Everyone loves to "pour" terms and demonstrate their awareness and experience. Business is no exception, and most workers from the middle link to the very top have already got into the habit of "pouring" a stream of smart words on their interlocutor to show their own competence.
However, sometimes it’s very useful to deviate from this habit and recall the phrase: “I know that I don’t know anything”, which has repeatedly sounded from the lips of very worthy and respected people. In this article we would like to consider the concept of “brand strategy”, to consider with impartiality, knowing what we got for more than 10 years of work in the field of brand consulting, and at the same time “knowing nothing”.
Brand strategy: why is it?
What is a brand strategy? Obviously, this is a strategy for creating, developing, changing and adapting to the brand market. And it means a whole, unique and attractive image inherent in a product or group of products, united by common identification symbols. This image is based on the consumer’s consciousness (possibly in the subconscious), it helps the consumer to make a “right” purchase in the conditions of difficult choice, which will solve his “problem”.
Of course, the product itself (or a group of products) should correspond to this image. As a result, we should see a brand - a consumer object that enjoys a high degree of consumer loyalty, which is also sold at a higher price. Money and only money, just business, and nothing personal. But when we talk about strategy, the question of goal setting arises. Why is a brand strategy needed, and what goal is planned to be achieved with its help? Obviously, to build and develop a brand. Why is he? Because of money? But no. Yes, finance is the fuel and the meaning of any business, but the brand, as mentioned earlier, is an image in the mind. How correct is the image to measure money?
For a brand, financial performance is only an indirect reflection of effectiveness. And putting them at the forefront is simply incorrect and illogical. Imagine that you are sewing clothes. Yes, here the main measurements are either centimetres or dollars, everything seems to be simple. However, if you intend to appreciate the beauty of this clothing, will you be able to do it in centimetres and dollars? Of course, there will be a dependency, since harmony implies some mathematical models, and the cost of materials plays an important role. But correctly assess the beauty of the dollar and a centimetre will not work, agree. We need another "line", a different evaluation criterion. Similarly with the brand.
To the question: “Why do I need a brand strategy?”, The answer in the spirit: “To have more money,” is fundamentally wrong. For this reason, with purely financial expectations, it is not worthwhile to approach the issue of creating and developing a brand. Most likely, you will be disappointed. If you just want more money, invest in sales channels, marketing, packaging, advertising, expanding product lines, sales staff, logistics and a management system. All this will pay off much faster than investing in a brand. These are quite measurable and tangible things, and they can be measured by the financial “ruler”.
You cannot measure the position in consciousness, the strength of the image that affects consumer behavior, and even in the context of various social groups and taking into account the peculiarities of social engineering. And what result will you come to if the goal and the way to achieve it do not correspond trite with each other? It's like going to a casino to get rich. Few people succeeded, most are disappointed, while others become addicted. The purpose and means of achieving it must correspond to each other.
Brand strategy: when is it needed?
Brand strategy is necessary when you need to build, develop or even revive a brand. But is it necessary in principle? Branding in our country (and in the world as a whole) resembles a sort of conspiracy of initiates, an unspoken agreement of the participants in the process. Some (for example, the same design agencies) pretend that they create brands. Others (top managers and entrepreneurs) create the appearance that they have these brands in their portfolio. Still others Digital marketers depict the brand management process, while fourths SMM experts by geek web solution give it some kind of assessment. And it seems that the wheels are spinning, everyone is happy, but very often one thing is not clear: but at whose expense in the end is this whole banquet? The consumer is here, sorry, which side? Unfortunately, it often turns out that with no reason.
A very frequent story: a certain company claims to rebrand, say, beer snacks, which was held by another eminent agency. Experts discuss this news and issue thoughtful conclusions, but no one comes up with the question: did you even have to do this? The consumer did not pay attention to the brands of snacks, and does not pay. For what "garden city"? There are many misconceptions in this area. Objection: “We want to increase sales,” - this is generally unlikely, branding can affect unpredictable current sales.
When a product idea changes, the consumer needs some time to digest these innovations, and sales in the short term can easily fall. Someone will say: “We want to be updated, we want to be innovative,” but maybe you are valued precisely for tradition? Either innovation and traditionalist are not important at all, but the prevailing habits of customers matter.
It happens that company representatives say the following: “Our sales are falling or our competitors are ahead of us,” but why did you decide that the brand plays a role? Competitors simply invested heavily in merchandising or began to more actively stimulate sellers. Another misconception: “We need more loyal consumers,” is not at all a fact that consumer loyalty is even possible in this market! Another example: “We need a bright, recognizable image,” but will this bright image affect sales? What will he give in general? In some cases, a vivid recognizable image is a marker of quality, and it really can increase sales. In some cases, a vivid recognizable image either does not affect at all, or even scares consumers away.
A full-fledged brand, full-fledged branding, and therefore, brand strategy are needed only when the consumer’s choice is motivated, when he is inclined to choose, rather than take the first decision that is “seemingly good”, and if he is afraid of the wrong choice. For other goods and services, if the risks of choice are small, decisions that are not related to branding as a process of influencing consumer behavior are much more effective. However, this is not the only condition.
Even in a market where consumer fears are great, which means that the consumer is mentally prepared for brands promising to eliminate these fears, and also ready to overpay for these brands, it is still more profitable to develop areas that are not related to the consumer’s unstable inner world. Try to ignore brands in general and act as if the brand factor does not exist.
There is a product that needs to be sold, and there are four marketing “pi” that need to be worked out: pricing, logistics, production, promotion and marketing. It is simpler, more understandable and gives tangible results in the short term.
So, when is brand strategy needed? It is necessary for the growth of business efficiency, but only when other tools for making money no longer work, or are too weak. For example, if investments in packaging, expansion, and marketing cease to pay off. And then the consumer has to climb "under the skull" and try to introduce something there. In this case, the attitude to the brand and branding becomes adequate, since branding is a serious, complex and fairly deep process, rather than drawing logos.
When you begin to understand that in this situation all the other actions do not give the desired effect, then the time comes to engage in branding. To do this, you need quite sophisticated and subtle methods that you will have to thoroughly understand, and all decision-makers in the company! And then there will be an understanding of the right branding goals that can be associated with the strategic goals of the organization itself, and not always, these goals will be formulated as “more money”. Sometimes even maintaining existing market positions is already a huge victory.
Branding should be done only when there is no other way out, and if you clearly understand why this is and what you will get. In this case, you will need a brand strategy, and before this difficult time it is best to try to live without investment in the virtual field of mass consciousness.
Brand strategy: what should it be?
For ten years of consulting in the field of branding, we have written more than a dozen brand strategies and have been trying for a long time to standardize this document, to outline the main points. Alas, both the companies and the market situations in which these organizations were located turned out to be too different to speak of unification. And it is impossible to clearly state in advance what should be in a specific document on brand development.
Sometimes the main emphasis should be on the interior of outlets, sometimes on POSM, or in general on souvenirs and exhibition stands. Too many factors play a role here. Even corporate identity guides these days are not so easy to bring to a common denominator: business cards and fax forms are no longer limited. The process of penetrating the rich inner world of the consumer is much more complicated than the development of visual identifiers.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that the consumer’s consciousness (and even more so, unconscious) is a “black box”, an area that is essentially unknowable. On the one hand, one needs to work with the psyche, on the other, the science of it knows very little. Do not forget that all psychological models are only a figment of the imagination, in reality they do not exist: there are no clearly defined areas in the psyche on which the names “superego” or “values” are written with a marker. No one can describe what is really happening in the psyche, since a person does not have an adequate language for describing mental processes, just like there is no language for describing content that is formless.
And here, unfortunately, there are no clear criteria to distinguish a working concept from paranoid delirium or amateur inventions. We have come across brand strategies more than once, from which we could bitterly cry and laugh at the same time. Someone puts archetypes at the forefront, someone tries to justify everything from the perspective of NLP, which is unambiguous stupidity. There is no clear evidence base, since psychology is not mathematics. And with a certain skill of selling, you can “get in” with the client anything if he himself is not a specialist in psychology. However, such clients either do not turn to consultants, or are insane as much as other business experts. And how to be here?
It all depends on the personality of the decision maker, on his ability to reflect. This person should thoroughly understand everything and personally make sure that the proposed concept makes sense. Yes, branding is the task of the first person, everything rests on him and, accordingly, depends on him. If the first person does not pay enough attention and a desire to understand the essence of the proposed strategy of his own brand, which is announced by the consultants, then no matter how good the document is, most likely it will not be implemented. And even better, if this first person attracts his deputies and heads of departments to this business. Nevertheless, one head is good, and several are better. Everyone should look at the strategy “from their bell tower” and make their own adjustments (which no one wants to do, as a rule). Without this, any document will remain stillborn. That’s in general. In particular, the correct brand strategy is more complex and interesting than all other management documents.
This is not a story about what happiness a consumer should expect, and not nonsense about the “blue and red oceans”. This is a document bringing together psychological theory and applied business problems. There is a brand idea - great. How should this idea be implemented at the level of the assortment matrix? How does it manifest itself in the company's logistics system? What packaging changes should be made? How should the process of developing and launching new products taking into account brand strategy be implemented? This is the complexity of the document: it represents both theory and practice, and abstraction, and specificity. Everything must be brought together. This is very difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept for leaders.
Brand management is a complex, complex process. The consultants share their picture of the world with the customer, and the proposed brand, whose roots are in the business of the customer, is consistently integrated into this picture of the world. Figuratively speaking, brand consultants here act as Michurin breeders, trying to plant a new sprout to the existing stem with roots, which will change the whole plant over time. If the main part of the company’s management was able to be involved in this process, it almost guarantees success. However, if people cannot find a common language and jointly see the picture of the future that the brand strategy implies, this will not end in anything good.
Of course, this position violates many canons of business communication, consulting and other business ethics. But the brand is serious, and you have to choose - "checkers or go."
Brand strategy:how to implement?
The relationship between the consultant and the customer is complicated, a one-time project becomes a marathon race, which violates the usual logic of business consulting and consulting services. And here managerial problems are already beginning. Brand strategy is that which is aimed at the “black box”, at the psyche of the consumer. There are no clear criteria to quickly assess the completeness of a task. For this reason, they either don’t want to take up the implementation, or they take it, but they let the tasks go “on the brakes”: anyway, no one will understand how much something has been done right or wrong.
Only consultants can figure it out if they accompany the implementation project. Without consulting support, everything will very quickly turn into unsubscribes, and no brand will arise. To begin with, branding issues are usually entrusted to the marketing or generally unhappy brand manager, who was hired specifically for this project. What can he do? Change the logo, give some kind of advertising and all, and at best. At worst, he will not be given any authority at all, and the “bison” - marketers, marketers, logisticians and financiers, will consider the brand manager as the fifth wheel in the cart. Good buy brand!
I repeat, the issue of brand strategy is the first-person task, as he is the main brand manager. This idea is not new, but unfortunately the vast majority of entrepreneurs (not only American ones, this is the world practice) have not reached it. The issue of implementation is even more complicated, and the main "implementers" of the brand are not marketers or even delirious managers. These are heads of company departments. It depends on them whether the product will be able to take the desired image in the minds of consumers. And they, firstly, do not understand anything in branding, secondly, they do not want to understand, and thirdly, they will still resist all changes in their work.
The correct algorithm, which we can say, has suffered, here is this:
- coordination of the main directions of brand strategy;
- training the heads of the division on the basics of branding (at the same time psychology along with training on reflection skills);
- explaining to them the essence of the brand strategy and adjusting this strategy in accordance with the peculiarities of the situation, the knowledge of which these specialists have knowledge;
- separation of responsibilities in the round-table mode, scaling, setting narrow tasks and defining performance criteria.
Of course, brand management is the work of managers, which should be additionally rewarded.
How many companies do this? In fact, there are only a few, therefore, there are no brands in the country, and hopes for their appearance are illusory. A brand strategy should allow such operations, its task is to give units an understanding of what they need to do. If a brand strategy consists only of psychologisms, then those who need to implement it will not understand anything in it.
Alas, those areas in which brand building is limited only to packaging and advertising are either a thing of the past or occupied by business giants with appropriate budgets.
To create a brand in our difficult time, much more intelligence and subtle decisions are required than ten years ago. Is there a description of them, or at least areas of activity in brand strategy? There is - well, no - brand strategy can be thrown away, no one will implement it.
However, any apparent minus has its advantages. On the one hand, involving heads of departments in the brand management process includes financial incentive costs and efforts to create a new management structure, as well as time and nerves. However, on the other hand, the brand management team becomes a tool for managing the company as a whole, and at the same time is quite competent and flexible.
Collective decision-making, democratization of the management system, ultimately, benefits the first person, removing the task of constantly monitoring everything and spending their personal resources on leadership and supervision. In addition, the creation of a brand management team adds to the entire system of self-organization.
Brand strategy: what is the result?
The principle by which the result is measured also follows from the idea of goal-setting. However, economics and psychology are already converging here. At the stage of setting goals, it is almost impossible to assume an economic result. Initially, the brand’s strategy is just a hypothesis that a certain segment of the market will somehow respond to the set of arguments that will be provided to it. And, first of all, it will find a response within itself, creating a certain idea (image) of what is the consumer object that was offered to him. Yes, in order to plan investments and remake a complex business machine - this is not the best justification, but others do not exist in principle! And you need to start at least with something.
The brand strategy at the initial stage is “something”, a description of the general course of action, which may lead to a result. But will he? No one will ever give such guarantees. And if someone nevertheless guarantees something, then it is worth doubting this: such people either don’t know what they are talking about, or vice versa, they know very well, but they act completely not in the interests of the customer.
Only the experience and competence of business consultants gives at least some confidence that the market hypothesis outlined in the business strategy can lead to success. But you need to understand that brand strategy is not a clear path to victory. This is, first of all, a launching pad in order to start at least some movement in a given direction. The brand strategy and its first results cannot be financial, it is just an adjustment for the implementation of further amendments. Without it, you don’t even know how to shoot, how to shoot, and which way. Brand strategy gives this insight, but does not guarantee a hit on the target.
A brand strategy sets a benchmark on the basis of which more and more targeted actions can be taken to achieve a result. However, without a fulcrum, the Earth certainly cannot be turned over.
The outcome of the brand strategy implementation at the initial stage should be information about what actually managed to be done with the consumer’s consciousness: which image and which group (or groups) of people managed to be formed. All information is important here, from the level of brand knowledge per se to the created associations for the brand. Does the brand know with or without a hint, does it correspond to those consumer values that were initially guided in brand strategy? And here only the real branding begins.
Systematic activity to develop success is launched (at the initial stage, its absence is also success, as it provides a fulcrum for further movement). The following steps are needed: action - feedback - assessment - adjustment. And here the connection of economic indicators (however, not only them) begins, the degree of brand knowledge and the strength of the brand's associative relations:
- What level was achieved and in what ways?
- How and with what help can this be developed?
- Is there a gap between the implemented image and economic indicators (why do people know the brand, but do not buy)?
- How can this be adjusted?
This is really complex analytical work to bring together psychology and economics, and there is no alternative to this path.
Summary
Times are changing, and not only we are changing with them, our ideas about what is happening are being transformed. Everything new, which has the right to life, invariably begins to develop, to acquire details, to be comprehended more deeply. This happens with brands, with branding, and with brand strategy. Once the brand was considered only a "stigma of the cattle breeder", and what strategy could we talk about? But when this “stigma” became an important factor in deciding on a purchase, branding was seriously discussed. And this development process is still very far from its highest point. Maybe marketing showmen will come up with some new name for branding and new stages of its development. Only the essence of this does not change: the market requires an increasingly tight adjustment to the features of the consumer’s inner world, to the selection and decision-making algorithms.
Perhaps we, the authors, partially “run ahead of the engine” and try to find a solution to problems that are not even realized by most entrepreneurs and managers. We are aware that, at best, for the business community, a brand is a logo + beautiful packaging + vibrant advertising + a certain idea, all of which unite, but we need to think about the future. And in the future, the brand becomes a factor integrating the activities of the entire company. Branding of the future, branding in the full sense of the word, takes the principles of company management to a new level, turning it into a flexible and viable organism. He is capable of producing beautiful, resilient and “offspring” in demand on the market - goods and services (if we are talking about the capitalist model of the future, of course).
However, people really like the stories of quick enrichment, as a startup in his garage assembled a miracle unit and instantly became a millionaire. Love for a freebie is indestructible, and it is much easier to dream of a miracle than this miracle is slowly but surely created with your own hands. Of course, miracles sometimes happen, and brands created without any analytics or even strategies suddenly “shoot out”.
However, I would like to recall the implacable statistics: up to 95% of new products and brands fail in the market, and without having paid back the investments in their creation, therefore, a miracle happens quite rarely. A much greater chance of success is provided by a technological and intellectual approach, which is already in demand by the market. Of course, to take advantage of its fruits, you will have to change a lot in your own head and in the company itself. So far, in America and the CIS (and in the world as a whole) this approach is not very popular. Besides the obvious political reasons, it’s also difficult, it’s “long” money.
You can be like a hi-tech business, only investments are not made in the development of new technologies, but in psychology, in that consumer knowledge base that should be in the company. When it is much more profitable to engage in low-tech business (retail, construction, minerals), there will be few who want to engage in high technology.
Similarly with branding: as long as there is an opportunity to simply sell, without delving into especially the behavior of consumers, no one will bother with unnecessary information and spend money on something that does not pay off right away. However, markets are becoming more complex, changing, and suddenly (though not at all “suddenly”) they come to the conclusion that one needs to engage in branding “in full”, or put up with a drop in profit levels and a decrease in market share.
No one complicates his life according to his conscious desire, no one spends money that can be saved, but modern realities force this to be done. And it is advisable to be mentally prepared for this when the time comes to create a brand. A brand in the full sense of the word, and not an illusion of pathos words with some kind of logo.
You can live and do business without trying to manage demand, it’s better not to touch the area of demand formation, no matter how captivating such a phrase. It is difficult, long and expensive. A brand strategy is the creation of a whole system of work, the analogues of which have not yet been in your company, and the first time results may not please you at all. This is an exit to a new level, an evolutionary step and risk. However, if you decide to take this step, we assure you that it can and should be done systematically, with its own logic and its own laws. And then he will become successful.
