Notes

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So now that we see how important
a brand is at creating perceptions of
quality, let's get into some
of the inner workings of a brand and talk
about the different elements of the brand.
And let's start with, how do you choose a
brand name?
but first let me define what the different
elements are.
So there's a variety of brand elements
that can be chosen.
you can use some, not use others.
and they will totally identify or enhance
the brand awareness.
And if you choose them right, they can
help
facilitate the formation of strong,
favorable and unique brand associations.
And so the things we'll talk about are the
brand name, which is the first one, the
anchor.
different brand logos, symbols brand
characters, packaging, brand slogans and
brand colors.
When you're looking at all of these brand
elements, you gotta ask a couple of
questions.
First of all, you have to make sure all
the brand elements
work together to create a unique identity
for the product and service.
So make sure that everything you've chosen
is, is of
one, one thought, one, one belief and work
together in unison.
And the second thing
to think about is if people see the brand
elements or whatever you do create for
that brand identity independent of the
product, what
would people think of just that brand
label?
And so think about those kinds of things
in general as we
discuss some of the more tactical
issues of choosing these different brand
elements.
and when we consider each of the different
ones, and I'll
go over all of them in, you know, in
various detail.
Not, some of them are more
obvious or more, you can figure them out
for yourself more easily than others.
But, when you think about all of them, you
should think about these criteria for
choosing a good one.
The first thing, when you, when you think
about choosing
different brand elements, you really want
them to be memorable.
You want people to be able to recognize it
very
easily, and you want them to remember what
they've seen.
The other thing you want to have happen
when you choose these elements is that
they're meaningful.
And they can be meaningful in two
different ways.
One, in a descriptive way, which is, how
do they describe the attributes
of the product or the benefit of the
product or the customer segment.
And the other thing that we're looking at
is
remember these, this brand label is
forming a perception.
So you also want these brand elements to
work together
to persuade the customer of something
usually of something positive.
the other thing you're thinking about
is the, how they look, you know, and
you want them to be fun, interesting,
aesthetic.
You want it to be rich visual imagery.
And you also, if you have visual and
verbal image, imagery,
you have to think about how those two
things work together.
Again, you want a congruent unified vision
here.
Another thing to think about, and this is
very important, is can you protect your
identity?
There's two ways to protect it.
One is legally.
And so many times,
if you have a good brand name, you
trademark it and
then it's against the law for people to
copy your brand name.
But there's other things that are more
subtle and
remember I told you about that perception
of similarity.
People may not be copying exactly what you
do.
But they may do something that looks
similar and they
can kind of steal your identity by just
looking similar.
And so you not only want to have legal
protection, but
you want to try to identify a brand image
and brand elements
that work together that are hard to copy.
So that you have some sustainable
competitive advantage, in
addition to the legal protection that you
may have.
When you're thinking about this brand,
remember, it's very expensive to
create a strong brand name and it's an
extremely valuable asset.
And so the other thing you want to think
about is
how adaptable is this brand name to go, to
stay modern?
times change, consumer's taste
change, competition changes, and so you
don't want a brand name that is so, is so
static that it can't adapt with changing
times,
and it's not flexible, and it's not
updateable.
And along this line, you also want a brand
name,
if you can, or a brand image, with all
these
elements that work together that you can
use them to
go on to different products, if you
introduce new products.
So I mention Coke started out
on a regular a full calorie cola drink,
and they
stretched that brand name to go to a diet
cola drink.
So you want to think of brand images that
can go, not just on your
initial product, but could perhaps go on
other
products in the future as the company
grows.
And similarly, you want a product that can
go across cultures.
Into and that's some, a brand name, I
mean, that can go across cultures.
So you don't want something that won't be
understood or
be interpreted differently or
inappropriately in other cultures.
So more and more as brands are becoming
global.
Even if you start our very locally.
When you choose your brand elements, you
should choose brand
elements that can go global, should your
business get big enough.
And each element in, in thinking about
this brand image,
are going to play a different role in
creating those overall perceptions.
They all have different strengths and
weaknesses.
but you really want to think about how you
can use
them strategically, to achieve some kind
of balance and overall impact.
And again, as I mentioned before, they
have to
work together to, to form a unique,
consistent image.
So let's look at some of the different
brand elements and just think
about, on the face of it, what some of the
advantage and disadvantages are.
We start out, the name is obviously
crucial.
It's the
anchor and it's very, very important that
you can choose a, a, a good brand name.
Sometimes you're, there's legacy brand
names and you have
a great deal of awareness with a
particular brand name.
And maybe it wasn't the best one to
choose, but you
have to use some of the other ones to
build it up.
Like, for example, the brand name Aflac,
or Geico,
both of those are brand names that were
acronyms.
They actually weren't such great brand
names because they don't have the
advantage of a good
brand name of being quick, easy to
process, easy to remember.
And in both of those cases the marketers
us
other elements to, to, to help with the
brand names.
So Aflac came up with the, with the duck
image and Geico came up with the Gecko
image.
So that you can kind of remember those
brand names better.
But if you can choose it in the beginning,
it's better to choose one that's easy to
process and recall.
Because, the disadvantage of a brand name,
is once you bring up that or develop that
brand awareness and people really
understand what it
is, it's pretty difficult and expensive to
change.
It's not impossible.
But a lot of the whole brand imagery is
really anchored on the name.
So the name, and I'm going to spend some
time
thinking about that going forward, is
extremely important to think about.
Once you have
a brand name, then you can start thinking
about
logos and symbols, like the Nike Swoosh or
McDonald's arches.
These are attention getting.
They can be emotional.
They can reinforce any of your brand
identity.
But again, symbols and logos can get out
of date.
they, they can be ambiguous.
They can be in, interpreted differently
across cultures,
so you again, just have to think about
how those work.
Not all brands have a character, but a
character, if
you do have one, can be very quick, very
attention getting.
Think about what happens if you see Mickey
Mouse on something.
I mean that's a world famous character,
recognized every
where and people understand it's fun, it's
kids, it's exciting.
and so characters can work very well, but
they can get
outdated, or they can be culturally bound,
and certainly not all brands
have a character.
A slogan and a jingle, if it's done well,
gives you a few more words and can give
you music to add to the brand element, so
it can be used to convey meaning.
Nike's Just Do It is an extremely strong
slogan, that adds to the Nike brand name.
but again, sometimes it's difficult to
translate.
Sometimes if you do jingles, musical
tastes are different, and
not everybody likes it.
Some people think mus, some of these
jingles are annoying.
So, there's advantages and disadvantages.
Packaging also is extremely advantageous
and I'm going to show you
some examples of brands that were built on
their package design.
and we go back to this notion of
perceptions.
There's a lot of research that shows, and
I'm going to talk about
that, that people form perceptions of the
quality of the product, not by
the product itself, but by the package
it's in.
So this has a very very strong effect on
creating perceptions.
The difficulty with packaging is many
times you
don't control how it ultimately reaches
the consumer.
So the manufacturer builds a product in a
package, but then it's
the channel or the retailer that delivers
that package to the consumer.
So for example, if you want the package
oriented in
a certain way, like front on, it may not
appear
that way on the shelf.
Or if it's supposed to be refrigerated, it
may not be at the right temperature,
etcetera.
So the problem with packaging is that,
these channel issues.
But after all of these elements have
advantages and disadvantages.
If you choose them strategically, they can
work
very well to create a very strong brand
image.
Let's look specifically at this notion of
brand names.
Now, the brand name is extremely important
for many, many audiences.
Obviously, and what we've
been focusing on here, it matters to
consumers and customers.
And, it can, as I mentioned
before, seriously affect the likelihood of
purchase.
It also effects people who work for you,
for employees.
So, that you really want to do branding
externally to your market.
But internally to your employee base too.
People can be very proud of the company
they work for.
and the reputation and brand name of the
brand may make it easier or
harder to hire people, to retain people,
and may affect their morale and
productivity.
it also, the brand name, affects growth
opportunities, like I mentioned.
If the brand name is not adaptable and not
transferable, it may be difficult
for the firm to go into new markets or to
go into different products