Branding: Business Catalyst

 Carcass Of Branding Strategies

Irrespective of the size of your business, a good branding strategy gives you a major edge in the competitive market, IFE ADEDAPO writes

Experts say business owners need to recognise the relationship between successful businesses and strong branding.

An understanding of this, they say will encourage them to aspire to build a brand that emulates well-known brands in the society.

According to them, branding is not just a logo or how their business is perceived externally but the business identity, and represents the core of what the business is and its values.

With the growing client demand for quality services, they say focus has shifted from just delivering a service like every other venture to creating a long-lasting value.

Experts note that the dynamic nature of business at the present time has necessitated a transformation in the product and service delivery that put the mind of clients at rest on the quality of service delivered.

Branding is a way by which this can be achieved. Branding experts have described it as an intangible asset of a business that has a lasting impact even when the owner of the business is no more.

The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, KOFSOL Group, Mrs. Kofoworola Olaosebikan, says for brands to remain sustainable, there must be a change. According to her this change can be in the way business owners and managers think, and sometimes a total change in the rules of the game coupled with a change from how the business is being run to how it should be run, and transforming it into a brand for the future.

Brands create customer value because they reduce both the effort and the risk of buying things, and therefore give suppliers an incentive to invest in quality and innovation. Branding experts have also stated that branding can enhance the customer’s experience aesthetically and psychologically.

In recent times, researchers have discovered that there is far more interest in brands and recognition of their importance than there was 10 or 20 years ago, however, they say there is still great ignorance and misunderstanding of many issues related to it.

To upgrade to the level of bigger brands like KPMG and Accenture which are the foremost consulting firms in the world, professionals in branding have pointed out some things to note.

Create a unique logo

According to Olaosebikan, creating a good logo is a step in brand building because it represents a simple way to convey the values of your firm to your target audience in a simple and effective manner.

She adds, “Branding with an excellent, simple and straight forward logo will popularise the business among the target audience. Customers, potential clients, stakeholders, and competitors will identify what the business stands for, in comparison to other company symbols.”

Build strong products

One brand building way that works though not new, but it’s improved upon a lot is to have remarkable creativity in advertising.

Olaosebikan says this will help to break through people’s wall of indifference to create brand heat and lust on the product in question.

Creating a new vibrant brand is a challenge which requires sophisticated strategy. It is not just about a product and a name, it’s about a lot more right now, the brand expert adds.

She says, “For example, businesses with brands must ensure customer’s satisfaction at all times. This satisfaction breeds good relationship, which ultimately protects your brand from competition. When majority choose your brand because they are satisfied with it, there is little or no competition left for you to battle with and resources that should be earmarked for fighting competition goes into a better use on the brand.”

Consider your service as a product

The Senior Consultant, Strategy & External Relations, ThistlePraxis Consulting, Emilia Asim-Ita, says that in service delivery, to maintain the quality, standard and for increase patronage, business managers have to apply the quality of a product to the service delivery.

She says the reason why it is important to do this is to remain relevant in an environment like Nigeria, where certain products are not valued and there are complaints of high charges or in instances when people don’t have interest in buying new services especially in consulting.

The expert advises that another way of achieving the right patronage is to breakdown the service into objectives. This, she says will help managers to put dimensions and set a standard, in a way that people can value it as a product more than a service.

She says, “For example a particular training that you do must have a name, a target audience and training modules. In essence, it is a means of developing the service into a product.”

Be organised in the presentation of your products

The consultant says brands must remain relevant and appealing to the customers. She says consideration should be given to the first kind of product being sold, the people they are offered to and other things that are involved in the product.

For example, she says for products or services, the manager should determine how long it will take to deliver it, where it will be delivered and the amount it will cost for delivering the service.

According to her, the details that relate to the presentation of the product should be analysed. If it is product, what kind of product is it, semi-solid, solid or liquid? What type of packaging will you need and means of transportation?

She adds, “For example the nature of water tells you that you need to put it in a sachet, therefore the kind of product will determine the kind of packaging.”

@iamsmartayo