Branding from the Experts!

Last week I attended a wonderful presentation at the Business Marketing Association. The presenter was Aimee Davis, Global Marketing Communications Manager at Solutia. The topic was on branding and how in 2006, Solutia’s performance products division was suffering from brand confusion. Undeterred by these challenges, our speaker, Ms. Davis, helped bring these product brands under the branded house of Saflex, increasing brand recognition worldwide.

Aimee talked about how, with research, they discovered the problems associated to their brand which included: there was a lack of consistency and focus in market-facing activities, spreading their message across multiple brands with unclear relationships and promoting products and not a clearly defined “company” brand.

She then reminded us what a brand means and outline that a brand is:

• It’s what we stand for; it’s a promise!
• Must be aligned with business strategy.
• Helps position offerings in the minds of the market, customers and employees.
• It’s a company asset containing long-term equity.

And she outlined the benefits of a strong brand:
• Brand loyalty drives repeat business
• Creates preference > “premium pricing”
• Instant creditability with new product introductions
• Customers will be more loyal to you in a time of crisis
• People want to work for / work with brand leaders

To many professional marketers this outline is straight from brand strategy 101. However, what many marketers do is forget about the fundamentals and glance over the obvious. Going back to the fundamentals is essential in marketing. The first activity Solutia took was research. This is the least appreciated, often over looked activity in marketing. However, research is the lynch-pin to a successful marketing strategy. Without research a marketer is basing their activity on assumptions and guesses rather than facts.

Then Aimee outlined the common misconceptions about branding. Among the list is what I feel are the two most common misconceptions:

• Branding is simply a name and logo
• Brands take care of themselves.

I constantly see companies hire design firms to do their branding. And design firms boost of branding when all they really do is design a nice logo and letterhead. An “identity package” from a design firm is not branding. They never mention research or brand strategy they just keep posting logos and call it "branding". These companies are missing the boat. Now it is perfectly acceptable for a company to hire a design firm to design a logo and indentity materials after the research and brand strategy have been developed. But "indentity materials" without a true brand strategy is just a pretty design.

To many professional marketers this outline is straight from brand strategy 101. However, what many marketers do is forget about the fundamentals and glance over the obvious. Going back to the fundamentals is essential in marketing. Ms. Davis’ presentation confirmed that the fundamental brand strategy process is crucial in developing a strong brand.

Brand strategy is not just for large companies that can afford extensive research and brand strategy specialist. There are excellent professional marketers who not only have the education but have the experience who can help mid-size to small business owners develop, implement and maintain a highly valuable and profitable brand.

Ms. Davis’ presentation was outstanding. She walked us through the logic and strategy of developing a strong brand, implementing an internal and external strategy and concluded with the outcome. As a result of her work, Ms. Davis and the Solutia team have experience in 2Q09 the best quarter in the history of the company. Now that's a brand stratgy with straightforward results!