Know-How Exchange : Branding

Agree with Randall; your first question should be: "What am I going to offer that will make me stand out?" or "How do I differentiate myself?"

Agree with Phil; are you distributing direct to consumer? a container? Those answers will effect name

Dear Bwaldr1,

So, you’re looking for some help on the branding of your product?

No. You’re not. By the sounds of it what you’re looking for is a name.

Branding in its true sense is a whole different beast, a beast best approached with safety goggles, a whip, a chair, and sugar cube.

I’ll go to my grave mumbling this, I know I will: branding does NOT take place in the measurable world. Branding takes place in people’s heads and in their hearts and souls when they connect a feeling and a result with the product or service that gave them that result or feeling.

Names and logos and pretty colours and nice typefaces fall under the umbrella of CORPORATE IDENTITY.

Why you weren’t taught this in college is beyond me, truly it is. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not your fault: evidently your professors are idiots.

The downside to this is that they’ll merrily continue to fill young minds with utter drivel, leaving people in the real world to sweep up the bits.

You want your product to be “trendy but useful”?

Wonderful. Bully for you.

And would you like sprinkles and whipped cream with that?

And perhaps a shiny cherry?

Splendid!

But here’s another lesson for you: no one cares about you and what you want.

I’m not saying this to be argumentative or to provoke you. I’m telling you this because you’ve got a lot to learn.

Listen, here’s a golden rule that will, if you’ve any common sense at all, serve you well and also save you a WORLD OF PAIN as you progress with your marketing career.

Marketing is about THE CUSTOMER.

Read that sentence again.

Now, carve those words into a piece of stone and place that lump of stone on your desk, or somewhere where you'll see it every day.

Better yet, carry that lump of stone around with you because as your burden, it will serve you better than a lifetime of college lectures.

Marketing is NOT about the marketer and what that person wants (hence, you don’t matter).

Nor is it about the company, or the preferences or prederilictions of the CEO’s other half, or the fact this his or her daughter can draw, or that someone in the distant past of the company invented a new version of custard or ketchup or some such goo from a closely guarded secret family recipe of herbs and spices.

None of this matters to the customer.

None of it.

What matters to THEM is what it is about your product that will change or somehow IMPROVE their lives.

This means that what matters to to YOU is what it is about the product (and specifically about YOUR product) that REALLY, REALLY MATTERS? What’s different? New? Unique? World changing? What is it that improves, differentiates, or somehow enhances the quality of your customer's lives?

How does it SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT the lives of the people it touches?

You say “My company wants something that is going to show that our product will be very appealing to the customer but that it will also be easily assimilated into the current world of plastics.”

All right then.

But you’ve got to be WAY MORE SPECIFIC THAN THIS.

Simply saying “our product will be very appealing to the customer” tells people nothing.

This kind of statement could be uttered about thousands of different products. What you have to do is find out why it’s appealing, and to whom and where and when.

Which customer? What market? What use? What situation?

Find these things. Put out an APB. Hunt them down. And then distill them into one thought, one idea, one sentence.

And then address this one sentence to one person: your ideal customer.

This person can be a construct, but they must be a construct from real people with real needs, otherwise your proposition won’t ring true.

If your statement sounds false, your marketing sounds like an ad and when a message sounds like an ad or a promotion it sinks like a stone.

But if it connects. Congratulations, you’re on your way to the marketer’s Holy Grail: increased sales and customer loyalty.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA