A guide to product branding

Product branding turns a common product into a unique and exciting buying opportunity. It builds on a number of factors important to consumers such as image, utility, value, quality and service. For a company to properly brand its product it is prudent to be prepared for a merciless market that's whims can change at the drop of a hat. Fortunately, there are proven techniques and marketing know how in the area of product branding.

Product branding techniques

Branding a product can be extensive, but for purposes of brevity a few key principles are vital to the effective implementation and outcome of any product being branded well. Some of those methods are as follows:

• Customer affinity

Customer affinity is the type of relationship a consumer has with a product. For example, person A prefers Apple Ipods because they just feel right, are reliable, and they have the right features in comparison to MP3 players. This entails a confidence of the consumer, not only in the product but with the company.

• Product differentiation

It's an old principle, but time tested when a marketing professor or guru says, "differentiate your product". This is so because stand out products stay in the memory for a reason. The ideal product differentiation is not only distinctive, but also enhanced in some way.

• Brand equity

Brand equity is the sum of all branding. A product with high affinity but low differentiation has a more average branding in total. The key in branding is to optimize all the branding techniques for as few advertising and research dollars as possible.

The branding process

If branding is done well, and the market likes what it perceives in a brand, it can lead to increased sales, greater corporate and product recognition in addition to serving as a platform to initiate new brands. Once a company and its products are branded it is difficult to move away from that image. Consequently, a bad branding or unsuccessful branding can cost a lot in failed advertising and lost revenue. A problem with branding is knowing how the market will respond to a brand as it is not an exact science. This may involve significant market research, and significant marketing tactical and strategic know how.

Techniques and resources available to business owners:

The field of marketing is diverse and has a wide a scope and depth as can be imagined and created. In the case of branding a few approaches and resources can serve a company well in the branding process. Add-on selling, consumer behavioral analysis and brand image can assist a marketer when taken proper advantage of. To utilize product branding methodologies, a marketer may first study the goals his or her company wants to achieve, then build the brand in line with those goals and the branding methods. Professionals in the field, marketing text books, online gurus and articles, and branding intuition are all resources a marketer might consider before, during and after engaging a product branding project.

Guide to effective advertising and marketing

Good marketing and advertising takes effort, know how, financing and research. These ingredients are as essential as flour, yeast, water and heat are in making bread. To think you can get by with one or two of these ingredients is fooling yourself as the market is competitive and to compete positioning is essential. This doesn't mean the ingredients have to be huge, just there. Small marketing can be as effective on a smaller scale if its done right. Below are a few tips on getting started, maintaining momentum and keeping existing clients.

• Be Pro-Active in engaging current and future clients

• Know your market inside and out and around

• Have a product or service worth buying

• Involve your company in the community

These are just a few of the more intuitive approaches to marketing and advertising. There are also marketing principles, marketing theory and marketing analysis. While these are all useful and fall into the 'know how' category they aren't stand alone methods. A few of these principles are the following:

• The 4 P's of marketing (Place, product, price and promotion)

• Brand Equity

• Customer Life Time Value

• Target marketing and Niche marketing

• Primary and Secondary Research techniques

• Persuasion

Marketing and advertising is thus a multi-dimensional field that changes as people and people's needs change. Add to that a highly competitive environment in which other companies try to out think, out sell, out produce and out expose one another. Staying competitive involves continuous effort and devotion to the marketing and advertising effort. Staying competitive is another dimension of Marketing and Advertising that takes ability and capacity. Specifically it is good to keep abreast of a few important factors in addition to following the techniques listed above. The most important of these is innovation.

Innovation

Innovation is what keeps a company alive, it brings new life to the corporate world, new revenue, and new ways to grow. Think Apple, Toyota, Grameen Bank, Boeing and many other companies that's future has depended on innovating existing products by making them better or more differentiated in some way.

Financial management and corporate communication

Effective corporations communicate needs and problems between departments and work together to solve problems. Shying away from difficulties and/or brushing them under the carpet so to speak doesn't solve problems it allows them to fester and grow. The Japanese call this approach Kaizen and it works to improve morale, efficiency and productivity. Team work is at the core of this method and that doesn't mean selling your soul to a company it means actually working for a company rather than a paycheck. After all, if you're at work, why not work in a pleasant atmosphere that benefits and faces problems rather than avoids them?

Additionally, since a corporation is at in a major way a financial vehicle with financial motives, these motives should not be ignored. Working within a budget is fair so long as it allows the above methods and principles to be followed. This can involve some pretty tough negotiating and possibly some heavily weighted consultants. However, with team work consultants aren't always needed and the money spent on them can go to more advertising.

Advertising and Marketing well is an art and a corporate lifestyle. It is different from other divisions of Business because it is in many ways the face of the company and the truer this image is to the actual business the more possible it is clients are likely to see a company as genuine. This is so as advertising that doesn't reflect actual corporate operations can be perceived as phony and can turn some clients off a product or service for life.

Customer service

Good Marketing and Advertising also involves strong customer service. While this is not the field of Marketing and Advertising it is very much related and relevant to the process as customer service agents are often the first communication a client as and you know what they say about first impressions. The same may hold true to second, third and fourth impressions. In other words, keeping clients happy if something goes wrong, knowing what makes them happy and developing new ways to make clients happy without being totally unreasonable to corporate objectives is key to steady revenue, and customer loyalty.

All this said, the real challenge of Advertising and Marketing is actually doing it. Many things are easier said and done, but not impossible. Starting small is always the first step in learning how to walk in the World of advertising and marketing.

Sources:

1. http://www.helium.com/tm/535927/there-types-styles-marketing
2. http://www.helium.com/tm/533690/niche-marketing-different-arguably
3. http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_kaizen.html