Brand Strategy with Kellie

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:36:59 -0800

The power of a brand usually arises from a well-thought out plan of attack to gain market share. Branding is the magnet that attracts customers, and the glue that builds loyalty. How consumers perceive and associate the SellSmart brand starts with exceptional design, promotional strategies, and diligent trademark protection.
But it does not end there: the responsibility and discipline to maintain brand equity rests with you. By consistently maintaining the brand look and feel in all your advertising, you are strengthening the brand, and ultimately your own business. Consumers seeking out a familiar sign can stop looking further when their eyes rest on your logo.
In contrast, offices who bastardize the logo, substitute incompatible colors, use eyesore fonts, and/or rearrange the style or layout of sign and ad design, are not only sabotaging their own success, but also the brand recognition of their fellow franchisees.
For this reason, all modifications to corporate-provided templates must be approved by the corporate office before they are used or published. All customizable sections are presented in standard magenta for your vendor to modify; any other changes must be approved in advance.
You may wonder what the big deal about branding is. Businesses spend a large portion of their annual budgets creating brands and branded promotional material. Most successful branded companies have formal style sheets and strict color palettes, and even limit the vendors they use that are able to comply to all the rules and standards surrounding their brand and design.
They also tend to aggressively pursue competitors and infringers who undermine, usurp, or in any way sabotage their brand, logo, trademarks, trade dress, or name. Millions of dollars are spent creating and protecting this elusive asset we call brand equity.
Businesses do this because:
People have too many choices and not enough time. Brand recognition serves as a shortcut to the decision-making process.
Most offerings have similar quality and features. All things being equal, consumers tend to stick with the known product.
We tend to base our buying decisions on trust. Once a product has won our trust, we are loyal to that product unless another factor disrupts that loyalty.
A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. Brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets or the public. It’s a gut feeling because people are intuitive, emotional beings.
A brand is not what you say it is; it’s what they say it is. Every time you advertise to your customer, you are building (or destroying) the brand. Use, don’t abuse your brand.
The foundation of brand is trust. Customers trust your brand when their experience consistently meet or beat their expectations. The foundation of trust, therefore, is also consistency.

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Brand Strategy with Kellie