How does corporate branding work? What is branding? How to build a brand correctly?

In recent years, with the transformation and high-quality development of our Chinese economy, the word "brand" has become a lofty buzzword. So what is a brand? How does a brand come about? How to do corporate branding? What mistakes should be avoided in corporate branding? Please see this article. Enterprise branding whether it is the production of products or services provided by the market entity of the enterprise side, or our industry specializes in marketing planning services for enterprises to provide the so-called brand people, as long as it involves the "sale" can always take the brand to say things. Everyone will always mention these "lofty" words: brand positioning, brand value, brand image, brand strategy, brand upgrading, brand marketing, brand planning, brand equity, brand communication, brand advertising, brand image, brand creativity, brand strategy, brand design, brand management, brand review, brand diagnosis, brand personality, brand attitude, brand vision, brand identity, brand symbols, brand culture, brand story, brand appeal, brand attributes, brand benefits, brand core values, brand endorsement, brand mission, brand vision, brand awareness, brand recognition, brand reputation, brand loyalty, brand pyramid, brand association, brand knowledge, brand sound, brand extension, brand portfolio, sub-brands , parent brand, single brand, primary and secondary brands, symbolic brand, endorsement brand, shadow brand, product brand, corporate brand, channel brand, traditional brand, Internet brand ...... Although we often hear these words, but recently our team in the enterprise branding consulting to do when we realized that the enterprise side are saying that the brand is very important, must be done. However, most of them have no idea about the real meaning of "brand", so they can't tell what is brand? What is the core element of the brand? What is the role of the brand on the enterprise? How should a company do branding? When to start doing brand ...... Enterprises do not know can be forgiven, the most unbelievable thing is: I asked around me once engaged in the marketing planning industry, can really put "what is the brand" to make it clear that there are very few people! This is incredible. Imagine: if you do not know what the brand is, then how to do a good job of the brand? So, before answering what is the brand, let's first think about today's business why to do the brand? That is because the current product homogenization is serious, business competition continues to intensify, enterprises only choose to do the brand in order to get a place in the business world, but also only choose to do the brand in order to achieve the fierce competition to stand out. So, I will be from this article and the subsequent series of articles to the three stages of brand building as the main line, mainly around the "enterprise how to do brand building" to start talking about brand building steps, methods and core matters of each stage, I hope to help you. And this article is only about a problem: what is the brand? Follow-up related series of articles are divided into three major parts: the first part is around the brand "start-up period", enterprises must do the right three things, and provide some auxiliary tools and practical methods. The second part is around the brand "grow up period", enterprises should do those things, and based on the competitive environment to build brand strategy escort. The third part is around the brand "outbreak period", the enterprise layout in advance of those things, and the development of brand growth dynamic map to guide the business war. In addition around this series of articles will have a wonderful interpretation of the chapter and case chapter, I will be the spirit of the standard public number, dismantling the three major parts of the system for the depth of the story, but also may be in the Pi League public number. Well, this article is the first. We officially began to say. In the previous list of which brand-related vocabulary, you can see how hot the brand, it seems that the brand is a universal vocabulary, can be paired with all the advertising, marketing planning terminology. On the contrary, it can also be seen how vague and confusing the definition of brand is. In fact, when we talk about branding, for different subjects, the information that comes to mind may be different. For enterprises, the brand may think of their own enterprises and stakeholders related to the market business subjects, as well as some product or service information; for consumers, the brand may think of their own often use or familiar with the clothing, food, housing, transportation, play with a variety of brands, or even the characteristics of these brands; for us brand people, the brand may think of a set of their own advocate of branding theory, or Some ideas or methods that we think are right. Therefore, the information that people of different subjects care about is not the same. Now, for people who do branding, there is always a problem: how to explain their work to people who don't understand branding? "Doing planning?" "Doing advertising?" "Doing design?" ... This is the impression that most people who don't understand branding react to. And branding people can only sigh y inside, after a few seconds of silence, helplessly back: "Well, almost." For what is branding? I read a lot of big names on the interpretation of the brand, each with its own perspective, such as: the godfather of advertising David Ogilvy said "brand represents an image"; branding guru David Icke said "the brand represents the consumer to grasp the knowledge about the goods, the company related to"; positioning David Ogilvy said "brand represents an image"; brand master David Icke said "brand represents the knowledge that consumers have about the product and the company"; Trout, the founder of positioning theory, said "brand represents a category"; and BRANDZ, a global brand management company, said "brand represents a relationship between consumers and the product". Some people even say that brand is a kind of gaming mechanism, which is a kind of monitoring by consumers for enterprises. So although everyone is talking about branding, and it's the same word, their definitions of branding are likely to be different. Masters say what is the brand so, to answer what is the brand? We must first look at the origin of the word "Brand". The word "brand" is of Western origin and its English word is "brand". It first evolved from the ancient Scandinavian word "Brandr", which means "to burn", "to brand", referring to the burning of the producer's seal onto the product. In several centuries ago, the nomadic period, the western ancient Scandinavian have a lot of sheep and cattle people, always avoid they have to be in the same piece of grassland grazing, due to too many cattle and sheep too similar, so it leads to cattle and sheep mixed together can not distinguish, can not distinguish to find ways to distinguish between the respective cattle and sheep? So they thought of a way, with a red-hot branding iron in their own cattle and sheep body branded a mark, in order to differentiate from others' cattle and sheep. Slowly, the herders didn't have to look at the animals at all, but had to look at the mark to recognize their own cattle and sheep. If a certain herdsman's cattle and sheep sell best in the market, this herdsman's mark will become more and more famous, and finally the buyers, in order to save trouble, will look at the mark to recognize the herdsman's cattle and sheep, and over time, a unique, recognizable and distinctive mark will be formed. At this time, we analyzed and found that this mark is not only used for the herdsman's own distinction, but also brings convenience to the buyers, the buyers look at the mark can be directly traded. So this mark has many more meanings, representing the livestock itself, representing the owner of the livestock, representing the quality of the livestock, the convenience of the buyer, especially to greatly reduce the cost of the buyer's choice. Let's go back to the present, there are many products of the same category in the market, there are dozens or even hundreds of products, and consumers in the face of a large number of similar products, it is impossible to understand each product, because each product contains complex information, such as: raw materials, technology, technology, standards, after-sales service, etc., and in addition, consumers simply can not carefully compare the information of each product to make a choice. Similarly, if we make a similar extension of all the products and services on the market, and see all these things as information shot at us, we will find it impossible to distinguish, the reason is that there is too much information. So companies have to give each type of product to set a brand, with a name, slogan or logo, etc. (I uniformly referred to as brand symbols) to distinguish between each type of product, and summarize the product contains a large class of relevant information. So that consumers no longer have to look at each product, but directly look at the brand symbol can compare brands, and then buy. That is to say, the brand is essentially a symbol, used to distinguish and summarize information. The three basic elements of the brand and the enterprise to do the brand ultimately to face the consumer, to be able to produce value for the consumer, while helping consumers to reduce the cost of choice, shorten the decision-making time, and allow consumers to prioritize the choice of their own products or services, which is to do the fundamental purpose of the brand. So companies want to achieve this purpose, the most important thing is to occupy a brand position in the minds of consumers, and remember the brand symbol, and most of the time, the brand is going to become a leader in a commodity or service category, that is, to become synonymous with the type of products and services. At this point the brand symbol has a value, and is no longer a simple symbol. So to summarize, what is a brand? A brand is essentially a symbol. We use this symbol to summarize and differentiate information, through experience, feelings, etc. in the minds of consumers to become a representative of a product or service category, and let consumers remember this symbol. The fundamental purpose is to create value for consumers, so that they will prioritize and continue to choose the product or service corresponding to this symbol. The Meaning of Branding Above, we have talked about the origin of branding, why brands exist and why they should be branded, and made clear the essence and specific concepts of branding. We know from the concept of branding that the purpose of branding is to give consumers priority and continuity in choosing their own products or services, in other words, the fundamental purpose of branding is for sales, and for sustainable sales that can bring high premiums. Especially the more competitive the market, the more serious product homogenization, the more important to do branding. Since we all realize the huge role of brand building for enterprise development. Then the brand building of the enterprise, when should it start? From where to start? How to do it?... To answer these questions, we need to first solve the problem of everyone's misperception of branding. We do brand consulting to enterprises found that enterprises in the process of brand building, often several misconceptions or ideas, so that the brand building this core work related to enterprise development continue to go to the wrong place, and even lead to the rapid decline of the brand. First of all, on the brand when to start doing, there are generally these three major misconceptions: First, the company is still small, and so do big and then consider the brand; Second, the peer did not do the brand, so I do not do the brand; Third, the company is now quite good business, do not need to do the brand. Brand building timing three major misconceptions error one, my company is still small, and then consider the brand after the big. We often hear people say that "the company is still small, to do a lot of things, the main thing is to get the sales up, and so on my business bigger and then consider doing the brand. Here, the "small company" is mainly these two kinds of enterprises, one is a start-up business, another is not a large enterprise on the scale. In fact, such a point of view is undoubtedly the development of the enterprise and brand building is separated, this is a serious error. As the public slogan says, even the smallest individual has its own brand. So do brand, never is a big company big enterprise patent, but wait for others to do big, once the market development is mature, most of the market will be which have brand influence of the enterprise occupation, small enterprises and small companies will be more difficult to survive. And then small individuals, also has its own brand enterprise development, the better the brand influence will be higher; brand do better, more can promote the development and growth of enterprises. Undeniably, survival is the key issue of enterprise development, but if an enterprise does not want to always be a small business, then the goal of the development is not only to survive, but also to have a higher and farther-reaching strategic goals to guide the enterprise forward, it is also necessary to build their own brand structure in the brand's new period, because the brand is related to the development of strategic grooming of the enterprise, rather than tactics. So enterprises should be established from the beginning of the creation of brand awareness, according to the actual situation of the company to develop specific practices, especially with the corporate strategy to build up the brand construction framework, the development of the brand grows up dynamic map to guide enterprises to deal with the business war. Especially in the start-up period, the brand "Matthew effect" is aggravated, the so-called "Matthew effect" is from the Bible, refers to "good will be better, bad will be worse, more will be more, less will be less! ". Therefore, if you start to do branding in the early stage, not only can you bring considerable brand premium, but more importantly, if you don't run fast enough on branding, you will easily fall into the Matthew effect. That's why the gap between the first and the last in each industry will become bigger and bigger, entirely because of the brand effect of the gap. For example, those who have been operating for many years the size of the enterprise is still small, is the beginning of no brand awareness led to fall into the Matthew effect, how to do not do much, but more and more difficult. And how to do branding in the start-up period, to do what three things? I will be in the back of the brand building articles in the start-up period to tell, we can understand through the spirit of the public number can be timely. Mistake two, none of our peers do branding, so I do not do branding. At present, there are indeed industries that do not need to do branding, mainly two kinds, the first is the monopoly nature of the company or product; the second is the cottage products on the roadside stalls. For example, our Chinese coal, oil, etc., due to resource monopoly and not into circulation, its own pricing power, generally not according to the average cost of pricing, but this resource products once into circulation, it will produce a difference in service, still need to do the brand. The roadside stalls on the cottage products, on the one hand, the quality of its products is much lower than the average pricing of enterprises, on the other hand, this sales method is not guaranteed non-market transactions, basically a one-time sale. Of course, some enterprises are misled by the phrase "the first mover in the market tends to become the martyr", and therefore wrongly believe that the safest way is to imitate and follow up, once a brand in the industry has achieved success, they will immediately follow up and imitate it, and get a share of the market, and this kind of idea is very common in small and medium-sized enterprises; and some large enterprises think that the most secure way is to imitate and follow up. This idea is very common among SMEs; while some big enterprises think that they can beat their rivals by following up with bigger investment and better resources, both of which are problematic. Let's take a real business case. After the success of the chili sauce "Lao Gan Ma", "Lao Gan Dad", "Miao Girl", "Country Girl", and so on, appeared all over the country. After the success of "Lao Gan Ma", hundreds of hot pepper sauce brands have emerged across the country, such as "Lao Gan Da", "Miao Girl", "Country Girl" and so on, and these brands have generally adopted the strategy of imitating "Lao Gan Ma" in terms of their names, products, packages and even promotions. How did it turn out? Lao Ganma was selected as one of China's top 500 valuable brands in 2018, with a brand value of more than 12.1 billion yuan, and sales of about 4 billion yuan in 2018, which is the first in the industry, and it has even been sold overseas. And how many of those brands that used to follow the trend of imitation have made it? So don't be misled by the phrase "the market pioneer often becomes a martyr", we must be rational and correct understanding, seize the moment, because all successful brands, before we see his success must have invested a lot of time as well as financial and material resources. Spirit standard team put forward the brand grew up dynamic map in addition to this, most other industries have to do brand, if a company exists in this idea, completely the kind of conservatives, typical blindly follow the wind, peers do what he followed what, there is no sense of foresight, and will never be able to become a leader in the industry. On the contrary, if any enterprise is really in the industry have not done the brand situation, then congratulations, if you seize the opportunity, you may become the industry's first brand, or even the leading brand. Of course, the premise is that you must master the correct basic laws and the use of systematic brand building methods, preferably based on the strategy to develop a practical brand to grow a dynamic map. Mistake three, now the company's business is quite good, do not need to do what the brand. Some companies do not want to do branding, because in their view, branding is nothing more than advertising, so think: "I do not advertise are sold so well, why spend that money on advertising?". . In fact, there is no lack of such examples in each industry, the original we are standing on the same starting line of enterprises, business are similar, but slowly there will be a polarization, some of them into the industry's leading brands, business is getting better and better; while some can only barely support the industry, the days are not good. We carefully analyze will find that those who become the industry's leading brands of enterprises, have been insisting on branding, and brand building to raise to the development strategy of the enterprise, attach great importance to each year to take out a certain percentage of sales invested in brand building, so slowly and naturally he grew up to the industry's leading brands. And some companies think: "I just do a good job of product quality, there is no need to do the brand", the existence of this idea should not be in the minority, there may be a considerable part. As the "22 laws of the brand" said inside, "the brand is built on quality is like building a house on the beach. Quality is very important, and production of good products is the main body of the enterprise must be the conscience and social responsibility, but the creation of the brand, not only rely on quality, but more importantly, follow the laws of the brand to establish a strong brand awareness in the minds of consumers. Because good products in the factory inside everyone can produce, and create a brand is in the consumer's brain, may not be able to realize. This has become a pain in the heart of some bosses, our technology is better than theirs, our investment is greater than theirs, we do more sophisticated and more upscale, why our fame is not as big as theirs? So enterprises must have a second curve thinking, to be prepared for danger. Also want to remind, advertising is not all brand building, but in such a big explosion of information in the era, if even the ads do not bother to do, then how can it be famous? Enterprises have to have a second curve thinking enterprises at any time to remember that the enterprise is the brand, the product is the brand, the user is the brand, the enterprise to do the fundamental purpose of the brand is to better achieve sales. So the brand is never a small matter, the boss should have a big picture thinking, it should be clear that the brand is not only the brand of the Department of things, the brand building work should be linked to all the people in the company, because it can maximize the mobilization of all the company to the brand to close, and ultimately can continue to play a strong brand premium ability. In short, we should understand from the essence of business to do branding, when you realize that the brand can bring premium to your products, you must not hesitate to do it or not, but you must go to do it, and must do it well, because if you do not do it, someone else will do it. Well,