The Power of Branding - Essay Example

The Power of Branding" Each brand may vary regarding the amount of power and value, they have in the marketplace. However, the fact is branding has tremendous power to force the customer to buy the product or utilize the service even with their ‘eyes closed’, and without allowing the customer’s analytical mind to ‘play any active role’. This power of Branding and how that power can be optimized further were analyzed by various experts and prominent authors. Wally Olins in his book On Brand firstly focuses on the three strands that will make the brand powerful and thereby businesses successful - technical or craft skills, financial know-how and the ability to sell. The strand of “ability to sell” is referred to as seduction by Olins, which gets renamed as “branding skills”. According to him, companies that focus on promoting their brands or products as their main marketing function will be able to successfully "seduce" the prospective customers into buying their products. “In companies that seduce, the brand is the focus of corporate life,” (Olins 2004). To create such a powerful brand, the authors Robert Heath, David Brandt & Agnes Nairn through the article Brand Relationships focuses on the theme that brand creation and optimal association for any product will occur, only if the viewers attach emotionally to the product. That is, all ‘mentally aware humans’ will express emotions. When nice emotions flow in the mind due to a catalyst like good advertisements, anything associated with it will also get ingrained into the individual’s mind. This concept was supported by Anna S Mattila, “Appealing to a novice consumer’s emotional responses may be highly desirable in terms of creating a favorable attitude toward a service brand” (Mattila 1999). Advertisements should need to strike a chord in the human “heart” by touching on their desires, needs, etc and also by offering solutions or benefits to them. The “head” part will come into play, when the above mentioned solutions or benefits reach their brain, leading to brand association. “Practitioners acknowledged that effective advertising, which helps build powerful, lasting brand relationships, is a balance of head and heart” (Heath, Brandt & Nairn 2006). Olins put forward the view that brand association can be made even stronger if the companies exhibit correct kind of attitude. Using Caterpillars successful jump from heavy machinery to the fashion business, Olins state Caterpillar’s positive and optimal attitude only gave it a positive image. “its to do with the attributes that the Cat brand is seen to possess worldwide. Its about attitude." (Olins 2004). This powerful brand apart from developing the business will also positively impact employees’ bonding. That is, when a brand becomes powerful and successful, apart from the customers, even the companies’ employees will tend to associate with the brand. When many employees do that, it will create good bonding between those employees, leading to better productivity. Olins focused on this aspect by stating “bonding as much as branding”. (Olins 2004). Thus, a brand can be made powerful if it is able to seduce the customers with a strong emotional message as well as positive attitude. When they do that brand will become powerful, making the business a success and also promotes good bonding between the employees, leading to better productivity. Heath, R, Brandt, D & Nairn, A 2006, Brand Relationships, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 46, No. 4. Mattila, AS 1999, ‘Do emotional appeals work for services?’ International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 10. N0. 3 pp. 292-307. Olins, W 2004, On Brand, Thames & Hudson, London. "Global branding" Brand takes a very important role in company’s marketing strategy including in the international sphere. A strong brand is a helpful and a useful tool in establishing the identity of an organization in the market as well as in the development of a loyal customer base. As stated by Susan P Douglas and C Samuel Craig, a well-developed and coherent brand architecture helps a company to create an overall international marketing strategy as “it provides a framework to leverage strong brands into other markets, assimilate acquired brands, and rationalize the firm’s international branding strategy” (Douglas & Craig, 2001). With successful branding exercises, any feasible brand can be made a Global brand and this was analyzed by Wally Olins in his work, On Brand. According to Olins, companies world over are trying to enter newer markets to tap the opportunities there, and for that their brand has to be optimally developed. Organizations or firms cannot remain “static”. They has to keep on moving breaking ‘boundaries’ both geographically as well as economically, to actualize the opportunities and emerge successful. That is, with every firms wanting to expand their geographical reach and make an imprint in various markets, there will be enough opportunities for it, to initiate an entry into a foreign market. Before initiating the entry, firms have to plan on how to build their brands there, so after they enter, their prospective customers can be easily exposed to the brand and thereby initiating the association process. If this is carried out by the organization in many world markets, then their brands will surely become a global brand. Companies are following this concept and try to enter as many foreign markets as possible in a single go. This is what Olins also stated, Corporations now aim to cover an entire spectrum of niche markets, and to “create the maximum number of permutations out of the minimum number of parts” (Olins 2004). By advertising in media including transnational media, companies can optimize brand association process as they enter foreign country, resulting in effective brand association. “…brands [have] migrated…and the media [have] migrated them so that now brands have become -- whether we like it or not -- part of the very air we breathe” (Olins 2004). As part of the brand association process in foreign countries, the cultures, social customs, economic distinctions, etc of each country should be studied. That is, as stated by authors Thomas L. Wheelen, J David Hunger and K Rangarajan, Cultural norms and can values vary between countries and even vary between different geographic regions and ethnic groups within a country (Wheelen, Hunger and Rangarajan 2008). Only an in-depth understanding of each country’s distinct aspects will help in formulating apt strategies for brand association. Prior knowledge about the international competition and about countries’ cultures is the most important issue impacting the success of any global brand. A successful brand can be made into a global brand, if the company, before initiating the entry into new markets, formulates effective brand association strategies. So, to make successful brand association in foreign countries and thereby to make it a global brand, companies have to incorporate various aspects. Douglas, SP & Craig, CS 2002, Dynamics of International Brand Architecture: Overview and Directions For Future Research, viewed December 2, 2009 http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~sdouglas/rpubs/Dynamics.doc Olins, W 2004, On Brand, Thames & Hudson, London. Wheelen, T., Hunger, D and Rangarajan, K. 2008, Strategic Management and Business Policy, 9th ed, Pearson education, London. "Brand Naming" Branding is the key issue while planning a product strategy because the manufactured product or even the offered services can be made “entice-able” to the customers, only if is made into a strong brand. A brand is essentially the companies’ promise to the customers that they will deliver particular product or service with a specific set of features, which will be beneficial to the customer and importantly will hold on to that features consistently. These accepted brands have high degree of acceptability among the consumers because of certain factors. Apart from the accepted factors of quality, track record of the company, etc, etc, brand can become entice-able if it has an interesting and strong name. Marty Neumeier in his work, ZAG, focuses on this important aspect of brand naming by listing out various criteria, based on which apt, interesting and strong name can be cornered in. The first criterion is that the name of the company should be a unique one. That is, it should not resemble any of its competitors’ names. If there are many competitors, extra care should be taken to narrow a name which is unique. “The wider the competition, the narrower the focus — and vice versa.” (Neumeier 2006). Although, the name can be named from a common word used in everyday conversations, it should not be very common. Thus, the name should have striking qualities, resulting in quick grasping by the intended customers as well as the common people. This was clearly pointed out in the article published in the website, Live Strong.com. This is sometimes called “speech-stream visibility”, the quality that lets the eye or the ear pick out the name as a proper (or capitalized) word instead of a common word. (livestrong.com). The other aspect put forward by Neumeier to form an effective name that can become a strong brand name, is to have a brief name with just four syllables or even less. This is because, if there are more than four, Neumeier thinks that people will start to abbreviate the name in certain ways, which could be detrimental to the brand. On the same lines, the name should be easy to spell, so that it does not create confusion in the minds of the customers, when they enquire about it or even when they search for it, for example through the internet. According to Neumeier, an effective name will be “mouthfeel”, in the sense it will be easy, pleasing and interesting to pronounce, so that people will be more willing to use it. Along with this aspect, name should also reflect what the product stands for, what the product promises to offer, etc. This perspective was analyzed in detail by Stephanie Dutchen in her article, Drug companies and the branding agencies strive to create a name that consumers will find inspiring, comforting, authoritative, fast-acting, or personable. For example, Viagra suggests vigor and virility and evokes the forceful flow of Niagara Falls. Zyrtec and Nexium feature fricatives that imply speed and advanced technology. (Dutchen). Thus, giving an interesting and strong name to a brand will enable it to be easily ‘mouthed’ by the customers and the common people. When they adopt those names quickly, it can accentuate the brand association process. Finally, if the product is also of good quality, then that name will become a strong brand name. Dutchen, S, A Drug By Any Other Name, viewed December 2, 2009 http://scopeweb.mit.edu/?p=262 livestrong.com, What makes a good radio station name? viewed December 2, 2009 http://www.livestrong.com/health-article/what-makes-a-good-radio-station-name_cd7bb5f2-e95b-fb42-4e87-00f3f48c28eb/ Neumeier, M 2006, Zak, Peachpit Press, London. "About Nokia" Every organization survival and success hinges on the success of its end product. End product could be any physical products or even services that are offered. Both the product and the services are the ‘keys’ for an organization as they only build a brand for the company, and so that ‘key’ only opens the door of success or profit. For an organization to survive in a competitive market, and to increase its profits in an optimum manner, new products or services have to be offered regularly, at appropriate times and importantly all those products should exhibit an effective brand identity. This exactly, what Nokia Group, the Finland-based manufacturer of mobile phones, has been doing for the past two decades with a lot of success. The brand has been built over the years using basic principles of brand management. That is, in 1989, Matti Alahuhta, former Member of Nokia’s Executive Board, developed a marketing strategy for Nokia that focused on three key points Development of a product with global appeal Nimble movement to sell it internationally Most importantly, a commitment to learning what consumers want, without consideration of the limits of existing technology (Alvidrez, J et al 2001). The other marketing strategy, which sounds out of context, but which is producing great results, is the use of numeric descriptors to name each phone brand of Nokia. That is, Nokia has been able to lend personality to its different products, without even giving them specific and interesting names. In other words, it did not create any sub-brands but only concentrated on the corporate brand of Nokia. “Only numeric descriptors are used for the products, which do not even appear on the product themselves. Such is the strength of the corporate brand.” (brandingasia.com). With such a strong brand strategy only Nokia was able to dislodge Motorola from the position of number one selling mobile phone-handset company in the world. Nokias brand is now the 11th powerful brand in the world, and some marketing specialist have somewhat sarcastically recommended that maybe Finland should try to somehow link up with the brand name of Nokia to improve the brand name of the country of Finland. (american.edu). Nokia was able to achieve with strong marketing strategies, which is evolving even now. The key strategy Nokia incorporated while designing its models is that they should pay attention to even the finest details, which could enhance the ease of use for the customer as well as enhance customizable preferences. The other strategy was to introduce phones which could also be a style accessory. “The insight that the handset could be a stylish fashion accessory, rather than merely a communication tool, allowed Nokia to lead the trends and direction of the entire handset.” (Alvidrez et al 2001). This strong marketing strategy to come up with products that suits customer’s preferences and importantly giving new perspectives and purposes to the customers with new designs, only enabled Nokia to leapfrog over its competitors. Also, they are able to reinforce its brand image of providing cutting-edge communications technology with analysts characterizing Nokia as “young, sexy, sophisticated, hip and generally ‘with it.’” (Alvidrez et al 2001). This is in direct contrast to Ericsson, viewed as a brand which is “austere, conservative, middle-aged Swedish engineer,” and which supports the widely held belief that Ericsson’s handsets are unfashionable. With Motorola not taking quick strides while moving from analog to digital phones, Nokia became leader in the handset market by 1998 itself. Now, with its superior marketing strategies and a strong and powerful brand, Nokia is able to sustain that position. Alvidrez, J et al 2001, NOKIA – It’s tough being #1, viewed December 2, 2009 http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/People/Grad_Students/rcshah/documents/Nokia_Report.pdf brandingasia.com, Nokia - Building A Powerful Technology Brand, viewed December 2, 2009 http://www.brandingasia.com/cases/nokia.htm american.edu, From Finland to NokiaLand, viewed December 2, 2009 http://www1.american.edu/TED/nokia.htm Read More