What is a Brand

• A brand is a product or service which has been given an identity; it has a brand name and the added value of a brand image. (This may include distinctive packaging, logo or trademark)Margaret Crimp Marketing guru
• ‘A brand is a product with personality.’
• The American Marketing Association say a brand is a ‘Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.’
• A brand is a promise that includes your customers’ experiences and the expectations.
• A brand is a means of creating associations or connotations in people’s minds in such a way as it persuades them to ‘buy in’ to that product or service.

Brand Differentiation

• A differentiated product may arise from a new invention like a Blackberry or the Polaroid camera. It may also be differentiated by marketing/branding.
• An undifferentiated product is one that is standard and made to a specification. eg Petrol, sugar, steel etc. Branding will be a key weapon to give identity to such products.
• Key differentiators include
  Brand Name
  Trademarks and logos
  Colour, slogan or catch phrase, presentation or packaging
• Other recognisable features like the Dulux dog or the hole in a Polo mint reinforce brand differentiation.
• With some goods, performance is the key differentiator as with motor vehicles or Dyson cleaners.
• Often the differentiator is called a USP or unique selling point. That is to say the product is different to any competitors product for some good and sale-able reason.

Branding Aims and Objectives

• Association with quality and fitness for purpose. Fast food may not be haute cuisine but it can be ‘finger licking good’.
• Link the brand to excellent customer service. M&S product return and exchange policy fits in this category.
• Merchandising is the art of displaying for sale and attracting customer. Point of sale material can reinforce the brand
• Purchasing takes place at several levels, the heart and emotions, the eye and the brain. Brands aim to influence all these aspects of a product or service.
• Branding aims to Add Value for the customer, the stakeholders and the business.

USP

smarta’ the new business owners and entrepreneurs support organisation has an interesting USP page on its web site.

Own Label Branding for Supermarkets

This is a corporate brand that you may not have heard much about but it supplies Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys amongst others. Their brand position is clear…. to be the pre-eminent supplier of household and personal care products to the leading retailers and brand owners.

If you aspire to sell to retailers also consider contract manufacture for brand owners who already have retail channel customers.

To be pre-eminent you do not need to be known by consumers you need a B2B brand image. In the case of McBride they support private label by innovation.

Comet is no longer a shooting star and has virtually crashed to the ground. The brand and business has been sold for £2 by Kesa the former owners who retain Darty the french electrical retailer. Kesa can’t even bank the £2 as they retain the liability to the £40m underfunded pension scheme.

The team behind the buy out have strong ‘personal brand’ connections in retail. The triumvirate have run Somerfield, Budgens, Halfords and bought MFI for £1 plus BUT a french hardware chain.
Can the joint experience of these investing executives revive Comets fortunes. If not is the 66pence each that they each presumably paid for the company at risk?

From an Earlier Post update

Far Eastern brands are coming to the UK in an ever increasing quantity and with intelligent signs of quality.

Korean based LG’s Brand Identity is based on it’s vision ‘LG is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics. Research & development is the driving force and LG understands the importance of design with commitment to improving its customers’ quality of life through innovative management.’

By jingo we don’t want our creativity and innovation to be overtaken as many of our manufacturing industries have been.

Yesterday 5 January I chose a new television. I avoided both LG and Comet brands as the feel was not right. This morning I came across these two unconnected posts (unconnected until now)

National Pirates Day is designated 19th September each year when you can ‘talk like a pirate’. We recommend you do not act like a pirate but take prevention measures, as these piratical tales testify.

Universecy

The headline from the Press and Journal following stories in the Daily Telegraph and the BBC is ‘North-east firm’s (Ling24) website pirated – Chinese company copies design’.  The almost exact replica web site was a blatant attack on Ling24′s intellectual property and business.

Protection Tips Arising

Ensure you  understand the IP issues on your web site including copyright ownership, systems, usage policies, data rights etc.
Check for Google alerts on your key words – that is how this theft was discovered.
Be alert all sorts of digital misappropriations are taking place – a client’s subscription PDF was cloned in December and made available free via a social publishing web site.
Keep up to date, be vigilant and encourage your support networks to help.

<h3>Pirate Bay Down if not Out</h3>

Going down with all hands by breaking the Copyright laws seems to be the fate of the file sharing website operators after a Swedish court decision.
Gordon Brown’s reaction today at a Digital Summit seems to be too support a ‘Digital Rights Agency’ as proposed by the Music Industry. Is it time for Gordon to face the music or at worst get his digit out.

Update November 2010

• Pirate Bay verdict: Three operators lose appeal – Prison sentences reduced but fines jacked up read more on The Register

• A list of legal threats and Pirate Bay responses is available on Pirate Bay.com

<h3>Pirate Goods</h3>

Designer labeled clothes, sports goods, watches, perfume and cosmetics are all targets for the counterfeiting pirates. Fake drugs and car parts can damage more than your wealth.
H M Customs & Excise are the first barrier against importation of IPR infringing goods and they are allowed to temporarily detain goods if they suspect them of infringing IPR and under certain circumstances, goods may be destroyed. Customs must tell the IPR holders who decide whether to take the matter to court.

IPR holders should make themselves conversant with the laws and rules then encourage trade associations, Trading Standards and others to remain vigilant in the protection of trademark Intellectual Property Rights.(IPR).

Enter a new player in the protection sector this week when the police working with Nominet have closed down 1200+ web sites that were selling counterfeit goods online. Ebay continues to try police the sale of fake goods but buyers and brand owners need to remain vigilant.

Political Pirates

There is something of the Pirate in all the MPs who have claimed excessive expenses and flipped during the last parliament.
Now we have a political party that has a clear view on the unnecessary criminalisation of file sharing and limits to free speech by excessive surveillance. Well worth a skull and cross on polling day.

See International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Gods Own County Avast expense account my ‘earties should see an outbreak of plank walking.

f

Tizer ‘the appetiser’.  Re launched in 2007 with a new recipe based on the original 1924 product. Why play around in the first place? Consumers will stay loyal to a brand that delivers today what they have always had and loved, they do not like change.

Number one slot for Tizer on Google is an embarrassing waste by brand owners AG Barr. There is only one other page and it lists the terms of a long finished competition and a pop-up of something I can’t even get on the back button.

Borders used to mean book retailers to a lot of literate folk but to the hungry it means biscuits with an ‘S’ and mighty fine ones at that.
Crumbs as there marketing blurb says ‘Put trust in God and keep your biscuits in a cool dry place’ or opt for that famous Scottish pudding Tartan Custard.

Beans or Beanz

For over 120 years they have been known as baked beanz but the guys at Heinz know best. They think a million and one housewives every day will pick up a tin of beanz because they have shortened the name and added a picture of beans on the tin.

57 Varietes remains the same strap line but the firms marketing team ”…have given this iconic product a 21st century make over”. Move over for HP more like it as ”HP baked beans they are the beans for me” in future.

In with the new, out with the old, or should that be the other way around.

Personally I want to see the end of litter, graffiti, dumping from vehicles and gratuitous despoliation of our environment. I want to see it done country wide not just ‘where I live’. I want the polluter to pay, or be culturally indoctrinated towards prevention.

Costs and Change

• I seriously doubt the new image for ‘Keep Britain Tidy’  is worth the effort.
  • Logos are not cheap to replace.
  • There is an existing investment in the neural programming of the public.
  • A Behavioural Change conference in February 2011 showed how Keep Britain Tidy ‘leads the way in understanding how to change behaviour’ .  (Are we the toast of Europe?)
    • Speakers include The Jill Dando Institute, Central Office of Information and Defra. (Clever buildings taught to speak)
    • Case studies from Bromford Housing and Tower Hamlets Council will show how to run a behaviour change campaign on a small budget. (Not the first exemplars that spring to mind!)
  • I will to be enthused and positive but ‘big spending society’ was not what I expected to see .
    

  For more information see The Keep Britain Tidy website

  Other Rebranding

  

  Radio 7 will relaunch in April as BBC Radio 4 Extra.

  Questions to Ask Yourself On Rebranding

  • Is rebranding and restructuring really essential, even desirable or just optional?
  • Is the rebranding a long term solution, a vanity exercise or a quick fix?
  • Will it increase market awareness, customer satisfaction or in this case just further confuse the listeners?
  • Will it be cost saving or will costs expanding? If external consultants are involved be sure it will be the latter?
  • Is it just a ploy to close radio 7?

  The BBC think that ‘in bringing BBC Radio 4 Extra closer to BBC Radio 4, by adding some inviting new programmes and variations of some old favourites, they will encourage more listeners to find and enjoy what this imaginative digital station has to offer’. but they would say that wouldn’t they.

  I am uncomfortable with BBC’s digital offering when they haven’t even solved the promotion of Radio 4 long wave for cricket commentary. I am informed that you can get the same transmission on medium wave in some areas.

  You can listen to Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave by tuning in to 198 LW.

  If you have trouble with Long Wave it is also possible to listen on Medium Wave in some areas:

  London 720; Plymouth 774; Hayle (Cornwall) 756; Newcastle 603; Carlisle 1495; Aberdeen 1449; Enniskillen 774; Derry 720; Glasgow 720.
  BBC

  Bring back the Home Service and the Light programme my Cats Whiskers misses them

  Samaritans

  

  New logos and colour schemes are not all they are cracked up to be. This important charity was known as ‘The’ Samaritans but is giving ground to the help line culture.

  Be known for your image and stick to it through thick and thin.

  

  

  

  Spot the difference

  

IS CASSIUS CLAY THE NEW RACHEL ZOE? screams the Daily Mail between Christmas and the New Year 2010/11.

Well sorry to disappoint but neither of these personality brand names have hit my radar.
Hit may well be the operative word as I do remember the original Cassius Clay before he relinquished his name to become the ‘world heavy weight boxing brand’ that was Muhammad Ali.

Be On Brand Personal Branding View

• My contention has always been that a brand has equity value with intangible assets supporting that brand value and an intellectual asset base. Much of that seems to be missing in the Cult of Cleb.

• Personal branding is with you for life. Celebrities come and go.

• Celebrities in this context are all about recognition whilst Personal Branding is about what and how the person is, interacts and operates in the market.

• The cult of Celebrity is  created, managed and perpetuated by others whilst a good personal brand is just that Personal.

• Cult of Celebrity is not the same as Personal Branding, the former is about temporary opinion the latter about value and intangible assets.

Paris Hilton 3 Sept 2010
After a spell in prison, Paris Hilton now faces a law suit from her sponsor Hairtech International. Allegedly she has been wearing the wrong hair pieces, (a bit of a bald statement).
Who says blonds have all the fun, not Paris if she has to stump up $35 million.

The cult of celebrity will forgive reckless driving but wearing someone else’s hair extension, that is a personal branding no-no.

Red Letter Day Doomsday

I listened to Red Letter Days former owner, Rachel Elnaugh, rationalise her business failure upon which she bases much in this book. A banker in the audience had different views and the question time exchange was more illuminating than any book.

I have linked to a paperback edition of the ‘Nightmares’ at less than a third of the price or click on the hardback cover above.

“Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best” by Donna Childs, is a guide to disaster planning for small business. She observes that many of the problems that occur in a disaster are also ones that could happen in the best of times.”

John ‘Giraffe’ Timpson Brand Repairs

The Daily Telegraph ‘business agony aunt’ tackles the question of changing your brand,logo, corporate image. Based on years of retail experience and good common sense he says ‘think twice before betting your future on corporate image -it might not be the magic you are hoping for’.

For more practical gritty advice read ‘Dear James Secrets of Success from a Management Maverick’ or John sticking his neck out in ‘How to Ride a Giraffe’

Timpson shoe manufactures since 1865, suffered after the introduction of cheap shoes by retailers like Marks & Spencer, B.H.S., etc. and the trend away from conventional footwear to trainers. Fashion is not for ever and products and services must move with the times and trends.

‘John Timpson put his shoe shops back on the retail map by taking up the cause of the customer and introducing a Code of Practice that ensured everyone shopping at Timpson got a fair deal. In 1987 he focused on shoe repairs and bought Mister Minit, Supasnaps and Sketchley to own 550 shops.

The Timpson’s web site put success modestly down to ‘Everything from ethics, history, benefits, charity work, training, careers, latest news, customer care and the people who make it a great place to work.’

Tommy Hifliger

Once known as a “bling” brand clothes label Tommy Hilfiger has sold out to join Calvin Klein at Phillips Van-Heusen after 4 years ownership by Apax partners.

The brand’s eponymous founder will stay on as “principal designer and visionary” . “Calvin and Tommy are global iconic mega-brands” and since Apax worked wonders relaunching the company it may deserve the €0.7 billion it is reported to have made on the deal.
That is one heck of an uplift in brand value even discounting product investment along the way.

Sainsburys

What do Delia, Heston, Jamie and Marco Pierre have in common? They are all ‘Brand Representatives’ or ambassadors food retailers.

Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal will feature in an advert or mini cookery programme for Waitrose. Marco Pierre White starts his ‘bootiful’ job promoting Bernard Mathews after Jamie Oliver of Sainsbury fame did such a job on Turkey Twizzlers.

Click on any book cover to buy from Amazon

Batman

Batman or the Caped Crusader was named and created by Bob Kane for DC comics in 1939. Will your business name or nom-de-plume last over 70 years?

Avoid fashions that come and go if you want to establish longevity with your brand.

The Joker
‘Robin, I need to go to the bat-room for a couple of minutes’
‘Holy-loo-ya Batman’

Time to eat – Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Batman

No Logo

St John Ambulance logo is a registered trademark. The charity says it may not be reproduced in any way whatsoever without the prior consent and written permission of St. John Ambulance National Headquarters. Fair enough, I have taken it off this site although there were at least 20 copies available on the internet.

St John Ambulance Supplies is the part of the organisation that offers a wide range of first aid products for sale. A worthwhile extension of the brand that deserves wider exposure.

Scope

Do we want more charity shops on our high streets? Do our existing shops want anymore competition from ‘subsidised’ organisations?

Scope is a charity that supports disabled people and their families but is planning to increase its investment in it’s charity shops by borrowing £20,000,000! They already have 250 shops that get tax, rent and council tax breaks.

Charities have managed their brands into becoming pressure groups and activists rather than providers of last resort. (Where are all the schools that Scopes predecessor, The Spastics Society ran?)
Brand repositioning by charities may have boosted employment and management career satisfaction but what about the core purpose of a Charity. What proportion of a charities resources should be expended directly on it’s core purpose.

These are questions for the ‘Big Society’ and in our opinion involve stopping charities becoming ‘Big Business’

Age Concern

Merging two well known brandsand respected charities, Age Concern and Help the Aged seems like a great idea. Better campaigning and use of resources are now unified under one banner or ribbon.

50-Plus Marketing regularly comments on the process of naming and branding this new Charity together with other issues pertinent to their chosen niche.

Beware mergers and renaming do not always go smoothly but happily Age UK seems to be catching on via the Charities Shops.

Sally Army

Charity begins at home but what about those without a home. For 2009 the Salvation Army will be our selected charity and any income from Bonbrand.co.uk will be donated. They can bank on it.

New Chancers on the Block

An 8 page glossy, personalised plastic card and a long letter arrived today, addressed to someone who no longer lives here. The name was inaccurate and mis-spelt into the bargain. The data base needs cleansing and cross referencing to avoid this waste of Charity money.

Merge, purge and deduplicate your address files and maintain your database assets.

Will your vodka be cloudy now it is to be mixed with Pernod. In the ‘drinks brand wars’ Diageo need to watch out as Pernod top up there shopping trolley with the purchase of Absolut.

The cost of this Vodka cocktail was over £4 billion so it looks like well marketed brands can create great networth. Extra equity value was also created when Pernod’s share price increased on the news of the acquisition. Where will new value be generated? Well Pernod Ricard bring the strength of their network to an internationally famous well advertised product.

You Need a strong Drink at Luminar

Popular and well-established night club brands under the auspices of Luminar Group Holdings Limited are in the hands of the administrator as banks turn off the music.

For the party animals Oceana, Liquid & Envy, LavaIgnite, and Project are now hoping their brand value will bring forth a bid from potential new owners.

• Oceana
• Liquid & Envy
• LavaIgnite
• Project

Companies have a different life cycle to brands. The death of one doesn’t always mean the death of both.

What is going down the throats of many beer drinkers in preference to Budweiser? – It is the Bavaria beer promoted by the orange clad ambush marketeers in South Africa.

Smart thinking and a bit of chutzpa has created a marketing coup. Watch out for copy cats at the Olympic Games 2012. Stay the right side of the law if you are contemplating an ‘ambush’ inside a stadium with protected sponsors rights.

Pisces Twins in the Constellation

‘Brands change hands in the cider industry in time to drink Gaymers for Christmas’. Constellation owners of drinks brands that include Hardys & Banrock Station in the wine industry and Tsingtao Chinese beer have sold some cider brands to C&C the owners of Magners. A Perry good deal for all!

Whilst Gaymers does have production and bottling facilities a large part of the £46m price is the ‘intangible value’ of the brand and the synergy or retail clout C&C will now have.

A Secret ?

What do Coke-Cola and GCHQ have in common? I can’t tell you it is a secret!

Keeping your drink recipe, code books or business knowhow secret is one of the best ways of protecting your Intellectual Assets. The need to know principal shouldn’t be about power but your sound commercial judgement.

Company Name

Naming your new business and company is an important step. It will remain with you for the life of the business and is the first step in brand and relationship building.

Top Business Name Tips

1. Generic names can help particularly for web searches e.g. The Spade Store.
2. Take a sanity check some names have double meanings or can be misinterpreted far too easily. Avoid names that are hard to remember or spell.
3. Check out the availability of an appropriate domain name before fixing on a company name.
4. Seek the views of other to test out your best ideas.
5. Be specific – it is great if your name also says what you do Gardener’s Tips UK Ltd.
6. Use your name if it carries weight but generally this shows lack of imagination.
7. Avoid copyright problems with big brands. ‘Easy Anything’ can end up as easy court appearances.
8. Associate the name with some positive attribute like Sunshine Holiday Cottages or Darwin’s Genealogy Services
9. Avoid numbers and fashionable shorthand like Gardeners4U
10. Trying to get at the front of directories is too contrived Aardvark Builders is too naff to get quality business.
11. You do not want to be too ‘Cheezey’ like some of the hairdressers you see – ‘A Cut Above’, ‘Snippers’,'Scissor Sisters’ or one I saw recently ‘Skalps’.
12. Do not over complicate the name and make sure it isn’t in direct conflict with a similar name already in use.

Also Read Brand or Corporate Identity

Customer Relations

Eight out of ten tips on branding keys emphasise the ‘Customer’ in the blog of Brad VanAuken. That may be the only tip you need ‘put emphasis on the customer’.

1. Learn everything about your customers. Understand them at a deep level. Know what motivates them. Know what they aspire to and what they fear.

2. Stand for something important to your customers. Let them know that you share their values.

3. Interact with your customers as if they were your partners. Respect them. Listen to them. Collaborate with them. Co-create new products and services with them.
Read the next 7 keys and more on Branding Strategies

Read more »

Tattoos tend to be permanent skin features.

‘Brand tattoos‘ are in the mind and achieve permanence by repetition of an iconic image.

If you use one great, appropriate image keep plugging away with that same picture to be memorable.

Repetition is worth repeating. I said ‘repetition is worth repeating.’

Cowboys branded cattle, Colt and Wells Fargo but Tattoos are the image that drives traffic to Bonbrand. Tattoo must be a popular search term because my site seems to be up there to get some visitor. I have chosen this mega tattoo as my Avatar on the new Twitter link I have set up.

Include some web 2.0 in your prospecting and test marketing. Twitter me or complete the comment below with the results compared to traditional methods.

Brands can cultivate attitude.

You may set out to cultivate an attitude for your brand or one may develop and evolve. This is often true of lifestyle brands and you would probably agree that Levi Jeans demonstrate a brand with attitude. My favourite for alcoholic reasons is the Stella attitude that if you aren’t happy paying more then tough.

Equally your customer groups may develop an attitude towards your brand that is part of the law of unintended consequences i.e. their attitude is not in harmony with your image of your brand. As when Barclays Bank was popular with the pre-apartheid regime in South Africa but the lending was criticised around the world by political attitudes. A potentially brand enhancing attitude is demonstrated by apple users who have tattooed themselves with the corporate logo in homage to the brands culture ( certainly not PC).

So a brand tattoo says something about you and the brand. Is it your attitude to other people and you are outwardly showing off your brand allegiance. Alternatively is it for your own consumption and a tattoo that is focused on your own psyche. Understanding these nuances can help brand managers manipulate the marketing. On a personal note I am happy to see the mobile drink dispensing staff at cricket matches tattooed with Stella Artois.

Picture edited (copyright)