It is becoming harder and harder for companies to differentiate their product. The key to success is to market your brand, not your product.
These days, everything is becoming branded!. Companies have realized that a strong brand name is the best opportunity for rapid growth. With a strong brand you build credibility, have more influence on your market, and motivate customers and clients to purchase from you.
But, What is branding?First, we understand that the brand is a combination of attributes, communicated through a name, or a symbol, that influences a thought-process in the mind of an audience and creates value.
As branding is deeply anchored in psycho-sociology, it takes into account both tangible and intangible attributes, e.g., functional and emotional benefits. Therefore, those attributes compose the beliefs that the brand’s audience recalls when they think about the brand in its context.
Branding is the blend of art and science that manages associations between a brand and memories in the mind of the brand’s audience. It involves focusing resources on selected tangible and intangible attributes to differentiate the brand in an attractive, meaningful and compelling way for the targeted audience.
When is the right time to “brand” your company?NOW! Many companies spend their budget selling “product” not brand. This is a huge mistake, we can learn from how the top brands market. McDonald’s does not sell hamburgers; McDonald’s sells “McDonald’s” Blockbuster does not sell videos; Blockbuster sells “Blockbuster”.
Is Branding just for large companies?No, CUOMA process can be applied to any business, organization, or product. Our process takes the proven principles of branding used by most important companies and puts them into a simple, and easy-to-use process. CUOMA works on the visual aspects, attributes, differentiated values and tone of the communication, to shape a solid and coherent brand image and contribute to the positioning strategy. This process can be used by retailers, service businesses, manufacturers, businesses, and organizations of all types and sizes.
How to start?Typically, a branding campaign consists of three elements:
1 - The Brand.It is a combination of recognition, experiences and promises. The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it’s advertised.
2 - The Brand Strategy.This is simply known as positioning, obvious through a strategic plan. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Every brand should come with a promise. The most important is Develop your brand strategy around emotional benefitsList the features and benefits of your product / service. A feature is an attribute – a color, a configuration; a benefit is what that feature does for the customer.Determine which benefits are most important to each of your customer segments.Identify which benefits are emotional – the most powerful brand strategies tap into emotions, even among business buyers.Look at the emotional benefits and boil them down to one thing that your customers should think of when they think of you. That’s what your brand should represent.
3 - The Brand Identity.This is every visual expression of the brand, be it in print, television, internet and any other media. One of the fastest ways to build brand identity is through the careful application of graphic design. First, the graphics must reflect how strategists want the brand to be perceived. Second, the graphics must be appropriate to the targeted customer. And last, the graphics must be consistent. The key to marketing a brand image is the consistent use in all markets.
So What’s the Next Step?Our team will guide you through our brand identity process; from distilling brand strategy and brand research to defining brand attributes. We’ve established a clear process that accommodates you whatever stage you’re at, whether you’re improving an existing brand or creating a brand from the scratch.
If you need samples, View our Brand Identity works at cuoma.com
