New paradigms in Brand Building

Brand building is nothing but establishing a strong identity for your product or service that potential users or customers think of you first when they're in the market for that particular product or service. Brand Building is a strong, consistent message about the value of your company.

You control the message through marketing, advertising, customer service, and all interaction between your company and the market. You don't need to be as large as Coca-Cola to have a brand. Building a brand involves the same process, whether your company is two weeks or two years old, whether you have 100 employees or none.

According to Biju Dominique, Senior Manager, Brand Developing, Lowe Lintas, the most important point to remember, " Every product has a targeted audience. All companies should decide overhand which section of the society they will target their product with. Before getting down to building brand, one should try to get the consensus reality. Every expenditure should be well supported by research and consensus, otherwise, the product to be introduced in the market could prove to be a disaster. The process of building a brand should be done at the right time and that too at the right place. You cannot expect the sale of Lifebouy to escalate, because you paid more to advertise the product in Star Plus, on the contrary, the sale might go down, as none of the Star Plus Viewer would go for a Lifebouy soap."

Having a brand, helps the company in achieving its identity in the market. Companies that are in the preproduct, venture-capital phase, should also work on to define a working brand from day one. As a brand definition at early stages can communicate that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell. It demonstrates that you are serious about marketing, and that you intend to be around for awhile. Internally, it articulates your company's value and explains why you're in the market. These are important messages to your employees, customers, and investors.

"When the question of investors and customers arises, one basic point that every planner has to remember is that, advertising is to persuade people without cheating. Image is superficial, but product is a reality. You can biuild up castles for your product, but once the customer does not get the service being promised, then he is gone from your hand, never to come back again. Advertising is exaggerating, but it requires emotional fiction, which even a layman can relate to. Take the case of Axe Deo, we are trying to break the age old belief that fragrance and beauty care is the perogative of women. In doing that we have to hit the right chord of the Indian male, and I guess the product and the concept clicked, " confides, T Krishna, Vice President, Lowe Lintas.

Today the market is flooded with products and services, every thing has ten more options to it. In such a market condition, where according to market pundits, there is going to be more players in every sector, one has to continuously make its presence in the customer's eye. One company whose success could be attributed to only brand building is NIIT, continuous upgradation in services and courses, and quick upgradation for the parents and students, so that they do not lose on any of their customers.

Taking a different stance might work well at times. Commenting on this point Biju said, "Take the case of British Airways, they are the first company to come up with the idea bathing facility, or no one care as British Airways, which in frequent years was copied by many other airlines. So they made an impact in people's mind by creating ups. This hype for the product also creates a competitive advantage, internally as well as externally."

The tricky, long-term part added to brand building is that you need to deliver on the implied promise. The customer's experience must match the image, or the whole house of cards crashes. If you market your company as faster and better but the customer disagrees, the brand suffers. In reality, this process is not linear, but circular. Your brand will evolve in response to the customer and the evolution of your market and products.