What You Should Know About Branding And Co-Branding
By Haber & Associates, corporate lawyers in Burlington, Ontario
Just because you have a product in the marketplace that’s somehow interesting and useful doesn’t necessarily mean that it sticks out in any way from everybody else in the world.
- Your product without a “brand” is just a product
- You want your brand to grab the attention of your desired audience
- For these reasons corporate branding is essential in attaining and maintaining your audience.
But what is corporate branding? What are some things you should know about branding and co-branding agreements? What are some ways your company can use corporate branding as a successful tool to grab and maintain that audience you so desperately seek?
Corporate Branding
When it comes to Corporate Branding, you must be able to promote the brand as a whole, without focusing on a specific product or services. It’s all in the name!
Brand identity: A “brand” is defined as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design” that companies use to identify their products or services. You know what you think of when you see golden arches; you also know what’s evoked when you see an orange swoosh. You likely have a strong product concept of something that’s got a blue box, an apple with a bite taken out of it, or a green siren.
Brand purpose: You know the brands you know and that’s the point of having a brand. You’re not going to confuse the services of a name like Google and a name like Ford, right?
Brand takeaway: All of these words, images, signifiers, and companies all have a strong tag in our minds and for your company that type of identification is something that you should be striving for.
Successful corporate branding involves a great strategic vision, an entirely adopted corporate culture and goal and a strong corporate image. This would be considered the Vison-Culture-Image (VCI) Alignment Model.
Co-Branding
Co-branding is something a little bit different but still something that’s no less powerful.
- In order for there to be a co-branding effort though there usually needs to be at least one well-known product already in the mix.
- Most people wouldn’t step out with two unknowns trying to co-brand off of one another.
Co-branding purpose: The fear here would be that if one of the products were liked and the other one were not, then both would probably go down.
Co-branding example: If you had a bad ice cream topping maker and a new ice cream brand teaming up to make ice cream flavors that might be fine. But if the lactic acid in the ice cream started making kids sick then the topping maker would be forever paired as being part-in-parcel of the problem with the ice cream maker.
Co-branding success: Co-branding has worked for many companies. When Michael Jordan paired up with Nike in 1984 he could have dragged that whole enterprise of pairing athletes and athletic wear down; if Jordan had been a terrible player. The reason that you see so many athletes engaging in the co-branding with different products or services is that the athlete is either worth the risk or has proven themselves. Peyton Manning getting traded to the Broncos might have been the best thing that could have happened for Papa John’s pizza!
Co-branding is everywhere and it often is even taking place in corners of the product world that you may not even be aware of.
Using Corporate Branding: Some of the questions you may have though are:
- “What does this type of arrangement do for my business?”
- “Why should I care if I have a brand?”
- “Shouldn't my amazing products stand or fall on their own?”
Yes of course your products should be able to stand on their own accord. However human beings are a very sensory driven species. If we can’t
- see it
- smell it
- touch it
It’s not really something that we can identify with. Even if it’s something ephemeral, we like to believe we are a part of something larger than ourselves.
Ephemeral Corporate Branding: When Coca Cola did the “I’d like to teach the world to sing” advertising campaign that really took their brand off to global heights. Coke was already a legendary and recognizable brand. But now that there are these television commercials with people in the African, Asian, and Indian continents all “joining hands” it really evoked something deep inside of so many of us. So even if we weren’t really Coke drinkers we may find ourselves reaching for that bottle in a sign of global solidarity.
Of course you need to use corporate branding for a variety of reasons:
- Your message can be delivered with clarity.
- Your credibility can be confirmed.
- You can motivate your buyers.
- You can get people thinking that they are loyal to your product.
- That your branding efforts have reached down to some emotional level.
You basically need to understand what your consumer needs and know exactly what they want even before they do. When you do this successfully your brand will take off and it will not look back. Those points are what you are hoping to reach down to when you are taking on your corporate branding efforts.
Sources:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-branding.html
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2009/sb20090710_255169.htm