Across Multiple Platforms Give Insight Into This Issues, Offering Tips On How
Across Multiple Platforms Give Insight Into This Issues, Offering Tips On How
What is product branding? Simply put, it is how a product interacts with its
consumer audience through design, logo, and messaging. It is difficult to
settle on one product branding definition because branding triggers an
emotional connection in consumers. If done well, product branding can be
maintained and produce a solid, well-connected connection throughout the
life of the product. The challenge, however, lies in new media, licensing and
social media, where the message might be communicated via the
audience and not the expert branding professionals.
Branding a product was much easier when there were no websites, smart
phones, interactive games or social media. Today, creative teams are
required to seamlessly brand products across multiple media, using the same
voice, design and messaging, often with different creative teams and
designers creating separate brand extensions. Product Branding Strategies
Across Multiple Platforms looks at three top companies Sesame Workshop,
Activision and Coca-Cola and how their creative teams worked together in
branding a product so that its messages were clear and its design
interconnected via numerous platforms.
Branding a Product:
Sesame Workshops
Sesame Street
Sesame Workshop, the parent
company of Sesame Street, is
a 40+ year-old company with
over 700 consumer product
licensees worldwide, a
television show, website and
more. How does has this
company manage their product
brand with as many as 18,000
consumer products going
through the approval process
each year? Well tell you how.
Product Branding Strategy:
Activisions Guitar Hero
As Guitar Hero launched new
titles, branding products
followed Guitar Hero World
Tour, Guitar Hero Smash Hits,
and Guitar Hero Metallica.
Eachtime an ad campaign
launched, new micro sites were
created as well, until the brand
became so fragmented, a
redesign was needed.
Integrating social media into
the new Guitar Hero portal
catapulted the brands traffic
and increased online sales by
over 300 percent.
offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who
you want to be and who people perceive you to be.
Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced,
reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the lowcost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all
people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target
customers want and need you to be.
The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and
promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate
your brand.
Brand Strategy & Equity
Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on
communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise
is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your
brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of
your brand strategy, too.
Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means
the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows
you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products
command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda.
Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for
its product--and customers will pay that higher price.
The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of
perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its
products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional
attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it's not just the shoe's
features that sell the shoe.
Defining Your Brand
Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be
difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least,
that you answer the questions below:
Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and
prospective customers. And don't rely on what you think they
think. Know what they think.
Because defining your brand and developing a brand strategy can be
complex, consider leveraging the expertise of a nonprofit small-business
advisory group or a Small Business Development Center .
Once you've defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a
few simple, time-tested tips:
Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages
you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should
be aware of your brand attributes.
5 min read
You Don't Create Your Company's Brand -- You Discover It.
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]
Over $500 billion is spent on advertising each year. The average American is
exposed to an estimated 3,000 ads per day. Fifteen minutes out of every
hour of television programming is devoted to commercials.
Branding: 2 Key Lessons in Brand Building
Thats a lot of marketing. And a lot of marketers. With six million companies
in the United States alone, that's a lot of people competing to get their
message out. How do you stand out from the crowd? How do you get
noticed?
This is where branding comes in.
What is branding?
Branding is the art of distinguishing a product or service from its
competitors. Its the term for creating a recognizable personality which
people will remember and react to.
A company with poor branding is throwing away marketing dollars. Why?
Because without a focused message, companies weak in branding
are invisible. Nobody remembers them and they blend in. They become just
another leaf swirling in the wind, amid all those marketing messages
consumers see each day.
Culture. Each company in the world has its own ethos -- a particular
style or panache. Whatever you call yours, embrace it. There may be a
million competitors in your market space, but theres only one you.
Your companys group culture is part of the fabric of who you are.
History. Your history tells a lot about you. Look to the companys
founders to help define your identity today. What were their values?
What were they trying to accomplish? Every company came from
somewhere. Your roots are an integral part of your companys brand.
Plans. When you look at your next 10 years, where do you see
yourself going? Your business plan and marketing strategy both
influence how you present yourself and should be included in your
branding. If youre going after an entry-level market segment, dont
position yourself as a luxury brand. Your brand must encompass your
real-world objectives.
Consumers. This is really what its all about. Your customers are the
reason you exist. What are their needs? What do they think?
Understanding your customers is a vital part of branding. Because if
you dont know whom youre talking to, why bother to say anything at
all?
It might take a bit of soul-searching to get at the essence of what makes your
company special. The trick is to take a clear-eyed look and see whats
actually there. Because every brand is beautiful, every brand is inspiring.
Ten ways to build a brand for your small business
her personal legal troubles tarnished the Martha Stewart brand and even
resulted in a
temporary suspension of her popular home design/cooking show on national
television.
More recently, though, the Martha Stewart brand has recovered much of its
former glory
in the marketplace.
verbal and/or symbolic
means of identifying a
product
brand image
Peoples overall perception
of a brand
The tangible components of brand identity are brand names and brand
marks. A
brand name is a brand that can be spokenlike the name Dell. A brand mark
is a brand
that cannot be verbalizedlike the golden arches of McDonalds.
Since a products brand name is so important to the image of the business
and its
products, careful attention should be given to the selection of a name. In
general, fi ve
rules apply in naming a product:
1. Select a name that is easy to pronounce and remember. You want
customers to
remember your product. Help them do so with a name that can be spoken
easily
for example, TWO MEN & A TRUCK (a moving service) or Water Water
Everywhere
(a lawn irrigation business). Before choosing to use your own family name
to identify a product, evaluate it carefully to ensure its acceptability.
2. Choose a descriptive name. A name that is suggestive of the major benefi
t of the
product can be extremely helpful. As a name for a sign shop, Sign Language
correctly
suggests a desirable benefi t. Blind Doctor is a creative name for a window
blind repair business. The Happy Company is a great name for a small fi rm
producing
bath toys for young children. However, Rocky Road would be a poor name
for a business selling mattresses!
3. Use a name that is eligible for legal protection. Be careful to select a name
that
can be defended successfully. Do not risk litigation by copying someone
elses
brand name. A new soft drink named Doc Pepper would likely be contested
by the
Dr Pepper company.
4. Select a name with promotional possibilities. Exceedingly long names are
not, for
example, compatible with good copy design on billboards, where space is at
a
premium. A competitor of the McDonalds hamburger chain is called Bobs, a
name that will easily fi t on any billboard. Radar Ball is a good name for a
golf ball
implanted with a homing chip that sends a signal to a hand-held device,
allowing
the ball to be found when it is lost.
5. Select a name that can be used on several product lines of a similar
nature. Customer
goodwill is often lost when a name doesnt fi t a new line. The name Just
Brakes is excellent for an auto service shop that repairs brakesunless the
shop
plans to expand later into muffl er repair and other car repair services.
brand name
A brand that can be
spoken
brand mark
A brand that cannot be
spoken
How They See It: Intellectual Property
Winston Wolfe
I have frequently told my attorney friends that if I were a
lawyer, I would be in the fi eld of intellectual property. It is a
fascinating subject and can be critical for a new business.
It almost goes without saying that any entrepreneur
should be respectful of the patents and trademarks, etc. of
others. You should likewise demand that others respect your
intellectual property.
If your business is based on a product or process that is
employee.19
Michael Bierut, a partner at the design fi rm Pentagram, offers the following
tips
about logo design:20
1. Be simple. Some of the best logos are the simplest. Target has made a red
circle
with a red dot in the middle seem the very essence of affordable, hip
practicality.
H&R Block uses a green square in association with its name. Simple things
are
easy to remember and tend not to become outdated quickly.
2. Leave it open to interpretation. Dont try to design a logo that will explain
at a
glance the complete nature of your company. A logo that raises a question
and is
open to interpretation is better than one that attempts to offer all the
answers.
3. Be relentlessly consistent. Companies with strong graphic identities have
built
those identities through years of use. Pick a typeface. Pick a color. Use them
over
and over again, on everything. Before long, youll fi nd yourself with an
identifi able
look and feel. Thats more valuable than a logo, and anyone can afford it.
4. Dont be embarrassed about design. Things like logos and colors are
considered
cosmetic, and businesspeople sometimes avoid focusing on them. But
most
design-driven companies got to be that way thanks to a highly placed
advocate,
such as Thomas Watson at IBM or Steve Jobs at Apple. For a design program
to
work, it needs to be seen to be championed by important people.
5. Get good advice. You can go pretty far with common sense. But sooner or
later,
youll need to hire a professional graphic designer. The website of the
American
Institute of Graphic Arts (http://www.aiga.org), the largest professional
organization
for graphic designers, offers information about how to fi nd and work with
experienced professionals.
6. Dont expect miracles. Your companys image is the sum total of many
factors.
Make sure that your company looks, sounds, and feels smart in every way,
every
time it goes out in public. That is actually much better than a logo.
Trademark and service mark are legal terms indicating the exclusive right to
use
a brand. Once an entrepreneur has found a name or symbol that is unique,
easy to
remember, and related to the product or service, an attorney who specializes
in trademarks
and service marks should be hired to run a name or symbol search and then
to
register the trade name or symbol. The protection of trademarks is discussed
later in
this chapter.
Packaging
Packaging is another important part of the total product offering. In addition
to protecting
the basic product, packaging is a signifi cant tool for increasing the value of
the total
product.
trademark
A legal term identifying a
fi rms exclusive right to
use a brand
service mark
A brand that a company
has the exclusive right to
use to identify a service
Consider for a moment some of the products you purchase. How many do
you buy
mainly because of a preference for package design and/or color? Innovative
packaging is
frequently the deciding factor for consumers. If products are otherwise
similar to competitive
products, their packaging may create the distinctive impression that makes
the
sale. For example, biodegradable packaging materials may distinguish a
product from its
competition. The original Leggs packaging designthe shape of an egg
containing ladies
stockingsis an example of creative packaging that sells well.
Labeling
Another part of the total product is its label. Labeling serves several
important purposes
for manufacturers, which apply most labels. One purpose is to display the
brand, particularly