Nurturing & beyond

A handy guide on how brands can be better integrated with business

For most, “brands” mean expensive products preferred by people or things endorsed/used by celebrities. Branding is more of a glamorous word for people and few realise that brands are assets that are central to business growth and have a direct impact on the bottom line and the top line. An effective brand strategy can give significant competitive advantage to organisations. Branding decisions are not just marketing decisions but business decisions and brand health is closely knit to business health.

Business Week in 2013 conducted a research among top 200 companies in the world to understand the factors that contribute to enterprise value. It was found that on an average, 38 per cent of the valuation is attributed to the strength of the brand, 36 per cent to intellectual property and 26 per cent to tangible assets.

It has hence become important to relook at branding as a function and have people with not just good marketing acumen but also a good business acumen managing brands. Brands should not only be nurtured but also integrated with business and therefore brand expenses have to be treated as investments made for long-term returns. How that can be achieved? Here are some handy strategies:

Stop thinking about products and start thinking about customers: Marketing and innovation have become inseparable today and the DNA of future innovations will lie in true needs of the customer and what drives them to buy these products and services. Organisations focus on what they can “make” and not what customers “want”. Good companies identify the customers they want to serve, figure out the product and services for these customers.

Think of customers as an income flow: Once that centricity is achieved, it is easy to get funds to build brands. Here, it’s important to ask oneself a question – are we looking to trigger a fresh flow of income or trying to maintain or increase the existing flow. This can help chart the future brand strategy and focus on resource allocation — between market development, product development and market penetration.
 

Integrate brands with customer journey: It is imperative to track and trace the entire customer journey to identify the right moments and then integrate the brands therein.

Invest on retailer relationships: Many a time, organisations are not able to understand the pulse of their customers. This is more applicable to those with multi-level channels or where the channel roles are out-sourced to external agency. Manufacturers have to find ways to partner with retailers so that national brands can co-exist with store brands. The retailers are also the storehouse for huge amount of data which can influence marketing strategies. Successful organisations are now focusing on building partner relationships with retailers because store experience has become an important part of brand experience creation.

Integrate brands with culture — inside and outside: Brand building in an insulated environment can sound archaic today. Brands need to actively study the culture around them and engage with customers to occupy a place in their everyday life.

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