What is a Brand? Typically, when we talk about a brand, we are speaking about two different things. First, it’s a brand mark of ownership (aka registered logo). Like in the cowboy days when they branded a steer with a mark to prove the cattle was theirs. Second, and more importantly, it has to do with the reputation of the owner, the business entity and business practices. In other words, large companies with longstanding and well-entrenched reputations, have “National or International Brands.” Small, new or unestablished companies only have logos and need to establish a positive reputation. In other words, they have yet to establish a brand. In this instance, their logo or registered brand mark comes to represent the owner or business over time. In the beginning, their registered logo only represents ownership of a business, product or service. It’s that businesses operational practices which will build a positive or negative brand over time. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore in the ins and outs of branding. We will answer how to positively brand your business, how to get customers to spread your brand, what effect does changing your logos have, when should you make a logo change and other important questions that surround branding in general.
Today, large businesses can have many owners, so the brand comes to represent the value and reputation that the company has built for itself. It does this by providing products and services (good or bad) to its customers. For example, IBM used to stand for International Business Machines because they sold typewriters and other business machines. Now IBM stands for a company that sells top-notch computers, electronics, and software. International Business Machines is no longer mentioned as part of the IBM logo (although it is still part of their name). What IBM guards the most, however, is its reputation for providing the most reliable and durable business products and services that a business can buy. There is a saying that goes something like this – “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.” The same is true of any top brand. They are the top brand because they have the best reputation in their respective industry. They have the best reputation for creating the best products, providing the best customer service and ongoing customer support. The logo is only a trigger device that gets you to remember their name and reputation.
When I say your logo is not your brand; I am pointing out the fact that your reputation makes up most of what a brand signifies. People don’t care about the letters “IBM” they care that IBM products and services are considered some of the best in the industry. The Logo is only a marker of ownership. But this is only true if it's registered.
Several years ago, I created a company called Computer Know How, Inc., I created a unique logo, but did not register the logo until I was in business for six years. I soon found myself battling other companies trying to use the name Computer Know How. I had to spend several years proving I was first. Getting my trade name and logo word marked was the biggest help. On top of that, it is very easy for a company to create a similar wordmark and logo that can infringe on your wordmark, and logo (your brand mark)! In these instances, you must have the wherewithal to fight them in court to protect your investment. If not, be prepared to change your logo and wordmarks to differentiate your symbol of ownership and brand.
Those of you who live in Jacksonville, Florida, may remember the logo battle between the Jaguar NFL football team and the Jaguar automobile company when the football team first got started. The football team chose a logo that looked similar to the Jaguar automobile logo, which triggered a logo infringement lawsuit battle between these two companies. It was settled by the NFL Jaguars changing their logo to a Cat head and getting Jaguar auto to be an advertising sponsor.
When I think of the quintessential brand, I can close my eyes and see in my mind’s eye the symbols of Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Apple, IBM, Target, Walmart and a few others. More importantly, I identify a positive feeling about these companies! It is important to note that these companies have changed their logo’s over time. Some have re-branded many times. It’s important to remember that brands evolve.
Shared Brands
A Large well-developed brand can share the brand with other companies. This can be accomplished in a couple of ways. One way is that they allow you to use their brand mark on your advertising, digital and print media. Another is where the name brand company inks a deal where they allow another company to market themselves as the brand itself. This usually takes place when a national brand is trying to expand into other countries. They sell rights to use their branding elements in the new territory where they are trying to gain market share.
Branding in other countries
Just because you have a brand registered in the USA, doesn’t mean you own the branding right all over the world. In many countries, you must register your brand in that country as well. Obviously, this can lead to considerable expense for a small company. This is another reason why many successful startups often license their brand, to an established company in a new country versus just registering the brand by itself. The branding deal also usually comes with a set of behavior rules designed to protect the brand's reputation. This way they kill two birds with one stone. Establishing their brand and acquiring market share.
Most successful brands usually find themselves defending their brand against fakes, often spoofed, or outright negative 3rd party pirate branding. Check out the article on Logoblink.com called Starbucks Logo Mania by BILYANA GEORGIEVA. This article shows not only the evolution of Starbuck’s brand; it also lists shared brands and many 3rd party negative brands.
When is a Brand a Brand Name
For a brand to achieve “Brand Name status,” it needs to have reached and broad recognition. This usually means that the company, product or service is available at least regionally if not nationally. It can be recognized by a very large number of consumers and It normally have some longevity. Small companies only have local brands at best. This is not a bad thing per say. It means that your reputation does not reach outside of your local marketing territory. A local company with a top-notch reputation is still a valuable commodity. This is especially true if the company has put in place codified systems of operation, marketing, distribution, have assets and sales and that they have acquired a positive trusted image.
What makes a Logo and a Good Brand?
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- Unique
- Simple
- Easy to Understand
- Easy to Remember
- Stands for Something
On top of that, the logo must be congruent with your businesses core values, positive message, public behaviors, quality of deliverable, customer service, and support.
How to Get Customers to Spread Your Brand
If you want to get consumers to spread your brand, you need to do a great job of taking care of the customer. You need to provide them not only a great product but a great buying experience, a great service experience, and a great support experience. If you’re doing this right, you then need to make sure you are asking them to spread your good name!
Tools and tips for viral marketing
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If you’re not encouraging your customer to say positive things about your company, your product or services, you’re missing the boat. To make matters worse, if you’re not actively encouraging your clients to provide positive testimonials and ratings, you will only end up with bad reviews. I don’t care how good a company, product or service is, you will one day make someone mad. On top of that, unethical competitors can post negative reviews, ratings and slanderous remarks with impunity. So, if you don’t want to end up with only a bad reputation, you must put in place a process that is designed to build a positive reputation (which is the main part of your brand).
When should you Re-Brand your company?
When we are talking about re-branding a company, we are talking about all aspects of the company. A re-branding is a type of rebirth if you will. The logo, the corporate culture, the target market, and marketing emphasis. Yes, you can have a partial re-brand. However, most of these are just a change of marketing logos. A company should consider changing its brand if it has undergone new management to repair negative behavior; it engaged in in the past and now wants to create a new image. Its brand is old, and it is trying to garner a new market share. Examples could include; attracting a younger clientele or entering a different country where the culture is very different. A negative event has taken place (like the BP oil spill), and the company is if full image repair mode. And finally, your brand is undifferentiated, similar or is infringing on someone’s else brand. Here is my short list.
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- You have a negative reputation
- Your brand is Old and Stale
- You have changed Market Focus
- You have Changed Region with a Different Culture
- Your brand is undifferentiated or too similar
- Your brand is infringing on someone else’s brand.
What effects do changing your Logo have?
In many cases, if you’re a small company, changing your logo has little effect unless you have had that logo for a long time. Even then, this change will only affect the current clientele you have now. Unless you spend resources, marketing and reinforcing your new brand mark (i.e. Logo), little notice will take place. If you are re-branding your company, you will need to engage in some aggressive marketing to spread the word about your new found corporate culture, product quality, new found customer service and support, or no one will notice. Let's look at some examples.
The Good
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The Bad
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The Ugly
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Our Story
Working the Web to Win - My company's name is actually WSquared Media Group, LLC. When we
founded our company, our intent was to create WebTV shows for businesses along with all the promoting and marketing need to make those shows successful. After about a year in business, we were only producing a few WebTV shows a year, and we had branched out into more than two dozen digital marketing products. Our target market had widened into several market segments, and we were now catering to different size businesses to go with the few bigger ones who wanted us to create their WebTV show. We had also embarked into doing our own BlogTalkRadio show called Working the Web to Win. This show was tied to our blog (the fodder for the show) and was produced and broadcast live every week since January 2012. By 2014 the show had become very popular, generating as many as 30,000 downloads for one show and the blog was producing enough monthly traffic (about 20,000+ page views a month) that we could monetize it. In 2014, we decided to rebrand ourselves with an emphasis on the WWW in the Working the Web to Win name. Our re-branding was prompted by the fact that people knew us by the show name. We had reached not only regional recognition but international recognition as well. We changed all our marketing to emphasize the new logo and created a set of core principles (our six guarantees) to go with it. I even changed my BNI 60 second presentation to reflect the re-brand. My catch phrase goes; This is Hector the connector with Working the Web to Win, creating Internet Marketing that delivers in the 21st Century Guaranteed.
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That’s my opinion; I look forward to reading yours.
In this article, I have discussed what a Brand is, and what it is not. I have included many examples of different kinds of branding and discussed re-brand issues, including when should a company Re-brand and what’s involved in that process. I have also included several links to other articles that provide further detail on this subject.
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If you’d like to read more articles like this, enter the term “Branding or Marketing” in the search box at the top of this blog. I recommend readingUnderstanding the Difference Between Branding, Marketing and Advertising for starters.
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Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and Social Media Director for the award-winning, Internet-based marketing firm, Working the Web to Win, in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He’s also the co-host of BlogTalkRadio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he Carl Weiss, make working the web to win simple for every business. He's a published author of two books, "60 Seconds to Success"(available at Amazon and B&N), and "Internet Marketing for the 21st Century," which you can get by filling out the form above. He’s also the co-author of the book, “Working the Web to Win,” which is now available on Amazon.com.
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I never realized how involved branding could be until Hector explained it to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat's in a name? Branding, among other things. This was an interesting read.
ReplyDelete