What underpins a strong brand? WA Business News asked a number of marketing industry players what they believe drives a strong brand in the WA market.The answers reveal some key issues that power the development and maintenance of a strong brand.
What underpins a strong brand? WA Business News asked a number of marketing industry players what they believe drives a strong brand in the WA market.
The answers reveal some key issues that power the development and maintenance of a strong brand.
GATECRASHER director Adam Barker said all strong brands have one thing in common.
“They own a key generic value or attribute in their market category,” Mr Barker said.
“Branding is an attempt to own a space in the consumers’ mind.
“The more relevant this ‘space’ is to the consumer’s hopes, needs and expectations of your particular service or product, the more successful you stand to be.”
THE Brand Agency account director Steve Harris said an understanding of branding is about much more than just advertising.
“It’s about all the individual contact and touch points a customer has with a brand,” Mr Harris said.
“For example a company can spend millions on advertising that says they care about customers and offer good service, but this is let down when you call them and spend 15 minutes on hold.
“All too often companies see advertising as a panacea for the brand image when it’s really the sum of a diverse range of issues of which advertising is just one.”
WESTERN Power general manager retail John Lillywhite said there were three pillars to Western Power’s branding strategy.
“Value, world class service, and being a WA company, doing things for West Australians through community partnerships and environmental performance,” he said.
“‘We’re connected to you’ reflects the core focus of the Western Power brand and differentiates Western Power from the competition.”
“I THINK it’s all about the link between the offer and the target audience and the consistency of image,” JDA general manager Julian Donaldson said.
“The third thing is potency – how much you’ve got out there.”
“IDEAS underpin strong brands but what makes a brand strong today is different to what did yesterday,” Marketforce chairman Howard Read said.
“In the 1950s with the emergence of television, brands became social statements.
“Having or using a brand became a signal of where you were in life – keeping up with the Joneses.
“But strong brands are more expansive.
“They are now more about ideas that people live by and they exceed marketing and can exceed individual markets.
“The smart companies realise you don’t buy brands you join them.”
“I THINK what underpins a brand is how it relates to the customers or consumers,” Rival director Vaughan Sutherland said.
“It’s not just a name and that’s what a hell of a lot of people think.
“A brand has a value that someone can empathise with.”
“If you look at Ferrari as a brand it’s not that it’s a great piece of art … it’s what it represents.
“It’s about the man behind the company who had a passion.
“There are other brands that are great because they last and build up a great presence, look at Liptons.”
“A BRAND is very visible and very salient. It intrudes into your life and not just through advertising,” 303 director Jim Davies said.
“Some brands are very powerful and emotionally driven and some are rationally driven.
“If you look at the Eagles or Perth Glory, they’re very emotionally driven brands – you support them even if they’re doing badly.
“Other brands like Bunnings are very rational in their positioning.
“The thing about brands is they don’t exist anywhere except in people’s minds.”
“THERE is a common misconception about what a brand actually is,” Market Equity managing director Dean Harris said.
“When you mention the word brand many people tend to think immediately of representations of brands through logos or advertising.
“In simple terms a brand is that which exists in the old grey matter that sits between the ears of the people who comprise the market.
“A brand is no more or no less than the sum of the mental connections that a person has in respect to a product, service or organisation.
“Often these mental connections include memories of advertising and logos, however, more often than not, the strongest views and beliefs that a person holds about a brand are developed through direct personal experience.
“Many organisations fail to recognise that every customer touch-point conveys a message about their brand.”
The answers reveal some key issues that power the development and maintenance of a strong brand.
GATECRASHER director Adam Barker said all strong brands have one thing in common.
“They own a key generic value or attribute in their market category,” Mr Barker said.
“Branding is an attempt to own a space in the consumers’ mind.
“The more relevant this ‘space’ is to the consumer’s hopes, needs and expectations of your particular service or product, the more successful you stand to be.”
THE Brand Agency account director Steve Harris said an understanding of branding is about much more than just advertising.
“It’s about all the individual contact and touch points a customer has with a brand,” Mr Harris said.
“For example a company can spend millions on advertising that says they care about customers and offer good service, but this is let down when you call them and spend 15 minutes on hold.
“All too often companies see advertising as a panacea for the brand image when it’s really the sum of a diverse range of issues of which advertising is just one.”
WESTERN Power general manager retail John Lillywhite said there were three pillars to Western Power’s branding strategy.
“Value, world class service, and being a WA company, doing things for West Australians through community partnerships and environmental performance,” he said.
“‘We’re connected to you’ reflects the core focus of the Western Power brand and differentiates Western Power from the competition.”
“I THINK it’s all about the link between the offer and the target audience and the consistency of image,” JDA general manager Julian Donaldson said.
“The third thing is potency – how much you’ve got out there.”
“IDEAS underpin strong brands but what makes a brand strong today is different to what did yesterday,” Marketforce chairman Howard Read said.
“In the 1950s with the emergence of television, brands became social statements.
“Having or using a brand became a signal of where you were in life – keeping up with the Joneses.
“But strong brands are more expansive.
“They are now more about ideas that people live by and they exceed marketing and can exceed individual markets.
“The smart companies realise you don’t buy brands you join them.”
“I THINK what underpins a brand is how it relates to the customers or consumers,” Rival director Vaughan Sutherland said.
“It’s not just a name and that’s what a hell of a lot of people think.
“A brand has a value that someone can empathise with.”
“If you look at Ferrari as a brand it’s not that it’s a great piece of art … it’s what it represents.
“It’s about the man behind the company who had a passion.
“There are other brands that are great because they last and build up a great presence, look at Liptons.”
“A BRAND is very visible and very salient. It intrudes into your life and not just through advertising,” 303 director Jim Davies said.
“Some brands are very powerful and emotionally driven and some are rationally driven.
“If you look at the Eagles or Perth Glory, they’re very emotionally driven brands – you support them even if they’re doing badly.
“Other brands like Bunnings are very rational in their positioning.
“The thing about brands is they don’t exist anywhere except in people’s minds.”
“THERE is a common misconception about what a brand actually is,” Market Equity managing director Dean Harris said.
“When you mention the word brand many people tend to think immediately of representations of brands through logos or advertising.
“In simple terms a brand is that which exists in the old grey matter that sits between the ears of the people who comprise the market.
“A brand is no more or no less than the sum of the mental connections that a person has in respect to a product, service or organisation.
“Often these mental connections include memories of advertising and logos, however, more often than not, the strongest views and beliefs that a person holds about a brand are developed through direct personal experience.
“Many organisations fail to recognise that every customer touch-point conveys a message about their brand.”
