adminAleck Ncube
A BRAND image is developed through an effective branding strategy, which, as already stated in the previous article, should constitute an integral part of any business plan. A successful branding strategy should both anticipate and shape consumers’ needs and desires. Knowing your consumer is therefore a key to a brand’s success. A successful brand cannot be created, developed and maintained in a vacuum. Such a process must form part of an organic relationship or dialogue between the producer or service provider and the consumer. Good consumer research therefore constitutes a pre-condition of a successful branding strategy, but not the only one. Statistics, polls and graphs are certainly valuable indicators, but so are the knowledge and understanding gained through personal contacts with customers and the experience accumulated in running the business.
For this reason, a successful brand strategy does not depend only on a few (frequently outsourced) marketing experts. It is the result of a partnership of those experts together with management and ultimately employees at all levels and in all areas of the business.
How is a brand image put into practice?
Once the brand image is developed, putting it into practice is the least glamorous yet most important aspect of ensuring a brand’s success. Otherwise, all efforts that preceded and were invested into creating and developing a brand image go to waste. Effective communication is one important part of this process. The other is effective quality control and maintenance. The brand image must be communicated and certain expectations instilled in the mind of consumers. However, there is no use in developing expectations in the mind of consumers, if those expectations cannot be satisfied. To the contrary, if the consumer feels disappointed and let down, the brand image that is being projected may prove counter-productive and even destructive for the business.
For this reason, it is essential that employees (and not only some outside marketing firm or in-house marketing expert), at all levels of the organisation (including high and mid-level management, staff of administrative departments and, of course, employees in direct contact with customers), be involved in developing the brand image.
Staff involvement is essential not only because it is important to tap into staff members’ experience and knowledge of the market, as already indicated, but also because staff must eventually implement the branding strategy. For this reason, employees must be genuinely convinced of the brand’s value, identify with the branding strategy, feel personally responsible for ensuring that the brand lives up to the expectations created, and understand that the successful implementation of the branding strategy is in their personal interest as much as it is in the interest of the employer. Employee commitment to the brand is crucial. Without such commitment, even the best conceived branding strategy is doomed to failure.
Dos and Dont’s in developing a successful brand
Articulate a meaningful corporate vision: If an SME is unable to articulate a clear vision of its overall goals and values, it will find it even more difficult to proceed to the more concrete and focused task of defining its brand image. Therefore, first and foremost, an SME should be very clear about what it wishes its corporate vision to be. That vision should be broad and long-term in scope, it should be convincing and sincere in its content (meaning that it should not consist merely of an empty platitude), and once formulated, it should be articulated and communicated on all appropriate occasions and at all levels, within and outside the enterprise.
Communicate a forceful brand image: The brand image should be consistent with but distinct from the overall corporate vision. Remember, the corporate vision should be broad and long-lasting. The brand image, on the other hand, should be strictly focused on the product or services it embodies and the consumers it is meant to target. It should articulate precise values and qualities that are relevant and of direct interest to the target consumers, and it should do so clearly and credibly. Moreover, the values and qualities articulated should be limited to a digestible minimum. An overly broad brand image runs the risk of becoming meaningless. In an effort to speak to all consumers, the brand can end up speaking to none.
Motivate employees to identify with the brand image and its success: It is not enough for employees to carry out their specific tasks competently. It is just as important for each employee to understand his/her role in the overall system and his/her contributions to the brand’s image. This is part of creating a team spirit and commitment and loyalty to the company’s brand. If the employees themselves do not develop loyalty for the brand, how can they transmit enthusiasm and loyalty for the brand to the consumer? Moreover, a positive, friendly attitude by employees is an essential element in communicating an attractive brand image. Commitment, loyalty and a positive attitude are not only important among employees who are in direct contact with customers but at all levels of the company’s organisational ladder as well. Such commitment and loyalty are achieved mainly through appropriate training, human resource development, and recognition and reward of employees’ contributions to the company.
Integrate the brand image consistently into all operational levels of the company: Everything the enterprise communicates, produces and provides should reflect and reaffirm its brand image, consistently and repeatedly, both internally and externally. This is accomplished by encouraging and facilitating horizontal communications and cooperation within the company. Every sector of the company should understand the relevance of the brand to the corporate vision and to achieving and preserving marketing success, which in turn is in every sector’s and every employee’s interest.
Keep the brand flexible: Brand development and implementation is not static. It is an organic and continuous process. Just because an SME has developed an effective brand image does not mean that the work is done. We live in an ever-changing world, and it is primordial to ensure that the brand preserves its relevance and attractiveness for consumers. This requires constant re-evaluation of the market, the competition, and the shifting needs and desires of target consumer groups and then consequent readjustments and updating of the brand. Ultimately, there is no miracle formula to ensure a brand’s continuing success. However, a refusal or inability to continue to re-evaluate and adjust a brand to the changing realities of the market place is a sure formula for failure.
Make your brand image a priority: Always keep your brand image on the top of the list of your agenda. It is the heart and spirit of your business. In conclusion to this two part write up on branding by SMEs, it is important for SMEs to understand that trademarks, industrial designs and other objects of intellectual property protection can be powerful tools for creating value for their business. However, they will not live up to those expectations if they sit passively on some register. They must be used and used creatively, pro-actively and with imagination. They must be transformed from mere legal concepts and enforceable rights into commercially valuable assets, and that can be achieved primarily by putting them to work as tools for creating and developing a brand value for their business.
Aleck Ncube is an intellectual property scholar based in Bulawayo. He can be contacted on 0712 374408 email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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