Centuries ago, branding was the
conventional method cattle owners used to distinguish whose livestock belonged
to whom. By burning a distinctive mark onto the flesh of an animal, farmers
were able to identify and prove (or establish) ownership. Throughout history
people were likewise branded as slaves or criminals, and in Nazi Germany Jews
were branded by the yellow star. Later negative connotations were used for
branding as well, such as being branded as a liar, cheat or thief.
Today, branding (as it applies to
advertising) provides your target market with a way to identify your company.
It communicates what sets you apart, and this idea of modern branding was only
born 50 or so years ago driven by the consumption of the masses and the desire
to appeal to that mass market. Every day and every moment presents an
opportunity for you to promote your brand and build strong brand recognition.
Marketing messages were primarily product-focused with emphasis placed on
communication about the product. However, the average consumer will see or hear
close to 3,000 marketing messages per day….that’s entirely too many to pay
attention to.
So, the question is “how do you adapt to
the changing marketing climate?” The answer lies in having a deeper
understanding of your brand. A crucial factor in brand survival is making an
emotional connection with the consumer. The way to distinguish your brand from
the clutter, is to be relevant. How many commercials do you get stuck in your
head, or can you repeat word for word? Not very many, but the ones you do
remember stuck with you for a reason.
More and more people today are forced to
work longer hours, to commute further, and therefore are connecting through
social media. This must be integrated into any successful branding campaign,
but it’s not the end all be all. We, as marketers must really dive in and
understand our clients and their marketplace. We’ve got to do the research up
front in order to determine how best to build brands and meet that emotional
connection so that people will remember. And actually, a lot of what it takes
is doing things the good old-fashioned way.
People yearn for the emotional connection
that they’re missing due to increased workload, overwhelming amounts of
marketing, and increased technology. Depending on your medium, creating a
brand that will touch as many of the five senses as possible, as well as
establishing an emotional connection will enhance the probability that your
brand will be recognized – and chosen. And that, in fact, is what branding
is all about!What do you think?
Which brands are doing a particularly
good job of capturing our imagination?
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