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Brands on the Run

Branding has been getting a bad rap lately: a recent article in INSIGHT magazine proclaimed: "Want to throw some money down the rat hole? Try branding." The article went on to say that "most branding efforts, it seems, result in wasted dollars and little payoff." Should young start-ups be so bold to be thinking about their brand, or is there a better place to spend their bucks? Just what is all this hoo-ha about brands?

Brands are under pressure. Brand guru Lynn Upshaw, author of Building Brand Identity, notes, "The holy order of brands has been one of the few things that we could count on to remain stable in our unstable economy. That is no longer the case. Who marketers sell their brands to, what they sell, and how they sell them, are all mutating at an exponential rate like some commercial Andromeda strain." And a November 2000 Business 2.0 article claims that "most marketing groups within high-tech firms find it very difficult to justify brand building."

So why should anybody commit his hard-earned cash into building a brand? Surely you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere?

The answer to these questions depend on what you believe branding is all about. Is it about creating a logo and splattering it on every piece of corporate paraphernalia? Creating a catchy tagline? Crafting an impressive mission statement that lays out your vision for the whole of consumer-kind? What's in a brand?

"Brands have become the atomic core of our consumer-driven, capitalistic economy," according to Upshaw. "They are the nucleus of product and service categories to which consumers have been attracted in search of benefits that will make their lives more pleasant."

Upshaw continues:

A brand has been defined as the name, logo, and other outward symbols that distinguish a product or service from others in its category. But a brand is much more than that...It's DHL's flying vans, the voice of Jack Lemmon for Honda or Eli Wallach for Toyota, the lifetime guarantee on Tumi luggage, and the select locations where Ralph Lauren is sold and not sold. These characteristics and many more make up the totality of the brand, and contribute to what is referred to as its 'identity.'

The brand name, according to MarketingProfs.com, puts a face on the company. "Names like McDonald's, Amazon.com, GM, Apple, Intel and a host of others have long become significant members of pop culture vocabulary. They've also given consumers a point of reference when thinking about a company."

Promises Made and Kept

"Branding is what transforms the ubiquitous into the coveted, the familiar to the specialized, the mundane to the magical."

–The Nuancing Group

Think about your own relationship with brands. Why you buy one type of cornflakes instead of another. Why you're prepared to try a new brand offering from a company whose products you've grown to rely on. Why some labels represent the essence of cool. Why certain products make statements about you and your lifestyle.

Whether we're conscious of it or not, our buying decisions are swayed by our own relationship with brands — some of which stem back to childhood. Things that were staple items in your Mom's pantry — old favorites, products you rely on — have an odd way of reappearing in your own.

A brand is fundamentally a promise made and kept. When Starbucks or Yahoo! or Volkswagen promise a certain performance from their product or service, and then deliver on that promise year after year, they are forming a covenant between buyer and seller that results in a long-term commitment which maximizes the lifetime value of that customer to the brand involved.

–Lynn Upshaw

Buying a brand becomes a matter of trust. At the basis of this trust are good products: Products that work; that do the job they are supposed to do. When companies live up to consumer expectations, their brands take on a life of their own — a life viewed through the eye of the consumer. You can tell consumers that you stand for quality. They will decide if that's what you are really about. You can tell consumers you care. Your actions (from the way you answer the telephone to the way you react to customers' complaints) will show them if it's just lip service. You can spend a small fortune proclaiming the superiority of your brand. Your prospective customers will cast their votes at the checkout counter.

Who Am I?

But what does all this mean to a young company? When times are tough, when budgets are stretched to the limit, how should a start-up company address branding? When creating a branding strategy, the building blocks of brands are the same. You start by understanding what business you're in. What you want to be when you grow up. You create a strong brand identity.

Many early-stage companies create their brand identity on the run. Instead of creating a well-defined graphic look and feel underlying all the marketing communications material, each element is created separately. The result: company stationery, brochures and website all look completely different. There is no coherent message, just a hodgepodge of images, colors and messages jumbled together. "You need a clear message," says Hasso Platner, SAP's CEO, quoted in a Business Week Online article entitled "The Best Global Brands."

Platner dubbed his drive to achieve a consistent look for the company "speaking SAPanese."

It's all about focus, according to brand maven Martin Lindstrom. "The most important points are your focus on a specific audience, on a specific value, and on a specific tone of voice," he says.

Whether you're selling silicon chips or potato chips, the challenge is the same. Your brand needs to stand out in a cluttered and increasingly noisy marketplace. "Me-toos" with fuzzy brand identities have little chance of success. As Tom Peters once remarked, "It's a new brand world."