Mike Baglietto, global head of market insights at next-generation consumer analytics and market intelligence platform NetBase Quid, describes social media as “the world’s largest focus group.” “You are not required to purchase a research report, you don’t have to do a survey. People on social media share anything and everything, and they’re pretty unfiltered, so you can find out exactly how people feel about your brand, competitors, and even your market. 

However, there is a significant distinction between social media and any other focus group, big or small. Once you’ve found out how people perceive your brand, only social media also allows you to change that perception. 

Social media’s top trends

Baglietto was one of the speakers on The Drum’s Consumer & Market Intelligence in 2022: What’s Affecting Your Brand Health? webinar, which was to be co-hosted by NetBase Quid. Baglietto, and his colleague Harvey Raola, NetBase Quid’s global head of media intelligence, discussed the following during the session: 

• This year’s top social media trends
• The mass adoption of augmented reality 
• TikTok and Reddit’s increasing importance
• The need to create a baseline so you can track the health of your brand over time. 
• How influencers and critics might be identified by brand managers
• The necessity to establish a baseline so you can track the health of your brand over time. 
• Baglietto presented the key parameters that marketers could use to assess their brand’s health. 

“There’s the number of posts or mentions about my brand; how do customers feel about it, my net sentiment score; and how many people will really see it, my net potential impressions.” Then there’s the issue of how many people are writing those posts. 

“Then we’ll look into where your audience is talking about your brand, and which social media platforms are hosting those conversations.” We’d also like to investigate the possibilities for your brand on such platforms.”

One of Baglietto’s key points was that different channels appeal to attract a different audiences. For example, the Tiktok audience is more female, whereas the Reddit audience is more male. Rather than creating “social media content” and pushing it out across all channels, marketers need to target their content by channel. 

“The people who follow your brand on Twitter may not be the same people who follow your brand on TikTok or Instagram,” he explained. “So, in order to unlock additional income and  retention possibilities, you need to fully understand who that audience is.”

Do not be concerned about the Kardashians. 

The other major topic for discussion was influencers and in particular micro-influencers. 

“Micro-influencers – the folks with 5,000 to 25,000 followers on social media, generate a lot of potential for your brand and have the most impact,” Baglietto added. “They provide you the ability to connect with them in a genuine way.” It’s fantastic to have a Kardashian tweet about your company. But do customers really take action as a result? If I were an activewear brand, I would search for yoga instructors or personal trainers with a following. They’ll engage their target audience, and they’re true to the category and to my users.”

However, as Ranola pointed out, authenticity is a two-way street. When it came to interacting with Reddit groups, he emphasized the importance of striking a balance between knowledge and promotion. 

“One of the things Reddit is known for is how brutally honest people are and how easily they can spot something that isn’t genuine,” he said. “Toeing the line of being able to provide value while remaining authentic is something that businesses must be very careful about.” I know this from a personal experience at a company I previously worked for, where we were a little bit too salesy and we got called out pretty quickly and banned from the Subreddit we were promoting.” 

Baglietto concluded with a list of recommendations for marketers looking to monitor and improve the health of their brand:

• At least once a month, evaluate your success with all of your important audiences across all of your main channels. 
• Understand the types of content that are most important for each segment on each channel. 
• Look for influencers who have the same personality as your company. 
• In real-time, monitor the response to anything you and your team post, as well as what your influencers post. 
• Make any necessary course corrections. 

The post Improve Your Social Media Brand’s Health With These 5 techniques appeared first on Branditechture.

…But there’s something you have forgotten

Marketing isn’t the most important component of brand success. Marketing is really about following through on your promises. It’s about providing your customers with those high-quality products and top-notch services that surpass their expectations. You have just published an irresistible copy, but can you make sure you are worth the hype?

And for those of us who create courses and other digital learning resources, this also means that product development is the most important aspect of our brand’s success. The majority of your quality will be built in — or left out — during product design and creation.

People pay attention to your branding efforts in the short run. Your marketing has a big role in how they perceive your quality. They consider your brand’s promises, both explicit and implicit, before making a decision. Your marketing will persuade them that you are an expert in your field. Also, that you will produce a high-quality output.

However, in the long run, people will judge you based on how successfully you follow through on your promises. They evaluate you based on the quality of your goods or service delivery. This would define the quality of the relationship they will form with you.

In the world of online marketing, building a long-term relationship with your customers is key to your brand’s success, and this is one of the reasons why creating a list is so important.

How you create and develop your products has the greatest impact on their overall quality.

A Case Study

In an effort to explain the relationship between delivering on your brand promises and your brand’s success, let’s take an educational content producer as a case study.

There are three levels of quality in an educational content product:

👉🏽 The first is the subject matter. This isn’t about your knowledge of the subject. It is about your knowledge of your consumers — your target audience. A huge percentage of these people will enrol in your course precisely because your marketing copy arouses their curiosity, and although unfamiliar with your brand, they are still curious enough to want to buy your course.

After buying and consuming the material, their assessments of the content’s quality would likely differ. This is what makes up what we popularly call reviews. No matter how good you are in your field,  you would occasionally get poor reviews.

A customer submitting a review

Clients often evaluate your content based on how well it satisfies their requirements and expectations. Did you create the product to address a specific issue they’re experiencing? Did you create your product with their goals in mind? That is how they will assess the quality of your content.

👉🏽 The second criterion they will use to evaluate you is your organisational skills. Do you appear to have a good enough understanding of the subject to deliver it to them?  Do you offer your ideas in a logical manner? Do you employ an inclusive teaching style?

👉🏽 Finally, they will assess your performance depending on how well you deliver. Does it appear to be professional? What’s your spelling like? How is your grammar? Do you appear to be approachable and friendly?

Conclusion

You see, delivering high-quality content means carefully identifying and targeting your target audience. And you’ll use the same target consumer you identified during the product design and creation process for all of your customer interactions. This includes tailoring your marketing to your ideal customer. As a matter of fact, how well you deliver your brand promise would ultimately determine your brand’s success.

The post Delivering on Your Brand Promise is Key to Your Brand’s Success appeared first on Branditechture.

Those are some horrific figures right there, but to save you from becoming a part of this horrible statistics, we have prepared 6 habits that successful brands employ to grow and sustain their brand.

You can implement all these right away to set yourself and your employees up for success.

1. Taking Breaks

Taking breaks can lead to breakthroughs. When you just can’t figure it out and your mind gets stuck on the same problem, it’s best to take a break or do something completely different for a while.

While this might seem counterintuitive, trying the same thing over and over again will lead to nothing but frustration. 

Here are a few activities that can help:

• Clear out your inbox or answer a few emails
• Read a hardcover book or magazine
• Clear out your desk or office
• Take on a simple task
• Ride a bicycle
• Play a mobile game like PUBG, Call of Duty, Asphalt or any simulation game on your mobile phone.
• Watch an adrenaline-packed movie

We conducted a two-month study comprising a group of five web developers who took regular breaks and another group of five web developers who had the habit of staying glued to their seat all day long. 

The study revealed that the productivity and commitment to work increased for the first group of web developers. They were also able to find solutions to certain bugs faster than their counterparts who stuck to their screens all day long.  

This also had a measurable impact on the company’s sales figures as they were able to complete their respective assignments as expected. 

Google’s Office In Zurich. Image Credit: Fast Company.

Some companies and workplaces know this, hence the reason why you would normally see relaxation and recreation spots within the confinement of their workspaces.

So taking a break would not only improve focus and concentration, but would also provide the much needed room for a mental refresh. 

After a break, work can resume with more energy and motivation. Working without taking one or more breaks would only result in mental and physical fatigue. It can even lead to low creativity levels and ultimately, burnout.

2. Having an entrepreneurial mindset

Whether you are an employer or an employee, you’ll always have an image and a reputation to grow and sustain. Therefore, it’s safe to say that you have a brand. To this end, there is always a need to think from the standpoint of an entrepreneur. 

The entrepreneurial mindset is a special one: It is a way of thinking that enables you to overcome challenges associated with both work and life. It also enables you to differentiate between activities that strengthen your brand from ones that can potentially cause harm or retrogression to your brand.

You can’t afford to be indecisive. You must also learn to accept responsibility for your outcomes. It is a constant need to improve your skills, learn from your mistakes, and make better decisions. Anyone with a job can develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

ALSO READ:8 Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From Branding

3. Buying and examining your competitor’s products or services

Buying and Examining your competitor’s products and services is one step closer to getting firsthand information on what competitive advantages your competitors may have over your brand. 

Here are other good reasons to buy from your competitors;

• You will get the much needed insights into making your products, services and marketing strategy stand out. 
• It will enable you to set your prices more competitively. 
• You will be in a better position to respond to rival marketing campaigns with your own initiatives.
• It equips you with the knowledge required to create marketing strategies that take advantage of your competitors’ weaknesses, and improve your own overall business performance. 

4. Hiring an accounting and bookkeeping expert or company

Your decision to hire a bookkeeper should depend on what stage of growth your business has reached and how comfortable you are doing your own bookkeeping. There’s no doubt, however, that hiring a bookkeeper comes with a lot of advantages to your business. 

Should you hire a bookkeeper? Here are a few reasons why you should;

• You get fully detailed financial information about your business.
• You gain the potential to incur less in taxes through proper financial advice.
• You’ll free up some valuable time for yourself.
• It will help you to measure your business financial performance at a glance
• Helps make external (e.g government) audits much easier and stream-lined. 

5. Outsourcing the things you aren’t really skilled at

What Is Outsourcing? 

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services that are typically beyond the scope of the company’s in-house staff.

Outsourcing tasks to the right company can help you reduce and control overhead operating costs and improve your inhouse employees’ focus. Outsourcing also provides the opportunity to expand your company’s talent pool. By outsourcing, you are also sharing liability risks with another company. 

6. Aiming for on-time delivery

Logistics, Consultancy, Graphic Design, Website Design — No matter what type of business you operate, the importance of on-time delivery cannot be over-emphasized. 

On-time delivery breeds consumer dependability and trust. Unfortunately, timely delivery may clash with the quality of delivery. 

This is because quality assessments also need time, this is often not factored when giving ETA. So you might often be faced with the dilemma of choosing between delivering a project on time, and delivering a more quality version a little bit late. However, it’s always a good idea to strive for a balance.

TIP: When giving an ETA for a project, always consider the time it would take for quality assessments.

ETA stands for Estimated Time of Arrival. It is a broadly used industry standard term in the logistics and transportation industry, but in the world of project management, it is often used to refer to an estimated due date of a project. 

The post 6 Underrated Habits That Can Grow Your Brand by 500% appeared first on Branditechture.

For ages, businesses have used branding to give their products and services a unique identification and feel.

This process may involve having a specified name, symbol or even an image or mascot that acts as a unique identifier.

You May Want To Read: Naming A Brand — Top 6 Factors To Consider

Ever wondered how investing in effective branding can turn your small business around and for the better?

Here are some ways we’ve outlined for you:

1. Branding – All About Identity

You know how people always remember what brand of soap, washing powder and chips they like best? And repeatedly purchase them afterwards?

What if those products were brandless? That would make repeated purchases extremely difficult or almost impossible.

Branding solves this problem by making you a recognized force in the market. To a large extent, branding also helps to protect your product from counterfeiting.

2. Familiarity

Branding helps you identify, target and effectively connect to your audience at a deeper level.

It helps to make your product associate itself with a particular market segment.

Keeping consistent branding techniques also fosters assurance in your standard of quality.

3. Identity

You, should not put the loyalty of your audience to test by staying brandless, as this leaves more room for others to impersonate your particular catalogue and sell off products of inferior quality by being unreasonably as close to your products as possible.

Should you decide to stay brandless, it is going to remain difficult for your customers to tell whether or not “your” product is from an authorized source.

And since counterfeit products may cause harm or bodily injuries to consumers, you could land yourself a legal problem that may cost you thousands of dollars and your entire business.

4. Attractiveness

The word ‘attractiveness’ is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the quality of being pleasing or appealing to the senses”.

This word may have a lot of implications, but in this instance, it refers to making your target audience market not only accept your brand but also find it appealing altogether.

Some customers go to great lengths to avoid brands that look too shabby or grotesque.

A brand slogan should use unique, fancy and catchy words that are common and also colloquial to your audience.

Images and symbols should use alluring designs and colourations that not only look good but psychologically compel consumer action.

5. Uniqueness

Every human being on the face of the earth most probably have a name or means of identification to go by.

Cocacola Brands

Products and even services should have unique identifiers to enable them to be noticed as a singularity in their target market. Noticeably, manufacturers with a large catalogue of similar products e.g. Coca-Cola, still have different brands of the same product with each distinguished factors e.g. Coca-Cola Original, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Vanilla, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Life.

6. Information

Branding and packaging give you a means of adding personal information, notice messages and even advertisement for related products.

You can add self-service instructions and your contact information to assist customers who struggle with using your product.

Read More: Branding in 2021 — How to Build a Unique Brand

7. Loyalty

When customers are used to getting quality from a particular brand and are assured of committed after-sales support, they definitely find that product reliable and this creates brand loyalty.

According to Skyword.com, brand loyalty is the tendency of consumers to continuously purchase one brand’s products over another.

Consumer behaviour patterns demonstrate that consumers will continue to buy products from a company that has fostered a trusting relationship”.

8. Revenue

I deliberately saved the best for last!

Yes, creating a recognized brand takes time, effort and a reasonable amount of resources.

Some entrepreneurs may believe that branding is unnecessary, as it ultimately doesn’t affect the overall quality of a product.

While this may be true to some extent, it is an obvious fallacy as research has proved that customers would stick with a brand they can identify and have a relationship with.

This builds up to enable more repeated and bulk purchases and depending on the niche of the brand, impulsive buying.

The post 8 Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From Branding appeared first on Branditechture.

Creating and managing a brand isn’t difficult because it involves creating something convoluted, but because it involves simplifying something very complex.

What is Brand Architecture?

In simple terms, it is about what and how a company chooses to brand itself – how they chose to organize and present themselves. Brand Architecture refers to the way a company organizes its teams, divisions, products, services, and subsidiaries. It is the way a company chose to execute its brand strategy. 

And while this sounds simple on the surface, it can drive one batty – especially when the organization is blitz-scaling. or already big. But this doesn’t mean a small business should ignore brand architecture, no. Brand architecture is essentially the “engine fine-tuning” of a business, and the earlier you get it right, the better for everyone.

This is because, brand architecture doesn’t just streamline work within the organizations, but it also brings about other advantages

Advantages Of Brand Architecture

Having a good brand architecture…

• Helps customers understand and enjoy patronizing the business. Too many subdivisions and offerings can confuse the customers and drastically reduce sales
• Short-circuits unhealthy competition within sectors of the same company (hence eliminating effort duplication)
• Boosts employee’s productivity since their tasks are streamlined
• Make recruitment of talents much more intentional, purposeful and easier (both for the company and the talent being recruited)
• Increases revenue through cross-selling
• Grows brand awareness through cross-promotion
• Reassures investors, and partners (as they can easily understand where their investments are going into)
• Gives the media the correct perception of the organization
• Optimizes the company’s equity and portfolio (which can be good for getting funding’s and other evaluations)
• Helps the company to focus (on specific goods and services), thereby bringing clarity
• Encourages Kaizen 
• Differentiates the company from its competitors – which reduces competition as well
• Brings about faster growth
• Outlines the company’s goals and values, which also aids in crafting a clear message
• And most importantly, drastically reduces the cost of running the company (as money is put into only the right things, in the right way).

Creating a Brand Architecture sounds like the “magic fairy dust” that makes all your company’s dreams come through, and that’s because it is. There is no successful organization that hasn’t taken the time to organize its affairs. In fact, the cliché goes “People don’t fail, systems do”.

As pointed out earlier, “simplicity” is the key. However, this doesn’t mean you have to shed off important parts of the company, no. What it means is that you need to create synergy between them.

Read Also:

You must approach Brand Architecture the way you approach the task of building a “house of cards”. Everything needs to be considered, yet put in the right place. And, just like a house of cards, if you remove one aspect the whole deck would come crashing down.

What this means is that you also need to be comprehensive when simplifying things. It shouldn’t be so simple that it loses its value and effectiveness. If you want a car to go faster, you would want to reduce the weight, but that doesn’t mean you should remove the engines or tires. You just have to optimize them.

That said, below are the basic architectures your company can adopt;

Types Of Brand Architectures

A lot of factors come to play when picking a brand architecture to adopt (and would be discussed in the next section of this post), but below are the fundamental brand architectures a company can adopt:

• Monolithic (Branded House)
• Pluralistic (House of Brands)
• Endorsed
• Hybrid

Monolithic

The monolithic or Branded house architecture involves organizing several divisions, features, offers, and brands under a single Master brand. This means every sector of the company (no matter how distinguished) serves to promote a single name – the master brand.

FedEx Brands — Monolithic (or House of Brands)

The advantage of this brand architecture is that it

• Inspires customer loyalty: As they come to enjoy a wide gamut of goods and services under one roof
• Reduces the cost of marketing: Since all efforts and resource are put into promoting a single brand, and
• Improves brand equity

Examples of prominent companies which employ this architecture include;

• FedEx: FedEx Express, FedEx Freight, FedEx Services, etcetera.
• Virgin: Virgin Mobile, Virgin Records, Virgin Media
• GE: GE Capital, GE Healthcare, General Electric, etcetera.

Pluralistic

The Pluralistic or House of Brands architecture is a form of decentralized system where each division functions independently though “owned” by one brand.

By nature, this architecture is more complicated, costly, and harder to run. The major benefits this form of brand architecture has is that 

• It helps companies/brands that are not compatible (based on their offerings) to still unite, and
• It helps individual brands focus (and niche down) on a particular market (without being distracted)

Coca Cola Brands Pluralistic Brands (or House of Brands)

Some brands which employ this architecture include

• Coca-Cola: Coke, Sprite, Powerade, Fanta, etc.
• Unilever: Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, Lipton
• Procter & Gamble: Tide, Gillette, Old Spice

Endorsed 

Similar to the pluralistic architecture, individual brands still maintain their identity but are (as the name suggests) endorsed by a parent brand. Unlike the pluralistic architecture, the parent brand may choose to remain anonymous – and only known by investors.

The benefit of this architecture is that

• Subdivisions can benefit from the equity of the parent brand
• The credibility of the main brand is also transferred to the newer subdivisions

Examples of companies that employ this model include

• Apple: Shazam, Siri, iPhone, Mac
• Facebook: Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus 
• Nestle: Cheerios, Nesquik, KitKat

 Hybrid 

Consider this a brand architecture “chimera”. It is a combination of several brand architectures into one mega-brand architecture. It could be any combination of the Monolithic, Pluralistic, and Endorsed brands.

This is the most complex form of brand architecture to adopt. It is usually adopted by organizations that have grown very large (either by expansion, mergers, or acquisitions). 

Amazon Hybrid Brand Architecture

The major advantages of this architecture are;

• It allows the brand to grow very fast and wide (dominating several markets), and
• Allows the coexistence of new, old, and diverse products.

Some popular brands that have been able to pull off this form of brand architecture include

• Alphabet: Google (YouTube, Gmail, Drive, Hangout, etcetera), Waymo, Android, etcetera
• Amazon: Amazon Echo, Amazon Kindle, Amazon AWS, Prime Video, Audible. etcetera
• Microsoft: Xbox, Skype, Microsoft Windows, etcetera.

Now that you know the buffet of choices available to you, the next step is to get pragmatic.

Key Steps To Creating Your Brand Architecture

As your company grows and expands (especially when it acquires other products, or merge with other companies) the cost of creating, branding, marketing, and legal implications multiply almost exponentially. This is why creating a robust Brand Architecture to handle this shock, and even transform the colossal nature of the brand into a juggernaut, is crucial. 

When creating or deciding on a Brand Architecture to adopt, you should first consider

• Your long term goals
• Your chances of winning with the strategy
• The possibility of it increasing your profits, and
• The amount of leverage it (the Brand Architecture) gives you

After which you can then take these 3 major steps to start creating the chosen architecture: 

• Research,
• Strategy, and
• Migration

1. Research: 

Before you start building anything, you need to first understand what the customers want. You need to find out how they perceive your brand – how aware and loyal they are. You also need to know what offer of yours they are most interested in. This would help you know what to focus on – improve or add.

This phase includes qualitative research, quantitative research, brand equity studies, and audits. No stone should be left unturned. The company needs to thoroughly understand 

• How the different sections within the organization are interacting with each other (i.e. consider your brand’s strengths and weaknesses)
• The nature of the brand’s portfolio
• How they are currently serving the customers
• Customers’ opinions and perceptions of its services/goods (i.e. consider how and where you can improve)
• What the customers wish for (i.e. find out what your organization can add)
• What its competitors are doing better
• And so on.

This phase involves carrying out surveys and calling for meetings to discuss with all subsidiaries. It is perhaps the most important phase of creating the brand architecture. And, depending on the size and nature of the company, this task can be easy or gruelling – but is worth being clinical about nonetheless.

2. Strategy:

After having a thorough understanding of the market’s needs, and the company’s strengths, you can then go on to decide what architecture would give you the most leverage (based on what you have and want to achieve.)

This phase involves deciding how the brands and offerings should be presented, how much they are to be cross-referenced, promoted, or kept independent.

This phase also requires making decisions on how the resources (money, manpower, connections, etcetera) are to be spent.

Once these decisions are made, the next phase is initiated…

3. Migration:

This is the part where you name and assign responsibilities to the sub-brands. For this to work out, all divisions/subsidiaries need to agree with the decision made so as to create synergy. In essence, this is when you develop, announce, and implement the blueprint for the organization

This blueprint clearly states…

• The role of each subsidiary (brand, or sub-brand)
• The market of each brand (demographics, and offers)
• The nature of affiliation with the master brand
• The positioning and presentation of each brand, and 
• A clear system, and hierarchy – for making decisions – within the organization

With all these in place – fully supported and understood by all – the agreed-upon architecture can be implemented right away. 

But the job doesn’t end there…

How to manage Brand Architecture

Once the brand architecture has been decided and implemented, the next task to be carried out is the management of that framework.

The task is a continuous and dynamic one, hence, it cannot be summarized. However, there are a few general things that must be kept in constant check, else the whole Brand Architecture would crumble. They are…

• The Rules: The demands, boundaries, rights, and limits of each subsidiary must be clearly stated and communicated. This information should also be dispensed to each employee and third parties.
• The Workflow: The responsibilities of each part of the company should be clearly stated. This would allow for more productivity, collaboration, and fewer issues or effort duplication. Each part of the architecture must be able to play its part irrespective and independent of the other.
• The Assets: The brand assets should be properly used, taken care of, and protected. This involves brand equity, recognition, and loyalty. It is also good practice to centralize the brand assets – which aids accessibility and transparency.
• The Promotion: Promotion/marketing should be a top priority for any brand because lack of visibility equals lack of existence, which translates to no sales and ultimate collapse of the structure. The promotion also helps the brand build authority and improves its relevance to the market.
• The Customers: The brand should also be sensitive to what the customers are saying about it. Your Brand Architecture should be robust yet flexible. It sounds contradictory, but it isn’t. It simply means the company should be willing to reassess their decisions based on customer reactions because they are the reason the structure exists in the first place.
• The Profitability: Finally, the company should ensure that profits are being maximized. If the new Brand Architecture is too costly to maintain, then something is terribly wrong somewhere, and you should return to the drawing boards.

The golden rule for creating a Brand Architecture is that it must make the customers more willing to buy whilst reducing the difficulty the company faces in seeing that happen. Simply put, it must drive sales up (hopefully to stratospheric heights), whilst reducing friction within your organization(s).

Are you in need of a one-on-one brand strategy/brainstorming session? Schedule a meeting by first contacting us.

The post How to Create and Manage Your Brand Architecture appeared first on Branditechture.

Africans, most notably, South Africans, love to claim Elon Musk as one of their own people. After all, he was birthed in Pretoria, a capital city in South Africa. He even schooled in South Africa, so most Africans seem not to give a hoot if Elon made his goodwill and fortune in the United States of America.

With a net worth of 147 Billion US Dollars ($147bn), Elon is now filthy rich (and over 12 times richer than the richest man in the whole of Africa, who currently stands at $11.7bn as of May 2021, according to Forbes).

Absolutely, business is all about delivering products or services that people love, but how does one give an identity to these products or services? How do you brand them? How or where do you find the inspiration for a suitable brand name?

Let’s learn some lessons from Elon.

On the 31st March 2017,  The Economist, an international newspaper agency published an article titled “The novelist who inspired Elon Musk”. The article gave an intriguing insight as to where Elon sources his brand names from:

“Not satisfied with reusable rockets, electric cars, giant batteries, vacuum trains and underground roads, his latest firm, Neuralink, hopes one day to build a working brain-machine interface (BMI), which would let its user control computers simply by thinking. The idea is not new – scientists have been experimenting with BMIs in labs for years – but Musk’s involvement will sprinkle it with stardust.”

It carried on: “As any entrepreneur will tell you, the first thing your product needs is a catchy name. “Brain-machine interface” is a bit clunky, so Musk has plumped instead for neural lace, which is short, memorable and glamorous. Science fiction fans will recognise it from the ‘Culture’ novels of Iain M. Banks, a Scottish writer who died in 2013.”

So, it is safe to conclude that one vital source of Elon Musk’s brand names is science fiction!

Another likely source is scientific facts. According to a report published in The Independent on the 2nd of December 2019, Elon, being an industrial designer, was “desperate” for the name, Tesla, because it happens to be the name of an inventor that he apparently has so much respect for — Nikola Tesla.

But, as many entrepreneurs can relate, the name he wanted had already been taken.

Elon did something that many can’t; he bought it. He paid the original owner some $ 75 000, in 2014.

Consequentially, he needed and of course, wanted the .com TLD for Tesla too. But that proved to be far more of a challenge – It took longer for Tesla to acquire the rights to use the domain name Tesla.com than it took to design, build and sell its first car!

It took some 11 million US dollars ($11m) and almost 10 years of negotiation to finally convince Silicon Valley engineer, Stuart Grossman to sell him the rights to Tesla.com. The company had been using TeslaMotors.com, but Elon has always had a broader vision than Tesla being just a car company, which explains his keen desire to acquire the more simple domain name, Tesla.com.

“That took us 10 years to buy that Tesla.com domain,” Musk said on the Third Row Tesla Podcast. “That cost us like, $10 million.”

Musk had earlier taken to Twitter in 2018 to inform us that it actually cost him $11 million, plus an “amazing amount of effort,” to get the domain name off Grossman.

It was said that if Elon had failed to acquire the rights to Tesla, he would’ve chosen Faraday, which is also the name of an inventor.

Tesla Motors Logo

So, is it all just a matter of going with a catchy name? Well, remember our last discussion on the Lil Nas X and MSCHF vs Nike Saga?  We learnt some branding lessons which certainly raised our awareness on trademarking your intellectual property (or IP) so you can have enforceable rights to it.

We also talked about the need to keep your IP as unique as possible in order to avoid any “likelihood of confusion”.

Read Also: Naming A Brand — Top 6 Factors To Consider 

For a trademark to be eligible for registration, the name must be peculiar, or as the law tends to put it, capable of distinguishing the product or service offerings of one brand from that of another. But how distinctive is distinctive enough?

A brand name can either be naturally or inherently distinctive, or it can become distinctive of a brand’s offerings via considerable levels of usage (or LoU).

This generally excludes words that are generic, overly obvious and descriptive of the brand.

It excludes words that are flattering or overhype the product. It excludes important geographical names like Nassau, Macau, Barbados e.t.c. It also excludes a very huge percentage of personal names we have today.

But made-up words are so good. So are existing words used out of context. Obscure arcane references can also work, as with words from ancient languages.

The most important thing is that the name must, of course, also be available.

No matter how distinguished you think it is, chances are it may already have been registered by someone else, or perhaps, something similar to that may have been registered. This is where a trademark database query is required.

That is where we come in. Branditechture can help with this.

Yes, I told you in the previous paragraph that personal names are very unlikely to work as trademarks. Well, there are exceptions to every rule, and once again Elon Musk is one.

Admittedly, Elon is a very rare name and it’s reasonably safe to say that it’s now automatically connected with one person. (Which is why I didn’t need to write his full name in the title before you knew who this article was about).

You can’t say the same with popular names like Mark, John, Doe, Mary, Jane, Bill, or Jeff.

Elon, being a futuristic thinker, appears to have made sure that his son bears a name that will easily work out as a trademark. Beyonce and Jay-Z also did the same thing when they named their daughter Blue Ivy.

In the case of Elon’s son, you’d agree with me that his name is better read silently than pronounced. Just for the record, Elon’s son is named: X Æ A-12 which rather seems more to me like he’s showing off his naming skills.

Elon Musk and Son, X Æ A-12.

Need Brand Naming services? Select Brand Naming HERE and we’ll get on a virtual meeting with you as scheduled.

The post What Elon Teaches Us About Brand Naming appeared first on Branditechture.

Until these questions are properly addressed, you will continue to find it difficult to define your public identity.

Most individuals believe that a corporate brand works better than a personal brand and you must keep your identity off your business. This makes it hard to decide which one to choose.

However, the long argument of personal brand vs corporate brand boils down to which type of branding works well for your future marketing plans and structure.

This article is carefully curated to offer you a detailed guideline on setting up your brand and choosing between a personal brand or a corporate brand.

Initially, branding processes entail all representations that build or portray a company. These days, the nature of digital marketing has introduced the use of personal identity for official representations.

The definition of a brand has far evolved beyond the stables of a corporate organization to common positions like social media influencers and digital marketers.

Nevertheless, there are certain factors to consider.

Personal brand

A personal brand is built around your identity and personality.

This also includes your lifestyle, interests, and endeavours. Personal brands are built around your name and persona. This means your business is branded with your name (or something very related e.g your nickname).

Personal branding attributes the brand to an individual, rather than a corporate enterprise.

This gives individuals the opportunity of building authority around their niche market.

People that choose the path of personal branding present themselves as a go-to source for solutions and an expert in their career path.

This includes the coordinated effort of your skills, experience, and authenticity.

Corporate brand

Corporate branding on the other hand builds an identity around your business enterprise. This presents your brand as a structured organization, with defined work ethics, dedicated customer-care services, and a catalogue of products and services.

Corporate branding portrays you as just a member of a larger corporate organization (which may also be your brand.)

With a corporate brand, public relations, brand communications, client onboarding processes are characteristically kept formal. Corporate brands are also known for things like Official Statements, Press Releases, Annual Reports e.tc.

Read Also: 10 Common Branding Mistakes You Must Avoid

Should I have a Personal Brand?

Multiple factors determine if you should have a personal brand. These factors cut across what you wish to achieve with your identity and if it is necessary to put out yourself as an individual brand.

However, the beginning of your decisions for personal branding lies in understanding personal branding and why it is important for your business.

Here are few reasons why you should have a personal brand.

· Personal brands are adaptive

Personal brands are developed to easily adapt to trends and updates. You can easily change your product line and service offerings without posing any threat to your brand.

· Personal brands are entrepreneurial

Personal brands are usually portrayed as a one-man business. This makes personal branding a nice option for career paths that require individual establishment.

This includes but not limited to being an author, graphic designer, painter, coach, or public speaker. If you are considering setting your business in the one-man industry field, personal branding is a better option.

Differences

Personal branding offers the opportunity to market your services with your own personalized identity. However, depending on the context in which your personal brand name is found, it is still very possible for a prospective client to be unable to associate your name with your products or services. 

Although business branding offers a clearer view of your business, it does not offer a flexible structure.

Read Also:  8 Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From Branding 

How To Choose

Here are three factors to consider when choosing between a personal brand and a business brand;

· Type of business

Unlike business brands, personal brands are great options for freelancers.

· Size of business

You might have the option of setting up a large-scale business with different managerial arms. This makes it important to portray your business as an organization other than a personal representation of your lifestyle.

· Business Interest

Your business line and area of specialization should help you determine whether to go for a personal brand or a business brand. Your business can pose the approach of a startup building it around yourself alone could limit your reach and expansion.

This entails that before choosing between a business brand or a personal brand, you must be able to decide what your business stands for, and areas you wish to explore in the business economy.

Conclusion

Whether you decide to go for a personal brand or a business brand, you must stick to authenticity and value.

Great brands are built on the level of services they offer, and how wide they spread the word about what do.

This means whatever type of branding you wish to explore, visibility, authenticity, and quality assurance should be your yardstick for growth.

The post Personal Brand or Corporate Brand; How To Choose. appeared first on Branditechture.

The Scape Goat Brand of 2020

Corona Extra — The Scapegoat Brand of 2020

Let’s begin with Corona (Beer).

Corona Beer is a well-known alcoholic beverage worldwide, although it is mostly consumed in Europe and America. Corona is a pale-looking lager produced by Mexican brewery Cervecería Modelo and owned by Belgian company AB InBev.

The name of the beer was reportedly inspired by the crown on a church in Puerto Vallarta, a resort town on Mexico’s Pacific coast. “Corona” in Latin means halo or crown, and that’s how the beer brand got its name in 1925.

The Coronavirus Pandemic and Corona Beer

Coronavirus belongs to a family of viruses having spikes which include the SARS and MERS viruses. They got their name from resembling little crowns.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic that originated from Wuhan China in 2019 has no connection whatsoever with Corona lager beer.

Yet, Google searches have been trending for search queries such as “Corona beer virus” and “beer virus.”  

Some mischievous internet users also started polluting the internet with memes and videos linking the beer to the virus.  

For example, Jen Davies was seen in a video emptying the contents of Corona beer bottles down the sink because she is “trying to get rid of this virus in their house.” 👇

 

Jen Davies as seen in a video emptying the contents of Corona beer bottles into a sink.

 

More Similar Examples

We have seen cases where a company has “carelessly” adopted a trade name with an unpleasant meaning in another language or dialect. 

Here are just a few examples:

• Ford launched its Ford Pinto automobile in 1971 before learning that in Brazil, “Pinto” meant a small-sized male genital. “Pinto” is a relatively unworthy name for a car model that sold so well in Europe, so they eventually had to rename it to Corcel in Brazil.
• A food manufacturer based in Britain excitedly launched its “Bundh” Curry Sauce before learning that “Bundh” meant butts 🍑 in Punjabi (relating to the Punjab community in India). 
• India’s largest car company, Tata, announced its Zica car, an abbreviation of “zippy car,” but had to rename it to Tiago, the Portuguese name for James, because of its possible incorrect association with the Zica virus. 
• The Chevrolet Nova or “Chevy Nova”  could be translated as “no go” in Spanish, which reportedly had a negative impact on sales in Spain.

Unfortunate Events

Some brands have been linked to an unfortunate event despite having no connection to it. All because of a similarity with the brand name. For example:

• Isis Pharmaceuticals irresistibly changed its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals in 2015 because of the rising popularity of ISIS terrorism in the media.
• A PR and events agency in Edinburgh named Tsunami decided to undergo a renaming process following the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster.
• Tylenol was banned in several states in the US after capsules laced with potassium cyanide killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982. Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer, recalled over 31 million bottles of Tylenol capsules — A move that saw the company spend more than 100 million USD ($100m) at the time. They did a complete product rebranding before reintroducing the product into the market.  
• An appetite suppressant named Ayds in the 1970s reportedly suffered a huge drop in sales in the 1980s, no thanks to the AIDS crisis.

What to do to protect your brand

It’s largely not your fault, alright? but what can you do to protect your brand in a situation where your brand’s equity is under threat by an otherwise unrelated circumstance? Regardless of the strategy employed, there no guarantee that your brand would ever recover. However, some brands have managed to come back and claim a higher market share post-crisis. 

An example is Johnson & Johnson, which was once known for consumer products like baby shampoo and band-aid bandages. It has now become a pharmaceutical giant. 

At the start of the new millennium (2021), a whopping 45 per cent of sales had come from prescription drugs alone, up from just 18 per cent before the Tylenol crisis in 1980.

In 2021, Johnson & Johnson was granted the rights to commercially produce and market the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine under its pharmaceutical arm, Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

The vaccine was even marked safe by the World Health Organization. 

What a comeback!

Your own approach towards this issue may depend on the following factors;

1. Your trademark’s existing mindshare (or public recognition) 
2. The number of people who inadvertently connect your brand name to the disaster, and
3. The intensity of the effect on your sales or reputation.

Here are a few of the strategies you might consider, but you should be decisive in your approach before things spin irreversibly out of control:

• Do nothing (Although not recommended.) Wait it out until everything blows over
• Make major changes to the product packaging to counter the problem
• Start an advertising and publicity campaign to inform consumers of your brand’s position in the event.
• Send take down-notices to internet service providers (or ISPs) aiding the misleading videos or websites
• Report it on social media and charge your loyal fans to do the same
• Send official complaints to misguided media outlets asking for corrections
• Submit to major newspapers editorials explaining the facts
• If everything fails and you still sense a serious loom, change your brand name.

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The post What To Do When Your Brand Gets Messed Up appeared first on Branditechture.

The news came shortly after the release of his song ‘Montero (Call me by your name)’ on March 26.

The controversial kicks — apparently modified Nike Air Max 97s — are decorated with a pentagram pendant, and purported to contain one drop of human blood in the midsoles in addition to a reference to Luke 10:18, a Bible verse about Satan’s fall from heaven.

Only 666 pairs, costing $1,018 each, were made, all of which were sold out within minutes of going on sale.

People initially thought Nike was a part of this. However, Nike strongly refuted such claims by filing a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against the company that released the controversial kicks.

Lil Nas X holding the controversial Nike Satan Shoe

The statement read:

We do not have a relationship with Little Nas X or MSCHF. Nike did not design or release these shoes and we do not endorse them.

Nike’s mission to stop the rollout of MSCHF’s Lil Nas X-inspired “Satan” Air Max 97s was successful, and MSCHF was forced to buy back all the pairs for the original retail price of $1,018.

The judge’s ruling came as a result of Nike’s lawsuit (which was termed as “a somewhat hypocritical approach to copyright,” in a statement released by American postal service company, USPS).

But as a business owner, you should be asking yourself this question 👇

“What can I learn from Nike vs Lil Nas X’s Satan Shoe Saga?”

Theft is a major concern for all businesses, as losing a property can directly translate to a loss of profit.

But for online businesses, the greatest worry is never theft of material goods, but that of intellectual property (or IP).

This applies to all forms and sizes of businesses.

Businesses depend on their logos, trademarks, designs, and other property of the intellect to connect with their audience.

Your competitive advantage comes from and is built around your ideas, and if these ideas are not properly protected, they can be stolen, thereby potentially resulting in a huge financial loss.

In 2017, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (or IP Commission) estimated that the cost of intellectual property theft to the US economy alone could be as high as $600 billion annually [PDF | 352KB],  and small businesses are at the greatest risk.

So what can you do to safeguard your brand from issues like the above?

1. Trademark your brand

A trademark officially confirms ownership of your brand name.

Although technically, “trademark” is used for products and “service mark” is used for services, the term “trademark” is commonly used in both cases.

Owning a trademark can give you the legal right under federal and state law to prevent others from using your trademark to promote their services.

Read Also: Brand Trademark FAQs

2. Be unique. Stand out

Avoid any likelihood of confusion.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (or USPTO), there is a “likelihood of confusion” if they determine that the applicant’s marks are similar in appearance, sound, meaning or pronunciation to another, or the goods or services provided by two companies are similar enough for consumers to mistakenly believe they’re from the same company.

In order to avoid the likelihood of confusion towards getting your IP certified, you must ensure the uniqueness of your IP so that it is not similar to yours. You can do this by performing a trademark search in the USPTO trademark database.

3. Include an intellectual property clause in your terms & conditions

From a legal viewpoint, it’s important to protect yourself and your intellectual property by putting it into writing.

The best way to achieve this is through a comprehensive terms and conditions (T&C) agreement posted in a prominent location on your website or mobile app.

A terms and conditions contract agreement is aimed at protecting your brand It gives you the opportunity to set your rules (within applicable law) of how your service or product may be used including, but not limited to, things like copyright conditions, age limits, and the governing law of the contract.

It is a fundamental policy for your brand, and one that will give you the legal backing to deal with abuses and unruly users.

4. Stay vigilant

It is extremely important to stay vigilant and monitor your adversaries for potential thievery. Though, constant monitoring of other sites and businesses is an arduous and time-consuming task. In Branditechture, we use a software called G2 Assistant to aid our battle against IP theft.

This software crawls (or hunts) the internet in search of your brand name mentions and reports back with any infringements.

It frees you up to focus on other business-related tasks.

Legal implications aside, if the theft of your intellectual property goes unnoticed, it can have a negative effect on your brand’s equity—and ultimately, your market share. It could take years to recover completely from those losses, if ever.

The post Lessons To Learn from Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes” Saga appeared first on Branditechture.

Does your company or startup have a person in a leadership position? Preferably at the executive level, who embodies the brand promise, champions the brand promise both internally and externally, and ensures that it is effectively protected against naysayers. Yes? No?

The brand champion has a huge list of critical responsibilities, but the most important of all is to help to increase brand equity.

Brand champions don’t always drive immediate results, making their position easy to write off or to consider as a secondary responsibility within another position. But if you have the means, do not let that happen in your organization.

Here, we’ve got some of the core features a brand champion should possess:

Motivate the brand

The brand champion should be the most powerful, most vocal promoter of the brand. He needs to be able to drive the employees, consumers, and other external audiences to trust and have faith in the brand, too.

The brand champion should also ensure that the brand is always in alignment with its brand strategy. He makes sure no stone is left unturned.

Protect the brand

The brand champion should also be able to act like the brand’s guard. He should effectively protect it against negative publicity and avoid brand-related scandals.

The brand champion should be able to carry out fundamental PR duties; when a problem of any kind arises, the brand champion should be able to recognize and address them. In addition, he should always strive to be the first to bring the attention of the executive directors or head before the problem worsens.

Embody the brand

A utopian scenario is that which all employees are living embodiments of the brand promise, but at the very least you can expect is that the brand champion to live and breathe the brand. He should be a walking example.

Preach the brand

Preaching the brand should not be left for the marketers alone. A brand champion must also act as a brand evangelist.

He has to be able to put himself in the position of the consumers. He needs to be in a constant loop with them in order to ensure that business decisions are in alignment with the brand promise and don’t negatively impact consumers’ perceptions of the brand.

Contribute to the brand’s innovation

The brand champion must be innovative. He should lead strategic and tactical planning in order to maintain and sustain the brand’s relevance. He also leverages public feedback as a tool for adjustments and growth.

Act as the brand coach

In the absence of education, no one will fully understand and believe in a brand. That’s why the brand champion needs to make sure that both the staff, customers and potential customers understand the brand.

He also ensures that business goals and initiatives are in alignment with the brand promise.

He makes effort to ensures that all team members within the organization are on the same level as it relates to building brand equity.

Remember, the brand champion leads the charge, but without the required support from other stakeholders, the brand champion will not succeed.

To sum it up, stakeholders must ensure that adequately supporting the brand champion remains a top priority to stand any chance of real results.

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