Canadian Apparel
A strong brand name can maximize your financial returns, grow your market and reach your goals We all live branded lives. We eat branded food, live in branded neighbourhoods, wear branded clothes, write with branded pens, drive branded cars drink branded drinks. Our insurance policies are branded as are our mutual funds, gasoline, hair products and footwear. It seems we start life in Pampers and end up in Depends. It really is all about branding. What are brands? Why do consumers care? Why should you care? Branding actually began in the Middle Ages, created by the craft and merchant guilds. Each craftsman had his own mark to distinguish his work from others. People started looking for specific markings to identify the work of a particular guild. You can still see those markings on antique silver. Those markings evolved into brands. In other words, branding is anything that identifies your product to the consumer. Why do consumers care? Because brands make shopping much easier, guiding you throughout the confusion of choices out there. For the brand owner, branding helps to develop loyalty and encourages repeat purchasing. It also allows for the brand to introduce new products or brand extensions under the same trusted name. Branding is not static. Brands evolve, get tired, get refreshed, get face-lifts, get re-invigorated. Or, at least the good ones do. Some don't. Remember Smith Corona typewriters, Ipana toothpaste or Commodore computers? Brands are especially important in fashion and retail. The more important or expensive the purchase, the more important the brand. This is called the "brand involvement continuum." To illustrate, consumers go through a much different thought process buying windshield washer fluid than buying a new suit. While you might pull into a branded gas station (Esso or Petro Canada) you probably don't know the brand of windshield washer fluid you put in your car. You might notice that the color changes with the season, but that's about it. On the other hand, when you are buying a suit for a special occasion you get much more involved. You pick a store. You pick a brand. You try it on. You seek options. While the windshield washer fluid is low involvement (inexpensive and bought frequently) clothing is high involvement (expensive, searched out and evaluated). Brands talk directly to consumers as they go throughout their basic problem solving process. The first step is Problem Recognition - the gap between a consumer's desire and the brand's ability to fulfill it. The next steps include Search for Solutions, Evaluate Alternatives, Purchase Decision (to buy or not to buy) and finally Post-Purchase Evaluation (satisfaction or dissatisfaction).
To help get it right, ask yourself the following questions:
Answer those questions and you are well on your way to defining your strategy. There are subsets to those questions: "Who do you want to talk to" might include both internal and external audiences, broken down further into retail buyers, consumers and sales agents. Each target group demands an individual strategy. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Why i it so hard to actually build a brand? Because there are so many other factors at play in your business. There is the pressure to compete on price. There is a proliferation of competitors, which means there are fewer openings for clear positioning. With the decline of mass media and the move to more targeted communication, the cost of communicating rises while the reach declines. Some companies are faced with complex brand strategies and various tiers within their product mix. This further narrows the funds available to grow a strong brand. What else stands in the way? One of the biggest obstacles is a bias against changing strategies. However, not embracing the change is the management equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot! There is also a bias against innovation in many companies, a failure to recognize that the market continues to move toward the next new thing or idea. Or that the market needs to see improvements in your brand that it sees in competitive brands. Then again, "old and unchanged" might be just the competitive strategy that works for you. Adding to the pressure is the need to invest elsewhere: in equipment, in people, in software, and more. Marketing and brand building seem to be a place to look for funds. Couple that with short-term pressures like the need for immediate results and you can see why so few brands really become mega brands. Why bother? A strong brand name is the ultimate competitive weapon. It allows you maximum financial returns; it allows you to extend your brand; to grow your market; to reach your goals. Even armed with this information, there are still no guarantees that you will get it right. Many apparel companies suffer from "me-too-itis." They want to be all things to all people. And they have an irrational fear of alienating anyone. Sometimes you need professional expertise to help you develop the plan. Or to give you the discipline you need to find the time to do it. My advice is simple. If you don't have a destination in mind, any map will do. But if you know where you want to go, branding will create the map that will lead you to your destination. Ron Telpner is Chairman and CEO of -30- |
branding
- the ultimate weapon of mass consumption