A marketing professional once commented that building a successful brand depends mostly on luck. Well, that is only partially true and it definitely takes more than luck to establish a brand. Accord-ing to research, a brand must engage a consumer’s senses in order to entrench itself in his mind. Remem-ber the “Give Me Red” campaign from Eveready? The battery manufacturer was already a market leader in India’s `1,500 crore dry cell market, when the campaign was launched.
The campaign was not only a great hit but it also changed the way batteries were perceived at that point in time. The brand was instantly recognised.
Buoyed by the success of the campaign and wanting to create more punch to the existing campaign, Eve-ready roped in Amitabh Bachchan to endorse the brand. This move did not hit it off with the audience that well, but then that’s another story.
Says Saumya Chattopad-hyay, Director, Strategic Planning, Ogilvy (Africa), “Every successful brand needs to connect. It must be able to tell a story which appeals to our senses. The story must be about the things we care about and enjoy. This story must be repeated constantly using multiple touch points over a long time so that consumers are able to recollect the product at the time of sale.” Be heard and that too above the din of your competitor’s voices. That is indeed very challenging.
“We are being bombarded by so many advertisements every time we open the television or read a newspaper or magazine that it becomes difficult for us to recollect the names of all the various brands,” says Chattopad-hyay. Hence, companies are now looking at innovative ways of increasing brand awareness and loyalty. This, developing an effective brand strategy is one of the ways of ensuring the success of a brand.
Take, for instance, Maruti Udyog Limited that has its all new Swift. It has adopted an aggressive branding strategy and is already doing things differently. So there have been no teaser campaigns or a brand ambassador. The advertisements are all quite direct and pitch on the fact that “the new Swift gives you more”. “The newspapers are splashed with colourful advertisements of the Swift. And consumers will definitely be tempted to buy the new brand when it is launched,” says S. Chatter-jee, an advertising professional. Professionals like Chattopadhyay observe that competition is particularly fierce in today’s world since consumers have more access to information than before. There is also a plethora of choices before them. So the ultimate aim of every brand is to catch eyeballs by means of a compelling brand message.
Scott Bedbury, a leading brand consultant, who has worked with such successful brands like Starbucks and Nike, in his book entitled A Brand New World, wrote that a brand is the sum of the good, the bad and the ugly and of strategy. It is the best as well as the worst product.
To be able to develop the right branding strategy, the core values of the brand must be developed. Core values like excellent communication and integrity are not really apparent to the public but these are evident in every marketing strategy. Be it customer service or website design to even treatment of its employees, a brand’s core values get reflected in each of these.
Once the core values have been identified, a lot of research has to go into developing the brand. Research looks at several things like the target audience composition, the current market statistics, the potential growth et al. “It’s important to remember that the target audience is the most important area to focus on. The information must be as comprehensive as possible. Give statistics like gender, age group, income, shopping habits etc,” says Chattopadhyay.
Only once you understand the need of the target audience will you be able to develop the brand in a more relevant and engaging manner. And last but not least, your brand should never promise anything as this is already expected. So, steer clear of adjectives like good and learn to wow your audience instead. For, that is the only way to stay put in their hearts.
The writer is a well- known industry watcher