Kaye Marks |
Kaye Z. Marks is a writer and an observer. She is continuously fascinated with the developments in commercial color printing technologies, which greatly help in the marketing and advertising campaigns of small to medium businesses. |
Kaye Marks
has written 38 articles for SB Informer. |
View all articles by Kaye Marks... |
Branding For A Business-Consumer RelationshipHow to develop your brand Kaye Marks
May 08, 2008
A primary fact that should be at the hearts and minds and behind all
the efforts of every advertiser is that a brand establishes the
relationship between a business and its consumers. Whether you have a
strong faithful relationship or a weak seasonal relationship with your
consumers would depend entirely on your brand and your management and
maintenance of its overall image.
A quick example would be to
compare Apple and Microsoft. I’m sure most of us would agree if I say
that Microsoft can be likened to a rather stiff, purely-business kind
of person like your boss, or your calculus professor. And Apple, on the
other hand, can be thought of more as a cool pal with the hippest
gadgets and what-nots with the funniest jokes and wittiest quips.
Both
statements on these two companies are neither right nor wrong. Instead
of being objective statements, these are the perceptions that might
stand for the kind of relationship each brand has on the public. They
are mostly feelings towards a certain brand and consequently the
business behind it.
Every businessman should know that before
the creation of a business name or symbol, the conceptualization of
what perception you desire your business to have in your consumer’s
minds comes first and foremost.
Bring Your Brand To Life
If
you notice the examples I cited in the previous paragraph, I tied the
brands to a person to better illustrate the differences between the two
companies. In evaluating, managing and strengthening your brand, this
can prove to be a very effective approach.
What are the basic
elements that we use to identify a person? We associate a person with
his eyes, his hair, his laugh, his personality, his talent and
sometimes even an experience we witnessed with that person. Same thing
applies to your brand.
If you ask someone if they know your brand, will they be able to pinpoint the colors present in your logo, the icons you used, the message or slogan tied with it or will they share an experience they had with your business?
Answers
to these questions help you draw a picture of how your brand is
perceived by the public. You can then use this to compare it with the
conceptualized perception you came up with earlier on.
Identifying Strengths and Diminishing Weaknesses
Now
that you have breathed life into your brand, you then have a more
visual and moving representation of your brand in your mind and no
longer just a symbol with some colors and a tagline. To be able to
better identify weak spots and strengths, you can break down Mr. Brand
into these parts: his skill, his appearance, his personality.
Mr.
Brand has skills. Being a business owner, of course you know he has
skills. But stepping into the shoes of the consumer, if you look at Mr.
Brand, would you know instantly that he is credible enough and reliable
enough for a task he claims to be good at? Would you trust that he has
skills. We know a geek when we see one. We know a jock when we see one.
Will people know or at least feel that your business is good at what
you are doing when they see or hear your brand?
The appearance
of your brand depends mostly on the performance of the overall appeal
of your logo, the colors you used and the slogan you attached to it if
any. Think of it this way, going back to your little mascot, does Mr.
Brand look like he can fit in and stand out in a gala with your
competitors? Or will he appear meek, amateur and feeble and eventually
slink away to a dark corner neglected and then forgotten? Is your brand
tied with the visual representation that can stick to people’s minds
even without associating your symbol with an experience or a
commercial? Is it innovative and representative of your business and
what you offer? Do you see room for evolution, reinvention and growth
if the opportunity for expansion presents itself? If you answered yes
to all these questions, then you’re on the right track.
Going to
personality, it may sound weird but images do have personalities.
Compare the image of a fork with a flower. See the difference? Same
thing goes for your brand. Whether you have a brand with a strong
personality or a weak one depends on the initial impression people get
by looking at it and remembering your ad history.
For
instance, someone can say “I think Mac is cool because they have cool
icons with cool vector ads for the iPod I remember seeing relentlessly
everywhere I go.” Right here, we introduced another factor important in
establishing a strong brand. Consistency. Consistency develops not just
recall but a stronger personality.
In this aspect of your
brand, we combine, the visual and sentimental appeal with the emotions
triggered in the recollection of your past ads. If you showed a
consistent theme, mood and overall message all throughout your ad
campaigns, you have established a stronger more prominent personality
and all your color printing efforts have paid off.
It is not
that easy developing a brand, triggering your desired impression, or
the reputation that will eventually shower you with the big bucks. But
if you start on the right foot, and pay attention to all these three
aspects of your brand, success is a definite possibility. It is pretty
fun too!
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