What branding does

Branding can do several useful things, all of which help to ensure the success of the product or service.
It can:

• reinforce a good reputation
• encourage loyalty
• assure quality
• convey a perception of greater worth allowing a product to be priced higher (or a product of equal price to sell more); and
• grant the buyer a sense of affirmation and entry into an imaginary community of shared values.

A brand resides primarily in the minds of customers, and is often synonymous with reputation. In other words, your brand is what your customers think it is. A brand manager's job is to make sure customers are thinking the right thing. If a product is better than customers realize, branding can help. You sometimes hear a politician's supporters complain, "If voters really knew him, they'd like him better." That's a politician who needs better branding.

Anyone who has traveled will have noticed tourists in Prague/Nairobi/Beijing heading for McDonald's, despite all the excellent local fare: they are responding to the allure of the known when surrounded by unknowns. Brands reinforce loyalty by using a consistent, recognizable image everywhere the customer is likely to encounter them.

Customers always believe a branded item is worth more than a generic one, even though the two may be similar. On a rational level, we assume that if a large company invests effort and money in building up a brand, it must be good. So we pay €200 for the Sony DVD player even though the prices from makers we haven't heard of start at €50. While the Sony probably is better, more reliable, more features, and so on, is it really four times better? More likely, it's two or three times better, and the remaining price difference can be attributed to Sony's brand worth. Sony, obviously, tries to maximize this effect in order to build its revenues and drive up its share price.

Challenger brands try to steal some of this advantage by imitating the look and feel of Sony packaging to gain part of the trust we feel toward Sony. Sony also inspires its own employees to do better at every stage of the development, manufacturing, and marketing. This internal branding helps it make better products, and gives it a powerful advantage over lesser competitors.

Just having a recognized name and label can raise the perceived quality of an item too. There is some logic to this, as experience tells us there's usually a correlation between the quality of packaging and the quality of what's inside. We're more likely to try a new product by someone we trust. so we look for clues and hints in the packaging: the style of illustration, the typography, and the place of origin.

But we buy brands for reasons that go beyond the rational. Buying a brand is an act of self-affirmation and approval. It gives the customer entry into an imaginary world, built by advertising and publicity, in which aspirations are fulfilled and values reaffirmed. This is why customers often ignore the savings and comparable quality of supermarkets generic-label goods, and continue 10 buy big-name brands. They make you feel better. When you buy Heinz beans, you get to be like the person in the TV commercial with the ideal kitchen, the ideal family, the real lifestyle ... We all know this is a fantasy, but we indulge ourselves. That is the great art and accomplishment of advertising. If you buy generic beans, you save a few pennies, but you get ... just beans. No indulgence. No approval of your values. No affirmation that you are part of an ideal world.

A brand manager's job is to create the image that reinforces reputation, encourages loyalty, assures quality, conveys worth, and grants affirmation. What branding cannot do is rescue a lousy service or salvage a flawed product, especially after a customer has had an unsatisfactory experience with it. Morris Hite, a famous adman, knew that while advertising could pique a customer's curiosity once, an unhappy encounter with reality could rule out a second chance. The brand has enormous power to enhance the thing it represents, so long as it never loses its connection with the reality of that thing.

Design in branding

Design is the process of giving something a deliberate aesthetic form. Design in branding starts with the design of the product, and progresses outward through packaging and labeling to advertising and collateral marketing material such as web pages, brochures, signs, clothing, forms (e.g. bills and invoices), gift items, and anything else that's appropriate to the brand.

Primarily, design concerns the visual and the tactile. Since these are our two most powerful senses, design is probably the single most important tool in branding. Smell, sound, and taste can also be designed, although this is done less frequently.

Designers have a valuable role to play in brand development. Many designers have a finely honed understanding of how people interact with things in their environment. They are well-trained problem solvers who can summon the inspiration needed to cure a brand's ailments. Designers' insights are often crucial to creating brand identities that are meaningful and lasting.

In the world of advertising and branding agencies, some argue that designers should collaborate directly with clients in brand development, while others feel a go-between (such as an account manager) should take on the role of absorbing the client's legal, financial, research, production, logistical, and marketing considerations and interpreting them for designers, leaving the latter free to "be creative." Which approach is best depends on the particular client.
case, and designers.

Brand personality

Every brand can be anthropomorphized to a certain degree. That doesn't mean every brand needs a little mascot character with big eyes and a funny name; it means that at the heart of every brand is a set of characteristics, akin to a human personality, that customers can relate to as if the brand were a real companion. Words like "honest," "inspiring," "sympathetic," "reassuring," "fun," "intelligent," and "supportive" often crop up when passionate customers describe their favorite brands. We tend to see human attribut.es, that is, personality, in things we want to have a relationship with.

How a brand is projected, visually as well as through a specific voice, needs to be consistent across all areas in order for customers to see its personality. One of the common mistakes many brands make is to project a well-crafted personality in their advertising, but quite a different personality, or none whatsoever, in "below the line" areas such as customer billing materials.

While the heart of any brand has to be a worthwhile, quality product, there's no question that having an endearing personality can make up for a few flaws. Friends-and customers-are willing to overlook shortcomings if the personality is attractive.

A great brand offers a producer the luxury of a second chance. The quickest way to attach a personality to a brand is through a celebrity endorsement. The pop star Britney Spears has attached her name to two perfumes, Curious and Fantasy, creating instant appeal for products that would otherwise have had a hard time gaining attention in a crowded market. The risk is that, as Spears has run into difficulties in her personal life, so the products could end up being tarnished. A brand that desires longevity would do better to build its own personality, rather than adopting a celebrity's.

While the heart of any brand has to be a worthwhile, quality product, there's no question that having an endearing personality can make up for a few flaws. Friends-and customers-are willing to overlook shortcomings if the personality is attractive.

Creating brand character

Snapple started out as three friends bottling apple juice in a garage in New York City. With hand-drawn labels that imparted an irreverent sense of humor, the brand grew popular. Now owned by a large corporation, Snapplemaintains its personality through humorous little details, trivia facts printed under the cap, and promotions that emphasize a sense of fun. In a similar vein, Google offers users an occasional surprise in the form of thematic doodles or drawings that replace part or all of the logo on special days. Of course, brand personalities can be suave or serious as well.



Perhaps the best personality trait for a brand is self-confidence. A good salesman says, "What kind of car do you want to buy today'" moving quickly past the issue of whether you even want to buy anything at all. Likewise, a confident brand doesn't merely offer itself; like an innocent puppy it assumes you want it, and sells you on its personality.

Confidence is displayed in many ways: cheerful humor, cool detachment, a free sample, or an emphasis on image while downplaying information. Snapple, a maker of fruit and tea drinks, uses bright colors and whimsy on its labels, including occasionally turning the logo upside down, to convey a cheerful confidence. "Cool" is a trait that many brands aspire to, though few really pull it off. Often, it is the associations more than the product itself that make a brand cool.

Luxury goods trade on coolness and their association with a high-class lifestyle. Google is a supremely self-assured brand. The company is one of the most profitable in the world, even though millions of users have never paid a penny for its services. Its super-simple, uncluttered design, occasionally enlivened with a carefree doodle in honor of a special day, reflects this bold confidence.

What is branding? © Matthew Healy