By EVELYN SAMUEL

What is branding all about?  What is it for?

Quite simply, branding is about delivering confidence in a
product or service, and is for securing customer loyalty, to
enable business growth and sustainability.  It is versatile
enough to be translated in diverse ways, across all borders,
including cyberspace.  Branding is personal as well as
corporate, traditional and electronic.  The reality is, your
brand is being delivered to every one you come into contact with
whether you are aware of it or not.

The conscious part of branding to create awareness is
approximately 20 per cent and is visible - the physical touch
points of appearance (logo, jingle, corporate colours, smiles,
clothes, tag lines).

The subconscious part of branding is the 80 per cent that
secures confidence and loyalty that's delivered via the service
touch points - the warmth, accuracy, timeliness, sincerity, and
willingness to keep promises made and solve problems or offer
solutions.

"Employees bring a brand to life.  You have to make sure that
processes reinforce what you're trying to do with the brand
internally," said Ian Buckingham, head of Interbrand Inside
(source: Internal Brand Alignment, August 2003,
brandchannel.com).

"Alignment is about encouraging employees to behave in certain
ways.  And that means dabbling in psychology," Edwin Colyer,
science and technology writer, said in the same article.

Steps to securing confidence Providing a positive experience is
what brings customers back, regardless of the competition.  "The
potential of the sincerity factor may explain in part why
several brands have turned to genuineness or authenticity as a
core identity… . One motivation for going 'genuine' is to draw
on a strong brand heritage and capture the reassurance and
emotional links that such a heritage provides," said David Aaker
(source: Building Strong Brands, 2002, p. 145).

The good news is, you can decide what the experience promises to
be via the 20 per cent (physical touch points) - your formal or
informal advertising campaign.  That's the area that conveys
awareness of your message.

Steps to gaining loyalty The other 80 per cent is the behaviour
that delivers the promise of your message, and makes you the
first choice (or not) in the customer's mind.  This works with
employees too and secures their commitment to meeting your
objectives.  Internal and external customers experience whether
promises are kept, how crises are managed, how damage is
controlled, how you protect their interests.  Their experience
of your promise - matched against their expectations - is how
decisions for staying loyal are made.

"The work of Montague and other studies prove that branding goes
far beyond images and memory recall….  Something clicks, and we
are more likely to buy," said Edwin Colyer (source: The Science
of Branding, March 2004, brandchannel.com).  Colyer comments on
the applications of neuroscience to business, with particular
reference to a brain scan conducted on volunteer tasters who
were given Pepsi and Coke by Read Montague, Director of the
Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine.  When the
volunteers didn't know which brand they were drinking, they
declared a preference for the taste of Pepsi.  But when they
were told which brand they were tasting, they said they
preferred the Coke.  The scan images, however, recorded higher
responses in the brain's reward centres when they tasted the
Pepsi.  They preferred the taste of Pepsi, but the experiential
image of Coke!  Montague says, "You'll never get rid of
psychology and behavioral studies - that's your ultimate end."

The ultimate purpose Customers aren't just the buyers or staff -
they are your business partners too.  Anyone connected to you
has the potential to promote, ignore, or demote your brand.
Their loyalty secures your business strategies and increases
your organization's market capitalization.  Their loyalty keeps
you viable.

"The search for new ways to boost earnings is now under way.
For many CEO's, weathering the economic downturn demanded a
focus on improving operations and supply chains and on reining
in costs.  But now that markets are starting to improve,
companies are again looking to grow.  For many, growth means
breathing new life into existing brands….  Most companies
already have market research specialists with the analytical
skills to use these tools.  For executives, the challenge will
be to persuade marketing organizations to incorporate such
approaches into their brand strategies and plans.  Hard numbers
will never replace creativity in marketing, but they can help
clarify choices and eliminate guesswork," said Todd Guild,
Director, McKinsey's Quarterly, 2003 number 4.

The planning of your branding lies in assessing who and where
your customers are and what they want, before deciding what you
wish to deliver.  The experience of your Brand is projected by
your people who answer customer's phone calls, direct them to
parking lots, open their doors, serve them, write letters and
e-mail to them, as well as those who attend corporate meetings,
seminars, make presentations, deliver legal and financial
services, etc.

How can it be translated through every layer of performance?
Quite simply by being clear about what you can do, whom you are
going to do it for, how you are going to do it, and how you are
going to deliver your objectives, i.e. having a relevant
mission.

Over time, this plan - if delivered consistently - will
translate into how you and your brand (personal and corporate)
are perceived, wherever you are, effortlessly.  Then you can
focus your energies on business expansion without unnecessary
distractions!

"What separates you from others with similar skills and
abilities is your unique promise of value.  Communicating that
unique promise through all that you do enables you to stand out
and greatly expand your success.  But if you send messages that
are incompatible, those around you will not know what you stand
for or what to expect from you….  When you are known for
something, you can expand your target market or extend your
offerings with ease," William Arruda said in 'Don't be Changing
when You should be Saming' (source: July 2004,
brandchannel.com).

Evelyn Samuel is a Consultant-Trainer/Coach.  For more
information, please call MIM Customer Service at 03-2165 4611,
e-mail enquiries@mim.edu or visit our website www.mim.edu.