Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies. Amy Will

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that serve the same purpose regardless of who makes them, such as gasoline, batteries, dishwashing detergent, coffee beans, Internet bandwidth, and vacuum cleaners. Unless you have a good reason to buy one commodity instead of another, you buy the cheapest one.

       Brands are offerings that are different in some way that matters to customers or clients, such as Shell gasoline, Energizer batteries, Dawn dishwashing detergent, Starbucks coffee, Verizon Internet service, and Shark vacuum cleaners. You’re willing to pay more for your favorite brands because they’re different and better in your mind than the competition.

      If you’re not a brand, you’re a commodity, and if you’re a commodity, the only way you can compete in your market is to offer the lowest price.

Don’t confuse the purposes of branding with brand purpose. Brand purpose is the brand’s raison d’être. The brand purpose of Starbucks, for example, is to help facilitate human connections. And although Walmart is committed to charging low prices, its purpose is to help people provide better lives for their families. To define your brand’s purpose, answer the question “Why is my brand here?” When you define your brand’s purpose, you don’t need to be concerned too much about the competition; you just need to be sure that everything you do aligns with that purpose.

Recognizing Different Brand Types

      One of the first choices you make when you decide to build and launch a brand is what to brand — your business, a specific product or service, or yourself. In this section, I describe the brand types you can build and explain how branding differs for each one.

      Business or corporate brand

      Small businesses to large corporations often brand themselves to

       Differentiate themselves from competitors

       Increase recognition among customers and clients, investors, suppliers, potential partners or associates, and other stakeholders

       Build a strong positive reputation

       Attract high-quality job applicants

       Facilitate the introduction of new products

       Generate press coverage

       Charge a premium for offering something different and better

       Increase the market value of the business

      The focus of corporate branding is mostly on mission, values, relationships, and the business’s culture. Regardless of the size of the business, the goal is to position itself as a respected and valued member of the community — the industry or market in which it operates and the world overall.

      

Corporate brands are slow to build and slow to change. You’re building the brand the entire time you’re building the business. Every decision you make from the time you name the business contributes to the brand, including the suppliers you choose, the people you hire, the culture that develops within the company, how you interact with customers, and your choice of businesses to associate with.

      Product brand

      A product is anything that’s manufactured for sale to consumers. A product brand is the distinct value of a specific product in the minds of consumers; the product is different from and better in some way than something else the consumer could spend money on. The purpose of branding a product is to

       Differentiate it from competing products

       Make it easily recognizable

       Increase loyalty among consumers

       Compel consumers to pay more for the product

The focus of product branding is differentiation — making the product stand out in the marketplace. You build a product brand through product development, packaging, and messaging — everything that contributes to the consumer’s perception of the product.

      

Although corporate brands are slow to build and slow to change, new product brands can be developed quickly and often undergo rebranding.

      Service brand

      A service involves doing something for someone, so how can you possibly brand a service? Usually, you brand the service provider — the business or person providing the service. The purposes of creating a service are very similar to those for creating a business or personal brand:

       Differentiating the service and service provider from competing services

       Building credibility (demonstrating that the service provider is qualified)

       Building trust (showing that the service provider is reputable and reliable)

       Charging a premium for superior service

      With a service brand, your efforts focus mostly on the following credibility- and trust-building activities:

       Earning certifications, awards, and other credentials and then getting them in front of customers, such as posting them on your website and mentioning them in brochures

       Presenting content that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise, such as articles, blog posts, social media posts, photos, videos, podcasts, and white papers

       Engaging with customers and prospects to answer questions and solve problems to further demonstrate your knowledge and expertise

       Soliciting and posting testimonials or positive reviews from satisfied customers

       Getting positive reviews from journalists, business organizations, and other trusted sources

Like corporate brands, service brands are slow to build and slow to change. Your brand continues to evolve as your service evolves. As you introduce new services or develop ways to provide the same services faster, more conveniently, or more affordably, your brand evolves.

      Personal brand

      A personal brand is one that develops around a person. You already have a personal brand: your reputation. People may know you as a sharp-dressing, punctual overachiever; a careless, fun-loving creative; a devoted parent and respected member of the community; or something else entirely. In a career or business, people develop personal brands to

       Increase demand for a product or service they provide

       Further their career

       Expand their opportunities

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