Trigger: "Whole Foods: How Radical CEO Created Grocery Empire"
Learning Objectives:
What is the process of defining a brand?+
What are different brand strategies?
How to find the right tools for reaching the desired customer segment?
How to recognise growth potential?
What is the process of defining a brand?
The three most important aspects in branding process are to define your business, your customers, and your competitors1. Define your business
One of the essential requirement for a successful brand strategy is define who you are, what you stand for and what you want customers to think of when your brand comes to mind. You should define a brand based on your real ability to be able to fulfil customers’ demands in reality.
2. Define your customers
What does a customer need regarding our competence? What makes them come and come back to us?
3. Define your competitors
Take consideration on your competitor and differentiate from them. Truly define yourself and be honest and enthusiastic with your customers are not enough to be a strong brand in a marketplace. Also have a look at what your competitors offer, what are their strengths and weaknesses and try to differentiate from them as much as possible.
What are different brand strategies?
There are six types of brand strategies:
1. Name Brand recognition
A company with large name brand will use its name to an extent its products. Big companies such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, McDonaldsv Volkswagen are all iconic, and the name brand speaks for sub-products of the entire company.
2. Individual branding
Some affiliated companies try to be independent of the parent corporation by manufacturing products which feature its identity and the weight of its name.
3. Attitude branding
Attitude branding strategy involves customers' feelings, behaviours and reflects their self-expression.
4. No-brand branding
Companies develop a brand not by emphasising on logo, slogan, and marketing campaign, but by focusing on delivering functional and emotional profits to their customers.
Ex: MUJI - Japanese retail company.
5. Private-label branding
Private-label products or services are owned not by a manufacturer or producer, but by a retailer or supplier who gets its products or services made by a contract with manufacturer under its label.
Ex: Lidl
6. Crowdsourcing
Some of the companies outsource their brand to the public for brand creation. They allow the customers get involved in naming the brand.
How to find the right tools for reaching the desired customer segment?
A first step to reach your desired customer segments is to understand your market and to identify who are your customer segments and whom you want to focus on or interact with. We have to profile our targeted segments before we begin our marketing. Profiling the customer segments are based on four essential aspects of segmentations: demographic, behaviour, psychologic and geographic.
If you a big company, you should think only about how to get more profit, what your customers do in their spare time. But also try to think more deeply who is buying your product or service.
If you know your customers very well, the next step is choosing the right communications channels. Every segment has its communication channel. For examples, when your targeted customers are those who are between 25-35 years old and busy professionals, the best way to reach them is social media platforms. On the other hand, if your desired customer segments are senior people or those who are retired, think about traditional printed media such as newspaper or ads on public transportation. Because this demographic prefer reading, using public transportation and they are not so interested in using social media.
If you know your customers very well, the next step is choosing the right communications channels. Every segment has its communication channel. For examples, when your targeted customers are those who are between 25-35 years old and busy professionals, the best way to reach them is social media platforms. On the other hand, if your desired customer segments are senior people or those who are retired, think about traditional printed media such as newspaper or ads on public transportation. Because this demographic prefer reading, using public transportation and they are not so interested in using social media.
Launching a new marketing strategy is always expensive, so that before making any marketing strategy decision, a company must take its size and budget into consideration. A marketing strategy has to fit a firm size, but also must be targeted, cost-effective, affordable and able to last for a long time. For a small company, traditional media such as radio, newspaper, magazine, TV… are sufficient enough to reach the targeted customers and to make a profit. In contrast to that, a big company will have more opportunities to keep in touch with its clients. Because its budget is strong enough to cover any marketing strategy, especially social media platforms – which are very expensive but they also reach the most audiences.
Whatever communication channels you choose to interact with your customers, evaluate its effectiveness monthly or quarterly to make sure that your marketing activities are working and integrated with other business objectives of the entire company. However, the goal of market segmentation is to make your contents not only reach the right targeted customers, but also engage with them.
https://www.prophet.com/thinking/2011/07/43-mujithe-no-brand-brand/
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