In these days of information explosion, with zillions of information bombarding the airspace, only persons, places and products with good branding will get good attention and patronage. William Shakespeare wondered, “What’s in a name?” and concluded that a rose by any other name will still smell like a rose. Well, yes. But if you try referring to a rose as horse manure, many amorous youths won’t buy. Consider this theorem by W.I. Ross: "When people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." The word, "villain", which used to mean villager, nowadays depicts a wicked soul! A simple, rural fellow is now despised and feared. But remedy can come through branding. Qatar, erstwhile home to a band of nomads and renegade tent dwellers, is coming up roses these days.
Through a strategy called nation branding, it is investing in culture, sports, education and blue-chip Western companies. Time Magazine reports that its capital, Doha, hosts annexes of Western Ivy League universities such as Georgetown and Carnegie-Mellon, as well as think tanks like Brookings Institution. Qatar has invested in FC Barcelona, bought Paris Saint-Germaine, may buy AC Milan, and will host the 2022 World Cup. It bought into automaker Volkswagen, financial institution Credit Suisse and luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Such deft moves should make Qatar acceptable as a cultural extension of the West, even if it cannot be relocated geographically. You know too well that, as easterly as it is, Hong Kong is a Western nation. Qatar’s al-Jazeera news channel, the ultimate PR platform, with over 150 million viewers globally, has elicited favourable comments from the likes of Hillary Clinton, in recent times. Now imagine the droves of tourists that will converge on Qatar on account of these branding moves.
A brand can be a name, term, design or symbol that identifies, but differentiates, a product or service from any other. Classic economics theory explains that, through product differentiation, a brand, should, intrinsically be regarded as a generic product. Legend says that branding originated from the practice, by cowboys in America’s Wild West, of applying very hot iron stamp to mark the skin of their cattle for the purpose of easy identification. Some slave owners practised this wicked branding method. With this, a savvy buyer could easily identify quality stock of cattle or chattel by simply looking out for the brand of his trusted vendor. But product branding came with the packaged, mass produced goods that accompanied the 19th Century Industrial Revolution.
Originally, manufacturers found it expedient to mark the containers of their products with their logo or insignia for easy identification. This gradually became a bright idea for branding. To overcome the resistance experienced by foreign products that had to compete with locally produced goods that were already known, accepted and patronised, the technique of product branding was adopted. It helped to increase the consumers’ familiarity with the ‘foreign’ products. And it helped manufacturers to recoup their huge investments in plants and machinery, overheads and raw materials, within the shortest possible time. Branding and other marketing planks like the product, distribution, pricing and merchandising, helps to build and sustain sales.
Branding, a trust builder, tells consumers what to expect from a product. A Westerner who gets to the airport of a remote country, and sees big wall posters advertising home brands such as Western Union, Hertz or Avis- Rent-A-Car and the American Express Card, immediately feels at home. He feels more so when the name of his hotel includes Ritz, Sheraton or Hilton. And when he flicks on the TV in his hotel room and sees the commercials of Kellog’s corn flakes and Coca Cola beverage, he is sure he won’t die of food poisoning — because these brands deliver certain values and expectations that he has come to expect as a given. Branding pre-sells a product. Over the centuries, Britain provided credibility for British manufacturers by simply including the insignia of the Crown of England and the inscription ‘Manufactured Under the Authority of the Crown of England’ on their products. The consumer is thereby assured of the pedigree of the product. Even spymaster James Bond had to go on a mission on Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Branding perks up the esteem of a consumer. That is why your female acquaintance needs no promptings before disclosing to you that she is wearing a Louis Vuitton, a Prada or a Gucci brand. Brand gives identity or personality to a product, service or company; it alters, for good or evil, the relationship between a product and its key constituencies of customers, staff, partners and investors. Maybe, when he saw the effect of aggressive social networking on the electoral fortunes of the US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XII thought he could worm his way into the hearts of the online tribe. He recently tweeted, via @Pontifex, “Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous responses. I bless you from my heart.” By now, many truant Catholics on the Internet must have become penitent on account of this techie pope.
Branding could be a name, logo, pay off, colour scheme, sound, scent, taste or graphics. But visual presentation is important to brand recognition and perception. The outward expression of a brand –name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance– is called brand identity. Evocation is also a potent strategy for branding. When you connect a new product to an old idea, you can almost instantly communicate expected deliverables to potential consumers. In his book, ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ Dan Brown acknowledges that because Amon is the Egyptian god of promiscuity, it should not surprise anyone that it is the brand name of a condom. The deep will surely call to the deep. Branded products or services usually command higher prices, because ‘discerning’ consumers will want to pay the premium for a known brand over an orphan generic product.
Branding is different from sales. Those itinerant salesmen, above the Maryland Tunnel, in Lagos, trying so very hard to push their wares into your face are making a sale. The mannequins in the fashion shop on high street Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, are sales or merchandising tools. While both the salesman and the mannequin put the product in your face, branding puts the product in your mind. That explains why you travel past several bakeries on your way from Akute, in Ogun State, only to join a long queue to buy bread from Shoprite in Ikeja! A product with a successful brand awareness has easy customer recall, recognition and repeat purchase. When you walk past someone dressed like musician Whizkid, you may think of a brand of noodles, just as the strain of a certain jingle reminds you of a brand of mobile telephone service provider. Sales solicits, it tells; branding, somewhat arrogant, flaunts, only shows. Sales pushes, branding pulls.
Some say you can adopt a ‘no-brand’ strategy, depend only on word of mouth, and spend very little on advertisement or marketing. Well, branding does not necessarily mean high advertising budget; it is just deft positioning of a product in the minds of consumers for certain deliverables. . If you’ve heard of the word, ‘bespoke,’ you will know the power of branding. If branding is the veritable handmaiden of the New Economy, Shakespeare can no longer be right in insisting that "good wine needs no bush."
