What makes a brand successful? It is a hard question, one to which many different possible answers exist. Mostly, it is the lack of conformity that makes these brands successful. However, there is one factor each brand has in common – clarity. All these brands had a clear message, and a clear point of difference is the key to a successful brand.
Of course, the day-to-day realities of business and marketing are far from clear. The former is a complex fog of economic factors and human judgments. Every new product or service comes out of that fog, adding even more confusion to a world already saturated with brands.
Without hiding behind the bushes, a brand must inevitably have a clear message. This does not mean it has to create only one type of product; it means that the values and image represented by a brand should be consistent and easy to identify.
Branding is the language of business. While brands are usually the result of difficult business decisions, that should never be reflected in the brand itself.
The job of a brand is to speak to the market in a crystal clear voice. These brands may have resulted from weeks of long meetings and management decisions, but consumers choose brands in a matter of seconds. Their thought process is very different from that of the brand manager. They are not on the payroll of the company. Their jobs are not serving the brand. They just want to make a quick and good decision. And to get them on board, a brand must be communicated clearly.
The process of branding is, therefore, very like the writing process. As William Wordsworth puts it in words: ‘Every great and original writer. . . must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.’
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