Monthly Archives: November 2008

If we were playing Jeopardy, the right answer would have been: “What is branding?”

Beijing Olympics 2008 is one of the classical examples of branding at a global scale from the recent times. China spent north of $40 billion to link the idea of progressiveness and development to the country. The infrastructure improvements, the pollution control, the massive ceremonies and the security arrangements apart from a list of other things linked the idea of progressiveness and development to the product known as China.

Similarly, when a company tries to brand a product like face cream, they link the idea of beauty to the product. That sense of beauty is exposed in every bit of the product right from the formula that’s used to develop it to its packaging to the advertisements of the product. Everything together tries to deliver the same message to convince the customers.  

Whether you are branding the most populous country in the world or a face cream or just water, it sums up to the simple process of linking ideas to product (or service). The logo, advertisements and customer service, all have their own roles to play when it comes to branding.

I believe there are two main purposes of branding. First is creating trustworthiness. Trust plays a major role in any decision a customer is making and that is one of the big goals behind branding. The second purpose behind branding is to create a community to back your product. Ideas are not attached by marketers alone, they are attached by consumers as well. And when consumers attach an idea with your product, it speaks much louder than you doing the same. So the goal here is to provide enough buzz and space for the mavens to pick up your product and take it from there to create more trust in the community and build your brand equity.

The basic idea behind any marketing or advertising effort is to create a connection with the customers. The success of your campaign depends on how well a customer can identify with your product. And when it comes to identifying with a product, connection at a regional level plays a very important role. You can define a region at any level, it can be a country, a state and in some cases, even cities.

Let’s talk about going local in a country. In the world today, you got to consider the global marketplace which is full of diversity. In order to link to their customers in this diverse global market, companies try to adapt their stories to make it compelling for the people in a particular geography. Consider India as an example. In India, there are many global brands which are so well connected to the local community that people end up thinking them to be local brands. Vicks (Procter & Gamble), Maggie noodles (Nestle), Bata footwear, Cadbury Dairy Milk (CadburySchweppes), Lifebuoy soaps (Unilever) and many others fall in this category. The reason being the way these brands have established connection with the people in the country. The product itself is localized in many cases, followed by localized advertisements, packaging, slogans and what not.

But this concept of going local is not limited at the country level. In many states, companies use local branding strategies to connect with the customers. For example, while Ford slogan in most parts of USA is “Ford Built Tough”, in Texas the company goes local with its campaign slogan: “Ford is the best in Texas”. The goal is again very simple: connect with the customers in Texas, and if it can be done better with a local slogan, let’s use that.

I believe when a brand goes for local connection, it generates a much higher level of trustworthiness with the customers. It makes the customers feel important and increases their loyalty towards the brand, in-turn making the local connection work.