Some people say: a brand is a box, everything can be put in it-
Brand planning, brand marketing, brand strategy, brand communication, brand positioning, brand management, brand creativity, brand design, brand advertisement, brand image, brand vision, brand recognition, brand symbol, brand culture, brand story, brand mission, brand vision, brand appeal, brand attribute, brand interest, brand value, brand endorsement and brand assets. ...
I feel that many concepts are as high as the word "brand" on the box.
Many three-legged cat planning companies try to fiddle with their own unclear terminology.
Ambiguous statements made some bosses faint before their brands were established.
In China, it is easy for all things that don't understand to enter the situation of "metaphysics".
"The Truth about Brand Around Less" hopes to stand in a scientific position as far as possible, and interpret the academic concept of brand in plain vernacular, so that business owners who have never been exposed to brand marketing can easily understand it and apply it to the front-line actual combat.
In fact, the following masters who are called "the father of XXX" in the industry have different definitions of brands.
The industry often takes the definition of American Marketing Association (AMA) as the standard:
A brand is "a name, proper noun, mark, symbol or design, or a combination of the above elements, which is used to identify the goods and services of suppliers or supplier groups and distinguish them from those of competitors".
The academic definition of a concept is usually wordy and boring.
Huan think less:
Brand is a collection of consumers' impressions and perceptions of enterprise products and services, which is separated from competitors.
(1) Impression and perception: Why do many bosses think the brand is "too empty"? Because it exists in the minds of consumers, it is a "mind" according to the positioning theory, not a factory or entity of an enterprise. Enterprises will go bankrupt or reorganize, and brands can be resold and continued.
The classic assertion that "if the Coca-Cola factory is destroyed by fire" also shows the great role of brand as an "intangible asset" relative to physical assets.
(2) All aspects: All the work of brand marketing is to let consumers clearly perceive the "real or virtual" aspects of the brand, so as to win the favor of consumers and realize continuous purchase.
"Real" content, such as logos, packaging, products, advertisements and detailed information pages. ...
"Virtual" content, such as style, personality, culture and emotion. ...
(3) Distinction: brand, English for Brand, originated from the old Norwegian language, which originally meant "burning": In ancient times, people put a chrome iron mark on the horse's ass in order to distinguish their livestock from other livestock, as the American Marketing Association said.
Answering in a professional tone will lead to boring academic explanations.
What is "increasing recognition, credit endorsement and creating premium" ...
As an ordinary consumer, this is actually not a question: do you prefer to buy a familiar "famous brand" or an unheard-of "miscellaneous brand" at the same price?
The role of the brand, the simple and rude answer is:
Let the products or services of enterprises sell more expensive, more and longer!
Sell more expensive:
Nothing hurts the brand value more than the bosses who contract for international big brands: the products come out of the same production line with only one LOGO, and the price is one tenth, one hundredth or even a fraction of that of other big brands. Watching foreigners make big profits, they just earn poor processing fees.
Sell more:
At the same quality and price, the sales volume of famous brands is n times that of those "nobody". Moreover, in many cases, the products produced in industrial mass production may not be as good as the small enterprises created with ingenuity, but they have no brand appeal and have been merged.
Sales time is longer:
If the product is only sold for a period of time, business owners don't have to waste time and energy to create brands. However, a strong brand in the market can be sold for a lifetime: Coca-Cola sold a bottle of sugar water for 100 years, because it has accumulated huge brand assets, not only physical sugar water, but also given a specific American spiritual culture.
In dealing with many small and medium-sized enterprises, many bosses will ask:
"Our company is still very small, is it suitable for branding?" ?
We are a B2B niche industry, can we be a brand?
In fact, brands are like people. You don't take the initiative to "brand", consumers will define your brand according to their own understanding.
Just like a friend of yours doesn't deliberately build a personal brand, you may also comment on him: Well, this guy is generous, loyal and organized, but a little lazy. ...
Taking the initiative to "brand" means that enterprises actively define their own brands to consumers through brand strategic planning and integrated marketing communication, so that consumers can form their impressions and perceptions of brands within the scope of the goals that enterprises hope to achieve.
Brand concept has covered all aspects of our lives since its development. Not only products, services and companies can build brands, but also countries, places, institutions, activities and even individuals can build brands.
For example:
Companies: Apple, Amazon, Foxconn ...
Products: Coca Cola, Mercedes Benz, Gree …
Services: McKinsey, SF, Haidilao ...
Country: French, Singaporean, China (made in China) ...
Institutions: NBA, FIFA, Greenpeace. ...
Venue: Friendly Great Barrier Reef, Kumamoto Prefecture, Shandong Province ...
Activities: Olympic Games, World Expo, G20 Summit. ...
Individuals: Dong Mingzhu, Lei Jun, stars, network celebrities. ...
So, don't ask, "Can our enterprise become a brand? 」
Bosses are more interested in the word "assets".
Before the formation of brand equity, we still need to solve many problems, such as brand positioning, image design, channel construction, brand communication and so on. The goal is to form enterprise brand assets.
David A. Aaker, a world-class brand management master and author of Managing Brand Equity, believes that brand equity refers to assets and liabilities associated with brands, which can increase or decrease the value of products or services of companies or customers.
Brand assets include five types: popularity, loyalty, perceived quality, brand association and other exclusive assets (patents, trademarks and channel relationships).
The master's theory is nerve-racking, especially through the roundabout translation of "indirect expression"
According to a more concise and popular exposition, it refers to the brand's popularity, reputation and loyalty.
1. brand awareness: brands need to gain public awareness, because it is difficult to achieve purchase without awareness. The greater the popularity, the greater the influence and the deeper the brand equity.
2. Brand word of mouth: A high word of mouth without word of mouth is called "notorious". A brand not only needs consumers to know you, but also needs consumers to recognize you, like you, and achieve conceptual or emotional recognition.
3. Brand loyalty: the highest level of brand development, one is to let consumers buy again and again, and the other is conscious word-of-mouth recommendation. Not only has it been bought in buy buy, but it has also spontaneously planted grass, which has brought fission.
What the boss needs to know about "brand equity" is:
Never pay attention to short-term interests and damage the "brand assets" of long-term operation of enterprises.
Such as: only know the advertising bombing, but do not pay attention to word-of-mouth construction;
Such as: blindly extending the brand, thus diluting the original positioning of the brand;
For example, low-price promotion is cool for the time being, but in the long run, it reduces the brand value. ...
Many bosses will have an idea:
What brand to make is a matter for big enterprises to play. Let's do marketing, flow and sell products honestly in small enterprises.
The so-called "flow is fundamental, sales are more practical, and a single order can solve thousands of worries."
To this end, Jiang Nanchun, chairman of Focus Media, expressed dissatisfaction. He delivered a speech entitled "Brand is the greatest immunity of enterprises" at the annual meeting of Chinese business leaders in 2020, saying:
"Today, many people in the China market are talking about' traffic'. The word "flow" seems to be the basis of business. In fact, winning the heart of the brand is the foundation of business, and traffic is only the result of winning the heart of the brand. 」
Besides.
Brand is the largest flow pool of enterprises!
Boss, when will the brand plan of your enterprise start?