The next question though is how to use these gains for strategic impact and advantage
Sure you have an opportunity to buy media (or more specifically the opportunity to be heard) at a lower price. But the real question is what are you going to do with your buy, what are you going to invest it in?

The choices are many. You could use your low cost media space for promotional purposes - to try and sell more products during the recession and stimulate short term demand - or you could use it to build your brand and create equity for the long term.

Many marketers will go for the short term solution and try and stimulate sales demand during the recession itself through incentives and price-off's. Changing market sentiment is difficult enough for Governments though, leave alone a single brand. In all likelihood - you will find it proves an uphill task depending on the product category that you're in.

Then more appropriate solution in my view is to focus on the long term and use your media investment to build your brand. To take the time to understand what it means (if you haven't done that already), what makes it unique, different and compelling to your audience and then convey this difference to them in the most impactful manner possible.

What this approach will do is prepare you and your brand for success when the market turns. When the ice of the recession shows its first signs of retreat giving way to the first buds of recovery and growth.

If you have used the recession to build your brand, then you will have gained during this period of uncharateristically low marketing activity a strong lead over your competitors in terms of your brand's awareness, knowledge and preference - factors that ultimately lead to higher sales, growth and profit.

Recession. Crisis or opportunity?
The recession is here. And it's both a crisis and opportunity. The question is how you are going to use it to build your brand's future benefit, advantage and success.