You have a great product that works well at a competitive price. So why are customers buying your competitor’s product instead?
One reason could be that your rival has a brand that customers prefer. The modern concept of a business brand is a collection of strong, coherent ‘statements’ that tell customers what a company is about, and what it stands for. Businesses with weak brands will fail to impress the majority of customers, no matter how good their products may otherwise be.
A strong brand can allow customers to identify with your company values and build a relationship – think of the loyalty many people give brands like Apple, St Michael or Volvo. It can also differentiate your business in a market where products are very similar – consider how Orange, Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile are seen as having quite different brand personalities. Smart businesses understand that customers today want more than just a good product – they will choose companies that they recognise, trust and feel good about. When it comes to branding, you could say: 'Capture the hearts and minds of customers – and their business will follow.'
Similarly, investors and financiers now attach huge importance to a company’s perceived 'brand value' – which is often much greater than the value of its bricks-and-mortar assets.
A company’s brand message can be stated explicitly in its communications and slogans, but is perhaps most strongly conveyed by ‘unspoken’ means – in the use of design. Design can be the key to building a strong brand for your business and its products. Your use of design should be consistent across all your business communications – advertising, literature, website and so on. It should also extend to the packaging and presentation of your products – and to the design of the products themselves. For example, the visual design of products from companies like Dyson, Apple and Stanley Tools is an inextricable part of their brands.
So how can an existing business make the power of good branding work for them? One way is to work with an agency who can apply branding expertise. For example, when kitchen appliance company Biasco wanted to relaunch their brand, they consulted integrated communications agency Mobas. ‘Biasco sells direct to customers through their showrooms and website, so it’s vital they make the right impression, explains Mobas managing director Nic Mitham. ‘Our first step was to fully understand Biasco’s target market through customer profiling.’ The customer profiling process involves gathering key information about your customers, such as age, gender, income, education and buying behaviour. This allows you to build a list of categories that your typical customers fall within (such as ‘stylish singles’ or ‘value-conscious families’) and then tailor your approach to them more closely.
Mobas was able to put this knowledge to good use. ‘We created a new brand identity for Biasco to reposition them closer to their target market.’ The new Biasco brand includes not just a new logo, but a whole new design style as well as a positioning statement that embodies the Biasco philosophy: ‘Good company in your kitchen’.
The new brand has been rolled out across all Biasco’s communications, including their website and showrooms. Following this success, Biasco asked Mobas to come up with a name and visual identity for their new range of high-end kitchen appliances – a luxury ‘sub-brand’ to stand alongside famous names like Neff, Smeg and Bosch.
‘The new sub-brand had to appeal to a core demographic of 21-35 year olds, and work as a standalone entity, yet have some familiarity and association with the main Biasco brand,’ says Mitham. 'We invented the name “Benk" and went on to develop the full visual identity.’
The new Benk brand includes a modern logo and distinct design style, appearing on advertising and packaging. The Benk brand is now enabling Biasco to offer a convincing alternative to the well-known European manufacturers in the UK high-end kitchen appliance market.
An agency with proven expertise can help your business to evolve its brand, but you can take the first step by asking two questions. The first is: 'What is it about my company and products that my customers particularly value?' The answers to this (reliability, innovation, economy, quality and so on) will help you to understand and define a basis for your brand values. The answers to the second question – 'What do customers really want from a company like mine?' – will help you to set goals for what your brand should be. Remember, however, that the answers to both these questions are best sought from your customers themselves.