Latest / The Galaxy of Marketing / Creating a strong brand

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Creating a strong brand · The Galaxy of Marketing

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  What do kids do when they heard their favorite
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  toy? Well, usually they start crying, screaming
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  and apologizing to the toy because they think
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  that the toy is alive. In their little heads,
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  the difference between a toy and a living person
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  is quite blurry. And it's not only kids' quirk.
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  Actually, adults do exactly the same thing, but
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  on a different level. Sometimes with the things
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  that don't even exist in physical world. With
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  brands. Welcome aboard, marketing explorers!
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  I'm Olga Kay, the marketing major and the captain
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  of this podcast. In today's episode, we are set
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  to explore one of the most exciting things about
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  marketing – branding and branding strategies.
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  Because all of these fancy campaigns, events,
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  and sponsorships are the result of carefully
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  tailored strategies and logic. Helmets on, and
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  let's get started! So, what is branding? Branding
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  is a creation of emotional connection with target
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  audience. The whole purpose of it is to stand
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  out among competitors and turn people into loyal
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  customers. Though it also serves as a symbolic
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  device and symbol of quality. To achieve it,
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  brands make you feel that the product or service
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  they sell is aligned with your values, beliefs
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  and represents your identity. A great example
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  of it is Nike. Over decades, they built a strong
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  emphasis on athletic achievement and culture
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  of overcoming one's limits. Rather than selling
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  shoes, they are selling beliefs, belonging to
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  community and social identity. When this message
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  hits the right audience, it captures emotions
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  and gets stuck in their minds for a long time.
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  But branding is not limited by powerful emotional
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  hook. There are several things companies must
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  do to build a strong brand and ensure it makes
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  sense to potential buyers, not only its founders.
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  First step is target audience analysis. One of
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  the most effective approaches here is to implement
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  design thinking. Design thinking separates the
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  decision -making process into five steps, first
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  of which is empathy. During empathy stage, company
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  aims to understand problems, emotions and beliefs
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  of its customers. It's usually done through surveys
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  or face -to -face communication. The goal here
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  is to look at the problem from potential customers'
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  perspective and understand nuances. It's closely
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  tied to the next stage – definition, where data
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  is analyzed and problem statement is created.
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  For example, a company wants to sell spaceships
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  for active space exploration and emphasize curiosity
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  and active lifestyle. They think that the customers
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  need good navigation, cool design and a lot of
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  manually activated features to show off during
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  complex maneuvers. But sales aren't going well,
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  so they decide to conduct research and after
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  empathy stage they figure out that actually customers
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  dislike manual features because it is distracting
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  and hard to operate with. In business language,
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  the problem statement is overcomplicated interface
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  that doesn't allow customers to safely and joyfully
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  explore space depth. Next stage is ideation,
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  basically brainstorming of how the problem can
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  be overcome. In our example, let's say engineers
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  came up with the idea to automate most of features
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  through smart assistant system, simplify interface
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  and add educational videos. Afterwards, it converts
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  to prototyping. I don't need to explain what
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  prototype is, right? Final stage is prototyping,
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  to get back feedback from real users and refine
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  the solution if that's necessary. In this example
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  we observe two core pillars of branding, great
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  product fit and emotional connection. It's crucial
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  to remember that one cannot go without another.
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  And that is where it starts to get complicated.
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  Even if brand has great product and emotional
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  connection with limited number of people, that
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  is not enough. Because guess what? There are
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  hundreds of other competitors who do exactly
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  the same thing. To stand out in massive scale,
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  brands create consistent step -by -step messaging
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  and value adherence, rational emotional duality,
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  and brand richness. Rational emotional duality
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  is based on theories that customers make decisions
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  based on habitual, affective, and rational behavior.
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  Habitual is something like I'm used to buy the
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  thing and I will always buy it because I don't
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  see the reason to change. Affective is based
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  on emotions, personal feelings and experiences.
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  If you heard the previous episode, it is when
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  impulsive, multi -attribute attitude and planned
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  behavior theories come into play. In the majority
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  of cases, affective decisions are based on design,
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  colors or fancy features. The reasoning is based
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  on logic and analysis when person evaluates all
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  pros and cons, budget, etc. Objective of brand
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  promotional activities is to balance both affective
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  and rational behavior and offer captivating emotional
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  hook and connection while also demonstrating
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  practical benefits. Notable examples are Patagonia
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  and Apple, who deliver top -quality products
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  while also supporting it with powerful messaging.
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  Now we move to brand richness. This concept implies
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  that a brand should have deep connections with
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  its customers and a lot of emotional hooks, so
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  that many people could find something meaningful
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  in it. In our spaceships example, company promotes
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  curiosity and spirit of adventure that can be
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  appealing to many people. A young person who
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  wants to get emotions and experiences, a worker
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  of 40 +, who wants to learn something new and
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  go beyond their limits, people who wish freedom
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  and novelty, etc. Values themselves don't change,
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  however, they appeal to different people in different
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  manners. Once all of the above is written, created
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  and implemented, it's time for a company to choose
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  a branding strategy. Your companies got inspired
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  by Buzz Lightyear's phrase to infinity and beyond,
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  since technically there is no limit to how companies
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  differentiate themselves. Well, only legal limits,
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  but that's a topic for another day. We will cover
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  all the common and profitable strategies. Common
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  branding strategies include corporate branding.
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  It focuses on building a unified identity for
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  a business as a whole rather than individual
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  products. It's used to create economies of scale
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  and heavily relies on parent brand reputation.
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  Apple is a great example. It uses its corporate
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  identity to sell everything from phones to services
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  under one umbrella brand. It is used to establish
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  a one unified perception and stand out in a mature
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  market thanks to company's culture and shared
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  mission. Product branding is the opposite. It
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  centers on creating a distinct identity for a
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  specific product. Like Heinz, that could remove
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  company's logo and its flagship product would
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  still be recognized. To distinguish them, it's
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  enough to think of the first association. If
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  you think about the company as a whole, that's
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  corporate branding. But if you have strong association
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  with one particular product, and you may not
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  even know that company produces something else,
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  that's a product branding. Next comes service
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  branding. It emphasizes the quality of experience
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  in customer service rather than a physical item.
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  It uses exclusive rewards, educational content,
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  or superior support to differentiate. For example,
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  Tesco's WooJab. It focuses its brand on the speed
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  and reliability of 30 -minute delivery. It doesn't
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  mean that the company doesn't have physical items,
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  but the strategy is used to stand out when the
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  differentiation of physical items is no longer
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  enough and customers require superior experience.
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  Next in the list is the personal branding. Now,
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  bear in mind that this one is incredibly risky
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  because it positions an individual as the face
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  of the whole brand and highlights their expertise
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  or lifestyle. It's primarily used by influencers
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  and entrepreneurs to build trust through authentic
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  storytelling, like Oprah Winfrey Harpo Inc. But
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  why am I saying that it's risky is because if
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  the individual fails or does something wrong,
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  then the whole company is also perceived negatively.
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  And the final of the common is co -branding.
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  It is a strategy where two or more brands collaborate
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  to offer a unique product of mutual value. It
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  is used to reach new audiences or add prestige
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  to one of the partners. Example is Uber and Spotify
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  partnership that allowed riders to control their
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  ride's music, benefiting both brands. Want to
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  get some break? If you do, then take one, because
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  now we are moving to advanced frameworks that
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  manage deep psychological connections and long
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  -term strategic positioning. First of them is
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  purpose -driven marketing. It is one of the most
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  effective and complicated branding strategies
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  because the brand is placing its values and mission
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  ahead of its profits. Something unusual for a
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  capitalistic market, but still that happens.
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  Sometimes such brands lose opportunities to earn
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  money just to stay loyal to their cause. Raybrand
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  promotes outdoor lifestyle and sustainability,
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  and they have been doing opt -out campaign for
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  10 years now, when they closed all their stores
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  during the Black Friday, saying that it is the
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  day when people should spend more time outside
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  rather than going to the shops. Lost money? Yes.
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  But they became legends. Next is brand personality
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  dimensions. It identifies five key dimensions
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  – sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication,
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  and ruggedness that capture how consumers perceive
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  a brand. Usually, a company chooses one or two
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  dimensions to create a distinct personality.
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  For example, Nike focuses on excitement and competence
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  to inspire active lifestyles. Figurative branding
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  is a demo dive into the future where people use
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  VR and AR to enhance brand engagement and experience.
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  If you ever wanted to try on a clothing from
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  online marketplace with a warehouse thousands
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  of kilometers away, this one is for you. Community
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  -led growth strategy. This one is something that
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  I call the Lego strategy because they are the
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  best example. It shifts focus from selling to
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  customers to building with them, where the brand
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  acts as a space for like -minded people. It uses
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  co -creation and user -generated content to foster
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  organic growth. Lego likes to hear what its customers
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  want and create what they ask. Last but not least
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  is modular identity systems. This strategy is
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  trying to use core brand elements such as distinguishable
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  textures, colors or styles in different aspects.
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  Let's say a company has a specific artistic style
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  of its logo, but then they use this style or
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  logo on a different channel, like different website,
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  different social media where it looks differently.
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  but customers still can recognize it. When it's
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  done on purpose, that's a model identity system,
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  when brands can change certain elements of its
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  logo, color, or any other brand elements and
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  still be recognizable. It is used by rapidly
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  growing companies to maintain coherence across
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  different new platforms, in new cultures, and
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  for creative expression. Congratulations! This
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  episode is finally completed. I was very glad
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  to see you again, Marketing Explorer, and I hope
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  that your curiosity will lead you somewhere exciting
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  in the galaxy of marketing. Until we meet again!