How to build brand equity?

How to build brand equity?
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The key to creative and effective branding of any program, product, service or institution is finding the right positioning–to drive the advertising and other marketing tools. It doesn’t have to be complicated or weird. In fact, if it’s good and effective, it’s simple and will follow this “Rule of consumers”–“You are what you appear to be.” This position or ‘brand‘ is really an identity (not in your mind but in your audience’s)–a way people can sort through all the confusing information and summarize what they think about something.

What do you get with a brand identity?

Over the last 25 years we have come to learn that the development of a brand identity is much more than a mere benchmark denoting successful arrival in business, or its evolution and growth. A clearly defined and easily recognized identity has, in fact, become a critical success factor in today’s highly competitive business environment.

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Creating your brand image

Just to lay some “groundwork”, here are ten reasons why doing so can have a strategically important effect on your bottom line.

  • It’s easier to know who you are, which means:
  • It’s easier to know what you do. (Helps develop goals)
  • It’s easier to know how to do it. (Helps with implementation)
  • Less energy is expended overall. (Creates efficiency in communications)
  • Team building occurs naturally when staff can identify with a common symbol, common language and therefore common goals. (Sports uniforms are a good example. Every player feels like a part of the group.)
  • You can match your image to your client’s needs or view of his business. (A simple matter of “give’em what they want.”)
  • With a clearly defined identity, you communicate more efficiently with your customers, and they remember you more easily. (Memorability is easier when everybody clearly knows who you are.)

So, what is a brand anyway?

As we begin the process of making recommendations for developing a brand identity let’s talk about what we really mean by “brand.” What is it, why does it work, how does it work and who makes it work.

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How to create a successful brand name?

Philip Durbrow, vice chairman of the international design firm of Frankfurt Balkind Partners, recalls, “When I first started working in branding, it became obvious that there were no clear universal definitions of keywords like marketing, strategy, identity, image and brand. I’ve developed specific definitions so that we are clear on what we are talking about. Fuzzy words yield fuzzy thinking and fuzzy brands.”

Some Definitions


  1. A Product: is something that is produced to function and exists in reality.
  2. A Brand: has meaning beyond functionality and exists in peoples minds.
  3. Product Quality: has major influence on Brand Qualities.
  4. Brand Qualities: are the thoughts, feelings, associations and expectations created by a Brand Identity.
  5. Brand Identity: is the way in which a brand is expressed visually and verbally.

Branding: is viewing every customer-related activity as part of the branding process and managing it accordingly. Everything a company does that affects its customer, affects the value of its brand.




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Brand Equity: is the present value of the future combined purchases that are a result of the preference created, or the premium paid, for a brand’s products.

Why do we want a brand?

All brands start by speaking to the needs and aspirations of an audience. The aspiration is the brand identity: that’s a projection of how the brand wishes to be perceived by its target audience (as opposed to the brand image, which is the way the brand is, currently perceived).


Who’s Minding the Store?



Durbrow offers this wisdom, “There is no long-term advantage to having a brand image that is greater or lesser than the brand really is. If the image is greater than the reality, people will be disappointed whenever they encounter the brand. If the image is less than the reality, the company will never benefit from all its hard work, i.e., the brand won’t command a premium or create a preference for the company’s branded products.”

The Brand As Assets

When included on the balance sheet, the brand’s equity is an intangible asset like goodwill. Its value brightens the parent company’s fiscal picture: this is one big reason why companies are eager to develop strong brands. An enhanced financial picture allows the parent company to generate revenue, grow and expand. The brand, which is structured to be easily separated from the parent company, may be sold. The brand may be segmented to increase the market by creating sub-brands which appeal to more specific consumer needs, further increasing the value of the brand.

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Have you made your brand book?

In the long term, it’s the brand’s core message that must be honored. All the strong brands–CocaCola, Nike, Calvin Klein, to name a few–give the impression of unswerving confidence, through their billion dollar advertising campaigns. This is exactly the kind of motivational leadership our emotionally charged culture craves. “The branding statement has to be honest, relevant. For example, the Coke brand is the value of constancy. The contour bottle and Spencerian script are promises that the Coke you’ll have in Thailand is the same as the Coke you’ll have in Oakland. The challenge for us is always to find ways to make something change and stay the same.” People have a strong emotional attachment to CocaCola–it’s something they grew up with. Coke is a part of the history of America. Waterbury adds, “The CocaCola headquarters and museum in Atlanta are a testament to excellent management of a global brand: A brand that makes a personal connection for almost everyone.”

How Brand is Different from Product?

Many organizations use the term “Product Manager” interchangeably with “Brand Manager.” While most of us could think through the semantic difference between a “product” and a “brand,” it seems that (with a few exceptions) the two concepts become indistinguishable when it comes to their management. This confusion may explain in part why there are so few brands and so many products.


The brand is almost the opposite on all points. Whereas the product has a form, the brand does not have a physical embodiment: It is merely a promise, a covenant with the customer. Some say that the “logo is the brand”… but this isn’t so. A logo is meaningless if it does not communicate the brand’s covenant with the consumer. And, whereas communication of a product’s physical attributes is straightforward and fast, communication of brand values is inherently circuitous and slow. Like the character of an individual, brand character is most difficult to communicate proactively: The individual cannot tell what his character is; the observer must figure it out for himself… an indirect communications process which requires time and absolute consistency. And, contrary to product communication which is best based on one single-minded forceful proposition, brand character, like the character of a person, becomes better defined as it gains in complexity. Lastly, whereas the product manager must gain a superior knowledge of his consumer to be effective, the brand manager’s success is in great part based on a thorough knowledge of the idiosyncrasies and the values professed by his company and its long term corporate players, i.e., its top management.

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