The Essentials of Brand Building White Paper by Rlevance Consulting

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A brand is a what people think and feel about a product, service, or organization.

Marty Neumeier

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⇾ You can not not have a brand – as soon as you appear people form an impression

⇾ You can shape your brand only indirectly as it belongs to people

⇾ Some mental models are more suitable for your purposes than others

A mental model of your product or company in the mind of your audience

Brands have three fundamental tasks

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Brand as relevant meaning

The meaning associated with your offer that is

relevant and desirable for your existing and future

customers

Brand as purpose

The aspiration of your venture that motivates and

aligns all employees

Brand as strategy

A framework that helps you align all activities that

ultimately shape how your offer is perceived

Brand as relevant meaning

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Branding paves the way to an offer being used

being noticed

being understood

being stored

aiding recall

offer used

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A strong brand helps to stick out of the crowd

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A strong brand helps to make the offer understood

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A strong brand helps to make an offer relevant and meaningful

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Why is this necessary? This is how the world today looks through customers eyes

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An abundance of choices

available time

choices

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Shorter innovation cycles

Competition from multiple sides

Higher demand for new products

More products per category

More offers per category

Strong rivalry between offers

What a brand needs most importantly:

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focus

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Three very focussed brands

care energysafety

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How can brands deliver their idea?

hearing about it

indirect information, communication

seeing it

visual information, appearance & design

using it

experiential impressions, direct experience

Two examples: Focussed brand idea and consequent implementation

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For all male Teenagers who want to be more attractive for the girls…

…we offer a magic formula with a special attraction effect…

…because we believe that attraction can be applied by a spray.

Helping male teenagers getting laid

Target group & need

Brand competence

Brand belief

Brand idea

»helping male teenagers getting laid« consistently delivered

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For all people who lead an active life which calls for high performance…

…we offer a caffeinated drink with Taurin (bull’s hormone)…

…because we beliefe that a life full of adrenaline and daring is more enjoyable.

Fueling a life full of daring

Target group & need

Brand competence

Brand belief

Brand idea

»Fueling a life full of daring« consistently delivered

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Brand as purpose

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A strong brand idea provides purpose, motivation and alignment internally

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Example for brand purposes

to organize the world’s information and make it useful

to make digital life simpler and

more stylish

to empower everyone to be

an athlete

Brand as strategy

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As a business tool, brand is the central vision that guides all actions that are ultimately influencing how

a company relates to public.

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The brand helps with all marketing decisions

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Corporate Design

Portfolio strategy/line extensions

InternalCommunication

Recruiting

Behavior of products

Code of conductemployees

Product Design

PR & AdvertisingCampaigns

Retail Design

Product & serviceinnovations

Channel planning

Management style

Tonality guidelines

Corporate Architecture

Naming

Brand Idea

Customer Experience

Claim

It is like a filter for all decisions effecting external relations

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Lego: Fun & Games

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Monocle: Curation

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BIC: Elegant plastic

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How to create a brand

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Three steps to creating a brand

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understand offer, audience, market

focus on a single-minded idea

deliver idea consistently using

messages & experience

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A brand idea unites three different perspectives

attractive and relevant for customers

differentiating to competitors

authentic for company

Brand Idea

clear & focussed!!

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Research helps finding the sweet spot

attractive and relevant for customers

differentiating to competitors

authentic for company

Customer research: needs, decision

criteria, usage, set of considered brands etc.

Market research: areas claimed by competitors,

learnings from others

Internal research: Potential of product &

company, ways of doing things, vision

Describing the brand idea through a model

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Superpowers

Where we are exceptionally good in regards to product, process, service, team etc.

Core Beliefs

Our principles, what we value, what we believe in

Personality

The way we do things around here, our character

and personality

Brand Idea Our contribution to the world, the value we provide

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Brands are a long term investment

Brand

Sales Chanel

Advertising, PerformanceMarketing

Investment in…

time

resu

ltin

g in

cre

ase

in r

eve

nu

e

A brand is more than just about being known

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unbranded product

generic solution

branded product

solution with a name

empty brand

known solution

real brand

preferred solution with a

relevant meaning

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Ultimately, branding creates financial value

0,80€ 3,40€

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making companies more relevant for people

Rlevance Consulting GmbH Christian Vatter, Managing Director

cv@rlevance.com, +49 151 2520 5043

Berlin, Germany

www.rlevance.com

all intellectual property rights reserved

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