I owe this post to two readers who wanted to know what branding is all about, sans the jargons and theories.
I believe that a brand is the personality of a product.
Take two soap boxes. Turn them around. Check out the ingredients. You will find an uncanny similarity between them. Yet, Camay is priced significantly higher than a Medimix. The personality of the product justifies this. You are paying extra, simply because you want to be a Camay user.
The personality is set at the beginning by the brand manager. And then, it is allowed to evolve with continuous monitoring. A lot of money is spent here because this sets the tone of the product in the market. It also provides the base for all communication strategies. The personality set is also sometimes called, the brand vision.
Brand Vision
The brand vision is very important because that decides when and where is the product going to travel. What sort of people are going to try the product and who does it want to hold on to.
Some brands make their presence felt among us. Some are so well integrated within our lives, that we do not realise their importance till they are gone. Here’s an attempt of my brand map based on usage from 6 am till 12 pm:
Some of the brands from above, exercise a lot of importance. I am very particular about my fila tracks, adidas shoes and nescafe. Others like post it and firefox have been integrated into my life to an extent where I will miss them if they are not available. The ones that are important are chosen by the user based on their personality. There has to be a fit. If I drive a Mercedes and drink the best wine, the Van Heusen would be replaced by probably Armani. This is the brand positioning that all brand managers aim to create.
Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is an impression of the product that brand managers want to establish. The impression / position is important as people use that as a tool to associate with the product.
Q: What do you eat for breakfast?
A: Quaker Oats all the time. I work out so hard everyday that this seems to be the best healthy morning food!
Thats the position that Quaker Oats wants to create and they did it. The trick here is to ensure no other oatmeal owns this position already. And, if they do, its time to work something bigger and better to throw the competitor off. Or find another position to occupy.
Q: What shampoo do you use? The hair looks great!
A: Its always been L’Oreal. It makes me feel so good.
L’Oreal with its “Because we’re worth it” rides on the feel factor.
Brand Vision and Positioning are two most important concepts that provide the basis for the subject. Thanks for the questions on branding. Keep them coming!
Thats a beautiful explanation!
But……
why does someone want to be a ‘Camay user’?
What is that which makes a person pay extra for a product that is not different in its ingredients when compared to a cheaper product?
By the way, am I one of the ‘two’ readers for which this post was intended? If so, who is the other one? I’m curious to see what that person has to say or ask…..
Well, let me make my question clear…..
So, someone wants to be a Camay user ONLY because the way Camay has been projected to the people… And the way it has been projected has nothing to do with the actual quality of the product.
So, the customers pay extra for the same ingredients because they have fallen victim to a sense of false pride….. Right?
I’d like to complete the definition of branding that you just made,
“I believe that a brand is the personality of a product IN THE MIND OF THE CUSTOMER”
Branding has a different value for each customer or non customer.
If we carefully observe the ingredients of soaps, they are all the same. Rather than a false sense of pride, I would put it as the feel created by the soap.
There’s a lot of psychology play in branding. Dove claims to be one-fourth moisturizer. That definitely does not mean the soap contains one-fourth cream. Its just that we remember it better!
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haha… The legendary comedian George Carlin used to say…. that “cripples are called physically challenged, blind are called visually impaired and toilet paper is called bathroom tissue”….. somehow, changing the way you say it appears to change the meaning…
But, in reality, it doesn’t. You can call it psychology, branding, advertisement or even false sense of pride or just plain lies…. its all the same.
I am reminded of a story that I once heard – There was a man who went to the bar daily. He was a very sensible guy, but everyday, after he drank too much, he used to act crazy. He imagined that he owned an expensive Benz, and ran around the bar imagining he drove the car…..He used to make skids and stunts and eventually hit his head and fell down unconscious. People then took him home. Another man, who was watching this everyday, asked the bartender – “You see him lose control everyday…. Why dont you stop him just before he drinks too much?”…..And the bartender said” Why should I? The more he drinks, the more I earn….”….And then the man said, “Ok fine. Thats business. But why dont you tell him that the benz car is only an imagination and that it doesn’t really exist? Atleast then, he wont fall down and hurt himself everyday”….And the bartender…”Why should I? He pays me $10 a day to wash that car!”…
This is like that….. As long as there are people who feed on someone else’s ignorance, they will never come forward to tell the truth.
Am I right, Ms. Abhinaya?