Branding Considerations



Brands help to make your promotional dollars more effective by enhancing your message with a preconceived perception of your company or product brand.

Branding techniques and strategies are a very important part of marketing and selling products as well as establishing a company’s name and image.

In order to improve market awareness, companies should implement branding strategies such as:

• Coordinated publicity
• Press releases
• Articles
• Application notes
• Case studies
• Catalogs
• Websites
• Corporate graphics and tag lines
• Sponsorships
…And many more

Strong brand awareness can relate directly to brand association with those products and company characteristics that buyers appreciate, most namely, quality, consistency, and service.

Once a brand is established, it is vital that the company produces quality products and gives excellent service on a consistent basis. Then, a corporate or product brand will become synonymous with the company’s corporate reputation. In other words, consumers will, over time, associate a company with great products and services because of the established brand.


Branding Strategies: How Are Brands Created?

Frankly, each company creates a brand in its own, unique way. For some companies a brand simply happens accidentally. Accidental brands are those leading brands such as DuPont, Bayer, Whatman, Millipore, GE, Mercedes, and others too numerous to mention that became brands through long service, excellence of product lines, value given, and prominence in their markets. No one in those companies set out to create a "brand”. They created good products, stood behind them, and became leaders in their markets through their excellent reputations – and none can dispute the incredible value of those brands or the awareness that they enjoy – world wide – as their names became hallmarks of excellence that materially enhance their products and services.

For others, a brand is established by using proven and effective marketing strategies, and subsequently backed with excellent performance. For example, how has Starbucks become one of the leading (if not the #1) choice for coffee? They used consistent and strong marketing strategies, particularly a recognizable logo, unique promotions, widespread publicity, and so on. Then, they combined these strategies by serving high-quality products and providing consistent service. This formula can (and should) be implemented by any company looking to establish a brand.


Advantages of Brands

All of us, as consumers, use brands to identify perceived quality gradations. We are aware of the top brands, suitable brands, mediocre brands, and poor brands. Companies like Procter & Gamble exploit brand preference and market segmentation by creating premium brands, mid-range brands, and low cost brands for similar products and allow the marketplace to select the brand they prefer based on economics or other reasons.

So not all brands are the leading brands in a marketplace, nor should they be. Knowledgeable marketers look at the sizes of markets and their segments to determine the maximum profitability for specific products. Hertz, Avis, National, Dollar, and Budget all compete in the car rental market. Which segments of the market do you suppose Budget and Dollar are addressing? Right.

Brands help to make your promotional dollars more effective by enhancing your message with a preconceived perception of your company or product brand. Your market already knows your credibility, quality, and support posture so they need only learn about specific product features – those of tactical importance. Preference has already been established by the brand, only the application and need ratios need to be determined.


Vertical Branding

Your product line(s) may already carry your company name as a brand, but that might not be enough to compete effectively. You may need to create product “brands” under your umbrella brand name to compete. These brand names frequently state or imply a product advantage or function. The more vertical the market to be penetrated, the more seriously one should consider creating a specific brand for the specific market to attach it closely to the market needs.

Brands are just words, not products, but they are important and valuable tools in creating market acceptance or even dominance.

People use brands extensively when they purchase products. They become part of their frame of reference and constitute an important advantage in the sales arena. Tried and true brands frequently sell for more money, and earn more profits which in turn allows those brand owners to further promote their brand advantage.

Brand X is a dangerous brand, let SMS help you enjoy the advantages of branding. That leads to greater market penetration.