| ing is the process of creating distinctive and durable | | | | when a friend or colleague asks if they know a |
| perceptions in the minds of consumers. A brand is a | | | | ____ and that's what you do. |
| persistent, unique business identity intertwined with | | | | 4. Premium image, premium price. Branding can lift |
| associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and | | | | what you sell out of the realm of a commodity, so |
| more. Here’s why the effort to brand your | | | | that instead of dealing with price-shoppers you have |
| company or yourself pays off. | | | | buyers eager to pay more for your goods than for |
| 1. Memorability. A brand serves as a convenient | | | | those of competitors. Think of some people's |
| container for a reputation and good will. It's hard for | | | | willingness to buy the currently "in" brand of bottled |
| customers to go back to "that whatsitsname store" | | | | water, versus toting along an unlabeled bottle of the |
| or to refer business to "the plumber from the Yellow | | | | same stuff filled from the office water cooler. |
| Pages." In addition to an effective company name, it | | | | The distinctive value inherent in a brand can even |
| helps when people have material reminders reinforcing | | | | lead people to dismiss evidence they would normally |
| the identity of companies they will want to do repeat | | | | use to make buying decisions. I once saw one |
| business with: refrigerator magnets, tote bags, | | | | middle-aged Cambridge, Massachusetts, intellectual |
| datebooks, coasters, key rings, first aid kits, etc. | | | | argue to several colleagues that Dunkin' Donuts' |
| Memorability can come from using and sticking with | | | | coffee tastes better than Starbucks'. So |
| an unusual color combination (FedEx's purple and | | | | contradictory was this claim to the two companies' |
| orange), distinctive behavior (the gas station whose | | | | reputations for this demographic group that the |
| attendants literally run to clean your windshield), or | | | | colleagues refused to put the matter to a taste test. |
| with an individual, even a style of clothing (Author | | | | 5. Extensions. With a well-established brand, you can |
| Tom Wolfe's white suits). Develop your own | | | | spread the respect you've earned to a related new |
| identifiers and nail them to your company name in | | | | product, service or location and more easily win |
| the minds of your public. | | | | acceptance of the newcomer. For instance, when a |
| 2. Loyalty. When people have a positive experience | | | | winery with a good reputation starts up regional |
| with a memorable brand, they're more likely to buy | | | | winery tours, then adds foreign ones, each business |
| that product or service again than competing brands. | | | | introduction benefits from the positive perceptions |
| People who closely bond with a brand identity are | | | | already in place. |
| not only more likely to repurchase what they bought, | | | | 6. Greater company equity. Making your company |
| but also to buy related items of the same brand, to | | | | into a brand usually means that you can get more |
| recommend the brand to others and to resist the | | | | money for the company when you decide to sell it. A |
| lure of a competitor's price cut. The brand identity | | | | Coca-Cola executive once said that if all the |
| helps to create and to anchor such loyalty. | | | | company's facilities and inventory vanished all around |
| Consider the legions of car owners who travel up to | | | | the world, he could walk into any bank and take out |
| 2,000 miles at their own expense to attend a Saturn | | | | a loan based only on the right to the Coca-Cola name |
| celebration at the company's plant in Spring Hill, | | | | and formula. |
| Tennessee. That's loyalty. And supposedly, more | | | | 7. Lower marketing expenses. Although you must |
| people have the motorcycle brand "Harley-Davidson" | | | | invest money to create a brand, once it's created |
| tattooed on their body than any other brand name. | | | | you can maintain it without having to tell the whole |
| That's out-of-this-world loyalty. | | | | story about the brand every time you market it. For |
| 3. Familiarity. Branding has a big effect on | | | | instance, a jingle people in your area have heard a |
| non-customers too. Psychologists have shown that | | | | zillion times continues to promote the company when |
| familiarity induces liking. Consequently, people who | | | | it's played without any words. |
| have never done business with you but have | | | | 8. For consumers, less risk. When someone feels |
| encountered your company identity sufficient times | | | | under pressure to make a wise decision, he or she |
| may become willing to recommend you even when | | | | tends to choose the brand-name supplier over the |
| they have no personal knowledge of your products | | | | no-name one. As the saying goes, "You'll never be |
| or services. Seeing your ads on local buses, having | | | | fired for buying IBM." By building a brand, you fatten |
| your pen on their desk, reading about you in the | | | | your bottom line. |
| Hometown News, they spread the word for you | | | | |