| Bringing your brand to the next level:
Is it ready to play the international game?
By Wilson Chew, Principal Consultant & CEO, StrategiCom
17 Mar 2008
A Brand? What is it?
Let me start by asking you, “Can anything be branded?” I suppose it is only fair that the answer would depend on the definition of what a brand is. So, what is a brand? Yes, there are many definitions and the topic of branding (including customer loyalty, product value, identity recall, preference and risk management and perception) has been widely researched in the last twenty years, both in academic literature and by the copious consultant.
For simplicity, let me submit a definition that a brand is “a perception of all the information connected with a product or service”. Yes it is a perception at the most basic level. And if it is perception that we are dealing with, then I suppose anything can be branded and I mean ANYTHING; from the food you eat (Macdonalds Hamburger), the place you visit (The Maldives) and the water you drink (New Water). These perceptions reside in your stakeholders minds i.e. employees, partners, customers and associates. Thus, a positive perception is critical to the success of your business (whichever industry you operate).
At which level is my brand?
In order to take your brand to the next level, you have to know the level which it resides now. You see brands often don’t sit on its own (except for singular monopolistic brands such as “The Army”), it exists because there are other brands in the same category and very often, these are competing brands. Since we are dealing with perception, brands therefore exist only in the mind. Therefore, it is the mind that deciphers how brands are different from one another. Let me give you an example of an industrial brand. You must have heard of KATO and Caterpillar. Both are well known brands in the heavy machinery category and they both target the construction industry; yet customers can clearly tell apart KATO (associated to Cranes) from Caterpillar (associated to Excavators).
The key to building a successful brand is to first know where and at what level the brand resides vis-à-vis competing brands. You do this through a perception audit which is a simple process of getting into the heads of your stakeholders and investigating how they perceive your brand against your competitors’. A reputable consulting company with a strong research team should be able to help you.
Through this audit, you will know where your brand perceptually stands in comparison to competing brands. But this information is of no value if you don’t know what to do with it.
In the interest of this article, let’s limit the conversation to assume that you want to do 2 things:-
- Up the perceptual rank of the brand; and
- Take it Global
Let’s deal with it one at a time.
Up the perceptual rank of the brand
Moving up the perceptual chain in the minds of your stakeholders require a clearly articulated brand strategy which is driven by communicating your
DIFFERENTIATION.
Building a strong brand is about transforming a company, product or service’s dominant competency, position or achievement into a perception and there are essentially 13 differentiation strategies which you can adopt and they are:-
- Sales Leadership
- Technology Leadership
- Performance Leadership
- Next Generation Product
- How it is Made
- Where it is Made
- Attribute Ownership
- Opposite Position
- Personality
- Specialisation
- Preference
- Heritage
- Design
My learned colleague Jacky Tai and I will be launching a book which fully explains how these strategies can be adopted so look out for “KILLER Differentiators – 13 Strategies To Grow Your Brand” which will hit the bookstores in the first quarter of 2008. But in short, the trick to this is to find the differentiator which best represents the state which your business, product or service is in; adopt it and then dramatise it.
Once that’s done, you are now ready to implement strategies to build mindshare and up the level of your brand.
But taking the brand global requires a different set of considerations which you should start thinking about when your differentiator is clearly established.
Taking it Global
Global branding has evolved from being seen simply as the consistent application of strong graphic design into a philosophy and a process of organisational change. With globalisation, removal of trade barriers and super-competitiveness in the business environment, branding and brand management have become critical to globalisation.
Companies which are prepared to internationalise delve into the world of international business and management; and global brand management is all about being consistent. There are five issues which contribute to global brand consistency (refer to Figure 1). This is NOT to say that there aren’t other issues; certainly there are many such as “marketing communications”, “advertising”, public relations” etc.
1: Corporate Reputation
In international business markets, your reputation is an important influence. In sociology, prestige is the preferred term, in accountancy and law it is known as goodwill. Fombrun (1998) defined corporate reputation as “a perceptual representation of a company’s past actions and future prospects describing overall appeal to all of its key constituents when compared with other leading rivals”. But what if your company is a start-up? Two suggestions hold.
- Be a Specialist. Specialisation is a powerful differentiator because people tend to perceive specialists to be more knowledgeable, but being a specialist means you need to be focused.
- Cluster reputation. When there is a lack of corporate reputation, new brands should tag on to more well-known brands and you can do this through forging alliances.
2: Brand Image
Your brand image is the picture in your customer’s mind reflected of your brand. But does a brand which represents certain perceptions in one country represent the same set of perceptions in another? The fashion retailers tend to categorically state it’s a clear “yes”. But what about b2b companies? Critical issues that companies should consider, include the positioning of the firm. All organisations need to communicate what they are about to their customers so that a consistent brand image can be brought about across geographical boundaries.
So we can generally conclude that establishing a CONSISTENT brand image is important to the internationalising brand.
3: Strong Internal Brand
Global brand alignment for the internationalising company brings the brand promise to life. It is important for managers to understand that a brand can reflect the type of relationship that an organisation has with its employees. For this to be successful, staff should be viewed as another vehicle to communicate the brand so that the organisation can be organised globally to deliver the brand promise through the organisation’s culture, reward systems, activities and structure.
Leaders of organisations with international operations or intending to globalise must demonstrate their commitment to these values through behaviour as well as corporate communications. Ideally it should be a top-level responsibility, outside HR and marketing.
4: Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors can influence customer loyalty. Personalities (person/s representing the brand) could be widely admired or respected for their professional or personal achievement in their fields. The admiration of such a spokesperson provides the brand with borrowed equity. So, as the “personality” engages in international business, it could well be possible that the corporate brand recognition is “borrowed”.
The weakness in this case is that if the “brand reputation” of the person is tarnished; it is logical to assume that the firm’s reputation will be affected.
5: Web Branding
In an increasingly digitised information environment, messages about what an organisation or its products and services mean for customers, and the value that they offer, increasingly need to be communicated remotely, through the organisation’s web site. In today's increasingly web oriented business world, if you don't show up in a Google search for your name, you don't exist. Companies must take full advantage of the internet to fulfil their global management and marketing objectives. The consistent and cumulative judgment by stakeholders over time provides the company with significant competitive advantages.
Web branding is not without pitfalls. While it is good to have consistency of the brand globally, it is also important to note that in certain markets, localisation is important. One such successful case is HSBC’s brand of being “The World’s Local Bank”. However, how can this be better managed? The trick is to decide what goes global and what goes local. This should be manifested also on the website.
So are you ready to take your brand global? Think about these 5 issues seriously and you should be ready to take your brand global.
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