Understand in one article: the basic framework of brand building

It may be that the market has recovered a lot in the second half of the year, or it may be that the plan for next year needs to be determined by the end of the year. Recently, some friends have stopped talking to me about selling products and started talking about brand building. It’s been a long time since I last heard this. But many people, right from the start, say that the core focus for next year is to increase brand awareness, build word of mouth, etc., which sounds very vague. But when you ask them what their strategy is? What is positioning? What is a grabber? He knows nothing about anything.

Although it is true that branding is a metaphysics, brand building also has a basic framework and path. Brand building is not just about making others remember your name and know what your logo looks like. Let’s talk today about the basic framework of brand building.

The following are just personal opinions for reference only.

1. About the brand

When it comes to brands, there are a thousand different opinions among a thousand people. Let’s not talk about big things as it may get a bit vague. I will first use plain language to talk about my understanding of brands so that we can align our basic understanding of brands.

1. What is a brand?

Many people think that a brand represents an identity, a belief, a value, or simply a product recognition, etc., which are actually somewhat one-sided. Let’s use an example to understand what you think of when you mention McDonald’s: Big Mac? fries? You just like it? Yellow M? Weekday lunch? Golden Arches? Wait, everyone thinks differently, and you won’t just think of one.

To me, brand is the impression consumers have of you , which is the so-called brand mind. The impression itself is a mixture of multiple dimensions and does not have just one simple side. For example, when you mention OPPO, you may think of its fast charging, beautiful photos, a large number of spokespersons, or that it is always associated with vivo, etc.

2. What is the value of the brand?

First of all, there is no doubt that the brand serves the business. If it cannot help the business, then the brand loses its meaning.

Jiang Nanchun said: "Traffic occupies the channel, and brand occupies people's hearts. Brand is the real moat."

Yang Fei said: "Brand is the most stable traffic pool"

Secondly, the reason for the emergence of brands is the excess social output value. If the demand is far greater than the supply, why would there be brands? Only when the market provides consumers with a variety of choices do brands have their place. Therefore , the greatest value of a brand is to become the consumer's choice preference and reduce people's choice costs. In simple terms, it means making consumers think of you when they have needs, choose you first and continuously, and be willing to recommend you to others.

3. What is brand building?

As mentioned before, a brand is the impression consumers have of you, so building a brand is about establishing and managing consumers’ impressions . Don't start by shouting about building a well-known brand, gaining a good reputation, and having corporate social responsibility. These are too abstract. Let's be practical and take it step by step. There are three steps to building a brand:

①. Step 1: Brand diagnosis

– What kind of brand to build: clarify brand positioning

– Priority problem to solve: Identify brand challenges

②, Step 2: Brand infrastructure

– Symbol system: solving brand recognition and association

– Benefit system: clarify the value delivered by the brand

– Meaning system: clarify the symbolism/meaning of the brand

③. The third step: brand building

– Experience optimization: starting from the user’s full-process experience touchpoints

–Brand marketing : starting from the point where users receive information

This is what I think is the basic framework for brand building. I will talk about these three steps below, and I hope it will be helpful to you.

2. Step 1: Brand Diagnosis

We are all workers. Most likely, we will not rebuild a brand from scratch, but take over an existing brand to build it. So before we start building, we need to conduct basic brand diagnosis and at least figure out two points: 1. What kind of brand to build: clarify brand positioning; 2. Priority issues to be solved: identify brand challenges

1. What kind of brand to build: clarify brand positioning

Before setting off, we must have a goal and a direction, and brand positioning is the goal and direction that guides us and lets us know what kind of brand we want to build. If the company already has a clear positioning, then we will follow it. If it does not have one or needs to be updated, then we need to find our own brand positioning.

Brand positioning is about finding your own position. The core is actually differentiation. There are three steps: 1. Explore market opportunities and find the target market; 2. Benchmark competitors and look for differentiated advantages; 3. Communicate differentiated advantages and establish awareness. These three steps are all carried out around the three core elements of differentiation: market audience, the company itself, and competitors.

2. Prioritize the problem: Identify brand challenges

Every brand faces different problems. Brand building is by no means easy. It is not realistic to achieve everything in one go. It also costs money, and we have to spend it wisely. So after clarifying the positioning, we also need to know what brand challenges we need to solve most.

When identifying brand challenges, I tend to explore the four levels of the brand: "awareness, cognition, trust, and favorability" to see which level of problem needs to be solved first. Even for some start-up brands that are still struggling on the edge of survival, instead of spending money on building a brand, it is better to spend money on making good products, achieving growth, and verifying and running a successful business model.

①. Know:

That is, how many people know you. At work, we often use the "brand mention rate with/without prompts" survey as an important indicator to measure awareness. In the past two years, the brainwashing advertisements that many people complained about (Bai Jue Travel Photography, Guazi Used Cars, BOSS Direct Hiring, etc.) actually play a big role in increasing awareness and solving cognition.

It is undeniable that many people complain, but for consumers, these brands are more of a disposable tool. The priority of these brands is to make consumers think of them first during the service window period. A lower brand image is acceptable. Now if you want to buy a used car or take travel photos, the brands you can most likely think of are those whose advertisements have been complained about.

②. Cognition:

There are numerous brands in the market now. If consumers do not have a clear understanding of you, it is useless to know you, and they will soon forget you. At work, we often understand consumer perceptions through surveys such as "brand feelings/impression words", "reasons for purchase", and "which ones meet the brand description". Before launching an awareness campaign, make sure that consumers have a clear understanding of the brand and whether it meets your expectations . This is still an example of brainwashing advertising, and the key message they convey is still very clear: "Earl Travel Photography: Take photos wherever you want" and "Boss Direct Hiring: Talk to your boss when looking for a job."

3. Trust:

For many decision-making businesses (insurance, real estate, financial management, health products, education, etc.), consumer trust in the brand is very important. No matter how good your words are, the prerequisite is that consumers believe them. Therefore, such brands have to consider how to increase their credibility from the beginning. Common trust endorsements include: spokespersons (Zhang Guoli endorses ZhongAn Insurance), endorsements from authoritative institutions (Dong-E E-Jiao uses Compendium of Materia Medica to endorse), user volume (400 million users use Yuanfudao), etc.

④. Favorability:

In other words, whether users like you or not is usually judged through indicators such as "brand NPS (net promoter score)" and "percentage of positive/neutral public opinion". Just like drinking Coke, some people prefer Pepsi, while others prefer Coca-Cola. Many companies do charity, provide relief, and speak out, in fact, just to win favor.

The above is the basic brand diagnosis that needs to be done before building a brand: ①. What kind of brand to build: clarify brand positioning; ②. Priority issues to be solved: identify brand challenges.

3. Step 2: Brand Infrastructure

What is “brand infrastructure”? "Brand infrastructure" means building the "basic settings of the brand", which is the basis for consumers to know you . To make an analogy: a brand is like a person. This person's appearance, interests, educational background, income, age, values, etc., are the character settings of a person and are also the basic settings of the brand. Similarly, the process of people getting to know each other is also the process of consumers understanding and becoming familiar with a brand.

The topic of brand infrastructure can be big or small, so I will only give a brief introduction here. First of all, brand infrastructure must follow brand positioning. Infrastructure serves positioning and helps consumers better understand you. This time, brand infrastructure is generally carried out around three systems: symbol system, interest system and meaning system.

1. Symbol system: consistent with positioning, strong recognition and memorability

It is to solve the brand recognition and association, which is the most intuitive feeling of consumers. Generally, it is designed from the perspective of "vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch". The most common and core ones are "visual design" and "auditory design". Things like "logo, brand color, brand font, product design, etc." belong to visual design (Nike's check mark, McDonald's yellow and red, iPhone design, etc.), while "brand song, brand sound" belong to auditory design (Windows startup sound, Melatonin advertisements are familiar to you, etc.)

2. Benefit system: in line with positioning, with clear and differentiated benefits

It is to clarify the value conveyed by the brand and to closely follow the needs of consumers. The core is to answer two questions: ① Core value: what needs of consumers can be met (Jiaduobao: I am afraid of drinking Jiaduobao); ② Differentiation label: How am I different from others (BOSS Direct Hire: Talk to the boss when looking for a job)

3. Meaning system: in line with positioning, image and identity fit the audience

Clarify the symbol/meaning of the brand. For some brands, consumers choose you not only because your products/services are good, but also because of your brand image, because when using you, it will also affect the consumer's personal image and reflect personal taste, etc. For example: drinking Starbucks, carrying Chanel, using iPhone, wearing Nike, etc.

4. Step 3: Brand Building

A lot of groundwork has been laid before, but it’s all what you need to know before you start building a brand. So how do you build a brand? As mentioned before, building a brand is about establishing and managing consumers' impressions. This can be understood using a very easy-to-understand basic logic: we start from where consumers' impressions of the brand come from.

Where does consumers’ impression of a brand come from? To summarize, there are two sources: 1. Personal experience and feelings; 2. Receiving external information. Therefore, when we build a brand, we naturally start from these two points: ①. Experience optimization: starting from the user's full-process experience touchpoints; ②. Brand marketing: starting from the touchpoints where users receive information.

1. Experience optimization: Starting from the user's full-process experience touchpoints, provide an unexpected product/service experience

Business is the cornerstone of the brand. As a top-level design, the brand follows the strategy and cannot be separated from the business. No matter how well you speak externally, if the business cannot support it, it will be a slap in the face. Therefore, when we start building our brand, we must also internally audit our own business experience to see whether it meets user expectations and whether it can support the brand positioning.

What are the full-process experience touchpoints? It is the key point where consumers interact with products/services during the entire experience process. Touchpoints can be divided into: ① Information touchpoints: copywriting, pictures, communication and other content (APP UI, product packaging, pop-up windows, customer service language, push copywriting, etc.); ② Interaction touchpoints: modules that consumers need to actually operate (product after-sales service, APP ordering experience, customer service consultation experience, etc.)

The core of this area is to use experience touchpoints as the smallest unit, sort out experience maps, and optimize product/service experience based on brand positioning (for example: you say it is strict selection, but the SKUs of one category cannot be scrolled through on 18 screens, then it is not suitable; you say it is a caring steward for users, but the customer service entrance is very deep and the feedback is slow, then it is not suitable either). Optimization in this area often requires close cooperation between the brand team and the business team.

In addition, there are many areas that can be optimized in the entire business experience, but human and financial resources are limited, so the optimization and iteration priorities need to be planned in advance. At the same time, some changes may even affect business growth/conversion. If conditions permit, you can negotiate with the business team to conduct A/B testing and find a balance (for example: the brand team shot a TVC and wants to put it on the APP homepage pop-up window, but this operation may affect the conversion of homepage traffic).

2. Brand marketing: Starting from the point where users receive information, build word-of-mouth and conduct communication and promotion

Following the same logic as experience optimization, we sort out the touchpoints through which users receive external information and then optimize them. The external information received by users can be divided into two categories: ①. Word of mouth from others: word of mouth from acquaintances + word of mouth from KOLs + word of mouth from public opinion; ②. Communication and promotion from the brand: public relations articles, brand advertising, marketing campaigns, etc.

(1) Word of mouth from others: word of mouth from acquaintances + word of mouth from KOLs + word of mouth from public opinion

This is the so-called word-of-mouth marketing, and its essence is: let consumers speak for you and use the mouths of third parties to advertise for you. It is a supplement to the brand's first-person advertising. What is often referred to as content seeding is actually a type of word-of-mouth marketing. After all, user recommendations are the best endorsement for a brand. Even if a user watches an ad 10 times, it is not as good as a recommendation from a friend.

(2) Brand promotion: public relations articles, brand advertising, etc.

This area is the communication work that marketing students are very familiar with. I won’t go into details. The important thing to note here is: perseverance! You must keep insisting on the message you want to convey and not change it. Nowadays, with information explosion and consumer attention shortage, it may not be effective to focus on one point, not to mention that things keep changing. In the first half of the year, you talk about cost-effectiveness, and in the second half of the year, you talk about good service, but at the end of the year, there is nothing.

However, this area can be verified through minimum feasibility testing in a small area/circle. If the information and tactics disseminated are proven to be effective, the scope of dissemination can be gradually expanded to avoid a one-time gambling-style all-in.

V. Conclusion

Today's sharing is not very deep. The core is to introduce the basic framework of building a brand. Brand is the impression consumers have of you. Therefore, building a brand is to establish and manage the impression of consumers. Building a brand consists of three steps:

①. Step 1: Brand diagnosis

– What kind of brand to build: clarify brand positioning

– Priority problem to solve: Identify brand challenges

②, Step 2: Brand infrastructure

– Symbol system: solving brand recognition and association

– Benefit system: clarify the value delivered by the brand

– Meaning system: clarify the symbolism/meaning of the brand

③. The third step: brand building

– Experience optimization: starting from the user’s full-process experience touchpoints

– Brand marketing: starting from the point where users receive information

The above only represents my own opinion. I hope it helps you and worth your time. Thank you.

Author: Sanjin

Source: Sanjin Classmates