I still remember how a telecom major made a splash while entering the market. Besides the usual paraphernalia of media teasers, and advertisements, its founder-director created quite a stir when he descended upon a well-decorated stage in a parachute.
Well, what an awesome entry, I must say! But I don’t remember the mobile company making a dent in the market, after that one!
Yes, branding is important — it creates an emotional connect with the audience immediately even when the product is a very unemotional one like a laundry soap. But a mere marketing message is not enough. Today’s consumer is intelligent; he is not likely to get duped by nicely couched words. He believes in action — the brand must be equally good as the marketing message has portrayed it to be.
To brand a corporate identity, it’s not enough to rely just on graphics, or a good creative story. The brand must perform. As Saumya Chattopadhyay, Director, Strategic Plan-ning, Ogilvy Africa, explains, “That makes a brand a verb. It expresses action and existence. In other words, branding is all about being and doing.”
Branding is not only about how you act and react to a situation, it’s also about how your customers feel about you. Take for instance the recent ad on Gems. Everyone loves the “umarless” product commercial which has the power to zip even a 40-year-old back to the time when he was young, but I am sure if the product did not taste as chocolatey, everyone would have completely forgotten it by now!
An important point to remember here is that you have to establish your brand in the mindscape of the consumer by repeatedly doing what you have to in order to achieve your goal. “Make a concerted effort to establish your brand and your effort should be sustainable,” says M. Deb, an advertising professional. An analogy that comes to mind is that branding is almost like happiness. Like happiness it is not a destination to be reached but the journey that you take. In this journey, you must take the necessary action to improve your result.
To be able to improve the result, it’s important to set the stage. What do your clients feel about you now? “Many a time a company does not have the answer to this — so ask. Undertake market surveys. This is especially important when you are starting a new business,” says Chattopadhyay. What was the trigger for setting up a new business? What skill-sets have you brought into the business? What do customers feel about you? These are some questions that you definitely need to ask.
To establish a brand, it’s also necessary to stay connected with the consumer. So how do you connect? Ask these questions so that you can connect better. Does the message that you portray connect with your brand and is it meaningful to your audience? For instance, if you are a telecom major, you may talk about 4G but there’s no point in talking about re-cent advances in weather tracking technology. Sim-ilarly, if you are into health and wellness, then you may want to put some health awareness tips into a magazine but organising a health fair or a marketing conference may really not serve your purpose. So be aware of your customer’s needs and focus on solutions accordingly.
Also be consistent, be-cause inconsistency may confuse your audience. “It’s important to ensure that service delivery is on time, and is consistent. Of course, you can change your price or your style to suit customer needs. Remember the Zoozoo commercial launched before the first IPL in India? Vodafone got good mileage because it came up with a completely different idea that immediately became a hit. However, when you make a change in a product you must communicate this to your audience.” The audience respects openness. So, if you want your brand to stand out, then be authentic as this creates credibility in a consumer’s mind.