A typically marketing initiative comes into play with the advent of a branding plan to create a connect with customers and develop a faith in them to be able to trust in your brand over your competitors. It is as important a prerequisite to be able to have maximum prospects and then turning them into sales.

1. Branding – an initiative
Neelav Samrat De
Disclaimer: All views and opinions in this presentation are solely of the author and does not have any bindings to any third party

2. INDEX
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 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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What is branding
History:
• Branding as a concept is a derivative from ancient Scandinavia from the 9th
century where “brandr” meant “to burn” recalling the practice of producers
burning their mark (or brand) onto their products.
• Branding has been existent in India from 1100 B.C. with the herbal paste
“chyawanprash” which was named after the revered rishi named Chyawan!
• Ennion, the most prominent Roman glass maker used to brand all his
products way back in the 8th century by signing on the glasses prepared by
him.
• Italian traders used watermarks for their branding dating back in the 13th
century.
• Defined marketing brandings started in the 19th century with the entry of
packaged foods.
Source: Wikipedia

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What is branding
“The creation of a name and image about a specific product or service
to identity and create a “connect” with end-users or consumers”; and
clearly distinguish it from its competitors;
How is branding done –
a) Create a logo and trademark which relates to the entity. This forms the basic
identity of the brand.
b) Create a slogan / mission for the entity. This supports the identity of the
brand.
c) Advertise through print & TV media by engaging an agency.
d) In the digital age, optimal use of the internet, creation of a portal, use of social
media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Snapchat amongst others.
e) Communicate the brand through a strategic campaign. (very important!)
e) For all the above, earmark an annual budget for branding purposes. Without
funds, a branding exercise is futile. Everything costs money!
Take away: A strategic concept branding exercise leads to creation of a strong
brand equity

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What is branding
A few classic brands created who’s logos are enough to trust
and reckon with

6. INDEX
6
 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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Why is branding necessary
• Branding helps create an identity that distinguishes the brand from its
competitor.
• Branding helps build reputation.
• The brand conveys the intended business to people.
• A strong brand promotes motivation and a positive affect on employees.
• A good brand often sells through word-of-mouth referrals / direct marketing.
• A brand built on strong pillars paves a way for trust in stake-holders.
• Branding represents the entity and makes it keep its promises to its
consumers.
• A strong brand helps provide for good financial value.
• A good branding strategy helps build a good customer base.

8. INDEX
8
 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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Effective ways to create a brand equity
Brand equity is a way to ensure that customers view the company as different
from competitors…..
Need to position the product / service as reliable and trust worthy
The idea: Earn the loyalty of customers as the “first choice”
Help the customer solve a problem
The idea: Customers buy a product to solve a problem. The problem must be
important enough that it motivates the client to find a solution. The solution
should be provided by the brand equity.
Good clarity of the firm’s presence in the market
The idea: We are the only company that solves this problem in this unique way.
The employees need to believe in the brand themselves
The idea: The emotional connect of employees is essential in the brand to be able
to sell the brand equity to consumers.
Involve emotions in selling the brand equity
The idea: To connect with the audience with emotions involved in the selling
story
continued..

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Effective ways to create a brand equity
Consistency in the marketing efforts
The idea: A consistent message through a structure marketing plan to the
customer about solving a problem leads them to the brand.
Making the product or service a memorable experience
The idea: A well developed product or service is a great way to increase sales.
Measure the marketing efforts to see how they are converting into
prospects
The idea: A lot of effort goes into a well planned marketing exercise. The effort
should be able to measure up to the converts (plan stage to sales stage)
Paramount importance
The idea: Create a brand name to reckon with but keep the consumer in mind at
every stage of your brand equity creation.

11. INDEX
11
 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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Case study
Despite being one of the most used credit cards in the world, Visa had identified
an emotional distance between its brand and its customers.
Industry research suggested that brands have people’s attention for just 6.5
seconds, so Visa created the GoInSix campaign where the brand would generate
interactive content designed to motivate people to dine, shop and travel, using
either six-second videos, six-image vignettes or six words.
The campaign ran across all of its social channels and Visa urged influencers to
upload their own GoInSix stories.
Visa’s Facebook engagement score ranking went from seventh to first in ‘finance’
and climbed to second in all lifestyle brands. The campaign delivered 284
million earned impressions, five times more than a previous Visa campaign,
which had 18 times more media spend!
Point to note: Emotional connect with customers is very important!

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Case study
Microsoft needed to prove to an audience lured away From IE9 by Google
Chrome, that its browser was just as exciting, fast and easy to use.
Microsoft created an animated story, The Random Adventures of Brandon
Generator.
After each film, the viewer was able to contribute ideas, messages, prose and
drawings through an interactive hub, all using the capabilities of IE9.
The crowdsourced, immersive story led to 600,000 unique visitors to the
Brandon Generator site, 12.2 million media-driven YouTube views while IE
market share finished ahead of target (target: 51.8%, actual: 53.9%)
Resulting in 1.7 million IE9 downloads!
Point to note: Involve the customer in every step of
marketing!

14. INDEX
14
 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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Branding stories gone wrong
Branding What went wrong!
The Pepsico-owned juices, which claims to deliver
"100% pure squeezed Florida sunshine" to its
customers, had somewhat of a low branding-wise five
years ago when it introduced a new packaging. The
company replaced its iconic logo - an orange-with-a-
straw-stuck-in-it - in favour of a glass filled with
juice. The backlash was fierce: Sales by Tropicana
rivals increased, while its own fell 20%!
Vacation rental service Airbnb unveiled a new logo
that generated a wave of criticism for its design. Some
linked it to a triangular paperclip. This branding
went bad for the company!

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Branding stories gone wrong
Branding What went wrong!
Clothing store Gap tried to recast its image from
"classic, American design to modern, sexy, cool,“.
That ended in failure. The retail store was always
known for the elegant and elongated letters of its
font. But it switched to lowercase black letters with an
awkwardly placed blue box atop the letter.
Starbucks switched its logo to something simpler to
celebrate its 40th anniversary. The company added a
lot of green to the design and removed the "Starbucks
Coffee" phrase that had wrapped around the
company's signature symbol - a siren. The company
felt that the mascot had "been through it all" over the
last four decades, and needed a "small but
meaningful update." Reactions were initially mixed,
although the criticism lasted a long time.

17. INDEX
17
 What is branding
 Why is branding necessary
 Effective ways to create a brand equity
 Case study
 Branding stories gone wrong
 Branding of schools and its importance

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Branding of schools and its importance
Branding of schools is not as easy as any corporate branding. Here’s why…
Schools form a big part of a child’s daily life. It is only too obvious for parents
to be able to make that one “first impression”
A first impression of a school involves its logo, motto, website, catchy
transports, signage's and prospectus to begin with.
Professionally managed back-end systems involving the above is a good
branding initiative for schools. A dull portal for example could be a major
put-off!
Connect with the primary customer – parents; not an easy task
A “well groomed campus” is a big part of school brandings
The employees (teachers, admin staff, helpers) need to be kept motivated
through the emotional connect. The idea of “my school” is a branding
concept that must be adopted by its employees.
Creating impressive marketing collaterals to be able to get the “first
impression” right!

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Branding of schools and its importance
Educational institutes advertising in India
Use of logos, punchlines, emotions, promises

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Branding of schools and its importance
Amity University roped in India’s cricket heart throb caption Mahendra Singh
Dhoni to pack in a message saying “We create leaders of tomorrow”!
This message was broadcast on a national level thus creating
“Brand Amity” as an university to reckon with. They
sustained because they had created a product*, which people
began to trust.
Facilities
Faculty
Campus
placements
Academic
curriculum

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Thank you