The Brand and Branding

Brands and Branding

The Brand

More often than not clients hold the belief that designing the logo is the beginning of the brand creation process. They are partly right; the ‘branding’ process could begin with the creation of the logo. However, the logo, or the catchy tag line isn’t the brand.

The brand in its simplest definition is a promise. A promise of what the brand will deliver to its consumer who use and experience its product or service. It is about the experience. The brand exists in the mind of the consumer.  

When one hears of a particular brand it will either stir up a set of positive or negative associations in one’s mind or none at all. In which case the brand is irrelevant or one is unaware of its existence. A strong and successful brand tends to stir up more positive associations than negative ones amongst its target customer base.

So what does it take to create a strong and successful brand that stirs up positive associations? The following factors contribute to creating a strong brand

·         Relevant differentiation – The brand idea or promise that makes the brand different and unique relative to other brands in the category, and ensures that people care about the difference enough to consume it. It’s not about features or benefits, they can be replicated. It’s about reaching out to the consumer with a meaningful difference.

·         Delivering on the brand promise - Successful brands align their business strategy with their brand promise or idea. It’s about aligning the business model – resources, people and operations to deliver on the brand promise.

What then is branding?

Branding is the approach that is followed after deciding on the differentiated idea or promise. It’s the tangible process of establishing the promise in the mind of the consumer. Apart from the noticeable elements such as names, logos, colours, signage, packaging, etc it includes experiential aspects as well such as the customer care or service experience.

Thus, before getting down to branding one’s business it’s important to understand the difference between the Brand and branding. While it sounds very obvious, it’s something that most entrepreneurs tend to ignore.

A good brief educative presentation on social media

Feeding the Funnel with Facebook

View more presentations from Get Satisfaction

www.brandconsultive.in

The Multiplex Experience - Fun cinemas

Last evening, my wife and me finally go a chance to catch up on the 'King's Speech'. There were very few multiplexes screening a late evening show and fortunately   'Fun Cinemas' , Cunningham road, the closest to where I stay did. So promptly booked my tickets online through 'BookMyShow.com', which I must say is quite a good, simple and quick experience and my defacto choice for online booking. I only hope they come out with Android app soon to book tickets on the go.

Coming back, I have been to Fun cinemas quite often but in the past. This time around too nothing much had changed. Fun cinemas is known for being affordable in comparison to the other Multiplex brands in Bangalore, with a convenient central location and ample parking in the mall as well as in the neighbourhood. However it does not really promise much of an experience. Having said that what I was not prepared was for was the foul odour of its screening halls.

 Having spent 200 bucks on the so called gold class seats, the least one can expect on a sparse weekday showing is a clean smelling hall and seats. The seats had a foul odour to them that one just has to be experienced rather mouldy and damp..... I won't be surprised if they have a few bloodsucking bugs in there as well.

This kind of experience is something I could expect in a run down old theatre of yore in the hinterland that charges 30 bucks for a 'balcony' seat...but not from a national chain. Wonder where the marketing and customer service folks focus on? Wake up, focus on the entire brand experience especially at the core of it ...Its all good to launch a loyalty program, have witty on screen one liners, clubbing popcorn sales with ticket bookings, personal seat service, ....... but if the basics such as a clean and pleasant smelling seat and hall cannot be provided, the experience is lost on the customer. I may now have to think twice before booking for a show there...