Books by Afolabi Dollars (TheVOICE)

  • Revolutionizing Entrepreneurship, 23 Kingdom Laws of Branding(brand management), Doing Business In A Global Economy(succession and sustainability in business),21st century SMEs,

Monday, December 20, 2010

ADVERTISING AS A GOOD MEDIUM FOR BRAND MAINTENANCE

BRAND MAINTENANCE (ADVERTISING)
Brand maintenance is the act of keeping your brand in an existing state of relevance, efficiency and validity in the mind of your target audience.

It is the continuous preservation of your brand/business against threats, declinations, competitive oppositions and disappointments through constant registration/affirmation of your brand’s delivery capabilities on the mind of the general public, thereby creating consistent consumers’ attraction/attention towards the demand of your brand among other brands.
Brand maintenance compliments brand building and both constitute the management of a brand like we’ve discussed before.
There is no how we will talk about brand maintenance without talking about advertising and there is no how we talk advertising without talking about creativity.
Creativity is an attraction and contingency in the world of advertising and advertising is a world of imagination.
‘ImagiNATION’ is said to be the greatest Nation on planet earth. You can’t create an advert without imagination; both of them are interdependent because advertising helps your brand to broaden your brand’s “communication” and your communication helps you research on how to handle advertising.
Your imaginative power is your creative ability which assertively assures the effectiveness and productiveness of the advertising of your brand.
Albert Einstein, a German born US physicist said “imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited, where as imagination embraces the entire world, thereby stimulating progress and birthing evolution”
The attraction of the general public through advertising is the reflection of your brand image, under the process of brand building, which stimulates outstanding progress among contemporary/competitive brands.

Now, the  power of advertising  in brand maintenance is very well illustrated in the quote of Slevas H. Britt, he said “doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark, you know what you are doing but nobody else does”.
So, you have to engage in strategic advertising, where the general public SEE and HEAR your “good works”, and then your brand stands the chance of always being recommended and attracts more patronage from your target audience.
Since the marketability of your brand is of great importance, there is need to put into demonstration the factors that will ensure the prominence/accentuation of your brand, making it of great demand by your target audience. These factors can practically be enhanced through advertising and are therefore a reflection or product of what advertising will do to any brand:
(1)   Advertising exposes your brand.
(2)   Advertising celebrates your brand.
(3)   Advertising emphasizes on what makes your brand unique and different from other brands.
(4)   Advertising communicates the strength of your brand.
Advertising makes the demonstration of the above factors emphatic on images (logos, trade marks, symbols), slogans etc on your invoice, TV, radio, website/internet, letterhead, complimentary card, billboards, news papers/magazine etc.




 





BRAND CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT STRATEGY
Celebrity endorsement is another way/strategy of maintaining your brand in the mind of your target audience.
Brand custodians all over the world agitate this aspect of brand maintenance. Celebrity endorsement is really commendable as the trend is advantageous and profitable to your brand, especially if the celebrity is renowned for positive lifestyle or achievements.

Different celebrities all over the world, ranging from musicians, sports men, actors & actresses, TV presenters, politicians, clergies, comedians to professors etc. have been brand ambassadors in different category of brand endorsements at different times.
Michael Jackson, the late American world pop king endorsed the Pepsi brand long time ago before he was scandalized in child molestation.
Other celebrities like Shaquil O’Neal, an American basket ball player and other celebrities like football superstars like Raul, Roberto Carlos, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Louis Figo, Didier Drogba, Mikel Obi, Zinedine Zidane etc have all endorsed for Pepsi as a world brand.
Genevieve Nnaji, a Nollywood star actress endorsed of recent for Lux soap as a brand ambassador and other celebrities like Robin Townsend and more have in time past endorsed the same brand.
Alibaba and Julius Agwu both Nigerian ace standup comedians endorsed for a Dutch brand, Hollandia milk.
Pastor Paul Adefarasin, a Nigerian dynamic speaker and versatile clergy of House on the Rock Church, endorsed for one of the best entertainment TV station in Africa, STV.
Mohammed Ali, world greatest boxing legend, endorsed for an international brand, Amstel Malta.
Oprah Winfrey, an accomplished TV presenter/celebrity endorsed for a few brands and she's a brand ambassador for herself.

However, celebrity endorsement is more expedient with sports and better if the celebrity is involved in community development or charity works.
Let us look at a sport icon, David Beccham, who has been involved in various brands’ endorsements like Pepsi, Nike and a few other brands including fashion. He is involved in a charity work, where he contributes his own quota to humanity.
Also, Kanu Nwankwo, a world known footballer with substantial achievements, he runs a charity organization known as Kanu Heart Foundation; he has endorsed for Peak milk and a few other brands’ endorsements.

Celebrity endorsements in branding really  goes a long way to maintain your brand and it has been in operation in developed countries but its quite new in developing countries.
Now, be CAUTIONED as a brand custodian, in the agitation of celebrity endorsements ‘cause some celebrities are considered a “hard sell” in brand maintenance, so be discrete and prudently selective in search of icons or celebrities for your brand in various parts of the world because they (“hard sell”) affect your brand negatively due to their lifestyle, poor antecedence or stigma, which is the societal disapproval of ignonimity.
What I’m saying in essence is any celebrity that has at a point in time been involved in a societal scandal like hard drugs, molestation of any sort, murder, adultery or promiscuity, corruption and such of these which some celebrities (I don’t want to mention names) across the world had fallen guilty at different times, should not be allowed to endorse your brand as doing this will give a negative impression about your organization’s integrity to your target audience. This will automatically affect your brand negatively.
You should target celebrities considered as “easy sell” as  they are very  healthy and profitable to/for your brand because these celebrities  have large number of fans and people who they mentor; so when they are used as brand  ambassadors/endorser of your brand, they attract more of their fans  and those who look up to them to your brand. You can be sure of getting response like these from the public:  “I love to drink Pepsi ‘cause that’s what Beccham drinks”; “I like to use DARK & LOVELY Hair Relaxer ‘cause of the endorsement of Kelly Rowland”; “I like to buy a Nike trainers ‘cause that’s what Michael Jordan’s putting on to walk in the air”; “I must wear Nike swoosh face cap ‘cause its always cool on Tiger Woods”.
These are the kinds of statements you get from the general public because they are great/committed fans of your endorsing celebrities; even “if” those celebrities don’t actually use or patronize the brand they are endorsing.

 ......culled from my book on 23 Kingdom Laws of Branding
AFOLABI  DOLLARS(TheVOICE)
+2349032997114, +2348098950337

Saturday, December 18, 2010

REBRANDING: 5 STEPS TO ENSURING SUCCESS IN A REBRANDING PROCESS

REBRANDING
Rebranding is yet another good brand communication as far as brand building is concerned.
Rebranding a product/service in most cases of brand development  is seen in the change of the brand’s name; sometimes, it could be in the change, repackaging or upgrading of the brand’s slogan, efficiency, quality services, image and so on which are modified to build upon the existing relationship between the brand and the target audience.

Rebranding any phenomenon comes in different modification, qualification or description but it’s not just about the CHANGE but always creating a credible and remarkable impression in the minds of your target audience.

Therefore, any  operational or strategic change in  the name of rebranding must  be  the one that creates  or register a  positive  indelible mark or confidence in the minds of the  public through OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS from you as an individual, or as a brand and/or as a nation in any part of the world.

As a brand, individual or  nation, your REBRANDING ESSENCE must be felt, decoded and understood by the  target audience you are trying  to communicate the essence to  or else, you are just  embarking/engaging a futile/demeaning exercise.

We have different categories of rebranding based on the kind of change/modification in a brand and its economic activities, ranging from NOMINAL, STRUCTURAL, IMAGE, PHILOSOPHICAL TO NATIONAL and so on.

For instance, a commercial bank, which is one of the new generation banks in Nigeria known as First Inland Bank, rebranded and changed their brand name to Finbank (Nominal Rebranding).
Another instance is the Nigerian Lever Brothers Plc which rebranded to Unilever (Nominal rebranding).
One of the strongest brands in the Nigerian oil & gas industry ,Oando is a typical example that has progressively gone through a rebranding process since  1956,when it started as Esso West Africa  inc., later rebranded  into Esso  standard  Nig. Ltd  in 1969,later  into  Unipetrol since 1976 until about a decade ago, it finally rebranded to its current name,Oando (Nominal rebranding).
Examples of a few other brands which engaged in nominal rebranding are:
Ø      YAHOO, formerly called Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web.
Ø      PEPSI, formerly known as Brad’s drink
Ø      GOOGLE started out with the name "Backrub"
Ø      NIKE rebranded in 1978 from the name, “Blue Ribbon Sports”
Ø      NISSAN, was initially known as “Nippon Sangyo”
Ø      ORACLE changed their name from “Relational Software Inc”.
Ø      SIEMENS was originally called “Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske”.
Ø      SKYPE rebranded from its former name, “Skyper” but original concept name was “Sky-Peer-to-Peer”.
Ø      TOYOTA changed its initial name, “Toyeda”
Ø      ACCENTURE rebranded their name from “Andersen consulting”.
Ø      XEROX CORPORATION was formerly The Haloid Company”.

Sterling Bank, another Nigerian New generation bank modified their bank slogan to “Da one customer bank” (Philosophical rebranding).
Other examples of great brands across the world engaged in the change of their brand slogan are British airways, Apple computers, Ford, Coca-cola, IBM, Kodak, Phillips, Shell, Delta airlines, Microsoft  and various banks etc.

Tantalizer plc, a Nigerian branded eatery changed/modified the face of their building structure (Structural rebranding).
First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), a great brand that has been in existence for over a century in  the fore front of the Nigerian  banking sector rebranded in the modification of their elephant logo(Image rebranding).
Other examples of great brands across the world engaged in the change of their brand logos are IBM, Apple, BMW, Nike, Microsoft, LG, Mercedes Benz, Nokia, Xerox, Wal-Mart  etc.
 Many prominent corporate brands change their logos to achieve the perfect BRAND IDIENTITY because the creation of perfect and acceptable brand identification is not an occasional activity but a lifetime registration.

We can see in history different countries engaged in the modification/change of their names, flags colors, anthems, political, economic systems etc in order to project themselves as a great nation with good people and friendly/viable economy before other nations in the world (National rebranding).
A few instances of National rebranding can be seen in a nation like the Soviet Union rebranded into the USSR. Nigeria rebranded in their national anthem to the current one. “Arise o’compatriot…..”. Ghana rebranded her sports activities; Japan a long time ago rebranded her economy and it became one the fastest growing economies in the world. There is no how we talk about national rebranding without talking about the USA; how she through her capitalist and entrepreneurial economic activities has made her one of the strongest brand in the world. Great Britain, Germany  and  other countries  had  underwent  national rebranding at different  times; some failed, some succeeded while some are  yet  to  succeed.



Please note that the slogan is just a part of the philosophy of a brand among others like vision, mission statement etc, just as a logo is just a part of a brand image and not the brand image, though the logo of your brand is the identity that is fundamental to building your brand and communicating with your target audience.

Also, the building structure is just a part of the structure (organizational layout) of a brand and not the main structure.


5 STEPS TO ENSURING SUCCESS IN A REBRRANDING PROCESS

(1)Rebranding should be understood/engaged as a PROCESS & not a PROJECT.
A project is simply a specific plan or design used to communicate vividly to audience for a specific period but a process is a phenomenon marked by gradual changes that leads towards achieving a particular RESULT.
If you engage rebranding as a project, you may become “impatient” and begin to present yourselves as a mirage instead of the substance. You are viewed for a short period of time as the bomb! But after a while, you begin to loose credibility before your target audience ‘cause the “project is over!”
If you engage rebranding as a process as a brand, indivual and nation, there is a gradual development, no rush, the right step at the right time, knowing fully well that Rome wasn’t built in a day. As a Nation for instance, rebranding as a process will make you to know that some political policies and/or economic strategies have to be in place for another to function. It’s a one step at a time thing.

(2) Don’t pay LIPSERVICE! DO IT! LIVE IT!!!
It’s never enough to just project your brand or nation to your target audience (general public or other nations) by singing, talking or advertising your brand. It’s nice to advertise, do jingles, publicities and so on but engaging  all that without the spectators or target audience testifying in confidence about the credibility, integrity/character, promises fulfillment and corresponding actions/activities, then you as a brand is just engaging a “gargantuan” project, or call it a “white elephant  project” of HIGH FEASIBIILITIES BUT LOW IMPACT!
A brand like Nigeria for instance is yet to achieve success in their campaign for rebranding because most of her citizens are wearing the green white green flag & map tag everyday in the name of "rebranding” but their character, integrity in business and daily economic activities in different sectors including some churches are actually "debranding" Nigeria.
We are advertising Nigeria as our brand through the tag wearing, songs of good people, great nation et al but building Nigeria as a brand can be achieved by integrity or promises fulfillments from or by every sector mentioned. This is why I emphasize always that brand advertising (logos, jingles& slogans etc) must blend with brand building (integrity, character &internal reformation) to achieve success in national rebranding and any other rebranding process.
Avoid the hands of Esau but voice of Jacob’s syndrome; because you are only deceiving/mocking yourself as a nation/brand.

(3)Engage a JUXTAPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS of your brand activity before & during your rebranding process.
There is need for you to compare and contrast the modus operandi of your brand before the rebranding process, critically observing every factor that affected your brand productivity in the past, putting them into consideration, recalling that whatever is considerable is attainable.
As a brand engaging a rebranding process, you have to work on past flaws, defects,  losses, failures etc and ensure dogmatic, practical and responsible measures to effect  operational improvements which keeps your brand in the game.
Juxtapose also in comparison, brands or nations that have achieved tremendous success in their rebranding process and learn from their failures and success, their ups and downs and other rebranding strategies.

(4) Allow the active participation of brand experts/consultants.
Rebranding a brand, personality or nation requires the critical and experiential analysis and advice of brand experts/consultants to achieve success.
In fact, engaging a rebranding process of any dimension without the active involvement of brand consultants is like trying to fly a plane without a pilot; that plane is definitely heading for a crash!
For example, Nigeria as a brand is still in the process of trying to re-brand the entire nation’s image and reputation before other nations, though I see it as a gargantuan project of high irrational projections but extremely low/zero impact until the core materials of her BRAND GENETICS as a nation are practically and responsibly dissected and especially analyzed first by brand experts/consultants, then, other participants involved in the national rebranding process, working with them in synergy.

(5) Consistent Review/Evaluation at the drawing BOARD.
The difference between step no.3 and no.5 is that the first talks about the preview while the latter talks about the review of your rebranding process vis-à-vis your brand activity/performance.
There must be a progressive monitoring of your rebranding process by constantly falling back to the drawing board as this will help a lot in making you to be more PROACTIVE than just being REACTIVE to market/economic activities, consumers’ responsiveness etc.
This step is very important in  your rebranding  process ‘cause it makes you as a brand custodian to know how well you are communicating your REBRANDING ESSENCE to your target audience; it makes you to know when to apply a  strategy  or change to a new strategy for your brand to RUN at PEAK PRODUCTIVITY.  Considering the acronym O.I.C.A approach helps in reviewing your rebranding process from time to time, making your rebranding strategies effective and productive.
O=OBSERVATION (makes you observe the effect/dynamism of your rebranding strategies).
I=INTERPRETATION (makes you interpret & understand the reaction of your target audience & economic activities to your rebranding strategies).
C=CORRELATION (makes you relate and link the response of your target audience, competitors etc to the performance of your rebranding strategies).
A=APPLICATION (makes you know what strategies to communicate and when to apply other strategies if/when necessary).

.......culled from my book on  23 Kingdom Laws of Branding

AFOLABI DOLLARS (TheVOICE)
+2349032997114, +2348098950337

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

BRAND BUILDING prt.2(brand communication)

                                             BRAND COMMUNICATION
Brand communication is a strong ingredient in brand building.

Nicholas Johnson, former member, Federal communication commission said "All television is educational television, the question is: what is it teaching?”

The above quote brings us to the question: WHAT IS YOUR BRAND COMMUNICATING?
Building a brand demands having a plan that consistently or currently communicate your attributes, uniqueness, image and brand personality to the general public.
There is need for the delivery and understanding of the ever-evolving consumers’ responsiveness to economic change, anticipation of market trends and the facilitation of communication potency that will ensure brand communication integration.
Brand communication in brand building requires that your business must orchestrate a brand image that goes far beyond its years of existence -sustainability!
What kind of IMAGE is your brand communicating? Let’s consider an image called "intaglio"


"Intaglio" is a type of image produced by an engraving or incised figure or carving in a stone or any other hard material depressed below the surface of the material so that an impression from the design yields the desired image as seen in the sample image above.

I want to attribute the "intaglio" to represent a good brand communication in brand building; creating a positive and credible impression for your brand in the minds of your target audience. Those credible impressions created represent the image your brand is communicating.
"intaglio” represents your brand being carved out or/and singled out from the surface of other brands and general public can see the 'carvings' and develops confidence in your brand.
Let me say clearly that a brand's logo is totally distinct from a brand's image; the logo is just like a cup of water in a bucket of water (image!); a brand can easily change, modify or redesign its logo, making it "Leonardo d'avincically" captivating but if the IMAGE is "dark" before its target audience, the logo can't illuminate the darkness. A BRAND LOGO IS EASIER 'BUILT' WHEN DESTROYED THAN ITS IMAGE ‘CAUSE THE TARGET AUDIENCE IS ACTUALLY "MARRIED" TO THE IMAGE & NOT THE BEAUTIFUL LOGO. That’s why God as a master brand custodian, chose JESUS to be the express IMAGE of his brand.
Below are logos of some great brands that has communicated the right image over the years

                                                                                 
                                                                                               
 



                             

                                                                                                        

             
Let us briefly consider a few brand communication factors in brand building:

*BRAND NAME DESIGNATION
This is the act or process of choosing a name for your brand.  In doing this, originality is needed. Choose a name that correlates with your brand operations and be positive in your choice name; don’t choose names like "darkness Inc", “death line", "Lucifer" etc. use names that the general public will reckon with.
Register your brand name with the corporate affairs commission/corporate body of your country.
I suggest you use uncommon names like words from Greek, Latin, French et al 'cause most of the English words have been used by some other persons.
Whatever  name you are using as  a brand  name, don’t forget  that it must correlate with  your business modus operandi; for example, if your business operation has to  do with communications, then, you  can  consider  a brand name like "parrocom",or"mouth2ear"  or "homolog".

*BRAND PHILOSOPHY
At this level, you are communicating your brand vision, mission statement, goals and objectives, connectivity et al. Your brand philosophy is mostly encapsulated in a slogan.  I.e. your business slogan. For example, when you see/hear a slogan like: "Everywhere you go”; then MTN, a multi-national communication company comes to mind. ", “just do it”; NIKE comes to mind, “the power to be your best” or “think different” –APPLE COMPUTERS is it, “the reliable airline”-KLM rings a bell, “your potential, our passion” –MICROSOFT stays on  mind, “Express & logistics” –DHL, “Rule your world”  - that’s GLO, ”Twist  the cap to refreshment” –COCA-COLA.

Choose your own brand philosophy and don’t pay lip service to it, let it be practically felt in your business operation, in short, make it your  modus vivendi.

*BRAND ESSENCE
This brand communication factor is what I call the main engine of building your brand as it talks about/reveals what and why your brand is in the market, why is it existing and what all is about. Your brand essence as a brand communication reflect in information communication technology (ICT), your market strategies, brand color, structural communication, image display, product packaging etc

*PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR is an integrated marketing communication effecting a perpetual brand development and improvement, which is a necessary propellant in the direction of achieving excellence and professionalism that will endure and add tremendous value to the business bottom-line.
This is arguably the most important brand communication factor, involved so strong in brand building. PR is  about your constant  and progressive  relationship with your  target audience, the  integrity of your brand, consistency in promises fulfillments(promos,  bonanza, discounts etc),good customer service(promptness  to delivery, response to phone calls, emails, complains etc).
The good thing about PR as a brand communication is that your target audience becomes "addicted" and faithful to your brand alone; they won’t want to patronize any other brand than yours, they end up becoming strong campaigners for your brand, telling and influencing others to patronize your brand.
Create an avenue through your website or any other media by which customers can pass comments on your brand & its efficiency and learn from the good, bad and ugly comments and adjust in operational improvements. This is consumer checkmated brand building.


*BRAND QUALITY&VALUE
You make sure your brand is communicating quality, integrity, efficiency as these make your brands stand out among others.

*BRAND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
This is yet another good brand communication in brand building; here, your brand is expected to communicate sponsorships, supports, reality shows, sports, scholarships and other community programs.
It is good and advisable for brand custodians to have or continue to have an attitude of effective and rational CSR performance in the running of their businesses in line with the societal expectations of a responsible corporate citizen in this 21st century.
Martin Luther King (jnr.), US clergy man, leader and black human right activist said "as long as there is poverty in the world, I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions are dieing, I can never be totally healthy; I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made"
Any business/brand should have a humanitarian aspect in compassionate contribution to the development of the community in which they exist.
CSR is a very strong ingredient in building your brand, particularly in sponsorship as it eventually attract and collocate Return on Investment (ROI).
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important mechanism in consumer engagement because it compliments marketing and it plays a more effective role than advertising.
Through advertisisng, you are communicating your brand from a far distance to your target audience but CSR is an avenue to get very close to your target audience, bringing about sustainable communication between your brand and them.
Different brands across the globe such like siemens, Pepsi, Nokia, Coca-Cola,  Samsung,  T-mobile, MTN, GLO and more have carried out CSR particularly in  the area of sports, precisely  football  because the population of people attracted to sports, especially football all over the world are so numerous. This has made sports the globally dominant avenue for sponsorship among others.
I suggest that other avenues for sponsorships should also be explored by brand builders in order to show distinctiveness/uniqueness of your brand and not just going with the band wagon.
As a brand builder/executive, you must have CSR incorporated in your business operations.
You should have an evaluation process on Return on Investment (ROI) on CSR, particularly by critically looking at the impact of CSR on brand equity and its effect on your brand image in juxtaposition with your brand footprint.

....culled from my book on 23 Kingdom Laws  of Branding

AFOLABI  DOLLARS(TheVOICE)
+2349032997114,+2348098950337

Saturday, December 4, 2010

BRAND MANAGEMENT (brand building part1)

Brand concept is different from BRAND MANAGEMENT, brand concept is the foundation of brand management; this simply means that a brand  is conceived and birthed/created before it is managed. In this article,  I'm going to be discussing brand management while i discuss brand concept in the next article.
Brand management is the progressive act or art of managing,conducting,launching and supervising your business products/services with judicious use of means to accomplish uniqueness,general public acceptance and sustainability.
Brand managemment is dividedd into 2  major aspects which  ared BRAND  BUILDING and BRAND MAINTENANCE .
Before I  delve into full discussion about the 2 aspects,I'll like to throw a  little light  on the misrepresentation, interwoveness  and interdependency of both as brand  building  is not the  same as brand maintenance;they are 2 different aspects which are interdependent in the launch of your products/services:

* When you talk about brand maintenance,you are talking about the advertising of your brand but when you talk  about brand building,you are talking about PR& brand integrity. therefore,your brand is built or developed with PR&INTEGRITY while you maintain your brand with ADVERTISING.

* Brand building is a PROCESS while brand maintenance is a PROJECT: a process is simply a phenomenon marked by gradual changes that leads towards a particular result  but a project is simply  a specific plan  or design used to communicate vividly to an audience.

* Brand  building reveals what the general  public(target  audience) saying about your brand through PR,good customer relations,TQM,et al while brand maintenance reveals what you are saying about your brand to the general public  through advertising.

* Brand  building  ensures brand confidence and trust but brand maintenance ensures brand capitulations.

* Brand building should be of topmost  priority especially with  PR&brand integrity taking the pace role/function while brand maintenance shhould  be secondary with advertising blending with brand building in surbordination in launching your brand.

* Brand building help sustain your brand while brand maintenance help maintain  your  brand. This  simply means that your  brand makes some promises through advertising to your target audience in order to maintain  the brand but the fulfillment of those  promises is practically ensured through brand building in  order to sustain the  brand.

* Brand building  speaks to  your target audience at a very close range but brand maintenance speaks to your target audience from afar/distance.(in  painting, objects that are near or close show more brilliance in colors than  objects that are  far; brand building is therefore the near/closer colorful object which shows more brilliance than  brand maintenance,a colorful object but from afar).

* Brand building through the integrity  of your brand shows the REAL VALUE of your brand but brand maintenance through advertising shows the PERCEIVED VALUE of  your brand to your target audience.

Now, having established  these few facts, let  us go into the nitty gritty of brand building and brand maintenance  where further  explication on this  subject are discussed.

BRAND  BUILDING
The first thing that should come into the mind of any business owner who agitate being a brand custodian is "God first". This means that no  matter the  concept,strategies,skills,packaging and plan towards  building a  brand,without God, it  could  be a  futile/vain  exercise.
In  brand management, you  should recognize from  the differences i gave between the 2 major aspects  of brand  management that brand building is  much more important  than  brand maintenance.
Due to misrepresentation,most people,business owners engages in advertising,conventionally in building a brand,which is wrong!;advertising is mostly effective in brand maintenance and not  in brand building.
Poor results  is what you get when you use advertising in place of PR&brand integrity in brand  building.
PR&brand integrity establishes a brand  progressively and steadily,giving confidence and trust whhich serve as the "backbone" of brand building,assertively and consistently registering your brand in the frequencies of  the  consumers' thinking.
Also,PR  role  in brand building ensures a constant solid consumer brand awareness through publicity,making it an irresistible force in branding.
Brand building  is the constant relationship and interactions between  your brand and your target audience or the general public.In  this approach,you try to discover what they like,dislike and their motivations;you demonstrate at all times using the "meet-the-customer" approach, "feed back" approach and more where you have opportunity to know and understand your target audience better.
This strategy actually help to sustain your brand into the future.
You can see  the reason  brand  integrity&PR are exigent tools in brand building as they make you to know what the public is saying,how they feel,what their opinions are about your brand,which  make you know the level of credibility or confidence they have in your brand.

The QUALITY ASSURANCE of your brand packages and services you are offering and always ready to offer especially in what i call the 3Ps dimensionPackaging, Presentation &Plan. This strategy  will perpetually conciliate the PERCEPTION of your brand to your customers and general public.
Take for instance, a magazine called OVATION,owned by a Nigerian international publisher,Dele Momodu, is a strong brand because the PRODUCTION QUALITY ASSURANCE of the magazine,ranging from picture quality,paper texture,color separation and sharpness of the magazine which gives it stability,credibility and reckoness among competitors.

3Ps dimension
PACKAGING :- This is briefly the act  or  process of arranging and augmenting of your business products and  services  in a uniform/organized pattern and style with the aim of creating an impression and class to your target audience.
This dimension in brand building is not  limited to products and services alone but also reflected in other aspects like your business philosophy,welfares,dress code,conducts,promptness,tech. compliance  et  al. In essence, you try to see how you can make yourself better and organized in every sense in order to make your  target audience feel better,especially about your brand.

PRESENTATION:- This is simply how you want to be seen,viewed,understood and accepted by your target audience. This is very  crucial in brand building because your brand is been set forth for the attention of your audience' minds.
The presentation of your  brand,how it is read by the entire public  matters.if   you  present your brand as a practically reliable,dependable and credible  brand  before  your target audience,then that is what they see,feel and believe.

PLAN:- You cant even build any brand without a plan before and during the course of brand management.Plan  is always a giver of direction.
You must develop a plan,strategy or method  of achieving the aim of launching your brand,particularly to become a cynosure among existing brands.
You must have a detailed formulation on how you want your brand to  capture the market at the immediate and progressive.
In the process of building your brand,through planing, you put into consideration success indicators,monitoring and evaluation,using it to know how efficient and realistic your plan is in achieving an end, which is launching your brand and registering it in your audience' minds.

....culled from my book on 23 Kingdom Laws of Branding

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