GOT BRAND?

The What, Why

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A n d H o w To G e t S t a r t e d
With Branding

By Martin E. Thoma
Principal
Thoma Thoma Creative

T H O M A T H O M A C R E AT I V E • 5 0 1 . 6 6 4 . 5 6 7 2 • c r e a t e @ t h o m a t h o m a . c o m • w w w . t h o m a t h o m a . c o m
 F or the past several years, “branding” has been one of the hottest buzzwords in marketing and communica-
tion. A recent search on Amazon.com yielded more than 70 books on branding in print. For many mar-
keters today, branding has become a Holy Grail. Unfortunately for many of these companies, the analogy is too
true—they seek but do not find.

This white paper provides a high-level overview of what branding is, why do it, and how to get it off the
ground. The reason the concept is so hot is that branding works. In this white paper, we’ll show you the
fundamentals of how to make it work for you.

DEVELOPING A COMMON LANGUAGE

One of the most important foundations for any brand development and branding effort is to develop a com-
mon language. Too many people use “brand” and “branding” to describe too many things including:
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• A logo
• The name of a company or product
• The tagline or positioning line
• The associated colors or graphic identity
• The product itself
• An advertising campaign

All of the above are elements of brand management, but none alone are “brand” or “branding”. Here are a few
definitions of brand culled from leading experts in the field:

“Even the law, in certain ways, treats corporations as individuals, and it can be demonstrated
that a corporation has values, beliefs, rituals, aspirations, a personality, a reputation—a
brand.”
—James R. Gregory, “Leveraging the Corporate Brand”

“A brand is not an icon, a slogan, or a mission statement. It is a promise—a promise your

company can keep....This is the promise you make and keep in every marketing activity, every
action, every corporate decision, every customer interaction. You promote it internally and
externally.”
—Kristin Zhivago, “Business Marketing”

“We define a brand as a trademark, which to consumers represents a particular and appealing
set of values and attributes. It’s much more than a product. Products are made in a factory. A
product becomes a brand only when it stands for a host of tangible, intangible and psycholog-
ical factors. A key point to remember is that brands are not created by the manufacturer. They
exist only in the eye of the beholder, the customer.”
—Charles Brymer, CEO of Interbrand Schecter

“A brand is a trustmark. A brand is a covenant between a company and the consumer, and a
trusted brand is a genuine asset.”
—Larry Light, “Building Brand Relationships”
 “A brand is more than just advertising and marketing. It is nothing less than everything any-
one thinks when they see your logo or hear your name.”
—David F. D’Alessandro, CEO of John Hancock and author of “Brand Warfare: 10
Rules for Building the Killer Brand”

HERE’S MY DEFINITION OF BRAND

Your “brand” is the sum total of all that is known, thought, felt and perceived about your company, service
or product.

This definition establishes several important facts about your brand:

• It is a mental construct. While there are numerous physical expressions of your brand, the brand itself exists
only in the mind.
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• It therefore cannot be owned. You can create it, you can steward it, and you can manage it. It can even be
valued and sold. But you don’t own it.
• Because it is the sum of all experiences with your organization, products, services, people – every interaction
has an incremental impact on your brand. Will those impacts be positive or negative? You decide.

A FEW USEFUL TERMS

Brand has many facets and elements, including the following:

Brand Development: the process of defining, crystallizing your Unique Selling Propositions and Unique and
Sustainable Competitive Advantages into a brand strategy. On what basis will you differentiate your company,
product or service? What are all the implications to product, service and communication. In brand develop-
ment, you sort this out.

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Branding: the process of articulating and codifying the brand, and communicating it to inter-
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Brand Identity: The visual representation of your brand.

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Brand Equity: A measure for the value your brand

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delivers to your organization. Brand equity can best

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be described as the composite of the following com-
ponents:
AWARENESS
 WHY BRAND?
What’s the opposite of a strong brand? A commodity.What’s a commodity? Any product or service that can be
made by any number of companies and which can be differentiated only on the basis of price. Grain, oil, lum-
ber, pork bellies are commodities. Unfortunately, so are most banks, hospitals, telephone companies, comput-
ers, dry cleaners, restaurants, and coffeehouses.

Branding is the process of uniquely identifying your company’s product or services and creating compelling
reasons to do business with you. Branding is differentiation. Branding is the anticommodity.

Why brand? Because branding works. Brands win. Businesses need strong brands for many reasons:

Great employees want to work for companies with great brands. And great employees make great brands bet-
ter. Most companies stress the importance of hiring superior staff with stellar records to their overall business
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strategy.

Wouldn’t you like to have more qualified people, more eager to work for your organization?

Great brands counter commoditization. When you get commoditized, you have nothing left to compete on
but price. A banker recently complained to me, “All people care about is how much it costs. That’s why they
shop at Wal-Mart.”

True...to a point. Not everyone shops at Wal-Mart,

and no one buys every product at Wal-Mart. Ages of Best-Known Brand Names
Research shows that the more important a product is
to an individual’s livelihood, health or happiness, Age of Brand % of 4,923 Brands
the more likely they are to rely on a trusted brand. Mentioned
Tylenol outsells all competitors combined in chil- 100+ years 10
dren’s pain reliever—and yet it’s all acetaminophen.
75-99 years 26
That’s a powerful brand!
50-74 years 28
25-49 years 4
Wouldn’t you like to combat the creeping pressure
of price competition in your business? 15-24 years 4
Under 14 years 3
Great brands command premium pricing. People
simply and willingly pay more; it’s the power of a
brand. This is the flip side of commoditization. See the Tylenol example above. See also Nike, Lexus, IBM,
Neiman-Marcus, Ben & Jerry’s, Disney and others who are considered the best, and worth every penny.

Wouldn’t you like to support higher margins within your product mix?

Great brands create a shorthand for customers. They understand you more readily, accept you more easily
and stay with you more happily. In an age in which the average individual is bombarded with 3,000+ messages
per day, and has nearly limitless choices in the products they buy and the companies they do business with,
 customers need help cutting through the clutter. A great brand simplifies things for your customers. In fact,
your customers need a great brand as much as you do.

Wouldn’t you like to “immunize” your customers against the competition, so that no come-on, no possible
price promotion, could ever sway them from you?

Most companies—is yours included?—will spend significant resources this year marketing and advertising
their services and products.

Why not do it in such a way that it creates an indelible, irresistible brand?

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HOW TO DO BRANDING
So, I’ve convinced you to develop your brand. Now – how do you do it? If a brand is characterized by a “mark
of distinction,” (remember the cattle days!) you’ve got to establish that mark of distinction.

The foundation of a brand is what makes it unique—different (and differentiable) from all others.You have to
start with your unique and sustainable competitive advantage. If you don’t have one or more, you have to
develop one or more. Otherwise, get into a different business —change your organization or product. As Jack
Welch, longtime chairman of GE said, “If you’re in a market where you’re not competitive, don’t compete.”

The brand lies within. Your brand springs from your organiza-
tional vision and passion. You (or your management Brand Building
team) have an internal compass pointing you in the TA S K S
direction of your brand. Usually what’s needed
is an expert who can help draw it out, codify
build
it and create the internal/external communi- develop deep bran d associations
customer bu i l di n g
cations that will bring your brand to life and and create
relationships
make it a powerful competitive weapon. (If differentiation
you need some insight into interviewing and
hiring a consultant, read our white paper, “How
to Select a Marketing Communications Agency.”)
create
visibility
You can brainstorm this in any number of ways. We utilize an inten-
sive half-day discovery session to draw out of our client organization a comprehensive profile of its customer
and an analysis of all competitive strengths and weakness. From these, we agree to the unique and sustainable
competitive
advantages that will underlay the brand. Once that’s defined, you can begin the heavy lifting of branding.

Before you settle on this foundation, make sure that it will pass the following screen: It is unique? Is it
sustainable? Is it relevant?

On these foundations, we can overlay the personality, attributes, graphic identity, tone and content of your
brand expression.
 At this point too you want to complete primary market research to take the pulse of your brand. (Remember—
it only exists in the mind of the public—so the only way to measure it is to measure it!) This requires a com-
petent market research firm experienced in developing and implementing brand equity studies.

ONE FINAL THOUGHT

Branding is often painted or treated as a mysterious, even magical, undertaking. While it certainly requires a
large degree of insight and creativity to be done effectively, it’s an achievable goal for even the small business.
In this day and age of increasing commoditization and homogenization, it’s a goal that’s never been more
important to strive for.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Leveraging the Corporate Brand, James R. Gregory. A good discussion of branding the corporation versus its
products.

The New Positioning, Troutt & Reis. Another slim little book from two of America’s marketing gurus. Not about
branding per se, but packed with insight into positioning your brand.

Brand Warfare: 10 Rules for Building the Killer Brand, David F. D’Alessandro. D’Alessandro is CEO of John
Hancock and one of the few marketing executives to rise through the ranks to lead a Fortune 500 company.
D’Alessandro describes his 10 rules of thumb for building your brand into a powerful competitive weapon.
One of my favorite axioms: “If you’ve had more than 3 people give ‘input’ (read: changes) to your advertising
campaign, throw it out and start over.”

Brand Asset Management, David A. Aaker. Very thorough and informative, but a bit academic for those just
trying to get a handle on the what/where/how of brand. A great read if you enjoy college texts.