The Gift of Brand

By Karen Kang

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The CEO of a small start-up company in an emerging technology told me at a Silicon Valley industry event that she didn’t think she had to think about branding her company because “brand is something for big companies.”  That is the conventional wisdom: Branding is for Coca-Cola, Apple, BMW, Nike, Bloomingdale’s and VISA, but not for small or medium-sized businesses—especially those companies that aren’t consumer-oriented.  What an opportunity missed!

Benefits of a Strong Brand

All companies and organizations (even individuals!) have brands.  Some are good brands, some are bad brands.  Some are quiet brands, some are loud brands.  Some organizations make the effort to guide how their brand is perceived, other leave it to the fates—or, worse yet, their competitors. 

Brand is arguably one of the most important assets a company has.  The benefits that accrue to companies with a strong brand are both economic and priceless, such as:

• Market’s understanding of what you’re good at
• Lower cost of sales
• Customer loyalty
• Ability to charge higher premiums for products
• Attracting the best partners and employees
• Abundant publicity as a brand leader
• Higher company valuation
• Lower cost of capital
• Positive halo effect that helps future products
• Goodwill of the market

The confusion over what brand entails is the reason for the misguided thought that only big consumer companies need to brand their companies and products.  Contrary to popular belief, branding goes far beyond the logo, tagline, advertising and other external elements that most people associate with brand.  But, for most, what brand is remains a mystery.

Demystifying Brand

I developed the Gift of Brand™ Model as a way to demystify brand.  It’s a simple metaphor of elements of a gift-wrapped box that helps companies understand what actions need to be taken at all levels of branding to ensure a strong brand.  This model helps companies to understand that building and maintaining a strong brand is everybody’s business—from the CEO, the marketing team and the sales force to product development, finance and operations.

So why “The Gift of Brand”?  There are three reasons:

1. Brand can be a gift that delights the market if it meets the expectations, needs or wants of the customer.
2. Brand can also be a gift to the organization that offers it.  The rewards of good branding are so great that it is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
3. The metaphor of a gift box is a simple one that helps to deconstruct the elements that make up a total brand package.

Therefore, the Gift of Brand refers to the benefits received by the market recipient and the giver, as well as, a specific metaphor for branding. As we deconstruct the “gift”, think of brand starting on the inside and being manifested outward.

The Gift of Brand Model consists of:

1. The Whole Product (the unwrapped gift).  In the PC market, this might include the computer (the core product), and the additional value-add of bundled software, monitor, keyboard, easy-to-use manuals, built-in speakers, service and support, third-party partners, the ability to buy it via the Internet or a major retail store, and a price that meets the consumer’s needs.
2. The Strategy Box includes the positioning and brand strategy that determines the product category, the customer/market segment, the value proposition, the competitive differentiation, and the brand personality, associations, messages and symbols.
3. External Brand Wrapping, or gift wrapping, embraces the visual branding, advertising, public relations, a store or office’s look and feel, and brand representation by customer-facing employees.
4. Total Brand Package is putting all the elements of the Gift of Brand together to create a positive experience with a customer.

Branding from the Foundation Up

The Gift of Brand Model advocates branding from the foundation up.  Years ago, I had a multi-billion dollar client in the computer industry that wanted to reposition and brand the company after if had been acquired by a much larger parent.  I was the consultant in charge of the positioning strategy. But I soon learned that the computer company had decoupled positioning from branding, and had plans for a multi-million dollar corporate advertising campaign to “buff up” their image.  This is a great example of attempting to brand from the top down (i.e., first you advertise, then you scramble to see if the company can deliver).  I told them that embarking on a high-profile advertising campaign at this time was one of the worst things they could do.  All this would accomplish would be to shine a spotlight on the deficiencies in their product, strategy, systems sell and merger integration.  The advertising would gain brand awareness, but as soon as customers engaged with the company and its products, they would be disappointed.  There would be no gain in brand equity—the goodwill and trust that makes brands strong—and the premature advertising could actually decrease the value of the brand.  The executives soon gave us the go ahead to develop a positioning strategy and messages showing the synergy between the parent company and the acquired company.  We were allowed to develop a global roll-out program to brief employees and market influencers before a public unveiling of the new positioning.  This also bought time before the corporate advertising campaign for the company to align their products and operations with the new brand promise.

Advertising is Not a Panacea

This above example of making corporate advertising the panacea is an everyday occurrence in the business world.  Companies want the quick fix.  They do not want to focus on building the foundation for a strong brand—that is, having a product that performs as promised, having a strategy that targets the right market with the right set of messages, providing good service and support, having partners that enhance the product, and having a sales force that presents the company well.  They want to just jump to the fun and sexy stuff: developing a cool logo and advertising.

Brand is Everything and Everything is Brand

As it is clear to see, brand is everything and everything is brand.  It is not just for big companies but is just as relevant for start-ups.  Every company should work toward aligning its business behind its positioning and brand strategy to ensure a positive brand experience at every level of branding—from the product to the external branding efforts.  The foundational steps of building a strong brand are the same for building a strong business: a product that performs, a market willing to buy, sales success and market leadership.  Recognition of your brand can be aided by strong visual branding and advertising, but without performing as a company, your brand will just be an empty suit.

There is no skirting around the foundational work in branding.  Produce a great whole product, put it in the right strategy box, wrap it up for external promotion, then deliver on your brand promise.  That’s the Gift of Brand process for building a strong brand.  Done right, the result will be a brand that keeps on giving—both to you and your customers.

™Gift of Brand and associated icons are a trademark of Karen Kang Consulting