MANILA, Philippines - Many believe that when one does marketing, one does branding, too. This is not always the case.
Most businesses often practice marketing by identifying target markets, sourcing new customers and keeping old ones.
Yet, they fail to do branding.
In sourcing new customers and markets, some businesses invest in and use various forms of marketing communications, but drop these activities altogether when they reach a certain comfort level, relying instead on word of mouth and loyalty of new customers to sustain the business.
True brands
Thus, their products and services never rise to the level of a true brand.
Sometimes, these products again become a common commodity that relies more on the efforts of sales people, customer traffic or discounting to sustain sales.
This is where branding differs from marketing.
Not all products or services become brands. True, each commodity has a name. All must influence consumption to sustain the business. But marketing a commodity is a short-term business strategy while building brands is strategic and long-term.
Commodities have a short life span while brands, when managed properly, live long enough to last through many generations.
Beyond identifying customers and catering to their needs, brands go beyond the functional nature of commodity products and services and become iconic symbols for customers who believe they cannot live without their favorite brand.
What makes a brand?
Contrary to commodity products and services, brands enjoy attributes that the former do not have. These attributes, also identified by brand thought leader Kevin Lane Keller in his book on Strategic Brand Management, include the following:
Brand awareness. True brands, even if they do not reach cult level, nevertheless do enjoy pervasive familiarity among their target markets. Most consumers should be able to name, recall or recognize the brand upon mention of the category.
Brand loyalty. A real brand nearly has a cult following. Often, consumers look at their favorite brands as an extension of themselves. If a brand were a person, it is not uncommon for loyal consumers to see the brand as their kin, soulmate or friend.
Perceived quality. Brands provide a psychological assurance that one will get consistent quality. The assurance goes beyond the functional nature of the product or service.
Brands have strong, differentiated and positive associations. Anything that comes to mind or is stored in memory about a brand is called an association. But brands, as opposed to commodities, have only positive associations uniquely identified to them and are strongly recalled and recognized by the potential target market and users.
Brands have patents and trademarks. Any business with a brand must be highly protective of the brand. Patents, trademarks, creative copyrights, etc. become proprietary assets of the brand. This is because when managed properly, a brand's life can be sustained for many generations despite changes in the business environment.
A commodity's life, on the other hand, is relatively short and its continued existence is highly dependent on the business and competitive environment and marked by volatility.
Only an impartial consumer research can validate whether one is a brand or not. No hearsay or feedback from friends, relatives and acquaintances during community or small group gatherings can replace research.
From a commodity to a brand, how to migrate?
Having the right mindset is key to strengthening a brand. However, if a business owner has reached his comfort level financially, most do not wish to go to the next level, believing that they have saturated the market or are simply fearful of more tedious work and challenges ahead.
Others fail to see far greater opportunities. Still some abhor the dynamic pace behind brand building and management, preferring a relaxed way of managing the business.
Jollibee's story
In 1975, Jollibee Foods could have remained an ice cream parlor serving regular comfort food like Jollibee's yumburger, chicken joy and Jollibee spaghetti. But Jollibee had the foresight, guts and right mindset to brand against a global foreign quick service restaurant brand, McDonalds, and become more than just an ice cream parlor.
After 30 years, Jollibee has more than 650 outlets in the country and over P30 billion in sales, excluding foreign sales revenue and income generated from other businesses funded by capital from Jollibee Foods Corp.
Two years after its birth in 1978, Jollibee launched its first TV commercial in an attempt to build the brand, but it was not until 1985 when it broke through with a differentiating story via the Langhap Sarap campaign that embodies how Filipinos believe that good food smells good, i.e. sa amoy pa lang, masarap na.
This has remained Jollibee's trademark. And because of sustained brand building, Jollibee has ceased to be just another hamburger joint.
Branding guarantees quality. What makes branding beneficial to consumers is its guarantee of quality.
A company that moves from marketing a commodity to a brand cannot compromise the quality of its products and services. Integrated in managing brands is the reputation of the makers of the branded products and services.
Unilab began as a small drugstore in 1945. A few years later, it evolved into a pharmaceutical company with a quest to provide quality medicine at an affordable price. To date, Unilab boasts of being the largest Filipino-owned pharmaceutical firm with the most over-the-counter health products and brands of medicine. Among its popular brands built through massive advertising and consumer awareness campaigns include Alaxan, Neozep, Medicol, Ceelin, Myra E and Decolgen.
Consistency
Nike, meanwhile, has moved up from being a commodity athletic footwear with a proprietary technology to an iconic brand since it was marketed 30 years ago in 1978.
Nike's brand story, consistently sustained through three decades, is grounded on the insight that every person aspires to become a winner and simply wearing a Nike makes them feel like one, motivating them to 'just do it,' a selling line that captures the winner attitude.
In 1978, Nike boldly came out with its first brand advertising via print through its former agency, John Brown and Partners. The ad featured a lone runner on a rural road and it had a powerful headline: 'There is no finish line.'
Nike's strength lies in strategically, and not whimsically, selecting endorsers with enviable careers, i.e. Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, John McEnroe, Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Tiger Woods and Rafael Nadal. Very recently, it endorsed winning teams, like Manchester United and FC Barcelona, among others.
No wonder then that Nike, unlike other commodity athletic footwear, recorded an annual shareholder return of 20 percent over the last five years.
Branding is not a short-term deal. It is strategic, long-term in nature and can be successfully mounted only by a focused, determined and visionary business owner. Branding is a long term way of doing business that has to begin from the top and passed on from one generation to the next.
The writer is the course program director of strategic brand management at the Asian Institute of Management, author of the best-selling local branding book, 'Color Folders In The Mind: A Branding Story' and is chief brand strategist of MKS Marketing Consulting and may be reached at www.karendeasis.com or kdeasis@skyinet.net.
