A quick study of the basics and importance of strategic brand development. By Fanen Acho, Headstart Consultimg Limited. Headstart is a strategy and innovation company

1. The Branding Imperative
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2. What is a brand?
Lets start by defining the
concept of brands and
branding by first
understanding what a
brand isn’t.
Dispelling 3 prominent myths
First, a brand is not logo
Second, a brand is not an Identity
Finally, a brand is not a product

3. So what exactly is a brand?
A brand is the sum total of
all that a business consists
of: its services, products,
capabilities, skill, people,
culture, communications
and interactions with its
various publics.
Brand
A bundle of
benefits
A compelling
Experience
A name with
power
A strong
perception
A promise
of value

4. ... the andimplicit explicit
expression of an entity to
achieve anddistinction
secure unique advantages.
Branding therefore is...

5. Brands..branding..
branded..rebranding..???
People have too many choices and too little
time.
Most offerings have similar quality and
features.
We tend to base our buying choices on
trust.
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6. Theory of inherent truths
Purpose Proposition Personality Positioning
Vision
Mission
Values
Philosophy
Promise
Point of difference
Character
Tone of voice
Target audience
Demand Drivers
Brand Platform
Brand Essence
Great brands are built on inherent
truths.
A brand must clarify its purpose
and reason for being, it must
identify the underlying character
that defines its personality.
Brands must decide their
positioning and propostion and
be true to it. The brand essence
is the core of a brand(In other
words the truth of the brand)It
must be distilled and leveraged
on to give distinction and
sustainable competitive
advantage

7. Great brands are not
haphazard creations.....
Differentiation Collaboration
Innovation
Validation
Cultivation
Disciplines of
Brand-building
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8. Intel Chips
Google Search engines
Citibank Strong corporate
Banking
Differentiation
The underlying purpose of branding
is to achieve distinction so as to
secure unique advantages. A brand
must be different and unique to
stay in the mind’s of people. People
are generally hot wired to notice
what is different.
The Key to differentiation is;
Focus Focus Focus

9. Collaboration
Building a brand is a
collaborative effort. Key
stakeholders include,
management,
advertising agencies,
brand consultants and the
media. Other stakeholders
include staff, customers,
suppliers, and the
enterprise public.
Collaboration is
1+1=11 Why?
Because the mathematics of
collaboration is nothing short of
MAGIC.

10. Innovation
Creativity is fundamental to brand building.
A brand must have a compelling idea that
translates into relevant offerings. It must
continually seek new and creative ways of
delivering its promise and also search out
what makes it unique at every point in time.

11. Validation
Validation here means bringing
the into the creativeaudience
process.
Senders Message Receiver
Creative ideas/concepts should be
tested before the hit the market. There
has to be some form of validation
Senders Message Receiver
The new communication is a dialogue
The old communication was a monologue

12. Cultivation
Having differentiated,
collaborated, innovated and
validated the next step is to
nurture the brand. Begin to grow
the brand through using the brand
platform as the foundation. At this
point, the brand is a living entity
and must respond to its
environment.
Brands are like people. If people
can change their clothes without
changing their character, why can’t
brands?
By mastering the 5 principles of brand-
building, the company creates a virtuous
circle. With every turn around the circle, the
value of the brand spirals higher and you
build a sustainable competitive advantage
Begin to influence the character of the brand.

13. What makes a great brand?
Three principal attributes of great brands
A compelling idea: Behind every brand is a compelling idea, which captures
customer’s attention and loyalty by filling an unmet or unsatisfied need.
A resolute core purpose and supporting values:A
brands purpose and values remain in place even though the business strategy and tactics have to be
regularly revised to address and take advantage of the circumstancess and largely unanticipated, world and
business environment.
A central organisational principle: The brand
position,purpose and values are employed as management levers to guide decision-making.Once
the enterprise understands what the brand is all about, it gives direction to the whole enterprise.
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14. Practices of great brands
Consistency in
delivering on their
promise
Alignment of Internal
and external
commitment to the
brand
Superior products
and services
An ability to stay
relevant
Distinctive positioning
and customer
experience

15. The importance of branding
Economic Importance Social Importance Political Importance
Strong brands result in
growth and accelerated
cash flows due to rapid
market penetration.
Brands reduce the liquidity
of a firms stocks.
From an investment
perspective, the brand
provides a more reliable
and stable indicator of the
future health of a
business.
Creation of wealth and
improvements in
standards of living both
nationally and
internationally.
Brands are the most
stable and sustainable
assets in business.
Branding leads to more
security and stability of
employment.
A powerful political point
about brands is their
ability to cross borders,
and potentially to bind
people and cultures
together.

16. If you think branding is insignificant...
Think again
When the GDP of Thailand was around
in 2001, the combined$115 billion
value of the world’s two most valuable
brands(Coca-Cola and Microsoft) was
$134billion.

17. Quote
Stelios Haji-Ioannou,
Chairman of easygroup and founder of easyjet
“You can spend £15m on
advertising, go bankrupt
and your name can still
mean nothing to people.
Your brand is created out
of customer contact and
the experience your
customers have of you”

18. Customers experience
the brand in many ways-
through the people who
sell it, the product itself,
the people who provide
after-services, the
reactions to it of friends
and colleagues and so
on.
Bank A long and disorganized queue
at the bank. A helpful or polite
customer care officer. A cozy waiting
room. Swiftness of service and
genuine concern for client problem.
Car shop Design of the car show
room, test drive to feel the car, car
performance and drive value, after-
sales support and ease of purchase.
People remember experiences

19. The brand experience Iceberg:
A holistic perspective
Proposition Expections
Experience
People
Processes
Products
A holistic view of brands
carries the implication that the
brand is, or should be , no
less than the DNA of the
organisation, the fundamental
building block and expression
of its existence.Ideally, the
customer should be able to
experience, examine any
product and the essence of
the brand should shine
through.

20. Unless a brand has a
clear idea of the value it
brings and to whom, it
will have difficulty in
ever making the brand
stand for anything
distinctive.
The brand experience iceberg:
Proposition
Question: Why is it that some
organisations are able to deliver
on their brand promise and
others fall short?
Answer: It lies in having a
rigorous process for designing
a customer experience that
consistently delivers the brand
promise

21. Customers have seen the
advertisements and promotional
activity and are interested- they
have an expectation-now it is all
about the experience. It is at this
point the brand delivers or not.
Employees are the conduit pipe
through which all the careful
product design, manufacturing,
packaging and processes are
finally delivered to the customers;
they are the means to bring the
brand alive
The brand experience iceberg:
People
Four steps towards bringing brands alive through people
Hire people with competencies to satisfy customer expectations
Hire people with competencies to satisfy customer expectations
Train employees to deliver experiences that uniquely fit your brand
promise
Most importantly, drive the behaviours from the very top of the
organisation.

22. Processes must be designed to be aligned with the brand
promise to deliver a compelling brand experience. Processes help
bring the proposition to life. Having formed a brand, it must do
what it says it does or can do. Jeff Bezo, as CEO, Amazon.com
confirmed the need and importance for processes that deliver on
the promise when he said
“It has always seemed to me that your brand is formed,
primarily, not by what your company says about itself, but by
what the company does”
The brand experience iceberg:
Processes

23. The promise, the people who deliver
the promise through the offering, the
processes designed by the people
to deliver the offering and now the
offering, product or service.
Interaction with the offering, whether
product or service will determine if
the promise is valid.Products must
create and deliver experiences
connected with the promise.
“Fulfilling dreams for people from all
walks of life who cherish the common
values of freedom, adventure and
individual expression, involves much
more than building and selling
motocycles. The secret to our enduring
brand lies in delivering an experience
rather than just a collection of products
andservices”
-HarleyDavidson
The brand experience iceberg:
Products

24. Managing the brand experience process
Internal
comms
External
comms
Customer
Experience
design
Creat
brand
platform
Proposition
People
Processes
Products
Customer
experience
Audit
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25. Managing the brand experience process
Customer experience Audit
Begin by measuring the current
experience of the brand. What
isthe total experience customers
have of the organisation and the
brand.
Create brand platform
Build the foundations of the
brand.Some of it must have already
been done. It involves clarifying the
brand promise and
positioning,defining the brand
architecture,personality and all other
elements of the brand platform.
customer experience design
Having audited the current situation and
created clariity through the brand
platform,one can now design new
experience that will consistently deliver
the brand to the target customers.Design
should be done based on;
proposition,people, processes and
products.
External communications
Communicate the proposition
externally.Make sure the
organisation is ready to deliver the
experience before you raise the
expectation by going live.
Internal communications
At this point,you are ready to
communicate internally.Many
organisations rush out a new
advertising campaign and end up
over promising and underdelivering
because people are not fully
prepared.
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