Brands and branding

What a brand isn’t

The logo (or any other type of trademark) is not a brand. It is just a symbol for the brand. 1. A logo

2. How it looks and sounds Creating a consistent look, with particular colours and distinct wording, is not enough to create a brand.

So what is a brand?

It’s a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. When enough people have the same gut feeling, the product, service or company can be said to have a brand. For example...

Airlines Which is British Airways and which is Virgin? Airline A: “Cool, edgy, innovative, sexy, amazing” Airline B: “Excellent, reliable, classy, classic”

Many things lead to your gut instinct.. Thoughts, memories, associations, emotions, colours, flavours, people, experiences, prejudices, smells, sounds, logos, slogans, adverts, recommendations..

Types of Brand

People will pay more because they believe that there is no better substitute.... A brand can price itself up to 40% more than an unbranded product...

..and sometimes people believe that buying a particular brand says something about who they are...

... or that people will judge them based on what brands they buy.

Around 30% of the value of the stockmarket is from brand

‘Branding’ is what companies do to try to influence your gut feeling about the brand. For example, communicating through words and visuals the qualities they want you to associate with the brand.

Starwood's luxury boutique hotel brand, W Hotels. What they want your gut feeling to be: “For young, fashionable people. Stylish. 5*” Branding: Design: minimalist, modern decor. 5* service: friendly/ slick, but not formal.

You might see an amazing cake... But if it tasted terrible, would you buy another one? Remember... visuals aren’t enough!

Design is icing.... Brands need to get it right below the surface. Few brands can do well without a quality product and good customer service.

Company culture is vital Companies need to create a culture of excellence and ensure all employees know what the brand stands for. The best organisations are guided in everything they do by what the brand stands for.

What can a brand stand for? stands for ‘family fun’ stands for ‘winning’ so everything they do must be in line with that.

Brand managers have to think of everything that could affect the brand! Virgin stands for: Value for money Quality Innovation Fun A sense of competitive challenge

So staff recruitment is an important part of brand management “spend a lot of time identifying the qualities of their best people and their recruitment is about trying to mirror those best people. We’re looking for happy, bubbly people because you can’t put that in people.” Gordon McKenzie, Brand Quality Director, Virgin

Social media has changed things for brand managers Born: February 2004 Born: July 2006 Born: February 2005 Born: May 2003 Born: January 2007 Born: July 2007 They have less control..

Social media means that consumers have more power to damage brands United Airlines shareholders lost brand value because a passenger watched his guitar get broken by baggage handlers and posted this video on YouTube: United Airlines: And online reviews can do significant damage:

Employees can also damage the brand..

The future for brands

There will be more brands coming from the East 2020 Predicted increase in brands particularly from Asia and South America

Brands need to work harder to stand out

More individuals will create their own brands Could you be one of them?