Building Your Brand

By T.L. HEADLEY
Genesis Group Principal
ONA, W.Va. — Coca-Cola, Tide, Las Vegas, the New York Yankees — the names alone are enough for the senses to kick into gear.
You can almost taste the Coke, see the lights of the city, smell the hot dogs and hear the crack of the bat. What’s more, you can visualize the symbols connected with the products — the familiar Coca-Cola logo, the casinos and the NY on the baseball caps. There is no mistaking them for something else.
These are “brands.”
Does your product or company have a brand image?
How do you build a brand image?
A “brand” is something that makes your product, serviceor company unique. It is essentially a perception that it occupies its own niche in the marketplace.
Building an image involves five primary steps:
A. Select a name and symbol
B. Create awareness and brand identity
C. Brand licensing
D. Create a brand image
E. Create trust.
The first step is to select a name and brand symbol. These should be memorable and distinctive. It should also be easily pronounceable (the period the rock musician Prince used a symbol aside).
Ideally it should be easily associated with the primary image you are attempting to develop — an example is the “Coal Keeps the Lights On” campaign of the West Virginia Coal Association. The logo is simply a light bulb and the slogan along with the citation of the WVCA.
It had quick, clear impact and easily transmitted the key idea, that without the state’s coal association, production of sufficient electricity in the United States would be impossible or unaffordable. It brought the question of whether to mine coal directly into the individual home.
Second, you have to create awareness and brand identity.
This is fairly self-explanatory.
Create awareness of the brand is accomplished by advertising, generating free media, word-of-mouth and other types of relationship building practices that create and maintain trust.
Once you have developed brand awareness you have to focus on maintaining your brand image by making sure your company taking all necessary steps to protect the trust in the brand.
Remember, your product may have the best brand image in the market, but if your company loses the public’s trust the product will also be impacted and sales will drop.
NEXT: Building Brand Associations