When a brand is built successfully, consumers will naturally start to identify with it and will be able to attach qualities and emotions to it. For example, you can hold up a well-branded watch and people will immediately say words such as: desirable, for the adventurer, a status symbol, or a statement of success. It would go without saying that the engineering of the watch would be good and that it would be reliable, but the emotive words are that ones that will turn it into an important brand. Brands are inspired by emotions, and many of those emotions are aspirational. A luxury brand succeeds because people will pay outrageous prices to be associated with the essence of a product or service because of what the brand then says about their success and standing in life.
Not all brands are luxury brands
Any product can be branded successfully if it’s in the hands of a company that is expert at strategic brand management. Food and household products are a good example. When a brand is really successful, homeowners will go through their whole lives buying the same brand. They will want to use only a particular brand of toothpaste, will want only one brand of washing powder, and will trust only one brand of shampoo. This is the result of clever branding that has positioned the product as being reliable, offering value for money, and being something unchangeable and, therefore, constantly dependable. If you change a trusted brand, such as a popular soda company did several years ago, the public can be so outraged and feel so cheated that their known product has been changed that they will sometimes abandon the product in droves. This is a nightmare for any strategic brand management company, as building a brand can take many years of work.
Marketing is a tactic that supports a brand
A brand stands on its own, even though marketing campaigns may support it. For example, looking again at the soda industry, a campaign was once launched that arranged for taste-testing. This took place in many retail outlets, on campuses and in public meeting places. It was a huge campaign and the brands of the colas were hidden. The campaign was arranged by the product that was number two in the market-place, and it consistently received scores that said that it tasted better than its number one rival. This definitely increased its sales, but not nearly in the same proportion as the people who preferred its taste over the leading brand. The reason for this is that consumers, once they’ve become loyal to a brand, tend to stick with it – even when it’s proven to them that another brand tastes better!
To ensure that your product or service remains popular among consumers, you need to invest in invest in strategic brand management. Finch Brands has many experts employed to help you build and maintain powerful brands.
