Creating Brand Value

Watching out for that waistline of yours? Or thinking twice everytime you wanna go out & grab a bite? Especially in a fast-food outlet? This is a common feeling most people nowadays have because more & more are becoming health-conscious. So, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a new restaurant that would specialize ONLY in serving mini-size portions of everything- burgers, sandwiches, kebabs, roast chicken….you name it. Besides serving waistline-minded eaters something to nibble on, the restaurant would also serve hungrier customers the mix-and-match pleasures of traditional restaurants & eateries.

Serving Liliputian size meals & miniatures-only is a niche concept that could definitely take off.

Suppose you want to buy a car and you were given two options:- one made in Germany & the other made in Turkey. Which one would you choose? Like most people, you’d choose the one made in Germany because it has established a reputation for products that are of high quality, of good design and secure.

A country brand is everything! It not only ensures healthy earnings from tourism but also creates consumer perceptions that earns respect for your country.

Depending on the image the country wishes to establish, the branding strategy will differ. The branding strategy for a country that wishes to promote tourism will be different than the one that wishes to foster international relationships.

In less that two years’ time, New Zealand had increased its tourist traffic by 56% thanks to a movie. Or three. ‘Lord of the Rings’ did it for the country. Is this just a coincidence? Not really. Since the 1990s, countries like New Zealns & Autralia have allowed movie-makers to use the country’s pristine & breath-taking landscapes in big-budget movies.  Mission Impossible II and Finding Nemo were set against the backdrop of Australia.

The NZ government offered the production team of Lord of the rings special governemnt taxe incentives and grants.

Movies are just one of the many tools that can be used to  brand a country. International tournaments and global sporting events are instrumental in building a country’s image. During the Sydney Olympics 2000, snapshots of Sydney were shown during every televised event. This was part of a very well-rounded branding strategy. Even during cricket matches, you’ll see clippings of the local attractions, beautiful places, commentators indulging in local actions- all part of a calculated strategy to promote the country or the place hosting the event.

It is possible to build a strong country brand and it most definitely can be done. It took Nokia 5 years to turn Finland into the master of wireless technology, India to turn into a progressive and efficient place where their goods and services can be relied upon.

So, what can Bangladesh learn from all this? We have been endowed with so many natural attractions. We have the longest beach at Cox’s bazar, the largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans, the Bandarban Hill Tracts, tea gardens at Sylhet, just to name a few. It’s true that maybe the time hasn’t come for us to go into country branding yet. But it soon will and we need to work on it from now.

Isn’t it always the case where, in a supermarket, most people head straight for the brands they are accustomed to using, without even considering the others? It’s like a default behaviour. Much of this brand loyalty is due to laziness and a why-bother attitude.  And this is one of the greatest ally you can use for your brands, because this attitude still leaves a window of opportunity for you to change people’s minds at the moment of purchase.  For one reason or another, we sometimes just change our minds and pick up a brand out of the blue.  Now, you can take advantage of this behaviour to your brand’s benefits.

Use “fake” brand ambassadors to promote your product in a supermarket aisle. Like when someone is purchasing a certain brand of toothpaste, you can have the ‘customer’ recommend your brand to someone else, speaking highly of the brand and the benefits he has gained from using the brand. This is known as “situation placement”, where you squeeze in some brand recommendation down the line.

First thing for you to determine is where & how to place the brand & its message.  Try to think of your brand as the hero and then tell the story of how it became the hero. You need to extract the benefits of the brand into the story. Ensure to identify the unique skills of your brand and then to place your brand in a story so that it turns out to be hero, the helper or the focus point.

Done correctly, your brands will certainly come out as the stars of the show!

The new consumer market is a living & breathing model.  The ten specific consumer cravings that cross industries and age brackets as they drive every decision made by members of Generation X & Y:-

1. They want extreme personalization for the brands they purchase

2. They crave adventure. It’s their new social currency

3. They seek close friendships and forming tightly knit yet non-traditional communities

4. To the new generation of consumers, the  look & feel of objects, places and things are becoming extremely important

5.They want their choices simplified

6. They are rejecting push advertising and depending more on peer-to-peer networks

7. Consumers are exploring thei creative power and influencing change

8. They want compelling & entertaining brand experiences

9. Spirituality has become a dominant value among today’s consumers. it is changing the way people connect and how families operate

10. The New Generation is more passionate about volunteerism and doing something so that they can give back to the society. This is an attitude that’s influencing their career choices and shaping how they spend their downtime.

What do toothpaste, toothbrushes, pillows, toys, chocolates, CDs, hair gel, building blocks, pillows……phew!!! the list could go on & on….and oh Yes!!! not to mention seven books, have in common?

You’re right on spot!! It’s Harry Potter.

I’m sure the writer, J.K. Rowling had no idea that Harry Potter would become the most sought-after kids’ brands ever, when she conjured up the whole concept during a train journey.  Little did the rest of the world also know that it would be competing head-to-head with brands like Nintendo,Disney, or Sony.

Never in history has the release of a Children’s book & movie been so much anticipated like the relaeses of Harry Potter books & movies. Although in Bangladesh the craze is not that much, it’s unbelievable in the Western world. People brave all odds just so that they can be the first ones to get their hands on the book. The positive fact is that, never before has a book managed to become the key attraction for kids all over the Western world, despite the presence of all sorts of computer games, the Internet, interactive television, and mobile phones.

The Harry Potter series is on to its fifth movie and seventh & final book, and yet, the fascination & anticipation have not faded at all. Instead, it seems to increase every time before the release of a book or a movie.

Sales of the books have progressively set new marks.  The six books published to date have collectively sold more than 325 million copies and have been translated into 63 languages. And the latest movie is set to rewrite some old records at the box office.

This speaks volumes for the successful brand that is Harry Potter.

Prediction

BRAND will become the most powerful strategic tool since the spreadsheet.

Problem

In most companies, strategy is separated from creativity by a wide gap.

When both sides of the brain work together, you can have yourself a charismatic brand. A charismatic brand is any product, service or organization for which people believe there’s no substitute. Any brand can be charismatic.

Even yours!!!

But first, you have to master the five disciplines of brand-building.

Discipline 1:- Differentiate

Our brains act as filters to protect us from too much information. We’re hardwired to notice only the things that are different.

Discipline 2:- Collaborate

Like making a movie, building a brand is a collaborative project. 1+1=11. Why? Because the mathematics of collaboration is nothing less than MAGIC!!

Discipline 3:- Innovate

Creativity is where you can make a mark for yourself in the market. How do you know when an idea is innovative? When it scares the hell out of everyone!

Discipline 4:- Validate

Validation means bringing the audience into the creative process. The old communication model was a monologue. The new communication model is a dialogue.

Discipline 5:- Cultivate

Brands are like people. If people can change their clothes without changing their characters, why can’t brands? The old paradigm was- “Control the LOOK & FEEL of the brand.” The new paradigm is- “Influenece the CHARACTER of a brand.  If a brand looks like a duck, and swims like a dog, people wil distrust it.

By mastering the five disciplines of branding, the company creates a virtuous circle. With every turn around the circle, the value of the brand will spiral higher.  You build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Complacency is the No.1 enemy of the marketing professionals dealing with global Brands. Like all human beings, marketing professionals also make mistakes, sometimes costly. Jack Trout, in his book, Big Brands, Big Trouble mentioned about costly mistakes of General Motors, Xerox, Levi Strauss, Firestone and various other global brands. We are also aware of how the global No-1 brand, Coca-Cola made costly & embarrasing decision of replacing its flagship soft-drink, Coca-Cola or Coke, with a sweeter version named New Coke. Public reaction to the change was devastating and the New Coke quickly entered the Hall of Fame of Major Marketing Flops.

As the global marketing is opening up, marketing professionals must have the vision to capitalize on the opportunities. They must be able to create differences in anything & everything they do in terms of product innovation, branding strategies, and IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) options.

This millennium is for those marketing professionals who have the global vision and local/regional understandings, and the willingness to transform the market potentials into reality by avoiding areas prone to costly mistakes.

This article is quoted from agencyfaqs 

 With many firms setting up studios to provide 24×7 support to creative functions across the globe, India’s creative reputation becomes critical. Pratap Bose,
CEO, Ogilvy & Mather India

Our core strength is that we communicate in English, are low-cost and have impressive skills in design and creatives

Indian advertising surely has what it takes to become the outsourcing hub of the world. When we are outsourcing for just about anything why should advertising be left behind? Can we become the outsourcing base for Asia-Pacific? Yes, we can. Can we be an outsourcing base for the world? Yes, we can. But it might take five to ten years for that to happen. The efforts have to be set now to make it a reality. Right now we have just taken baby steps. If we rather take giant leaps, it’s possible to become an outsourcing base in five to ten years. We have a long way to go to reach that pinnacle.

The Asia-Pacific region records the highest growth in advertising comparative with the rest of the world and India plays a vital role in this region. Looking at beyond the traditional travails of advertising there are certainly areas like gaming, animation, outsourcing of design, production and research that India exports internationally. India is a regional hub already for certain clients and brands. But we cannot in any sense be called a truly global hub.

Many companies like Ogilvy & Mather and Lintas are now opening studios that work as 24-hour centres and provide support to creative functions across their global networks. In the case of Ogilvy, our Bangalore office has already become the global hub for Lenovo.

In the case of cellphone maker Nokia, its recently chosen worldwide agency, Wieden and Kennedy, would take care of the company’s global creative work and adapt it to local market conditions. India could look at doing the same thing. Ad agency JWT, for example, makes ad campaigns from a single location for Unilever. The campaign however runs in several markets.

Our core strength is that we communicate in English. We are also a low-cost destination with an impressive talent pool coupled with great skills in design, research and not to forget great creative skills as well. When the industry talks about China, this is a challenge they face. This pool of talent certainly works to our advantage in handling global clients.

We also have the expertise and knowledge in understanding low-income group consumers, which is a major advantage to communicate with developing markets across the globe in places like Africa and even Eastern Europe. We have the wherewithal to understand the pulse of consumers in these markets. This is another valuable bargaining chip in helping global clients. How to communicate with them will stand us in good stead while addressing consumers in Africa or other parts of Asia.

At the recently held Goafest, industry experts spoke of the growth status of advertising in the country. If we need to move the advertising contribution from 0.55 per cent of GDP to 1 per cent, outsourcing will facilitate that.

If India proves its mettle in being able to handle a minimum clutch of clients this will instill a huge confidence among international clients who, in turn, shall begin to view India as a capable outsourcing destination.

Arvind Sharma,
Chairman (Indian sub-continent),
Leo Burnett

India’s creative reputation is not formidable enough — Indian agencies still haven’t won a TV gold at Cannes

There is no doubt that India is one of the world’s hottest outsourcing destinations. And with good reason. Here is a huge pool of immensely talented people with the right education, dedication and sufficient command over English language. For any regular function that makes for an excellent outsourcing hub. But then, advertising is not a regular function. Nor is it an exact science, where the right training or the right ‘degree’ can guarantee the right output. Therefore, part of the challenge for Indian advertising before it emerges as a serious contender in the outsourcing game is to build credibility among global clients. In my view, before we get anywhere, we will need to resolve four key issues.

First of all, we will need to build our creative reputation on a far more formidable scale. Our handful of bronzes and silvers at international award shows don’t change the truth that Indian agencies still haven’t won a television gold at Cannes. On the global creative scene, that places us below markets like Thailand, which are regular gold winners. In the future, we will need many more and better advertising ideas that win gold and perhaps go on to bag a Grand Prix. Till then, our credentials are still in the making.

Our second challenge is to build strength in non-mass media communication. Globally, advertising is moving towards formless ideas that work without mass media. A shining example is this year’s Titanium winning ‘Earth hour’ promotion by Leo Burnett Sydney. This campaign against global warming invited Sydney residents to turn off their lights between 7:30 and 8:30 pm on March 31. More than two million people responded and the city registered a 10 per cent drop in energy used that night! Ideas like this form able representatives not just for the agency, but also for the industry. Unfortunately, Indian advertising continues to remain television centric. If we are eyeing the global market this needs to change, and a good start might be to have an awards show that celebrates non-mass media ideas at the Indian award shows.

Our third challenge is the woeful shortage of talent.We are losing out on good people because of our failure to match the compensation structures of client organisations. Even an institute like MICA that was ostensibly set up to meet the advertising industry’s need for trained youngsters, has students opting for client positions because of significantly higher pay packages.

In a creative profession like advertising where people make all the difference, we must find ways of managing agencies more efficiently to bring more money into play in retaining talent. Having said this, I don’t doubt that the day will come when India will become international advertising’s favourite outsourcing hub. I believe that one day, global clients will see a face of Indian creativity that they will swear by, but that day is not today. Ask me this same question ten years from now, and maybe you may find me on the other side of the page, rooting for the ayes!

People like to associate themselves with other people in sharing the big feelings, important values & strong emotions of life. Feelings is an important consideration for brand marketers of all kinds.

 Brand Tip of the day-

Branding is about feelings & emotions. It is about our ‘Nature’ as human beings. Trust your instincts & your heart- and do not underestimate the power of aligning people behind big emotional values.

Brands are thoughts. They exist only in the minds. So, if brands are essentially thoughts, then all thoughts are potentially brands. Then the best way to understand brands is to reduce them to their core thoughts, and then work out from there. This means that the essential need is to get inside people’s head in the first place. That’s the only possible starting point for brand development & management. Otherwise, there is no basis for anything.

Brand Tip of the day-

Do not relaxx until you have identified the core of a brand- what drives it connection with consumers. This means getting inside consumers’ heads, and understanding deep-seated motivations & thought processes. Once that has been figured out, the development of the brand mix should be a rational & logical working out from the core.