My Brand Methodology

In this article, I want to summarize the "brand" system like a textbook, with the goal of "being able to understand it in 30 minutes".

First, let’s talk about the relationship between marketing and branding. Is it that the more you think about it, the more uncertain you become? Are they inclusive, are they independent activities, or is there some overlap like in a Venn diagram?

• “It’s time for our company to start building its own brand. We can win with advertising alone.”
• “This time, I want to make an advertisement that appeals to the brand rather than the profits.”

If you have ever heard these statements, or even thought about them yourself, after reading this article, I believe there will be clues and you will know where your problems lie.

The brand eliminates the sense of incongruity that was dominated by a general sense of "campaigns that convey a stylish and visionary worldview." A brand is nothing more than creating profits = added value. I think this content is absolutely relevant for everyone seeking profit.

So, let’s get started!

Table of contents:

1. 【Theory ① Consumer’s point of view】The essence of a brand is to give meaning and promise!
2. 【Theory②Enterprise perspective】For a company, brand is added value; for competitors, brand is an entry barrier!
3. 【Theory ③】End the debate on the difference between marketing and branding
4. 【Practice ①】Activities that build brands and activities that destroy brands
5. 【Practice ②】Key points to pay attention to when building a brand
6. 【Practice ③】Specific actions of the brand
7. 【Finally】Let’s build a brand!

01 【Theory ① Consumer Perspective】The essence of a brand is to give meaning and promise

1. What is the difference between a product and a brand?

What is the difference between a product and a brand? Please try to answer the question "What is a brand?" Not only business people, but many people use the word "brand" casually in daily life, but I think few people have a high-resolution definition of a brand.

In most cases, people have a vague and uncertain understanding of the term's outlines, such as "brand = luxury" or "brand = logo".

In fact, Wikipedia defines it as follows: A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other characteristic that distinguishes the goods or services of one seller from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing and advertising to identify and, importantly, create value for the object identified and as a brand asset, thereby benefiting the brand's customers, owners and shareholders. Sometimes, name brands are differentiated from generic or store brands.

I don't think this definition makes much sense commercially. Beer isn't a luxury product, but Premium Malts is clearly a brand. If you ask me whether anything with a trademark is a brand, if customers don’t even have an image when they hear the name, I won’t call it a brand.

I know that my definition of brand varies depending on the individual and the company: This is not absolutely correct as there are many definitions of branding, but I think this is a good one in terms of simplicity and clarity of explanation.

Brand = Product + Meaning and Promise

Let me take the Japanese beer market as an example. Obviously, the product is beer. When it comes to beer, Japanese consumers will think of brands such as Asahi Super Dry Beer, Suntory Premium Malt, Kirin Ippin Fresh Beer, Yebisu Beer, etc. Then, each brand can be expressed by the following formula. This is just the meaning and promise I personally believe in.

• Asahi Super Dry Beer = a drink of excitement on a tiring day
• Suntory Premium Malt Beer = The perfect icing on the cake for your special day.
• Kirin First-class Fresh Beer = The more you drink, the more comfortable it becomes, without any unpleasant taste.
• Ebisu = luxury, enjoy the feeling of being reborn.

While the product is all “beer,” each brand is constructed by adding meaning and promise to the product. Whether consciously or unconsciously, customers will compare and consider these meanings and promises when buying beer and ultimately make a purchasing decision.

As the name suggests, branding is an activity of "building a brand", so in the final analysis, branding is the activity of "giving meaning and promise to products", no more and no less. All brand activities are aimed at occupying the brand in consumers' pursuit. Looking at the domestic beer market, do consumers of Tsingtao, Yanjing, Harbin Beer, Snow Beer, etc. have the high-definition recognition ability?

2. What can be a meaning or a commitment?

Meaning/Promise” is a bit vague and can be anything, so it may be difficult to decide what to make it. The degree of meaning or promise to give is a difficult and confusing aspect of brand building.

Generally speaking, meaning or commitment should be a benefit. Benefit is the ultimate benefit obtained by the customer. Take an example of "customer wants 8mm hole instead of drill", the benefit is "precise 8mm hole". In terms of interests, the subject is always the customer.

Being able to accurately drill an 8mm hole is what we call a functional benefit. On the other hand, there are categories and brands that focus more on emotional benefits. Emotional benefits refer to the psychological benefits you get after using and experiencing the brand.

For example, I think a lot of people buy Apple products for the cutting-edge, self-affirming emotional benefits they get from using Apple products, rather than for the functional benefits of the product (smooth UI/UX, etc.).

On the other hand, there are many brands whose meaning and promise are not even the first benefit, but "product features that support the benefits". If you look around, you may find many brands of this type. This is because consumers buy not the product features but the ultimate benefits. More specifically, it is about solving one's own confidence. By the way, the marketing term that supports this feature is called RTB (Reason To Believe). The relationship between emotional benefits, functional benefits, and product features can be expressed as:

• The RTB of emotional benefits is a functional benefit
• I am excited (emotional benefit) because my hangover is cured (functional benefit = RTB)
• The RTB of a functional benefit is a product characteristic
• It cures hangovers (functional benefit) because it contains 1000 mg of taurine (product feature = RTB).

Generally speaking, the higher the price of a product, the higher the customer engagement and the higher the ratio of emotional benefits, and the lower the price, the more people will judge a product based on functional benefits or price without seeing it.

For example, most people probably wouldn’t buy kitchen detergent based on emotional benefits, but they will buy clothing and accessories based on how they feel when they buy and use them. I think when people make purchasing decisions, they will intuitively start from the perspective of "how will I feel if I buy it and use it?"

3. Meaning and commitment must be perceived by customers

At the end of this chapter, I want to say something very important. It is this "meaning or promise" that customers perceive. In other words, it is not about what the brand is conveying, but the cognitive result of the brand's meaning or promise in the customer's mind. In this sense, a brand is essentially owned by its customers.

Almost every brand claims, “Our brand is for you! Our brand is perfect!” But few actually deliver. This is because, unfortunately, consumers do not perceive the benefits, meaning and promise of brands as the right choice to address. Of course, often the assumptions are off.

Procter & Gamble says, “Perception is everything.” But it’s all about customer perception. It's not whether it can cure a hangover, but whether it is perceived to cure a hangover that leads to purchase. Of course, if the product is not good, the brand will lose credibility or reputation after trial.

It is really difficult for a brand to leave customers with a promise of purpose and purpose cognition. That is why brand activities are so precious, and only a few companies can build their own brands. The very few companies that are able to build brands can achieve outstanding results and have competitive advantages. I hope to explain specific actions in this regard in Chapter 4 and in the practical section below.

02 [Theory ② Enterprise perspective] For a company, brand is added value; for competitors, brand is an entry barrier!

In the previous chapter, I explored the nature of branding from the customer's perspective. In this chapter, I would like to explain the meaning of brand from the perspective of the enterprise. I look at it from the perspective of "the company" and "other companies".

If you understand this, you’ll intuitively understand the impact that branding can have on a company’s bottom line. I believe you will understand that "brand is the only magic weapon to win."

1. Meaning and commitment are what add value

According to relevant data, among the same industry, the operating profit margin of enterprises with brand management systems is about 5-10% higher than that of enterprises without brand management systems. Of course, the biggest factor contributing to this high profit margin is the high unit price. Why is this happening? Why can a brand have a high average order value?

For example, the cheapest T-shirt from French luxury brand H is priced at 4,373 yuan, while the T-shirt from store L is priced at 63 yuan. Let’s explore this secret from a brand perspective.

To simplify, the price can be written as the following formula. To reduce complexity, we exclude SG&A and overhead costs here.

Price = Raw material cost (cotton) + Processing cost (labor cost) + Profit

Next, let’s look at the three elements that make up the price:

First, let's look at the raw material costs. In fact, the price of cotton, the material of T-shirts, is the same all over the world. Cotton is a complete commodity that is listed on the NYCE (New York Cotton Exchange). Cotton trades globally at a uniform price of 79.77 cents per pound, just as gold and silver trade globally.

Of course, there is a premium depending on the producing area, but in general, the price is the same no matter where you buy and sell cotton. In other words, whether purchasing from Company H or an unknown Chinese factory, the cost of raw materials is almost the same, which is not the decisive factor for the 70-fold price difference. Even if there is a difference in quality, it is probably in the range of 2 to 10 times at most.

The second is the processing fee (labor cost). Company H’s factory is in France, so let’s compare the costs in France and China.

If we use the famous Big Mac Index, France is 4.79 yuan and China is 3.10 yuan. The labor cost of Company H is at least 1.5 times higher, and since the products of Company H are probably manufactured by skilled craftsmen, the premium will be between 4-10 times.

So far, the cost of raw materials is about the same. We found that the processing costs could vary by as much as a factor of 10. If this continues, it seems that the price difference will never reach 70 times. Where does this difference come from?

As you may have noticed, this is the profit. Or you could call it value-added. And that part is all about what the brand is all about and what it promises. I would like to use a formula to show:

The price of H Company’s T-shirt = 4,373 yuan = T-shirt price + the added value (profit) of H Company’s significance and commitment…①.

The price of T-shirt in L store = 63 = cost + processing fee…②.

Substitute ② into the equation in ① and arrange it as follows.

The added value (profit) of H Company's significance or promise = 4,310 yuan.

It can be seen that if the product is fixed, the cost of raw materials and processing fees will tend to a certain value. The raw materials of beer are barley, hops and water. The cost of these materials should generally be within a certain range, no matter who buys it.

The processing fee will also fluctuate to a certain extent, but if the production area remains unchanged, I think it will generally tend to a certain value. Except for very good craftsmen, I think the hourly wage range for people in the same industry, position and responsibilities is roughly like this. (Of course this would change if there was a paradigm shift in productivity due to mechanization etc, but since it's natural to assume that other companies are also introducing this technology, I don't think there would be much of a differentiating factor).

Then basically the only independent variable that can be controlled for corporate profitability is the added value of the brand’s meaning and promise, that is, profit itself. If a brand has no meaning and promised added value, it can only be sold as a product, and its market price will tend to be the cost of raw materials plus processing costs. This is what we call commoditization.

If increasing profits is the mission of a business, then the business has no choice but to take brand building seriously. Of course, some things can be done in the short term, such as cutting costs and adjusting SG&A expenses, but if we look at the big picture, I think we can see that brand building is an issue that companies must solve at all costs.

2. This will be an impenetrable competition castle

Once meaning and promise are established in the minds of customers, they become a wall that is difficult for competitors to break through. Your brand will always be a solid entry barrier that newcomers cannot break through.

In a category where a strong brand occupies a specific meaning or promise, there are only a few actions that other companies can take. Otherwise, they will be forced to fight an uphill battle with low margins while competing for strong customers with low-price strategies.

1. Proposing different meanings and promises for the same product;
2. Different meanings and promises for different products

Either way, you need significant resources to create a difference in consumer perception. In terms of product research and development, concept development, communication development, advertising investment, etc., it takes a lot of money to break down the walls built by other companies. On the contrary, if we can make it ourselves, we can force other companies to make it.

03 【Theory ③】End the debate on the difference between marketing and branding

1. Are branding and marketing the same?

After reading the previous chapter, some readers may be confused. So, I would like to make a summary first.

Brand building includes marketing in a broad sense and has some of the same parts as marketing in a narrow sense, but the two are different.

The definitions are as follows:

• Marketing in a broad sense refers to a series of processes to discover and solve a certain task.
• Marketing in a narrow sense: activities that change customers' perceptions through products, communications, advertising, events, etc. and encourage them to buy (company → customer).
• Branding: Activities that create targeted meaning and promise for our products in the customer’s perception (customer → company).

The term "marketing" used by more than 90% of companies generally refers to the narrow sense of marketing in this definition. Or, in most cases, it is more narrow and refers to gaining visibility through advertising. Broadly speaking, it is undoubtedly an important part of marketing, but it is not the whole.

Branding refers to the activities that create a purposeful meaning or promise for a company's products in the customer's perception. The arrow points from the customer to the company. Traditional advertising is called push advertising, but I think the opposite, pull measures, are similar to this brand concept. (However, this approach won't work unless it's rooted in the meaning and promise of what you're trying to achieve.

The area where branding and narrow marketing overlap is precisely "customer perception." Branding and marketing in a narrow sense have one thing in common: both are aimed at attracting the customer's attention and are guided by the work of exploring the customer.

2. Should we build brand first or do narrow marketing first?

There is no difference between branding and marketing in the narrow sense. But if you ask me, which one should come first in the order of thinking, I think brand should come first.

If a product has a good brand, it will sell better through narrow marketing. To put it a little more technically, its CVR will be higher, so the ROI of the plan will be higher. Maybe you don’t need narrow marketing at all, consumers will come to you themselves.

In addition, customer acquisition without targeted meaning is often due to cheap prices or accidental impulse purchases, resulting in low repetition rates. Since profits come from returning customers, it does not increase profits.

Customers who like to eat rich pork intestine noodles will come from far away after doing their own research. If they are satisfied with the taste of the pork intestine noodles, the repurchase rate will be very high. However, if the customer has no interest in pig intestines and just happens to come in because the restaurant is open, then no matter how confident they are about the richness of the dish, the probability of them repeating is low.

I mentioned that branding should come first, but in reality, brand building cannot be completed in one day. In fact, brand building is not a one-day job. Most of the time, the progress of brand building is the result of marketing activities in a narrow sense. So, in reality, it's a simultaneous process, but I think it's important to have a sense of what kind of meaning and commitment you want to give to it from the beginning.

04 [Practice ①] Brand building activities and brand destruction activities

1. Try to be associated with strong brands

First, think of a brand that you believe is strong in your mind. It can be any industry, but it should be one you are familiar with so that you can verify it as easily as possible. Next, list everything that comes to your mind about the brand. It can be something physically perceptible, it can be an impression you have, or it can be an idea you associate with.

For example, in my case, I thought of Starbucks. That’s my association with it.

Greenery and signs like the Statue of Liberty, beautiful storefronts, calm and not bright lighting, tables and chairs for comfortable work, Wi-Fi, many business people, no smoking, always in a trendy city, smiling and cheerful employees.

So the meaning and promise of Starbucks in my mind became something like “I can go there to change my taste and focus on work for 1-2 hours.” In fact, I often go there when I have a heavy workload and I'm not making much progress at home. (I'm still at Starbucks...)

When I go to various Starbucks, I think of the characteristics I just mentioned, and therefore, I attach meaning to Starbucks as a place where I can focus and work. If every Starbucks you went to had a completely different character, or the quality of the stores varied, you wouldn't have that association or meaning with Starbucks.

2. Consistency is the foundation of building a brand

I almost gave the answer, but consistency in the customer experience is what solidifies the meaning and promise of a brand. And when I say customer experience, I don’t just mean the actual use and experience of the product. I mean every interaction with the brand, whether it’s seeing an ad, looking at the packaging, hearing someone talk about it, or seeing it on Weibo.

For example, if the Starbucks Zhuhai store is quiet, but the Starbucks Zhongshan store is playing punk music and all the people are hanging out, then I would not assign the meaning of "workplace". If every store you went to used a different color and design for the logo, you wouldn’t know what to look for when you wanted to walk into a Starbucks in a particular city. This isn't limited to Starbucks. Most brands you would consider strong should have a consistent customer experience. Otherwise, they would not have a unique image.

Apple's products are simple in design, without cluttered buttons and colors, and its stores are bright and stylish, with high ceilings, large spaces, and lots of white, no matter where you go in the world.

The packaging of Coca-Cola is red in every country, while the liquid is black. The taste is consistent, with an indescribable "cola flavor", and it is definitely not thin or thick. (Note: There is a saying that Mexican Coke is the best, but...)

No matter where you go for Lanzhou Ramen, you’ll find a greasy table, a slightly dirty floor, and consistency in the answer to “do you want garlic?” There is consistency.

As a brand, you need to discover your customer’s job and come up with a meaning or promise that solves it so that customers are willing to buy and use your product. We then need to calculate and build the customer experience so that this meaning and promise is recalled at every customer touchpoint. This will create a consistent customer experience and slowly build the brand in the minds of customers.

3. Lack of consistency can kill your brand

There’s no denying that creating a successful brand is an art form. You can reduce your chances of failure through logical thinking, but there is no evidence that you can create a highly successful brand.

On the other hand, there are striking similarities among various brand collapse incidents. It all comes down to "inconsistency", but I want to give a more specific example.

The word "inconsistency" has two meanings. One is to provide inconsistent customer experiences at the same time. For example, the customer experiences of store A and store B are completely different.

The other is when what you did in the past is completely different from what you do now. Last year we sold spicy! But this year it’s sweet! Apparently, it is difficult for a curry shop to create a meaning or promise in the minds of its customers when it is selling.

Despite this, both of these situations actually happen everywhere. We have compiled some possible reasons why this may happen, let’s take a look.

Business factors:

1. New products are launched every month to make news, and with each new product launch, the brand’s original meaning and promise are weakened.
2. You are confusing your customers by over-expanding into too many categories with the same brand name.
3. As sub-brands are launched, different meanings and promises are given to the original brands, which compete and offset each other.

Organizational factors:

1. Brand managers change frequently and policies change rapidly.
2. Advertising agencies and creative people are not unified because they change all the time.
3. There is no common understanding of the brand among the product department, sales department, advertising department and other departments, and the execution capabilities are uneven.

A famous quote from the late Katsuya Nomura: "There are mysteries in winning, but no mysteries in losing." I believe this to be absolutely true, and I believe that reducing the probability of failure will ultimately increase the probability of success.

However, in a business, personnel changes are essential, and even a business must plan new products in order to develop. In this case, how can we protect our brand? Look at the next two chapters for specific actions to take.

05 [Practice ②] Key points that must be followed when building a brand

1. 7 things that should not be changed in the short term

In the previous chapter, I made the point that consistency is the most important thing in building a brand. So what do you need to be consistent about? If everything has to be the same, then you can’t change the copy, the advertisement, or the talent along the way. But the reality is that even great brands change their ads every year.

A brand has an essence that should not change. This essence becomes the source of consistency and is continuously perceived by customers, giving it meaning and commitment. It also includes things that should not change in the short term of 1-2 years, but should change in 3-5 years as the times change.

Here, I have extracted the essence that should not be changed for at least 1-2 years. They can be summarized into 7 items. By sticking to these seven elements and adding novelty and uniqueness to the way your brand is presented at customer touchpoints, you can ensure consistency without becoming boring.

This way, the brand will grow stronger over time, the customer experience will not deteriorate, and the brand’s customer base will continue to expand.

2. Seven brand elements are the source of consistency

1. Purpose of the brand
2. Brand competition market
3. Target customers and their jobs (who and what not)
4. Benefit
5. Point Of Difference
6. Brand Features
7. Brand Icon

This will give you different gains from the "Marketing" textbooks you have studied.

(1) Purpose of the brand

It is the answer to the ultimate question, “What is the purpose of this brand?” In addition, some brands may be summarized in the form of MVV (mission, vision, values). No matter how appealing a proposition may be, if it is not aligned with the brand purpose, it should not be implemented but should serve as a fundamental basis for consistency.

In this regard, once the purpose is set, it should not be changed, unless a natural disaster occurs, which is obvious in the short term. A change in brand purpose should be viewed as the start of a new brand, whereas continuing to do business under the same name when it is already somewhat well-known may confuse customers.

Example: Coca-Cola’s brand purpose

(The above picture is from the Coca-Cola China website)

(2) Markets with brand competition

This defines the business areas in which the company’s brand operates, and with which companies it competes (or does not compete). For example, Procter & Gamble will be in the household market and Coca-Cola will be in the soft drink market. This is the general definition of a market.

If we consider that brands are competing for limited resources such as customers' time and money, many situations will arise that go beyond general market competition.

Consider, for example, the market for traditional television. That is, Hisense, Changhong and others are competitors, and they put themselves in the survival market. If we define the market as “wanting to enjoy disposable time at home”, then competitors would include Netflix, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Tencent Video, etc. This will most likely define the market as a "household one-time time consumption market."

When the entire industry is in a downward trend and the entire TV market is grim, it is difficult to solve the problem by simply defining the competition within the TV industry.

When it comes to markets, changing them in a 1-2 year timeframe is disruptive and breaks the consistency of the customer experience. On the other hand, in the medium to long term, such as three to five years, it is necessary to conduct proactive review. This is because the pace of change in the world is accelerating every day, and the definition of the market is also undergoing unstoppable changes.

I think that instead of updating it every three years, it would be more appropriate to look at the market based on brand work and update it when changes occur.

(3) Target customers and their work

This is what is called WHO. It is repeatedly emphasized that what is important is WHO itself, and what is essentially important is for WHO. But what is more important is not WHO, but what WHO is not. (Are you confused? 😄)

Being able to segment your target customers will greatly increase the unique resolution of your brand's target customers in the market. As an image, your brand resolves to be unique.

example:

• Market definition: Holiday stress relief market
• WHO: For girls only, who want to scream at full speed without worrying about being seen.

Setting up WHO is where it all starts. The benefits, POD, brand features and brand logo will be mentioned later. Basically, everything should start with understanding your customers.

The WHO and market definitions should not change in one or two years but should be reviewed in 3-5 years as customers change as the market changes.

(4) Benefits = Meaning or Commitment

This is also what I talked about in the previous chapters. It will be a statement about what benefit the customer will get from solving the above. At the same time, it is also about giving the brand the meaning or promise it deserves. Working from a market and client perspective, one needs to consider whether functional benefits alone are sufficient or whether emotional benefits must also be included.

In an industry where commoditization is advancing and functional differentiation is difficult, emotional benefits are bound to become more important.

When clarifying interests, we must remember that the subject of the interests is the "customer". For example, in the case of kitchen detergent, "strong cleaning power" is not a benefit. But (customers) not having to wash twice “is a functional benefit. This is a functional benefit, and if it makes customers feel comfortable and relaxed, it is an emotional benefit.

I think it would be more correct to say that interests are advancing with the times rather than changing. It seems that the benefit of “not having to wash twice” is still there, and with the innovation of technology, higher benefits such as “you can enjoy sparkling clean clothes” have been added.

(5) Differences

POD refers to the functional advantages that customers are looking for that competitors cannot provide. This pod offers unique benefits that only your brand can provide, so customers will pay to buy into your brand.

As a brand marketer , “Is POD a feature? Or is it a benefit? Of course, there are many exceptions. But my answer is “In principle, POD is a feature. In other words, POD is the RTB (Reason To Believe) of interest.

The main body of POD is the brand. In the detergent example above, the POD would be "the cleaning power that brings any grease to the surface." With it, you can enjoy the benefit of "I don't have to wash it twice!"

For Apple, "intuitive and easy-to-use UI" is a function, while the brand is the main thing. This is a POD. So, “(customers) feel smarter” is an emotional benefit. However, this is not a hard and fast rule or anything like that, I personally researched many brands and wrote a definitive list. Some of them actually have companies that offer benefits as PODs. However, since POD is mainly created by the product side in collaboration with R&D and product engineers, I think it is easier to implement it if it is kept at the functional level. In this sense, I think POD=function is easier to understand. PODs evolve over time and as interests develop. A brand that moves to a higher-dimensional POD while releasing it can be said to be a strong brand.

(6) Brand characteristics

It becomes the personified personality of the brand. It is difficult for people to remember inorganic things or to develop feelings for them. Giving a brand a specific personality makes it easier for people to remember and like it. At the same time, in this way, the tone and manner of delivering information at customer touchpoints can also be determined.

Close-ups of 12 typical general types of people (see above). The more details you set, the friendlier they will be. Are you a funny person or a serious person? Think about your customers and set these things up in a way that aligns with your goals. Once you decide, use that personality to set the tone for each touchpoint. "You can be different from others. Keep believing in yourself. There are many things in the world, but I managed to do it," the former Swedish footballer wrote in his autobiography, I AM ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC.

This is the interpretation of the Zlatan Ibrahimovic brand, to establish such an image. It is this character that makes Ibrahimovic a brand loved by many people.

The brand character will not be changed for 1-2 years in the short term. When the existing character does not match the major changes in the market or customers, it will be changed every 3-5 years. But this is the scope of so-called rebranding, so not only the brand characteristics need to be changed, but also items such as the brand icon, which will be mentioned below.

(7) Brand Icon

These are the tangible and intangible assets that a brand possesses, such as colour, logo, design and voice. Repeated usage triggers customers to automatically associate the brand name and the benefits attached = meaning and promise.

In most cases, the immediate entry point into perceiving a brand is the brand logo. If you walk down the street, you know it's McDonald's because it proudly displays a sign with a red and yellow M logo. If it was a green and blue M logo, we wouldn't be able to recognize it as McDonald's.

Not only signs and colors, but also intangible smells and sounds can become signs. The strong smell of stinky tofu is obviously the icon of stinky tofu, and the payment sound when using PayPay, "PayPay!" has become a symbol.

A brand's logo should not be changed in a short period of time, at least 1-2 years. You can consider replacing it every 3-5 years, but be very cautious. When it comes to changing your brand logo, small changes are the way to go. (Starbucks' logo change is a great example).

You have to be prepared for a drastic change that is a rebrand and in some ways starting from scratch. This is a good choice if your brand logo has a negative legacy and has a negative impact on the image it has established in the minds of customers.

The above seven points are the key points that must be followed at all customer touchpoints to maintain brand consistency. Depending on your brand, some of these may be unconscious settings, while others may develop naturally. Finally, in the next chapter, I want to write an action plan on how to consciously protect and accumulate these essences.

06 [Practice ③] Specific brand actions

First: Agree with decision makers on the importance of brand

Finally, this is the last chapter of the practical part. In this chapter, I will answer the question you may have after reading this: "But what exactly should I start doing today?" In this chapter, I want to tell you some actions you can take.

I could go on and on if I listed every action in detail, but I've broken them down into three steps: two big actions and one preparatory step.

Is spending money on brand a “cost” in your organization? Or "investment"? If the answer is “cost”, the subsequent steps will almost certainly be pointless.

As explained in Chapter 2, brand is profit = added value in itself. In other words, branding is an activity that creates added value. If this is the case, brands that create value by spending money should be classified as “investments”. It should be more reliable than buying stocks, land and real estate. It should be an investment that has 100% synergy with your core business (or in other words, your core business itself).

Still, people tend to think of brand money as an expense. There could be two reasons for this.

1. Because it is recorded as SG&A expense in accounting;
2. Because it doesn't seem to generate long-term benefits.

As for the first reason, it’s the rule, so there’s nothing we can do about it. In accounting terms, money spent on branding and marketing is indeed SG&A expense. It is treated as a one-time cost that compresses profits. It can be difficult to interpret this section as “investment,” especially if the decision maker comes from accounting, finance, or management.

The problem is that in many cases, not only the accounting and finance departments that control the purse strings, but even those involved in brand management do not feel that past measures have contributed to the brand's value. I have seen some cases where the brand itself has raised the question of "it's just a promotion effect anyway".

I think the biggest reason why brand equity doesn’t build year after year is a lack of consistency – when you watch an ad, the message or characters change so much that it’s hard to recall the brand.

Think of a case where different benefits are communicated to customers each year, using different personas, tones and approaches, and a different brand icon. In this way, what customers see will change every year, so there is nothing to learn from, so naturally we will look forward to the promotion effect once a year.

Instead, if you use consistent characters and icons to convey consistent benefits, they will be stored in the mind of the customer, and even if they forget 80% of the benefits, you can use the remaining 20% ​​of the benefits to create another customer experience in the next year. This will allow you to keep 20% of your investment in your customers' hearts every year, which is also the secret to a brand growing year by year.

Similarly, the brand itself is value added. A brand is an activity to create a brand, and it is nothing more than creating added value. It should be considered that the current incompleteness is due to inconsistent measures in the past or the lack of targeted positioning.

Step 1: Create a Brand Book

Brand book is the definition file for your brand. You can think of it as a self-introduction document for a brand, and you can learn everything about the brand by reading the brand book. You can use any format you like, but if your company has multiple brands, I think it's better to use a unified format instead of different for each brand.

I suggest creating brand books from the following aspects.

1. Even if the person in charge is changed, the advertising company is changed, or the designer is changed, the essence must be kept consistent and protect and continue to enhance the value of the brand in a non-blasphemous way.
2. There is a unified understanding among all departments that may serve as customer touchpoints, including marketing, sales, public relations, advertising and customer centers, and ensure consistency in execution.
3. When reviewing each measure, multiple stakeholders can objectively judge the right or wrong of the measure from the brand's perspective based on the correct answers verbally.

The first point is particularly important. A brand needs to develop and deepen in the long run. In a company, it is normal to change the person in charge every two to three years, so if everyone is asked to be responsible for brand building, there will be a gap every three years. If the seven essences change every three years, the brand will not be established. Therefore, if you want to protect your brand in a non-blasphemous way, you need to have a brand book that expresses clearly.

Brand books should basically include seven items listed in the previous chapter. In addition to the seven basic contents, the brand book should also include elements such as brand history, brand icon usage guide, product line and product portfolio description. The fine-tuning of different brands will vary, but these seven basic elements should be enough to ensure consistency.

By the way, the brand equity pyramid is to extract the most important essence of the brand book and combine it into a picture. In the sense that you can see it at a glance, it is included in the brand book as a summary of the brand book.

Although it is in English, I still found the following brand books about Santa Claus and Coca-Cola. Please read it and you will understand. The brand definition of Santa Claus in particular is very interesting. After extraordinary efforts, the Santa's brand has been protected worldwide.

Step 2 : Determine all customer touch points in the customer journey map and check if they are consistent with the brand book

No matter how good your brand book is, how carefully you maintain your meaning and commitment, your brand building won’t succeed unless what your customers actually see and experience.

So, why not compare all the brand's execution with the brand book and correct it if necessary? So that's what I'm going to say. We do exactly that, but it is very difficult for brands that exceed a certain size.

If you include small brands, you are making decisions every day. Considering the details of whether the tone and method of the words on the website are suitable for the role, it becomes very difficult to randomly check whether there are omissions.

Therefore, the 5A mode customer journey map is very helpful for systematically and comprehensively determining the contact points with customers.

In theory, nothing in the customer journey map is missing, it covers the entire process from recognition to recommendation to others. If so, it is because the measure is not part of the customer journey (i.e. it is not necessary), or the measure has not been considered through the customer journey map. Of course, in practice, some will be omitted.

The customer journey map is not essentially a brand check, but a way to clarify the purpose and objectives of the implementation of measures and send customers to the next stage. My idea is to use it to check the brand together, because all execution plans should be on top.

But in reality, this does not fully cover the contact points between every brand and customer in the market. For example, there may be no record of the measures taken in the past and are still in the market. Some cooperative companies may not be able to change themselves, or they may be taken by other departments within the company.

For example, in home improvement stores, there are many cases where the promotional board produced by a certain brand five years ago is still there. However, it is almost impossible for brand managers to know the situation of every retail store. Moreover, what kind of promotional products to use is determined by the store manager of the home center, not by the brand itself. Especially when your business is large offline and you are managing a big brand, you may find yourself unable to fully grasp or control such a situation.

On the other hand, if all your efforts are online, you may not have as much risk. In any case, checking all customer touch points with the customer journey map will improve the accuracy of brand promotion from the website font, packaging color, the end of the advertisement, to the sales rhetoric list. Through long-term and continuous accumulation, the added value of the "brand" will be accumulated.

Starbucks is actually the company's efforts and extraordinary resources to provide such a consistent "Starbucks" customer experience. It is no exaggeration to say that whether it is investment or expenditure depends on how much you attach to brand building.

07 [Finally] Let’s do brand building!

Let me briefly introduce the origin of "brand":

Old English brand, brond "fire, flame, destroyed by fire; firebrand, a piece of burning wood, torch," comes from the ancient Germanic language *brandaz "burning" (source is also the ancient Nordic brandr, ancient German brand, ancient Frisian brand "fire card; sword blade", German brand "fire"), comes from the PIE root *gwher-"heating, warming".

Branding or burning marks with hot iron, burning; stigmatization, originally refers to a criminal mark or burning wound, from the brand (n.). Visualization often has a bad meaning, "fix a notorious person on the upper", in the mid-15th century, centered on criminal markings. As a means of marking ownership or quality of property, in the 1580s, related to this. Branded; branding. Especially on wine barrels, etc., to identify the quality of the manufacturer or content, by 1827, broadening to marks made in other ways, and then broadening to "specific production of a certain commodity" (1854). Brand name began in 1889; brand loyalty started in 1961. Old French brand, brand, Italian brando "all come from Germanic (comparable brandish).

The essence of a brand is to “distinguish from others through meaning and commitment.” It would be great if the continuity of activity is maintained and differentiated in the desired sense. Propel as is. On the other hand, if you can’t distinguish between the straight line of your current activity, you have to take intense action.

If you have any questions or information requests, please feel free to contact me. May more and more exciting brands be born!

Author: PM Addict

Source: PM Addict