Brand Building Factors: Build Your Brand Effectively

Suppose you are the owner of General Motors (GM) and you want to sell the company. How would you sell it? At first, you would calculate the worth of factories, patents, machines, staff and other related assets. What would come as most costly among these assets? According to me the most costly thing is not in the list.

Yes, the most costly things are those two letters G and M, why, because GM is the most recognized brand of cars worldwide. It is priceless. The value of a brand is huge compared to other physical assets.

A brand is that thing which you can own that nobody can take away from you. Everything else can be copied. Your trade secrets can be copies and eventually, your patents may expire. Your physical plant will depreciate. Technology will change. But your brand can live for ever and ever. This is the power of brand.

And making of a brand is very tough process, it takes time. According to the industry experts 7 factors can affect the building of a successful brand.

1. Product Quality: Is the product useful for the consumer? Do check, as what are the good and bad features/attributes of your brand (company, product, service).
2. Brand Positioning: A brand should be positioned not only in the market but also in the mind of the consumers. Strong brands have a clear position in the target market.
3. Brand Repositioning: Strong brands can perceive the changing taste of its consumers.
4. Brand communication: The brand awareness is a must. What you are going to provide must be known by your consumers.
5. Early bird advantage: Pioneers and innovators make a big brand but there may be exceptions like Alta vista and Google, where the former was the pioneer but the later rules.
6. Brand credibility: Sometimes investment in brands is required at the expense of short-term profitability. Long-term perspective is an important factor in brand building as it results in brand credibility.
7. Internal marketing: The whole business must understand the brand value and perhaps that is why my friend wears a T-shirt with Google written over it and he works with Google.
   

So, if you are going to launch a website or a product, don’t forget to do branding. Branding is tough but it is possible.