How To
Build and Manage A Winning Brand
by: Jill St Claire, President - JSC Marketing, LLC
The following
issues are important to consider when building a brand, even
if that brand is called YOU, Inc.
1. Great Brands
tie into our emotions.
It is crucial that this link be present and underlying all brand
building efforts. If your brand efforts don't touch people at
an emotional level, their power to leverage and attract is nil.
If your own brand building efforts (You, Inc.) are not emotionally
driven then your power to sustain your brand building efforts
will be weak!
2. Brands are never-ending
stories!
Branding is a journey. The path that a brand takes is always
a bit unknown. This is a key point. We do not always know what
lies in the "implicate order." Therefore branding
is both recognition and management of the present as well as
creating the space and opportunity for emergent possibilities
within the context of the journey.
3. Brands have
lasting value and transcend fad.
While it is cool...to be cool, what matters is what lasts. Moving
our brand into a position where it has to be cool to survive
is sounding a death nell. Coolness is a result of the brand
acceptance, not the brand intention. It will pay to remember
that!
4. Great Brands
are consistent in appearance.
Everything you do to promote your brand needs design consistency.
Continuous management of appearance is critical to creating
brand equity and leverage. The biggest part of attraction that
many people forget, is that people need to know you're there!
Brand consistency must be seamless and transparent...the effects
are clear, the intention is subtle elegance.
5. Brands re-create
categories!
Look what Blockbuster did for video. Boston Market for fast
food. Nike for sports. Starbucks for coffee. Each and every
one of these great brands have one thing in common, they became
protagonists in view of a simple goal, to reinvent the entire
category.
6. You can brand
ANYTHING, even You!
What makes people desire one thing over another? How does one
brand attract people over another? Anything can be managed as
a brand by following simple rules and by consistently outperforming
the other items in the category. This performance doesn't have
to be validated only accepted!
7. Great Brands
have a clear identity!
Successful brands know themselves and what they are about. They
have become clear regarding their own boundaries and the need
to position themselves for success considering all the possibilities
in the whole. Sometimes knowing what NOT to do is the key to
brand identity.
8. Brand building
is a marathon not a sprint!
In today's world of possibilities and global exchange, the only
thing is brand. Price has been shown to be superfluous in the
presence of a strong performing brand. People want dependability...a
known quantity that differentiates itself from the pack of also-rans.
People want to feel important and they leverage that through
brand identification. Building a brand is a constant and continuous
journey...a long-term approach.
9. Brands are involved!
Brand builders consistently show up at the right time, in the
right place and in the right way. A knack for great brand building
is precisely knowing when to say when. Consider your brands
identity, your branding intention and your brand investment
and make continuous deposits towards building brand equity.
10. Brands benefit
the consumer!
What is your feature-benefit ratio? If people are not better
off having used your brand, you're in big trouble! That takes
two loci of action, one being; that you as a brand manager place
your brand in a position to succeed or . . . don't do it. Two;
that the benefits appear to the consumer in a holistic way.
It's kind of like the brand that keeps on giving.
Buckminster Fuller
is credited with saying that "when you flush a toilet,
it goes somewhere." When people use your products and services,
the same thing happens. If you sacrifice the long-term value
in a holistic sense for some short-term gain, you are endangering
your brand equity!
© 2003 JSC
Marketing, LLC – All Rights Reserved.
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About The Author:
With over 20 yrs holding executive
level positions in the corporate arena, Jill St Claire discovered
that most organizations produce viable products, but they fail
to identify who their "best" customers are and how
to effectively reach them. St Claire’s proven strategies are
now applied to Digital Media Marketing providing cost-effective
solutions that increase the "bottom line". Jill@JSCMarketing.com
1.888.435.5156
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