BUILDING BRAND FOR BETTER RETURNS

 Difference in Brand Construct

After a day-long drive, I checked in to a hotel beside Lake Rotorua, New Zealand. Staff on duty seemed happy, committed, behaved as if they owned the place and impressed me with impeccable their conduct. The experience was different from all other hotels I had ever checked in. 

Back home, I wanted to buy an equipment for my house. Influenced by advertisements and impressed by the proprietor’s publicised and principled stand on various socio-political issues, I decided on a brand. Machines, irrespective of make, do fail but services promised should not. Repeated calls to the service centre went unattended. It required persistence and contacts to get my work done!

Dr APR is a medical specialist in whom, my trust has grown each day over a decade. I refer my friends and seek long distance pro bono consultancy for many.

Three different brands and three different brand images. Hype and hoopla around brand promotion aside, brand image is all about how it connects and stays on with the consumer.

Responses

The hotel, on a faraway continent, responded to my review[1]. I refer the hotel to travellers and receive helpful votes on my page.

The response from the manufacturer located a few kilometres away from where I stay, was just a system generated acknowledgement to my mail. They neither returned my calls nor followed up on mail. In fact, many have expressed similar experiences. I strongly advice those whom I know against having anything to do with the unresponsive brand that is destined to wither away.

The doctor unassumingly continues serving humanity. I continue to refer the doctor and pester him for advice for any one whom I think needs help. Those referred refer others!

Spurred by my experiences, I end up unknowingly reinforcing multiple brand images, either favourably or unfavourably.

Promised Experience

Though defined as intangible, brand is an identity that promises a tangible experience. More favourable the experienceable and consistently closer to the promise, better perceived and accepted becomes the brand. Mega launches, opulent promotions, celebrity endorsements, and audacious allocations gather eyeballs till the glitz last. Image, loyalty and value of brands are made of greater stuff. It rests on something abstract seemingly promised by the brand. Invariably, it is the prevalent perception amongst the masses.

Though individual perception may vary, there is a commonly held belief associated with each brand. It could be as subjectively vague as quality – price combination or as objective as warranty services or as intangible as societal relevance or trust worthiness. It is this uniquely individual expectation that aggregates to what the population believes is the brand promise. It is the ability of a brand to meet individual and collective expectation which decides its reach. It is at this point brand loyalty is sown.

Seeding Loyalty

Enticing pricing schemes loaded with freebies can bait reach and generate initial volumes. It seldom seeds loyalty nor reaps retention. Advertisements and celebrity endorsements ensure brand visibility that can help move it, once off the shelf. However, real growth of a brand happens not by the first sale but through repeated buys by the same customer. Ability of the brand to repeatedly satiate customer’s expectations seeds brand loyalty. Consumer then accepts, adopts and owns the brand. Such brand loyalty dictates brand life expectancy.

Brand’s growth is driven by its performance aided by tentacles of the brand. A knowledgeable salesman at the counter representing the brand, a friendly service engineer on a house call, a helpful call centre executive taking a feedback or recording a complaint are tentacles of the brand, which nourishes and enriches its image. The combination, of performance and support systems, seeks and seeds loyalty, makes it addictive and ensures brand success.  

Brand, after all, is nothing more than a collection of pleasant or unpleasant memories about a product or service. Brand equity essentially is the outcome of brand loyalty.

Brand Equity

Equity is synonymous with ownership. A brand, whose ownership is confined only to its creators, promoters and on those who are stuck with it, is doomed. A brand must have the inherent wherewithal to influence and entice so as to spread, grow and thrive. The ability of a brand to meet and go beyond expectations, is what fuels its growth. It is this characteristic of the brand that enhances its equity. Brand equity is built on performance, reliability and durability. Brand equity is essentially the outcome of brand image and its societal reach. It is bound to suffer if those, dealing with it, act deviant.

Brand Image

A good brand embodies the core values integral to the parent organisation. Brand image is the reflection of organisational culture. Size notwithstanding, great brand images come from organisations with impeccable core values. Fly-by-night operators or get-rich-quick promoters resorting to sell-and-scoot techniques can never offer great brands.

While brand identity is a time-consuming creation, brand image is the considered affirmation or rejection of the identity marketed. The brand would eventually find its own niche in the market. That is why some carefully crafted, aggressively marketed, celebrity endorsed brands enjoy hoisted reputation only to suffer equity erosion.

Its when employees and employers alike internalise core values the brand represents, can they effectively promote the brand. Better the internalisation, integration and implementation, lesser the need to labour on marketing strategies and sculpting brand identity. That is why selection and induction of individual into organisations assumes importance.

Brand Value

In the market place everything finally has to be translated into numbers. Brands are no exception. Different agencies use different parameters and methods of evaluation to calculate brand value. Irrespective of the method used to assign objective value to a subjective aspect, two elements that immensely impact brand value are reach and loyalty, which in turn is dependent on consistency in performance. Both these aspects theoretically or statically calculatable, effectively dictate the movement of the brand, turnover of the company and therefore the profit margins. In turn, brand value impacts the price of equity shares. Thus, it becomes a key consideration in acquisitions and justifiably demands appropriate compensation.

ROI

Brand represents cumulative aggregation of all investments made in a specific product, service or endeavour and investments must yield returns.  Marketing strategies certainly increase visibility, recall and market penetration. However, the real yield comes from the inherent strength of the brand and the image it has created for itself rather than the identity projected. Better the image, higher the returns.

A lingering Thought

Isn’t every individual a living brand? Isn’t time for us to evaluate our own ‘brand net worth’ at least once?

 

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[1] Trip advisor and Google