The jeans you wear are branded. The company you run or work for is branded. And you, yes you, are branded. In fact, you are multiply-branded. That’s the good news. The bad news is that your multiple brands may not be working together. They may even be working against you!
No matter whether your brand is Wal~Mart; Fred Smith, CEO; Juanita Gomez, Director of Training; honey; or Mom you have a brand. And not only do you have a brand, as we’ll see, you have multiple brands! So you might as well learn how to make your brands work for you.
Most people confuse logos with the brands. Let’s set the record straight: the logo is what you see, the brand is what you think. When you see the Nike swoosh, the logo, you think sports for the masses, the brand. When you see a Lexus trunk ornament, the logo, you think luxury cars for the lucky few, the brand. When you see red and white on a soup can, you suddenly begin to think that soup is good food.
Got the idea? A brand is mental real estate that someone owns in the mind of the target market.
Brands serve as mental shortcuts that help consumers make their buying decisions. Brands tell you who you are dealing with, what they may be selling, and predispose your thoughts about the quality and price you should expect. The brand idea fills in all the blanks and allows the message to focus on new information. Strong brands are much more efficient when it comes to using the media because premium message time doesn’t have to be spent on introductions.
MicroSoft can flash their logo and get right down to business. With any other software company by the time you have figured out who they are and what they do, the MicroSoft boys would have packed up and headed back to the office!
What you may not realize is that most of the time there are smaller brands sitting on top of global brands. We call these little brands, MicroBrands.
