Last week I had the opportunity to attend a TiE Mumbai branding workshop – not those theoretical 4Ps of marketing type session but one where practical examples were shared and one where a room full of entrepreneurs or ‘Rodinhooders’ as we call them learnt the importance of branding.
Here are 7 brand ‘Buddhisms’ that will change the way you thought about branding and help you create a unique story for your organisation.
1. Branding first. Product second
This can be hard to digest for all of us who constantly feel that we must keep improving the product, changing the service, tweaking the user experience etc. However, in this never ending saga of ‘agile development’ as its now called, entrepreneurs think that they can accomplish branding later – once the product is set, once we have a few customers and more importantly once when we have the money to make some noise via advertising.
Well, you are wrong! Branding is about perception – it’s a mind game you must play in parallel to developing your product. Because, people buy brands, they don’t buy products.
2. Brands are living breathing creatures
The product is not your brand. The brand lives in the mind of the consumer and in the same way that your customer develops over time, so should your brand. It is a living-breathing creature that must be nurtured at every step of your growth.
Think about the evolution of Thums Up – first they had Sunny Deol racing through the dust clouds drinking Thums Up on a horse, then they had Akshay Kumar skydiving because the brand became less filmy and more adventure. As the Thums Up drinker became more educated and sophisticated the brand has continued to change its story to relate to its audience. Be fresh. Be relevant.
3. Don’t get lost in B2B, B2C and other terms
But, I am a B2B customer what branding should I do? I don’t sell something easy like Coke or Pepsi – my product is more complex. If you have ever thought of these excuses to not think about branding then change now. Ultimately, these are terms coined by marketers to segment marketing messages not to segment when branding should happen and when it shouldn’t. Every organisation is a brand, an entity in itself. And whoever consumes your brand is your consumer. It’s that simple. The way you communicate may change but the fact that you have to undertake branding doesn’t.
4. You are part of the brand
Say you were a pharma salesman visiting a doctor to showcase your newest product. Would the doctor buy if you looked dirty, unkempt and like you didn’t know your product? Probably not. Would he entertain you if you looked like that but the pharma company had spent millions on a TV ad. Maybe but he’d have reservations. That’s because people buy brands, not products. And, as an entrepreneur you are the brand. So are your employees. The way you communicate, interact with consumers, work with your team – it’s all a part of your unique DNA that makes your organisation stand out.
5. People buy benefits not products
You are not in the business of selling a game or selling cards or selling food. You are in the business of creating entertainment when one is bored, of communicating one’s feelings, of being a place where people meet and connect. If Starbucks had ever said they were a place to buy great coffee, it wouldn’t be the success it is today. Instead, they said they are the 3rd place you can meet people (with the first two being your home and office).
Secondly, don’t think about all the features your product has and about communicating them all on your site. Rather, focus on what benefits the customer will have. Focus even more on what the customer stands to lose if they don’t use your brand and see the change that happens – Intuit talks about ‘Never losing a sale’ rather than ‘a great machine you can plug on to your iphone to take credit card payments which accepts nine different cards and is available in 15 different countries’ – you tuned out of the last sentence didn’t you? So, how are your customers any different?
6. Positioning is not branding.
While branding is about creating a perception, a story about your organisation, positioning is about how consumers perceive your brand. It’s about finding a comparative category of products that your consumers can relate to and then becoming a defining part of that category. If I tell you to think about butter, what’s the first one that comes to mind? Amul right?
Another great example is Moov. When Moov was introduced it had almost the same benefits as the then popular Iodex – it could be used for sprains except that it was white and didn’t stain your clothes. However, Moov decided to not compete with Iodex and instead positioned itself as a back-pain specialist (also because you need a lot of Moov for your back as it is a big area = more sales). By doing so, Moov created a new category for itself and at the same time relegated Iodex to just being for other sprains. The result? We still have Iodex in our homes but we only use Moov for back pains. Amazed?
7. Don’t talk. Listen.
Today, there are more ways of talking to your customers than ever before. However, the irony is that it has become harder to connect with consumers. As an entrepreneur rather than talking down via advertising etc, you must listen up. Have dialogues with your customers through social media like the UP police are doing, empower your users to come to you by consistently being available and listen so that you can learn about your customers hopes, fears, needs and wants – in the same way that the kirana wala uncle knows your favourite chocolate and gives it to you without asking.
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Deep down these Buddhisms are probably something we are all aware of – after all we are consumers too. However, for some reason when it comes to talking about our organisation, we put all our intuitions as a customer aside and do the wrong things. Hope this helps you re-assesss your strategies the same way the TiE Branding workshop helped me re-assess my strategies.