The why and how of
building a strong brand

What is a brand?

WHAT IS A BRAND?

WHAT IS A BRAND?

WHAT IS A BRAND?
Neither is it a corporate identity, patent, name or trademark.

SO WHAT IS A
BRAND?
There are lots of definitions – here are some detailed below
A brand is about what a business stands for, its values, its
vision, the personality of the business and the promise it
makes to its customers.
It can be a product, a service, a cause or an organization, but
it must have perceived intangible attributes.
When you don‟t perceive an intangible, a brand becomes
purely a commodity to you.
A credible brand will align the way a business behaves with
the way it is portrayed.
This symmetry between behavior and portrayal ensure that
customers instinctive reaction is one of trust and belief in the
brand, not one of doubt and uncertainty.

SO WHAT IS A
BRAND?
A companies brand is the equivalent to a person‟s
reputation.
It has been described as “everything you say or do”
A Brand is a collection of your thoughts and feelings
about your experiences with it.
How you feel about a brand is what the brand becomes
in your mind. A brand can represent different things to
different people.
“… A set of mental associations, held by the
consumer, which add to the perceived value of a
product or service.”
- Kevin Lane Keller (1998)

SO WHAT IS A
BRAND?
“A brand is more than a name or a logo – it is a promise
and a contract with every customer with whom you are
dealing. And if people feel that the offering does not
live up to what they expect from the brand, they will
decide to stop buying.”
- Richard Branson
“A brand is a set of assets and liabilities linked to a
name/symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value
provided by that product or service.”
- David Aaker Professor of Marketing
University of California at Berkeley

COMMON TRAITS
OF GREAT BRANDS

THEY ARE PERCEIVED
AS GENUINE

THEY ARE
MEANINGFUL

THERE IS SOMETHING
DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM

THEY ARE CONSISTENT
IN EXPERIENCE

THEY ARE
INNOVATIVE

AN IMAGE PRECEDES
THE WORD

THEY HAVE DEVELOPED
A SENSE OF TRUST

THEY ARE RELIABLE
AND SUSTAINABLE

THEY ARE MORE THAN
JUST A COMMODITY

BRAND FALLACY
Building a great brand is something that only large
corporations should be interested in.
X
Small companies should be able to build strong brands as
well
Brands are only for consumer products
X
With a product you have tangible benefits to sell but with a
service there is nothing to see, taste or touch, which means
you have to build a level of trust and confidence which is
much easier with a strong brand.

Why do you need to
develop a strong brand?

TO PROVIDE A VITAL
DIFFERENTIATOR
Strong brands develop intangible qualities that help prevent
them from becoming a commodity. (e.g. APPLE)
If the consumer doesn‟t perceive there is an intangible
benefit to a product then that product becomes a commodity
to them. (e.g. banks or insurance companies, petrol, most
bottled water)
Commodities are judged on price alone whereas brands
compete on intangible attributes.
People pay for the brand , not the products of the brand

TO CREATE TRUST
WITH THE CONSUMER
A brand is about character, it‟s about integrity, it‟s about trust
of promise and what a strong brand stands for is something
that people instantly recognise. It is a person‟s gut feel about
what the product, service or company is all about.
Consumers will usually pay a premium for a product or
service they trust.

TO INFLUENCE
CHOICE
A strong instantly recognisable brand can short cut the
decision making process of the indecisive consumer.
Instead of meticulously weighing up the pros and cons of
similar products where there is no clear point of difference, a
strong brand will influence the consumer to select yours
because they know what your brand stand for.

TO CREATE LOYALTY
AND ADVOCACY
Tangible benefits of a product or service can easily be copied
where as the emotional, intangible benefits of a brand can
not.
A strong brand will go beyond making promises of tangible
benefits, they will create an emotional bond which leads to
Loyalty and advocacy.
Brand Loyalty drives up to 70% of all purchase decisions.
- Kuczmarski & Associates

TO COMMAND A
PREMIUM PRICE
In any market there can only be one business that is the
cheapest in that sector. If you‟re not that business then you
need to find out what your brand stands for.
Marketing yourself as the 2nd or 3rd cheapest in a sector or
„almost the cheapest‟ in a sector is not going to work.
A strong brand will give you the opportunity to charge more
than your competitor for a similar product or service.
Loyal customers, on average, are willing to pay a 20%
premium for their brand of choice. – Kuczmarski & Associates

TO HELP GROWTH
COME EASIER
A strong brand precedes you and works on your behalf
Opportunities will find you, you won‟t have to find them
You won‟t always be starting from scratch with each product
release or exploration into new territory.

TO ACT AS A BARRIER
TO COMPETITION
Having a strong brand and owning a loyal position in the
minds of the consumer can discourage competitors from
entering the market in direct competition.

How do you develop
a strong brand?

WORK OUT WHAT YOUR
BRAND VALUES ARE
Base decisions on them
Align everything behind the brand
You cannot develop a strong brand without knowing what
your brand stands for.
Live and breath your brand values, no short cuts, no
deviations

COMMUNICATE YOUR
BRAND VALUES
Make sure your staff know your brand values
Do they truly represent them or just their own personalised
diluted version?
If your staff don‟t fit your brand values or can be easily
molded to fit them then they don‟t belong with your brand
and could be damaging to it.
You must consistently communicate your brand values to the
public. It is not always about spelling them out literally but
simply by conveying them in the way you conduct your
business.

POSITION AND THEN
REINFORCE
Strong brands successfully position themselves in the
mind of the consumer by carefully developing and
promoting their image, by aligning consumers‟
perceptions through a clear, cohesive and uniform
definition of what the brand is and what it does and by
delivering upon expectations which define the core
benefits of using that brand.
All staff inside a company must enforce the brand‟s
value, image, position and service guarantee.
This is especially true in a service industry where
people are perceived as the brand.

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL
CONNECTION
“What you make people feel is just as important as what you
make.” BMW
“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that
emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions” –
Donald Caine (Neurologist)
If you want customers to come back to you and advocate you
then you need them to make an emotional connection to your
brand. There is no single way to make a bond with consumers
but the easiest thing to do is to put the customer at the forefront
of everything you do.
With every customer transaction ask yourself “If I were the
customer in this situation, how would this experience feel for
me?”
The answer to this questions determines whether you have
made an emotional connection or not?

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL
CONNECTION
“The idea that business is just a numbers affair has
always struck me as preposterous. For one thing, I‟ve
never been particularly good at numbers, but I think
I‟ve done a reasonable job with feelings. And I‟m
convinced that it is feelings and feelings alone – that
account for the success of the Virgin brand in all of its
myriad forms.”
- Richard Branson

CREATE AN EMOTIONAL
CONNECTION
People will forget what you said
People will forget
how?
where?
when you said it?
But what they won‟t forget
is how you made them feel

CREATE TRUST
Creating trust takes time but consistently delivering on your
promise will eventually create a bond of trust.
Great brands never chase short term business at the
detriment of long term business.
Creating trust is about being genuine in your brand promise
and living up to that promise consistently over a period of
time.
It is about going that extra mile when there is no real benefit
for you to do so.

TRUST EQUATION
Trust
=
C+R+L
------------PSI
C - Credibility
R - Reliability
L - Likability
PSI = Perceived self interest

CREATE A COOL
FACTOR
In the early 90‟s fashion brand French Connection was
getting smashed by a range of inferior but cheaper
competitors. It just couldn‟t compete on price and even
worse it was starting to lose it‟s cool youthful edge which is
so important in the fashion business.
One night a creative director intercepted a fax from the Hong
Kong branch (FCHK) to the UK branch (FCUK) and
experienced a light bulb moment. Within weeks the letters
fcuk appeared on every new item of clothing, in every shop
window and on every ad.
Some people were outraged but most, particularly the young
loved the sexy new look and all of a sudden price was no
longer an issue as people were prepared to pay more for
something cool.
CREATE A COOL BRAND AND PRICE BECOMES
IRRELEVANT

TRANSLATING BRAND
INTO DOLLARS
If your brand can create an emotional response you will
always achieve a higher price than a brand that creates a
rational one.
Creating a brand that is based on quality of product or
expertise of services is the simplest way to justify a higher
retail price.
A brand that delivers an established product or service in a
new or innovative manner will always justify a higher price.
Brands that have established a reputation for going the extra
mile or delivering extra service will always give the public
plenty of reason to pay more.

TRANSLATING BRAND
INTO DOLLARS
Creating a brand that represents a niche in the market will
allow you to dictate price.
Consumers will always pay a premium for a brand that has
developed a sense of trust through their products or
services.

EVERYBODY’S
RESPONSIBILITY
Anything anyone within your
Organisation says or does
has an impact on your
BRAND.

THE LAUNCH OF THE LATEST APPLE PRODUCT
Never underestimate the power of a strong brand

THANK YOU
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Tony Morrison