By Heather C. Conover
Conover + Company Communications
Not long ago, branding was associated primarily with commercial companies, such as McDonalds and Pepsi, that sold products. Today, we see companies of all sizes and types, including service companies, spending considerable resources on branding. With the ever-growing choices that confront customers, branding is essential if a company-no matter the type or size- is to succeed in standing out from the crowd.
A brand encompasses everything about a company. It's a company's products and services, as well as its financial performance, associations, management, employees, and reputation as an employer and corporate citizen. When a customer-defined in the broadest sense to include consumers, other businesses, employees, and shareholders-is making a choice about a brand, it's not based entirely on logic, but on emotion, as well. Nor is the choice based entirely on a customer's direct experience, but also on a company's, product's, or service's reputation and overall image.
In short, a brand is a promise that a company makes to its customers. A successful brand is one that delivers on that promise. Clearly, a brand can't possibly be all things to all people. It needs to stand for something, have a distinct and well-defined position that differentiates it from others in its category, and ideally, create a category unique to itself. Once created, it shouldn't be changed. If a company decides to change what it stands for, it breaks its promise to its customers, destroying the trust it has built.
Finally, a brand must have high awareness. A brand isn't built overnight, but over years and decades. The unique selling proposition must be repeated consistently and frequently through multiple channels. An integrated marketing program is key to effective brand building and maintenance. Advertising traditionally has played a primary role in branding and should continue to do so. Advertising can communicate a brand's distinct position and create high awareness by reaching millions of customers through such vehicles as print, radio, television, billboards, and the Internet. It can also help maintain that position by continuing to market the brand and communicate the image. However, advertising is also limited in its role because customers know that a company has paid for the ad.
Public relations builds brands through publicity-third party endorsements that build credibility for the brand. Public relations encompasses strategies to communicate with all of a company's "customers." Newsletters to employees, sponsorship of a high profile event, letters to shareholders, e-mails and gifts to valued customers create and maintain a relationship with the customer and maintain the brand image.
In a crowded and competitive marketplace, how your customers perceive and feel about your brand matters.
Spring 2001 - Volume 11, Number 2