BRANDING YOURSELF AND YOUR BUSINESS

 

Easy Earning by Branding Yourself and Your Business

                    BRANDING YOURSELF
                     AND YOUR BUSINESS

                                       1
                     EXPAND THE BRAND

When you have a company that has products on the market,

 
you have to decide if you want to expand the brand orkeep it at an even level. 

Expanding your brand
can be a delicate decision because you do not want to do any
harm to your brand by expanding too quickly.

Some companies decide to expand their brand quickly in order
to benefit in the short term, while others look for long-term success.

 
To look at how brand expansion can weaken your brand you only
have to look at car manufacturers.  

At one time the big three automakers were untouchable, consumers would be proud to state
they drove a Ford, Chevrolet, or Chrysler.

 However, as the automakers introduced more and more models, there brands were
weakened. 

Consumers no longer stated that they drove a Ford,
Chevrolet, or Chrysler; they said they drove an Escort, Cavalier, or a New Yorker. 

This ultimately satu-rated the market, weakened
their brand, and lessened their market share allowing competition
the opportunity to move in to their territory.
That is not to say that weakening your brand is a bad thing or will
not allow your company to increase profits. If you are in an industry

1. that has weak or no competition, weakening your brand through

expansion will open it up to a larger market share allowing you
to increase sales and make a larger profit.

On the other hand, you have to keep in mind the consumers
that want to buy your product or want to be aligned with your brand.

 
Having a brand that is everywhere and open to everyone might not
be what the consumers are looking for. 

Think about the exclusivity of some brands like Rolex, not everyone can afford a watch of that
caliber, 

and that is why the brand is strong with those consumers
who can afford to buy the watch. Being exclusive does have its
bene-fits as well as being available to the population at large.

                                        2
                   CONTRACT THE BRAND

Having a brand that is associated with doing one or just a few
things well will help you to build a strong brand.

                       If you want to open a business, it is okay to sell just a few
items or if you want to open a restaurant focus on being great with just a few dishes.  

Think of all the specialty stores that are
out there that specialize in selling one thing or focus on a genre.

Toy stores, for example, fit into this niche.

 Although they sell a variety of products, they are all geared to toys. 

Girls toys, boys toys it does not matter, when you are going into a toy store you

know exactly what you are going to see and you know why you are there.  

This increases their brand, whether it is a well known
toy store such as Toys “R” Us, or a neighborhood toy store.

The same goes for restaurants.

 If you want to open an Italian
restaurant, do not include dishes that do not fit within the scope of your business. 

Focus on doing Italian dishes right and you will build
a well respected brand for doing it well. 

There are certain rules you should follow to ensure that your brand benefits if you want to
specialize or contract. 

First, make sure that whatever business that
you want to be involved in you keep it simple and narrow. Second,

you will want to keep the supply of your product full at all times.

Third, when dealing with wholesalers, you want to strike the best
possible price so you will be able to sell your product at inexpensive prices. 

Finally, you have to make sure that you are
the best in what-ever you choose to do so that you will be the
leader in the industry giving you a good brand identity.

Think of the large companies in the world that dominate in their
category by focusing on one product. 

Coca Cola, for example, is the worldwide leader by far when it comes to selling cola drinks.
Recent studies have shown that their share of the worldwide
market in the neighborhood of seventy percent. Pundits should not
even refer to Coca Cola and Pepsi as cola wars because there is a clear winner in the category. 

McDonald’s and Burger King are the
same way; they are successful because they focus on making
hamburgers.

 While they have expanded their menus to include
chicken, they remained focused on being good at just a few items.

                                                3

                      PUBLICITY IS A GOOD THING

I f you are looking to get a new brand off the ground, perhaps the
best way to go about it is to generate as much  publicity as you can.
While advertising is another option, publicity is much

better at getting a new product or brand going and unlike advertising,
garnering publicity is a lot cheaper. Think about what you want your

 
brand to stand for, if it is something that is going to be used by people
that spend time outdoors or is relatable to being outdoors you can go

 
around the country spreading the message of your new product at
outdoor festivals, and country fairs.

 Show up at outdoor sporting events, such as the X-Games and action sports events, pass out fliers,
and give free samples of your product to start creating a buzz among

 
the consumers that you want to purchase your brand.

One great way to generate publicity for your brand is to be the first
at something. 

News people love to break news and be the first on the scene of a new story. With media now being connected across the
world, it will cost next to nothing and the news media will do the job for you. 

With the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twit-ter,
you can create your own buzz about your brand free of charge.

You should not worry about trying to come up with a catchy
slogan for your brand when you are trying to launch it. Stay focused

on building as much publicity for your brand as possible. 

This will cut down the initial costs of launching your new brand so you
can use your budgeted funds in other areas that will help make
the brand a success. When thinking of strategies to increase
your brand aware-ness try to approach it as how you can get the
most publicity for the lowest cost.

                                         4

                 ADVERTISING THE BRAND

Once you have launched your brand through publicity, the next
step is to keep the brand name in the minds of consumers, which is done through advertising. 

Adver-tising can be an expensive
proposition, so it has to be approached
carefully and with a well thought out plan. 

The message that you put forth through advertising is important. You will have to figure

out the image you want to portray for your company and brand.

 
However, if you have successfully positioned your brand through
publicity and have become a leader in your industry the best
way to advertise is to advertise why your brand is the best.

This can be done a number of ways.

 You can build an advertising campaign around your brand being the best in your
market. 

Addi-tionally, you could build an advertising campaign about how your brand is the leader in quality when it comes to products in your market.  

Consumers want to be associated with the
best and when you advertise about how your brand is an industry
leader, you will find that consumers will be attracted to your brand.

In order to make your advertising campaign a success it is best to
do some research before you get started.

 Hold some surveys and focus groups to get consumer feedback on your product so you know

how it is perceived before you get started. 

By doing this you will be better prepared to construct a message that will resonate
with consumers and entice them to try your brand for the first
time or keep consumers coming back as repeat customers.

When you have a successful brand one of the things that you can
strive for is when consumers hear the name of your brand, it puts an image or word into their minds. 

For example, if you have a brand that
caters to high-end clientele, when consumers hear the name of the
brand you want the first thing that comes to their minds is quality or perhaps exclusivity. 

Once your brand has achieved this status, the sky
is the limit. Your brand will become the unmitigated leader in the
marketplace and will drive out competition because it will cost them too much to break into the market. 

One important thing to remember is that
once you have achieved becoming a word or image in the minds of
consumers do not get cocky and try to expand.

 This will undo all the work that you have put in to become a successful brand.

Think about successful brands in the marketplace right now.

 When consumers go out to a restaurant and ask for a soda to drink what to
they say? They say I will have a Coke. 

They do not say I want a Pepsi, or a RC. This shows the dominance that Coca Cola has in their
market. The same can be said for copiers. 

When someone says they are going to the copier machine, they say they are getting some Xerox
copies. Nobody says that they are going to get some Kyocera copies.
No matter what the machine is that they are using, Xerox is the
dominate brand because when consumers hear the word copy, Xerox
comes to mind. Finally, think about when you have a cold and need to
blow your nose. What do you ask for? Kleenex right. No matter the
brand of tissues that you have it your home when it comes time to wipe
your nose you will ask for a Kleenex. 

This is one more example of a brand being so dominate that is brand name becomes the generic
word for all items that are in competition with it.

                                         5
                              BE AUTHENTIC 

                                         

                       Consumers are people, and people are guarded by nature so
no matter how well you try to get your message across
through advertising, consumers will naturally question some of the claims that you make.

 This is why the claims that you
make in your advertising message have to be true and be able to be backed up. 

This will bring your brand the credibility that is needs to
reassure consumers that your brands does what is says and is of the
quality that the advertisement says it is. 

Once you have established this with consumers, they will be more apt to tell other consumers
about your brand and how it backs up it claims.

 This could very well lead to your brand expanding in the marketplace leading to higher
revenues and profits. 

Remember, expanding in the marketplace is a
good thing; it is not the same as expanding the brand.

Being authentic in your advertising and being able to back it up will
help your brand maintain leadership in the marketplace.

 In addi-tion, it can also bring you free publicity. Being an industry leader and with
good brand recognition, media outlets will be more likely to come to

 
your company to do a story about your industry. This allows your brand
to become to spokesperson for the industry, which will lead to your
brand becoming more recognized. Consumers, seeing

your brand being featured in a news story will give it more
credibility, thereby increasing the chances of your brand being
able to expand in the marketplace.

Being able to gain the leadership with your brand is the most
important thing that you can do as a business owner.

 Companies and products whose brand is the leader in the market have a hard time
being replaced. 

In fact, a recent study of companies that were leaders
in the marketplace in the 1940’s showed out of the twenty brands that
were researched only three were not in the leadership position today.
Leadership means long-term success, so strive to be on top.

                                             6

                  ITS NOT ALL ABOUT QUALITY

Having the best quality in a brand or product does not necessarily
mean that is destined to be number one. 

There are many brands that you can point to make this point. 

Just because a consumer paid a lot more for their Tag Heuer
watch does not mean that it will work better or tell the time more accurately than a Seiko.

 Additionally, paying thousands of dollars more
for a BMW over a Toyota does not mean that the BMW will have less
mechanical problems than the Toyota. Paying more for a designer tshirt
does not mean that it will have longer wear time than a t-shirt purchased at a discount store.

 In almost every industry, the leader in
quality does not translate as the leader in sales.
Having the perception that the brand is quality is what you want in the minds of consumers. 

You can do this by becoming a brand that
specializes in the market. 

If consumers see that the brand is focused
on just one area of a problem, the brand will be perceived as having
more knowledge about the problem and therefore a more quality brand. 

Another way of having a brand have the perception of quality is
if it is more expensive than its competition. 

This gives the consumer the psychological contentment that they brought the best quality brandbecause of the price tag. 

It also speaks to a consumer’s

status. Consumers do not simply by a more expensive brand for
themselves; it is to show the people that they come in contac

 with that they can afford it.

When offering your brand for a higher price than one of your
competitors it is best that when the brand first come to market it already has the higher price. 

This gives the consumer the
impression that your brand is superior to the others based on price alone.

 Intro-ducing the brand at a competitive price and then raising
it makes it look as your trying to price gouge consumers. 

However,when you do offer a brand at a higher price than your competitors
you must ensure that there is something with the brand that gives it that extra quality.

 It could be as simple as having better packaging
than your competition, but something has to justify the higher price.

 
Remem-ber, having brand quality means that you have to specialize in a given marketplace so your brand will have the most
recognized name and you will be able to charge more for it.

                                              7

                         CATEGORY OVER BRAND

You have already read that by specializing in a market you will
be able to increase brand awareness. Now try to think even further. You should try to narrow your focus until you are able to create your own category. This has happen many times
in the business world. 

When Apple introduced the iPad, a new
category was formed for handheld devices. The same can be said
for Atari, when they introduced the Atari 2600 they put into motion a completely new category of home gaming that continues to thrive.

To be able to create your own brand category there are some
steps that you will need to accomplish. First, when you bring the brand to the marketplace you must do it in a way that makes it
appear that yours is the first brand to do what it is you want to do.

 
This gives your brand the perception of being the leading authority
in this area. Second, it is up to you to advance this new category in the eyes of the consumer.

 Here it will be a greater benefit to your
brand to promote the category and not the brand. Promoting the
category will promote the brand at the same time.
When you have created the new category and it is successful,
there will be competitors that will come racing into the marketplace
trying to profit from your foresight. Do not concern yourself too

much with them, do not try to diversify your brand to counter act their
coming into your territory. 

Continue with what has worked for you and
promote the category over your brand. By being first into the category,

your brand will remain to be seen as the most knowledge-able, with the
best quality and your brand will dominate the market-place.

 Go back to the example of the iPad, while other companies have entered the
category, iPad is the clear leader and more consumers choose to
purchase them over their nearest competitors.

                                          8

              THE IMPORTANCE OF A NAME

I t might be the most important decision that you make when you
bring your brand to market, what the name of the product going to be.
In the long run that is what branding comes down to is the name.

 
Having long-term stability is the most important
factor of the name. This is because after the initial push to get the brand to market and then the inevitable appearance of competition

 
the name will be what sets your product apart from them.
This goes back to being the first brand in your category. 

Your brands name will have a higher recognition value than your
competi-tion. Giving your brands name the ability to be seen as the
leader in the category that it is in as well as being an authority in itsgiven cate-gory. 

If this is the case, when they return to the store the
will look specifically for your product avoiding your competition.
When you are thinking of names for the brand, you need to take

 
into account what the product does, the age range of the target market. 

The name should be kept as straightforward as possible so
that it is simple for consumers to remember. Stay away from names
that could be perceived as negative, the name should evoke something
positive in the mind of consumers when they hear it or read it.

By doing this the consumer will want to be identified with your brand and your product. 

In the best case scenario, being seen
as a quality product and brand will increase your products
market share leading to more sales and greater profits

                                            9

                                KEEP IT SIMPLE

Keep focused on keeping your brand special and limited. 

The easiest way to devastate a brand is to broaden the product
line too far. More and more manufacturers are
extending their product line and weakening their brands. However,

 
not only does this weaken their brands but it takes power away
from the manufacturers and gives it to retailers. This is because retailers have a limited amount of shelf space and with many

 
manufacturers extending their product line retailers can charge
more money to the manufacturers for that space.
For a prime example of this visit your local supermarket and go to the aisle that sells beer.

 Is there really enough demand on
the planet to have over five variations of Miller Beer? You would
think that regular and light would do the trick. Having more varieties of the same brand of beer does not increase sales or

 
consumption it just leads to more production and distribution
costs. How many times have you as a consumer been in front of
a shelf looking for a specific product where there were so many choices that it was difficult to make up your mind? 

This is thewhole point about keeping your brand focused and specialized.
When consumers see over five varieties of a product line of one

brand but then see that there is just one of yours for the same thing they will know that your brand is not trying to be all things to all

 
people and be more likely to choose yours. This is a pitfall that you
have to try to avoid with your brand. 

Many companies believe that when they see their initial brand do well it gives them carte blanche
to expand their product line as quickly as possible to cash in. While
this might boost sales and revenue in the short term, it will destroy your brand over the long haul because you have weakened it too

 
much. Additionally, by expanding your product line it weakens the
first product that brought you success in the first place. This is not a winning proposition, therefore keep it simple and specialize and
your brand will be able to successful for many years.

                                        10

                  DON’T BE A STUCK UP BRAND

I f your brand gets to the point of being a leader in the marketplace, do not be afraid of other companies getting into the market to give

your brand some competition. In fact, it is
good for brands that are leaders in their market to welcome the
competition. One of the good things about competition is that consumers like to have the ability to choose a product. McDonald’s

 
would not be where they are today if it was not for Burger King and
Wendy’s. The same can said for Coca Cola. The brand would not

 
be the same without Pepsi. One more example would be pharmacies. How often do you drive down the street, see a
Walgreens, and no more than a block later see a CVS. They are
basically the same store yet there they are right next to each other,

 
it does not matter what town you are in they are always next to each other. If there is no competition in your category consumers
may look at your brand with doubt and pass on the opportunity to
purchase it, which is why competition is important.

When the competition does come, you have to fight against the
impulse to expand your brand in order to protect your market share.

 
However, you do not want too much competition. This is because
when there is too much competition it is equal to too many choices,

 which consumers will find confusing and sales will actually
decrease across the whole category. This is why it is good to have a few select competitors in the same category as your

 
brand, to ensure that the marketplace will thrive. Do not forget
that it behooves your brand to be the first in the category so your brand will be seen as the leader. That way you will be able to

 
maintain your dominance in the cate-gory and you will be
receiving help to stay the leader because of the competition....

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