Is this a good brand strategy?

[fisicx]

In B2B brand does matter an awful lot as do mission statements and the like.

Totally disagree. It matter to you but nobody else cares.

There are many examples in business of companies with poor products and services but great brands. The main skill of these companies was not making good products or services but making good brands.

No, it was just great marketing

 

[Mark T Jones]

In B2B I think you are right you need to get the reputation before you can build a brand.
In B2C consider the Prime Hydration drink if you have kids of certain age you will probably know all about that. It was a branding exercise from day one. The product was crap and had absolutely no reputation it simply used the celebrity of youtube influencers to build a drinks brand from nowhere and they made millions. All on brand from day one.

Prime was a brilliant marketing exercise - the brand was part of the exercise and is already pretty much redundant

 

[Ivanzyt]

Prime was a brilliant marketing exercise - the brand was part of the exercise and is already pretty much redundant

Indeed branding was an important part of the marketing strategy. My point was the brand was not built up through a reputation for quality or anything else to do with the product itself. It was a brand built from nothing.

Now, sure it’s only a short term thing and thank the heavens for that I have no desired to go back to being hassled by my 11 year old to buy this over priced crap every time we enter a shop. But it is an example of a brand built from scratch that had very little to do with any properties or benefits of the actual product.

The notion that brands evolve from product quality and reputation over time is not always true. In some cases brands can be established purely through good marketing and have very little to do with quality or reputation. That being said this strategy is much harder to do in b2b.

 

[fisicx]

I think we have a difference of opinion on the definition of ‘brand’

 

[DontAsk]

Indeed branding was an important part of the marketing strategy. My point was the brand was not built up through a reputation for quality or anything else to do with the product itself. It was a brand built from nothing.

It was built from nothing but it was also worth nothing until marketing and reputation kicked in some time down the line.

 

[Ivanzyt]

It was built from nothing but it was also worth nothing until marketing and reputation kicked in some time down the line.

But none of the “reputation” was anything to do with the product. It was pure branding. The kids brought it not because it tasted nice, or was a good quality drink it was just the cool thing to buy at the time. It was pure hype, pure brand. The value was entirely in the intangible, intrapersonal fiction we call brand. It’s quite amazing when you think about it. We all like to think we make rational buying decisions and we scoff at silly kids getting carried away with fads like Prime. But most of our own buying decisions are heavily influenced by our irrational emotions. Marketers know this and this is why so much money is spent on branding and brand message.

So whilst we might in the cold hard light of a logical day tell ourselves that it does not matter about things like branding and mission statements and corporate vision message, the reality is that these all are used to create emotional connections with products and services. And we are all suckers for this regardless of the fictions we tell ourselves about it all being nonsense and corporate waffle. These fictions make us feel better about ourselves and in control. But the reality is that we are emotional creatures rather than rational. This stuff works even if you manage to kid yourself that you are somehow immune.

 

[fisicx]

But none of the “reputation” was anything to do with the product. It was pure branding.

No, it was pure marketing.

 

[Ivanzyt]

No, it was pure marketing.

Of course it was marketing, branding and brand building is part of marketing! I don’t actually know what term “pure marketing” means, please elaborate.

 

[fisicx]

It’s a turn of phrase. Marketed coves a whole range of activities of which brand building can be a part (but not always). In the case of Prime it was an exercise in marketing not pure branding as you suggested.

 

[Ivanzyt]

It’s a turn of phrase. Marketed coves a whole range of activities of which brand building can be a part (but not always). In the case of Prime it was an exercise in marketing not pure branding as you suggested.

Brand building is not always part of marketing strategy but in the case of prime it clearly was. And, more to the point, it was an example given to refute the notion that brand only stems from reputation or the quality of the product. Brand can be built without reputation and can be built regardless of the quality or benefits of the product. Brand can be about creating an emotional connection with the consumer that is very little to do with reputation or product quality. Prime is great example if this. Apple do this as well, their products are good but they are certainly not the best and yet the emotional connection people have to the Apple brand is very strong. This all stems from their mission vision and values. So when you said such things don’t matter and no one cares I couldn’t disagree more. These things can literally be the most valuable thing a company does. Not always for sure, some companies fart around with such things and produce waffle. But done right companies values and mission linked to the brand message are pure gold.

 

[fisicx]

Mission statements and values and whatever may be important to the company but not for the consumers of the product.

This thread began with the OP asking about brand development on a new and unknown product. It was just suggested that this isn’t the right way to launch the business.

 

[Ivanzyt]

Mission statements and values and whatever may be important to the company but not for the consumers of the product.

This thread began with the OP asking about brand development on a new and unknown product. It was just suggested that this isn’t the right way to launch the business.

The thread has evolved from the op but that’s ok I think.

I am trying to illustrate how mission statements and the like link to brand building and how valuable this can be. When you say they don’t matter to the consumer I think you are dead wrong. But I can understand the mistake.

On the face of it reading a mission statement is irrelevant to most consumers. As a statement on its own they won’t care. Or, at least, that is what they will say. However if that statement is used to align a companies employees around a brand message (which is what mission statements are supposed to be used for) then you start to build a valuable brand. This creates an emotional connection with customer and this is actually what they care about and, more importantly, what influences their buying decisions.

Consumers do actually care about mission statements but not directly. This is why almost all successful companies spend time and effort crafting these statements. It’s not about vanity or about ego. It’s about cold hard cash. To build a brand you need not only good marketing messaging but also alignment within the company. This should permeate all employees and their behaviour so every contact point with the market IS actually a bit of marketing that is on message. If “the message” comes through in all contacts between all employees and the customers then you start to build the brand well.

The way we get this alignment is through mission vision and values. These things do matter to customers but they probably don’t realise it. Much like most customers don’t realise they buy for emotional rather than logical reasons. Human beings tend to want to think of themselves as rational actors, marketers and psychologists understand that this is mostly untrue. We are emotional creatures.

 

[fisicx]

That’s what I said. When I go to the supermarket I don’t care about their corporate polices or whatever. It’s of no value to me what vision they have. I just care about the food I’m buying.

The product on sale may be a result of the corporate policies but that’s of little interest to me.

If you ask most people why they shop at a particular supermarket I doubt they could tell you why. It’s often because it’s the closest or it’s the one they have always used. The brand is irrelevant.

 

[DontAsk]

"Forever, for everyone"
"Asda Price"
"Every Little helps"
"I've got the power"
"More reasons to shop at Morrisons" (with the really annoying pronunciation of Morrisons)

Do you really think these have any significant effect an brand awareness or loyalty?

The only one that affects me is "Aldi price match" which is more a statement of fact.

Echoing fisicx, We switched to Aldi and Sainsburys, simply because they are the two closest, on opposite sides of the road. Marketing and branding had nothing to do with it.

 

[Ivanzyt]

"Forever, for everyone"
"Asda Price"
"Every Little helps"
"I've got the power"
"More reasons to shop at Morrisons" (with the really annoying pronunciation of Morrisons)

Do you really think these have any significant effect an brand awareness or loyalty?

The only one that affects me is "Aldi price match" which is more a statement of fact.

Echoing fisicx, We switched to Aldi and Sainsburys, simply because they are the two closest, on opposite sides of the road. Marketing and branding had nothing to do with it.

Of course they do. Which is why these companies spend an absolute fortune coming up with and promoting these messages. If you think they are all pointless exercises in corporate ego then write book about it and become a marketing guru that saves these brands an absolute fortune. If this stuff was not necessary and didn’t work then any company that worked out this fact would have a massive competitive advantage as they could cut their costs and become more efficient that all their competitors.

The fact that they all do this and all the successful brands do this should tell you something. It does not matter if you dislike these mission statements or whether you personally find them annoying. The facts is that all the data shows that they work, which is of course why they all do it.

If you think you know better then trust me, an absolute fortune awaits you as your theory could literally save massive companies an absolute fortune. It’s entirely possible that you and fisicx are correct and the marketing agencies and departments of the most successful companies in the world are all wrong. That is possible I suppose….. maybe.

 

[Fagin2021]

Echoing fisicx, We switched to Aldi and Sainsburys, simply because they are the two closest, on opposite sides of the road. Marketing and branding had nothing to do with it.

Yes but...
1. Would you have switched that easily if the alternative had been called 'Sludgeons Supermarket' ? Probably not without checking them out first, because you have no idea who 'Sludgeons' are; whether they are cheap or expensive; whether their goods are quality or rubbish. That's branding.

2. You mention Aldi and Sainsbury on the assumption that everyone here knows they are supermarket stores. That's branding.

I agree with @fisicx that there are different definitions of branding and brand. A 'brand' implies..
1. Recognition - of a name, a logo or a product. Recognition might be global, national, local or even confined to a market or industry sector.
2. Association - what you associate, (good or bad) with that name/logo/product eg. price, quality, service, reputation or something more intangible. When I was a boy, Vauxhall was a byword for rust.

In the case of Prime, (about which I know nothing,) it doesn't matter if the drink itself makes you want to vomit through your ears. The name is widely recognised by the target market and the association is with the influencers/celebrities who endorse it. I too am a cool person because I too drink Prime. And it's not enough for just me to know about Prime. All my friends must know about it too.

There's an argument going on about whether Tailor Swift is a singer, a brand or an industry, but that's another story.

 

[Irene0201]

Why would a start up ask someone with no marketing experience to write them a business plan whole thing seems doomed from the start im afraid. Like asking my plumber to pop round and fix the loose roof tiles

Nothing worse that starting out on the "journey" and the car won't start

I just can’t quite understand what they’re doing.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Branding works in B2B. Not in all sales but it helps to win me a small number of sales and most importantly it seems to work on higher value, complex sales. Really useful. I've just been working out how to better incorporate it into my website which is really hard. Putting into pitches is much easier.

 

[fisicx]

Branding works in B2B. Not in all sales but it helps to win me a small number of sales and most importantly it seems to work on higher value, complex sales.

Agreed. But branding =/= brand. Two different things.

 

[bijutoha]

I can offer some general tips for developing a brand strategy. First, it's important to define your target audience and understand their needs and wants. Once you know who you're trying to reach, you can start to develop a brand identity that resonates with them.