The Science of Brand Re-engineering

1. The Science of Brand Re-engineering Many innovative brands and concepts in the past couldn’t see the light of the day just because of faulty strategies. For their failures, I never blame business ideas; I blame to strategies that were not complementary to those concepts. Unfortunately, among the present generation of marketers, branding is one of most misunderstood business concepts. Usually, for them, its ambit is restricted to Media Presence and Market Presence. Moreover, they calculate the return just on the changing sales figures. The next big mistake they make is imitating the strategies of established and successful brands. Branding is a customized process that can neither be copied, nor it can be replicated. 5 Critical Steps of Brand Re-engineering Step – 1 Understand your brand before making any cosmetic changes. Be relaxed and try to understand the product or service you want to groom into a brand. Because a brand is like a human baby, the marketer starts thinking about its future soon after conceiving an idea. What comes to your mind instantly when you think about your brand? Is it the appearance, attitude, or IQ? Start a friendly discussion with these simple questions and note down the opinions and views of the team members. Remember! Be open and let them speak first.

2. As you have already finalized a name, you can’t do anything with the name, but still, there is enough scope to re-launch your brand with a fresh outlook and feel. Explore all the positive aspects associated with the name of your brand, and then keeping in mind its attributes and the demographic profile of your target audience prepare some tailored-fit attires for your brand - i.e., tangible elements of the branding: logo, font size & style, colors used in the logo and website. After a mutual consent, get settled for some desirable changes and request the team to work on these changes but don’t make them live till the final makeover. Step – 2 Make your brand extrovert and gregarious because reserved brands hardly please their customers. Your brand should not only have an impressive appearance, but it should also be good at communication. Intelligent marketers always focus on the humanistic aspects of a brand. People admire an actor more who is good looking as well as voluble and such actors become stars due to a growing fan base. Quite similar to cine stars, brands with overall good personality rule successfully in the market. However, brands utter words as per your wish and selection because you lend a tongue to them in the form of Punchlines, taglines, jingles, ad copies, TVC scripts, brochures, business cards, press releases, pr agencies, websites, blogs, articles, and online videos, etc. Only an affable and amiable content help a brand to draw more and more listeners. Branding is a hybrid of communication and content. Moreover, it is a well-proven fact that content leverages the marketing communication, and communication brings prospects closer towards a brand. At this stage you will not talk about content tools and neither it will be worth to frame content strategies at such an early stage of branding. Then, what you must plan right now? To make your brand distinct in a crowded market space, your brand should behave or better to say communicate in a fairly unique way in terms of its verbal tone, pitching style, writing style and above all, the selection of words. Here, make a list of 100 words/phrases that complement well with the personality of your brand and make a separate

3. list of the similar words (synonyms) or identical phrases that may cause ambiguity or confusion, and your brand loses its unique identity. So, step -2 of brand re-engineering is all about communication and Verbal Branding. Step – 3 The USP of a brand can neither be invented nor can be chosen randomly; it should be derived from the inherent characteristics that a brand genuinely possesses. After finalizing the content and verbal branding strategies, it’s time to move onto the next step of brand re-engineering. Despite all the goodies, if your brand is not different from others then people will treat it like a dime a dozen or a mere commodity. It would be great if you were the lone player in your industry, but don’t dare to wish Utopia. The perfect market grows on competitions and fights, and brands that know the art of differentiation and positioning get success over others. Though you are one of the thousands in markets, but strategic branding can make you the One-in-Thousands. Potential buyers of your brand would always be interested in knowing two important things about your brand, how it’s different from the other brands? And, what special experience your brand offers that others are failing to deliver? It means the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of your brand shouldn’t only help to differentiate it from the rival brands; it must also support your target audience while understanding the vision of your organization. In contrast, a conflict between vision and USP can mutually damage the brand and business respectively. So, be careful in identifying and promoting the USP of a brand. Secondly, focus on the single attribute, strictly one characteristic of your brand because multiple points of differentiation can cannibalize one another and may drag your target audience in a state of confusion. That’s why smart marketers always push a single point of

4. differentiation to project their brands in the market. Make this unique proposition a unicorn strategy of brand positioning. Step – 4 Smart Selection of Content, Channels, and Customers is the Success Mantra of Today's Big Brands. The next step of brand re-engineering is deciding about the channels of communication that help deliver content to would-be customers via Advertising, Public Relations, Digital Marketing and various other forms of marketing communications. Whatever be the medium, you must be smart in choosing the media vehicles that may successfully deliver the content to your target audience. Besides content and customers, these are the communication channels that decide the fate of a brand; they help connect content (marketer) with the prospective customers. I once again feel the need to express the truth that I have also conveyed in the first article of this series - branding is not limited to high media and market presence; it doesn’t end on increased visibility. Hence, you must be very calculative while selecting the channels of your media mix. Be it a newspaper, magazine, TV channel, social media channel, or a billboard; every communication channel should complement the other two pillars of branding – i.e., Content (Brand) and Customers. Does the brand image of a particular media vehicle (channel) match with the image you want to create for your brand? Is there any analogy between the two? Is the target audience of the media vehicle is the same that you have decided for the brand? How effective is the presence of that vehicle in your target market? These are some simple logic based criteria that you must consider beforehand. While things like budget and duration are also unavoidable factors, but they should come next. At this point of time make sure that you have chosen vehicles that optimally deliver the content to your target audience, and they would love to respond it positively. It is the impact

5. that makes sense rather than the unnoticed presence in media and market space. So while deciding about a media vehicle, every option should be analyzed thoroughly and precisely. Because only a right vehicle ensures a perfect journey. Step – 5 Branding starts with customer anticipation and ends at customer satisfaction. Relationship matters, in the every sphere of business; be it fundraising or branding. And, if a marketer develops a relationship of gratitude, then rare would be the chances of failures. From Apple to Zappos, gratitude is the foundation stone of every successful brand. And, there is no stage in branding where customer satisfaction is not the first priority. In fact, it is the soul of the brand building. Creating a feeling of belongingness in consumers’ minds towards your project and triggering their eagerness to know more about you and your brand should be the ultimate goal of branding. The final and most important part of brand re-engineering is adding relationship values in your product/service (brand) that may enhance customer satisfaction because the level of customer satisfaction decides the longevity (age) of a brand. Customer satisfaction means exponential growth of a brand at minimum cost – i.e., through word-of-mouth publicity. So, what should be your plan and strategies that help make your customer satisfied and loyal? Branding is all about developing a healthy and implicit relationship with customers and prospects. While other aspects help to connect the brand with its target audience and induce them to purchase, but satisfaction turns this attraction into love. It’s the level of customer satisfaction decides the longevity (age) of a brand. A marketer should make all efforts in knowing and understanding its target audience, quick anticipation in addressing the evolving needs of its prospects and existing customers on a regular basis through conventional as well as digital channels. Creation of online customer forums and advisory teams is now easier than ever due to the vast reach of social media

6. agency. Using communities for beta testing can be another effective strategy to anticipate the real needs and wants of the target customers. And, your relationship with them must be developed on ‘Attitude of Gratitude,' i.e., serving them with the best solutions and encouraging them for affable marketing communications to ensure improved relationships as well as results. That’s why the best marketing strategy is the one which involves the maximum participation of the targeted audience. Because their ideas and suggestions always add value to a brand and improve customer experience. Here, relationship development is not a timely exercise; it should grow along with your brand throughout its lifecycle. Branding starts with customer anticipation and ends at customer satisfaction.So committed, continuous and courteous customer service should be the top priority of brands willing to flourish successfully for a prolonged period. Never ignore listening to your customers’ grievances and never make delays in offering appropriate solutions. You demand their attention, and they demand your attention, if you pay the right attention to them they will of course reciprocate. If you are familiar with Newton’s ‘Third Law of Motion,' you will never ignore your customers, and they will never ignore your Brand. These were the 5 critical steps of brand re-engineering that make a difference if you follow them systematically and smartly.