- A brand is one of the most valuable assets of a company; it identifies the goods or services against those of its competitors and is essential in bringing these closer to the customer.
- Brand equity is ‘that bundle of benefits, attributes, imagery and experience which defines and differentiates a brand in the mind of the customer’.
- Everything a customer knows about the brand gets bundled together and ethics and social responsibility can help build brand loyalty. The way a customer feels about the brand as a corporate citizen is key to brand equity.
- The ultimate measure of a brand’s worth is its ability to sustain sales from loyal customers. To get to this point, a brand needs to establish itself in a prominent position in the mind of the customer and then to build favourable attitudes towards that brand which could lead to purchasing behaviour.
- Likeability and top of mind awareness is key to the success of a brand.
- Customers will not pay a premium unless the value of the brand is tangibly demonstrated; you need to indicate what the customer is paying the premium for – even if it just enhanced status.
- In industries where all products and services are similar and the intrinsic qualities are not that different, you need to build status and image. Functional differentiation is important but not easy to sustain – you need to build ‘emotional differentiation’.
- You need to be absolutely certain that you deliver against the brand values – every day.
- The secret of successful branding is a focused approach. Consistency and continuity is key to the strength of a brand – it has to be there all the time. Brand management must be consistent, continuous and supported across the organisation.
- Brand loyalty is hard won and easily lost - nothing kills it more quickly than complacency and thinking that an assault of the brand will ‘go away.
- In business today it is often more important to build a brand before you build a product or service. Need to sell a personality; appeal to emotions.
- Brands are the ultimate accountable institution – if people fall out of love with your brand, you can go out of business.
- Customers like brands – they simplify choices and guarantee quality.
- Service companies need to understand that their people are their brand – the relationship you have with them is mirrored directly in the relationship they have with the customer.
- A good brand is about building a long-term relationship with the customer.
- Understanding the brand leads you to understand the precise segment of the market you want to speak to.
- Today's consumers are using brands in a way like never before - the relationship between brand and consumer has never been stronger. You are what you buy. People define themselves by the brands they buy.
- A successful brand is one to which the consumer feels warmer and closer to the organisation.
- When communicating the 'brand message', it is important that the consumer sees the message as relevant and as one that does not intrude. This is because people are becoming more and more time-stressed and their attention spans are getting shorter.
- An international brand consultant believes that the brands of the future will have to stand not only for quality and a desirable image, they will have to signal something wholesome about the company behind the brand. The next best thing in brands is social responsibility – it is honest to say there is nothing different about our product or service, but we behave well!. The founders of some of the oldest and best loved brands devoted their lives and company profits to social improvements (eg Disney, Boots, Cadbury)
- If you are seen as a brand leader, you need to act like one – increasingly this means showing your support for a social cause. Customers expect big brands to put something back.