Do Business Well

Knox (2000) summarizes the potential rewards associated with successful branding.

Pickton and Broderick (2001) argue that commodity-type products such as metal tubing or screws, which in the past have been perceived as ‘non-branded‘, should be considered as branded through their packaging, labelling or logos.

Companies are creating brands through the consistent use of names, logos, a form of packaging, colours, shapes, typography, short descriptions or slogans. Branding can be provided through a variety of mechanisms, such as brand names, brand logos, trade names or trade marks.

Brand name

A brand name is the part of a brand that can be spoken and which includes letters, numbers or symbols, such as Coca-Cola, VW, or Yahoo. This might be different from the legal name of the company; think, for example, of the use of initials such as AA or RAC, or numbers such as 7-Up or 3M, which have created enduring brands. Brand names can be reinforced through the use of a distinctive colour or typography. The classic example is the Coca-Cola brand name, which has a strong visual appeal and is recognized anywhere in the world through the design rather than the words. Coca-Cola is easily identifiable whether the name is written in English, Arabic, Russian or Chinese because the look is always the same.

Trade name

The trade name is the legal name of an organization, which might or might not be related to its other branded products. For example, the organization with the full trade name of National Westminster Bank Plc is branded as NatWest Bank. Some companies, such as Lever Brothers or Procter & Gamble, will underplay the corporate brand, concentrating all their promotional efforts on their product brands such as Persil, Surf and Radion. Few consumers will realize that these apparently competitive brands come from the same manufacturer.

Trade mark

A trade mark is a brand name, symbol or logo that is registered and legally protected for the owner’s sole use. In line with EU trademark legislation, the 1994 Trade Marks Act allows organizations to register not only brand names and logos but also product shapes and packaging, smells and sounds. This means that the Coca-Cola bottle, the Toblerone chocolate bar and the Heinz tomato ketchup bottle are as protected as their respective brand names (Brassington and Pettitt 2000). Trade marks are valuable assets, and organizations invest large sums of money in creating them and maintaining consumer awareness. Because of their value in the eyes of the consumer, they often became prey to counterfeiters and the illegal counterfeit trade. Manufacturers of luxury branded goods such as perfumes, watches or Nike trainers are fighting to try to stem the growing flow of low-cost copies of their branded goods.

Brand logo or brand mark

A logo is the element of a brand. It only infrequently includes words or letters, being more usually made of symbols or pictures. The logo can also be termed a brand mark; examples include the golden arches known the world over as the symbol of McDonald’s, or the four coloured squares that have come to symbolize Microsoft Windows.

A survey reported in Marketing magazine (February 1998) asked 300 people to correctly identify twelve visual brand logos.

Some companies have successfully ’stretched’ their brands to encompass product variations. Think, for example of Galaxy chocolate bars, muffins, small wrapped sweets, selection boxes . . . Eventually, the brand might be stretched into completely new product categories, in which case it becomes known as a brand extension. For example, Mars, a company with well-established confectionery brands, has recently extended its brands (Snickers, Twix, etc.) into the ice-cream market. Brand extensions represent an opportunity for firms to use the equity inherent in the names of existing brands to enhance marketing productivity and attract new customer segments.

Branding need not just apply to specific products. It also takes place at the corporate, partnership, geographical region or even national level.we will discuss employer branding, which refers to the image that a company seeks to put across to prospective employees in order to brand the organization as a ‘good place to work’. Corporate branding can encompass a range of products, services and their associated image which together form part of the benefits ‘package’ offered to consumers, who want to know that they can trust the company they are doing business with. Corporations that are branded in this way offer reduced risk. This is especially important in online transactions, which can compound consumers’ concerns over transaction security and privacy.

Despite the present economic uncertainty and the anticlimax of the dotcom debacle, B2B commerce is set for significant growth. ‘Old-economy’ industries such as the chemical sector are increasingly using branding strategies more associated with consumer branding giants like Unilever, and Procter & Gamble. Although Dow Chemical, DuPont and BP are well-established B2B brands using sophisticated marketing strategies, the industry in general is perceived as environmentally benign at best and insensitive at worst. It is often misunderstood by its end users, the public, who tend to be unaware of its impact on everyday life. That is why the chemical giants are intensifying their branding efforts in order to reach and shape the perception of their customers, shareholders, employees, investors and the media. There is mounting pressure on ‘old-economy’ companies just like those in the chemical industry to be more transparent in terms of corporate behaviour. They are using corporate branding as a fundamental communication vehicle through television and radio, and, increasingly, through the Internet.

A recent survey by Accenture on purchasing decision-makers across several industries, including the chemical sector, examined the value of B2B brands in the ‘new economy’ and the impact of the Internet on the total customer experience. The findings revealed that, contrary to popular opinion, marketing and branding are more critical to B2B than to B2C. B2B buyers say that their single most important preference is a strong brand, followed by service; price is third and variety last.

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