Brand Growth | A Quick Guide to Brand Building

Each brand has its own characteristics and expressions, so in the process of brand growth, we need to shape our own brand in a targeted manner. The author summarizes the quick guide to brand building, hoping it will be helpful to you.

This article is a continuation of "2023 New Brand Growth Methodology". This article will introduce the "Brand Building" part in detail. In fact, it has been written for a long time, but I have never thought of a suitable name. Let's call it "Brand Building Quick Guide".

A lot has been said about the preliminary work of brand building, namely "track selection" and "grabbing the crowd". Regarding "grabbing the crowd", there is another old article "Consumer Insight, What to Insight into?" which has made further explanations. Friends who are interested can search and read it by themselves.

Just remember: track selection = knowing the situation + knowing the customers + knowing the enemies + knowing yourself ; grasping the crowd = who + behavior + needs + concepts + lifestyle + scene roles , plus labeling thinking.

In this article, I will first talk about the logic and thinking of the brand, and then talk about how to build the brand.

1. Brand is a way of thinking

What is a brand? Brand is first of all a way of thinking. It is not about giving a name, designing a logo, making a specific product, doing word-of-mouth marketing, or even channel layout. Instead, it is the corporate strategy that determines these external manifestations .

Philosophers have a famous question about life: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? This "theory of meaning" is no problem for saints like Wang Yangming who have their own light in their hearts, but for ordinary people who have been wandering and seeking all their lives, messing around with this question is a kind of PUA for themselves.

The same is true for business owners or brand owners. In the words of Wang Yangming, there has never been a discipline in this world called "how to be a good business owner", and no one is born to be a business owner or boss. It can only be a process of unity of knowledge and action.

What we want to talk about is precisely for those who have entrepreneurial ideas or are starting a business. The dilemma faced by entrepreneurs is often "a life-and-death struggle, the business world is like a battlefield, success is accidental, and failure is inevitable"... Let's be honest, in the process of becoming a great brand, you will fail if you are not careful.

I changed the three questions of life to: Who am I? What do I have? What am I willing to give? If you want to know what your brand is, you only need to ask yourself similar questions: Who am I? Who am I for? What do I do? What do I say?

In marketing textbooks, brand is often classified as a part of marketing and merely an element of the marketing strategy, which constitutes corporate strategy Σ marketing strategy Σ brand strategy. Brand is a part of marketing.

That's right, marketing is essentially a management discipline. But today, due to changes in the marketing environment, brands are becoming the core driving force of corporate strategy, thus forming a new growth paradigm of corporate strategy Σ brand strategy Σ marketing strategy, using brands as the core principle and core competitiveness to drive growth, culture, experience, and guide organizations and behaviors .

Brand thinking is actually to define the top-level design of an enterprise by thinking about brand strategy . What is the significance of this?

Brand strategy supports corporate strategy and determines the company's vision, mission and values; it also makes decisions on the company's marketing strategy . All products, advertising, communications and channels are determined by brand strategy.

The core of corporate strategy is to discover opportunities at the "market level, consumer level and corporate level", make good track selections and determine categories, thereby defining the boundaries of brand positioning.

The brand strategy is to capture this opportunity by guiding the marketing of the enterprise with brand thinking. The essence is to seize the position in the hearts of consumers and occupy the point in the minds of consumers. All subsequent work is carried out around this purpose, whether it is the process of brand positioning or subsequent marketing actions.

Perhaps there is a question: why is it that brand strategy determines marketing strategy? Isn't this reversing the logic of traditional marketing textbooks?

Although we can explain the importance of brand to marketing from the perspective of brand function, which has three basic functions: enhancing identification, credit endorsement, and creating premium, this is still a self-centered perspective, and we cannot deeply understand why the importance of brand should be higher than marketing.

Throughout the history of marketing, marketing ideas have been changing with the changes in the marketing environment. The core has long since shifted from "transaction to relationship", and the focus has also returned from "things to people". Human nature has also evolved from economic man, social man, cultural man to individual man. The focus of marketing is to manage users' experience of the brand and their relationship with the brand.

The so-called relationship can be classified from the two dimensions of profitability and loyalty, or from the single dimension of loyalty. No matter how it is classified, loyalty is a sufficient and necessary factor. Loyalty is a measure of the degree to which consumers psychologically identify with, support, recommend, and are willing to buy again for a brand.

As long as we observe carefully, no matter it is market segmentation theory, positioning theory, 4P theory, brand asset management theory, etc., or specifically in various daily work, it can never exist independently from the "user". As the ancient saying goes, "get the center of the circle to respond to the infinite" and "hold the reins", the "user" is the "leader" and "center of the circle".

Products exist on the material level because they meet the functional needs of users. Brands can be called brands (not just trademarks) because they better meet the functional, emotional, and spiritual interests of users and gain a place in the competition. In the brand asset model, in addition to the loyalty factor, awareness represents the degree of memory of the brand in the minds of users, and brand association represents the degree of connection in the minds of users. Even when choosing a name, you have to consider whether it is easy for users to remember.

Even the positioning theory actually talks about the position of the brand in the category and using the category to leverage the brand. However, determining the category requires not only opportunities at the market level, but also real and effective needs of users. Otherwise, no matter how much opportunity there is in the market, no matter how the category evolves and differentiates, it will be in vain.

Brands have undergone three important changes in history. The first was the separation of brands from products, and the elevation of "trademarks, logos, and symbols" to the level of brands; the second was the elevation of brands from a component of corporate marketing promotion to a strategic part, and the management of brands as intangible assets of enterprises; the third was the shift from focusing on the management of brand assets to emphasizing the relationship between brands and users .

Users do not care about companies or marketing, but brands are evaluated and defined by users, and brands are naturally closely tied to users. Although for some specific companies, the company is the brand, it is called corporate brand, which is also a brand.

Drucker once said that the results of a company are external, and only costs are internal. All the operating results of a company are actually in the minds of users. When the product is used, what remains is only the connection between the consumer and the brand.

The goal of branding is to continuously create customers and achieve sustained growth in brand value, including profit growth. A great brand can only be based on the performance of brand value . A brand is such a thing, which is proposed, shaped and built by enterprises from the discovery of users' real needs and the satisfaction of needs, and is tested, evaluated and finally defined by users.

If we understand that brands cannot exist without users, companies cannot survive without users, and companies are better able to acquire customers and are more valuable because of the existence of brands, we will not be obsessed with the priority of "marketing or brand" or which one should have more weight.

If you really want to be specific about the difference, marketing is from the perspective of business management, while branding is from the perspective of user communication. Branding thinking is from the perspective of expenditure, and all actions or behaviors of the company are ultimately for the relationship with the user.

Going back to that question, it is very easy to understand. Who am I? ——Corresponding to brand identity; Who am I for? ——Corresponding to the target market or target group; What do I do? ——Business level, what do I provide to meet the needs of the target market or target group; What do I say? ——Communication level.

In addition, the boundary between "what to say" and "what to do" is not so clear-cut. Understand the connotation of "marketing is communication, communication is marketing" - everything a company does is communication, products, pricing, channels, and communication are all communicating with users. The key is not any one element, but what information is conveyed to users in a unified manner through these four elements.

This information can be managed by the enterprise. For example, what functional value do you provide in terms of products? At the brand level, what emotional value and spiritual value do you provide? How do you translate and express it? What do you say on the product packaging or even on the product page on the electronic screen? In terms of pricing, does the price match the value you say?

All these contact points that come into contact with the user should form a whole of points, lines, surfaces and bodies, with the points forming lines, the lines forming surfaces and the surfaces forming bodies, conveying unified information and making the same voice. Imagine, which one will hurt your hand, a rough and irregular stone or a smooth pebble?

Although influenced by various "media (carriers, channels)", each has its own emphasis, just like product packaging and electronic screen product pages, the latter has more content and is more inclined to "screen art". To put it more extremely, it is impossible for the name on the packaging to be different from the name on the screen, right?

All the "information" that users see, hear, and feel ultimately constitutes and influences the user's brand knowledge, brand impression, brand experience, brand cognition, brand association... Call it what you like, it all constitutes the sum of the user's unique and intangible experience of the brand, whether good or bad - the brand.

In the minds of users, this “sum” is like a pool. Every time a brand interacts with a user, it is either throwing coins into the pool or scooping coins out. The number of coins in the pool actually represents the value of the brand.

The above is the logic and thinking of the brand. Next, let’s talk about how to build the brand.

2. Brand Building Guide

When most companies in the market recruit brand directors or brand managers, the first thing they usually do is to develop a brand strategy plan and establish a brand system. What are the so-called brand strategy and brand system?

1. Brand strategy

As mentioned above, brand thinking is the top-level design of the enterprise, and the corporate strategy of taking brand as the core competitiveness and driving force is mainly brand architecture and brand positioning.

In terms of work content, it generally includes branding decisions, brand portfolio models, brand identity definition, brand extension planning, brand management planning, and brand vision setting, which are included in marketing textbooks.

1.1 Branding Decision

It is a question of determining what kind of brand I am from the perspective of operation, whether I am a self-created brand or a franchised brand, whether I am a manufacturer brand or a distributor/retailer brand. Just like Walmart is a retailer brand, and later it also operated its own private label.

1.2 Brand combination model

It is to solve the problems of whether to start a new brand, how to deal with the relationship between brands, how to coordinate resource allocation and development when there are multiple product combinations or multiple brands. It is divided into single brand, parent-child brand (endorsement brand), main and sub-brand, and multiple brands (independent brand). Here we only introduce single brand. For start-ups, multiple products are certain, and multiple brands are obviously not the focus of consideration now.

Single brand, that is, all products use the same brand. The following contains two secondary relationships of resource synergy degree: same identification and different identification.

1.2.1 Identical Identification

That is, all products use the same identification elements. For example, many companies in the automotive, home appliance, and lighting industries use the same brand identity.

1.2.2 Different Identification

All products use the same brand, but the brand identification elements are different, usually determined by product line, and usually for the same user group. This is often the case in the food and beverage industry, such as Nestlé, which has a very rich product line, including coffee, milk powder, baby food, and drinking water. Although they all use the Nestlé brand, there are obvious differences in specific identification between different product categories.

The advantage of a single-brand model is that it enables companies to significantly save resources and concentrate their efforts. All actions revolve around the brand assets of one brand, which helps to quickly form a brand effect and significantly reduce barriers to user choice when new products are subsequently launched.

1.3 Brand Identity Definition

It refers to determining the connotation of the brand, that is, the brand image that the company hopes users will identify with. This is also the focus of work when visualizing the brand strategy, and it is the implementation of brand positioning work at the document level.

Usually, the internal and external meanings of a brand's thoughts, behaviors, appearance, etc. are standardized from three aspects: brand concept identification, behavior identification and symbol identification. These include core identification centered on the brand's core values ​​and basic identification composed of elements such as brand promise and brand personality.

How to understand the "visualization" mentioned above? Don't simply understand it as the usual VI. Here it refers to the visualization of the sensory level, which means textualizing and visualizing the results of brand positioning and its extended explanations. It is not limited to using visualization to express what is the brand's value? What is the brand personality? What is the brand symbol? What are the brand's keywords? What is the context of use? ...

The reason why many companies' brand manuals have become pure VI manuals is that they simply introduce the design and usage specifications of VI, but there are no further settings for either products or brands. As a result, the brand manual lies on the shelf and is of no help to the subsequent brand in communicating with users.

1.4 Brand extension planning

It refers to defining which fields and industries are suitable for the brand to develop in the future to prevent detours and wrong paths.

For example, Bawang and Mayinglong have crossed over into food and beauty products. Although it is just a brand crossover activity, it is harmless. However, if they really move from skin care to food, or from medicine to food, they will most likely fail. Users will be very uncomfortable when they think of it - lip balm with hemorrhoid cream flavor? Shampoo-flavored beverage?

Usually in this case, a new brand will be used, but that’s a story for another time.

1.5 Brand Management Planning

That is, to safeguard brand building from the perspective of corporate organization and behavior, which is usually the so-called brand management manual. Brand management planning is to set goals, directions, principles and guiding strategies for brand building based on the above planning, and to clarify the goals, tactics, behaviors and evaluation indicators of each stage of brand development.

Regarding the brand management manual, the difference from the document that defines brand identity is that the brand management manual is equivalent to the constitution of brand building and management. It is a complex that includes VI, BI, CI, MI and even PI (product identification). It usually includes brand positioning, core values, identification system, brand communication and promotion, corporate culture building, etc.

1.6 Brand vision planning

In fact, it is the planning of brand strategic goals and directions based on the brand status and positioning, which is usually divided into 1 year, 3 years, 5 years or even longer-term plans.

Although the brand strategy seems to contain a lot of content, it actually strategically establishes the legal significance of the three aspects of " defining the brand, managing the brand, and operating the brand ", and it is a constitutional-level document.

3. Brand system construction

The next step is to build the brand system. The work content of this part overlaps with the brand strategic planning, but it is mainly manifested in the establishment of the brand strategy, which is also the essence of brand positioning.

But a complete strategy is a system, and the system needs to be coupled. The complete strategy system includes brand strategy, product strategy, pricing strategy, channel strategy, integrated marketing communication strategy, etc.

Here we only talk about what elements a startup brand needs to build from scratch.

When building the brand system at work, each brand may use different models, such as pyramids, brand houses, etc. In fact, they are all similar, breaking down the brand from several main dimensions: concept level, value level, and image level .

If the work results of "track selection" and "capturing the crowd" are also included, it is just adding "target population" + "brand positioning" on the roof or top of the tower. If you want to further refine it, you can add "category positioning" and "competitive positioning".

System building originates from brand positioning. When it comes to the specific work of system building, it is actually the positioning of "what to say". By constructing the content of "what to say", we can output the view of "who I am" and provide the starting point for "what to say specifically" and "how to say it" in the future.

Of course, a complete brand system should also include a product system, corresponding to the "product layer", establishing the brand's core business, planning product or service content, establishing major products, and clarifying the status and role of each product in the brand. However, this part of the content is internal and not external, and it is also part of the product strategy. We will discuss it in the subsequent product article.

Since the establishment of the system is the construction of "what to say", it is actually a creative process from brand sorting to brand creation, and this process is brand building.

In the "2023 Emerging Brand Growth Methodology", the three necessary steps for brand building are briefly explained: determining the emotional core, shaping the brand experience, and expressing the brand story .

Many companies may not have done a complete job in this part of brand creation, and most of them may focus on VI visuals. But in fact, this step is equivalent to setting up a high-level brand, which is as important as the top-level design of the company, and is not just about designing a VI system.

Creation is easy to understand, but how to understand setting? Just like novels, comics, and movies, although they emphasize artistry and imagination, they cannot break through the setting. This setting can be understood as an outline, a clue, a boundary, and a rule... Just like Jin Yong's novels, most of them are constructed based on real historical backgrounds.

In brand building, setting is equivalent to giving the brand a script. Although this script does not have to be detailed to every scene and every line, modern objects and modern vocabulary must not appear in costume dramas... With the script, the brand can move forward along the posture set by the script.

1. Determine the emotional core

This step corresponds to the conceptual layer: mission, vision, values, and brand value proposition .

1.1 Mission and Vision

It is the ultimate goal of the brand, or it can be called the brand ideal. It is what the brand exists and strives for.

The difference between mission and vision is that mission is an expression of a lofty idealized goal. This goal cannot fall into clichés and cannot be like "I want to make so much money." It must be moving and represent a pursuit that the brand will always strive for. Vision is, to a certain extent, equivalent to long-term vision, which refers to a long-term goal that can be achieved after a certain period of effort. The time is not three to five years, and the goal is not an expression of performance. It is usually difficult to achieve but possible.

1.2 Values

The brand concept based on this is the guiding ideology and code of conduct that the brand sets for itself in the process of pursuing its mission and achieving its vision.

Some people think that this thing is empty, but in fact it is not empty at all. It is the people or things that the brand considers to be more important, and it will be reflected in all aspects of brand organization management and brand development. Understanding values ​​and brand concepts is equivalent to knowing what the brand values. By comparison, users will know the answer to the question of "Who are you" from the brand.

The difference between values ​​and brand concepts is that values ​​are internal, guiding and constraining oneself, telling oneself what not to do and what to do; brand concepts are external, guiding enterprises to create what kind of value to meet the needs of users...

Some companies seem to be very careless about this matter, using empty and false language to express it, which is too abstract. Users cannot understand it and even their own people may not understand it. The brand has no basis or reference in subsequent actions.

In fact, this is very important. Mission, vision and values ​​are the origin of the brand, just like the sun in the solar system. Without this sun, other stars will eventually go off the track and rush into the dark depths of the universe. This origin determines how the value layer, image layer and product layer unfold, as well as how the subsequent brand story is told and how the content system is constructed.

New and emerging brands do better in this regard, and generally can speak in a way that users can understand.

For example, the brand concept of Good Hope Water is "giving good hope", the value is "good things will happen", and the brand vision is "making the best-tasting plant-based beverage". These clearly express what kind of brand they want to be, what the brand does, and what products or services the brand provides to users.

Another example is Hua Xizi, whose brand concept is "Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup". The first half of the sentence clearly expresses what the brand does, what kind of brand it wants to be, and also expresses the brand characteristics and brand culture. If you are a fan of it, you will understand that Hua Xizi's brand concept and Hua Xizi's integrated text system, visual system, product strategy and creativity, as well as communication with users are consistent.

It cannot be asserted whether the Huaxizi team thinks in this way, but judging from the perception and feeling given to users, the brand is truly practicing its brand philosophy, and this is true for all its marketing actions and behaviors, including content creation.

The clearer and more definite the concept layer is, the better it can define the brand's value layer, image layer, product layer, and subsequent marketing communications and content construction .

1.3 Brand Value Proposition

It is also called brand promise or brand proposition , which means the same thing. It is "value + proposition". Value refers to the value or benefit that the brand brings to the target group, that is, the users. Proposition means advocacy and opinion, which is what the brand subjectively agrees with, promotes, approves of and supports.

The difference between it and the brand core value is that the brand value proposition is a concrete expression of the brand positioning, and a concise and figurative expression of the brand core value. Brand positioning is to position the brand's meaningful and differentiated value, and the value proposition is to express this value in words, which is an important starting point for the brand's external communication.

To quote Kotler, brand value proposition is a question of how to communicate with customers .

So how do you create a brand value proposition? Generally speaking, there are four types of brand value propositions: factual propositions, cognitive propositions, emotional propositions, and value propositions .

Factual claim is to express the functional value of the product through artistic language or labeling, such as Nongfu Spring; cognitive claim is to use people's mental resources to create associative imagination, such as Wanglaoji; emotional claim is that users can define the brand by the emotional satisfaction they get, such as Coca-Cola; value claim is to create from the brand's spiritual value, symbolic meaning, lifestyle and other aspects, such as Nike.

Brand value proposition is an important external expression of the brand. In addition to being able to accurately translate brand positioning and express brand core values, it is necessary to consciously treat "proposition" as a brand asset.

The language should be highly refined and concise, and tolerance for homophones and other factors should be taken into consideration; it should have a memorable point, as the same old things will only make it lost in the crowd; it should be able to integrate the brand name to increase the degree of memorability; it should have appeal, that is, empathy, to drive users to buy; the last and most important thing is not to go beyond the rules, and read the Advertising Law.

Brands often equate brand value proposition with brand appeal or directly treat it as an advertising slogan or brand slogan. In fact, the connotation is the same , but the advertising slogan and brand slogan are required to be easier for users to understand, and are often changed according to the requirements of the brand campaign.

However, in the current communication environment, few brands will disseminate value propositions or slogans themselves. Instead, they are more like mission, vision, and values ​​guiding the brand, which also become the "sun" of the brand's communication and content. Brands usually communicate with users around it.

Its existence is like the composition in the college entrance examination. A topic is given, and candidates write based on this topic. They can write poetry or prose, argumentative essay or narrative essay, or write about people or things. It is up to the candidates to decide.

The same is true for brands. Based on this proposition, they launch communication activities, create advertisements and content, generate topics on social media, etc.

1.4 Brand Core Value

The value layer is discussed in detail here. The content of the value layer is to position the core value of the brand. It is the connotation of a brand, the most essential definition of a brand, and the essence of the so-called brand positioning work - positioning the brand's meaningful and differentiated user value or user benefits .

Differentiation means that the brand and its products and services must be different from similar products, which is a necessary condition for users to have memories and familiarity with the products and brands. Moreover, differentiation must be achievable and trustworthy; meaningfulness means that the brand and its products and services must be meaningful and relevant to users. Only in this way can users perceive and interpret the value brought by differentiation.

Generally speaking, there are three levels of value or benefits that a brand can provide to users : functional value, emotional value, and spiritual value.

Functional value is the material benefits that a product brings; emotional value is the emotional satisfaction that users gain in the process of purchasing and using brand products; spiritual value is also called value expression benefit, which means that in this process, the brand can express users’ feelings about their wealth, knowledge, cultivation, personality, taste, status and other social aspects, thus becoming a way for users to express their personality, ideas and values.

The purpose of user consumption is not only functional value, but also to express their emotional appeal and meaning appeal. In the consumption process, these two aspects brought by the brand and product are more important. The latter two play a more significant role in promoting user cognition of the brand. The image of the brand in the minds of users is also divided into these three levels. When sorting out or even optimizing positioning, we need to pay more attention to the triple value of users.

Provide an effective positioning method for brand value positioning:

First, define the five most important values ​​for target users , which must be based on the real needs of users and their requirements for meeting those needs;

Secondly, the five values ​​are classified into : a super value with a monopoly advantage, which is the most important and outstanding to users; a differential value with a differential advantage, which describes the differentiation between itself and competing brands; and three average level benchmark values, which represent the category label and trust foundation of the brand and product or service in the minds of users;

Finally, refine and summarize the brand discourse system , refine, summarize and optimize the value classified in the previous step, and make it into a positioning discourse system that can be communicated to users.

As for how to carry out this step of intelligence work, the first step is to collect information within the company and interview core members of the company; the second is to face the target users directly to understand their needs, views, ideas and evaluations, etc.; the third is to find information from users' search behavior, discussion behavior and media reports .

The most important point is that the core value of the brand needs to conform to the user's perception and cognitive rules. What is needed is not simply what I have, but what I can bring to the user.

The above all belong to the brand’s text system settings, including brand declarations, brand stories, etc., but the requirements are different. Let’s talk about it in the “Expressing Brand Stories” below.

1.5 Brand personality, brand image, and brand role

Below the value layer is the image layer, which includes brand personality, brand image, brand role , etc. It is not necessary to build a new brand system from scratch.

1.5.1 Brand personality

It refers to the human personality traits that users understand a brand to have. It originates from the brand personality philosophy theory, but actually refers to the personalized brand image.

By shaping the brand image through anthropomorphism, the brand can look more like a human being, thereby giving the brand a certain personality. The purpose is also to narrow the emotional distance between the brand and users.

1.5.2 Brand Image

This concept has been around for a long time and is related to brand associations, including product image, corporate image, and user image. However, from the perspective of brand building, it is generally equivalent to the user image represented by the brand, which refers to the user's association with the type of people who use the brand.

For example, when talking about kitchen supplies, images of housewives, mothers, and food lovers will definitely come to mind.

The user image usually represents the image of the brand's target group. In addition to some hard indicators (demographic characteristics), behind it are the characteristics of the target group's personality, concepts, and lifestyle.

Lifestyle is a research method in economics. In the field of marketing, there is a word that is closer to it, called lifestyle, which actually means the same thing.

It usually reflects a group's concepts, attitudes, lifestyles, and consumption behaviors... The time and space in which they live or survive is often called a life picture, like a microcosm of time and space.

Why do there are things like "Why not eat meat porridge" and other misunderstandings? The problem is that each group lives in a different life picture. People who often fly find it difficult to understand that there are very few people in China who have actually flown on a plane. There are similar data as well, that there are actually very few people with a bachelor's degree. Many people have never been to Starbucks or KFC in their lives, and they think they are places like five-star hotels and are deterred from going there.

Shaping the brand user image can attract people who have the same lifestyle or pursue a certain lifestyle, making them have a psychological identification and belonging to the brand. It is an identity identification of "I am the same as you" and an emotional belonging of "you can represent me".

Just like Jiang Xiaobai, whether it is product packaging or the advertising, content, and channel layout towards barbecue, snack bars, and convenience stores, it is projecting an image that is down-to-earth, friendly, or close to young people.

Different from many traditional liquor brands, which portray the image of elite groups and successful people in high-end clubs and banquets, it is difficult for young people to identify with it and they will only stay away from it.

As stated in the article "Consumer Insights, What Are We Insighting into?", concepts guide behavior, and concepts come from users' active or passive choices of lifestyles. People live in scenes, and scenes set people's main roles.

The user image of a brand actually represents the life of a certain group of people. For example, why do advertisements for kitchenware often feature wives, parents, and family characters? Because people who have never been married, have no children, and no partner, their roles and life scenes are not families.

1.5.3 There is another concept called brand role

Brand persona is a more comprehensive, three-dimensional and complete embodiment of brand personality and brand image. If brand personality and brand image are somewhat vague, brand persona is equivalent to pushing a living person who can represent the brand's inner and outer qualities in front of people.

Just like the Marlboro brand in the United States, there is a cowboy in every one of its advertisements. The cowboy's appearance, clothing, demeanor, expression, and age can all be seen intuitively. Through this cowboy character, people can understand what the brand wants to express and associate what the brand is like.

When a brand sets a concrete character like Marlboro, it has a complete and specific brand character. But it is usually set according to the target group of the brand, the demographic characteristics of my user group, their attitudes, lifestyles, consumption behaviors, and even their entertainment patterns.

Because users themselves play different roles in real life, such as father, mother, child, boyfriend, girlfriend, office worker, student, etc. At different stages, they have different lifestyles and are in different life scenes due to different choices... For users, brand roles not only play the role of identity recognition, but also allow users to project their "ideal self".

When doing this part of the work, there is a term called brand personality. Personality is the setting of the character. It is different from the celebrity personality, which deliberately exaggerates and conceals the strengths and weaknesses and loses its authenticity. It is the same as the setting mentioned in the previous part of this article.

Brand characters are not limited to a certain role. Some are cartoon characters, also called brand IP or mascots; some are digital virtual characters that have become popular in the past two years; some are characters in Marlboro-style advertisements; and some are real people, such as brand founders, employees, image spokespersons, etc.

But in reality, there are still many problems. For example, spokespersons cannot do many things and can only lie in the materials unless there is a contractual agreement. In addition, there are risks. If the founder has no story to tell, has a wrong outlook on life, and has no characteristics, it is better not to use him. Brand IP and virtual images also have the problem of lying around and gathering dust, and have really become mascots that are shelved.

In this regard, Jiang Xiaobai is very good. The Jiang Xiaobai image it launched is not only revealed in the bottle packaging, but also in the animated short drama. Lei Jun and Huang Taiji are also good, and they can be said to be typical cases of brand character creation.

2. Panoramic brand experience

The next step is to shape the brand experience, which mainly refers to the brand’s visual system, involving brand naming, logo, identification, VI system, as well as product design and product packaging design.

There is actually not much to say about this, so I will just briefly explain it.

2.1 Brand Naming

Brand naming is definitely a task that racks brains. The name is the first appearance of a brand, giving the brand a good opportunity to tell stories and feelings, and is the first step in building brand recognition. A good name can successfully establish distinction for a brand, while a bad name will waste a lot of costs.

Reese and Trout said in "Positioning": "In the positioning era, the only important marketing decision you can make is to give your product a good name." Brand names are also important brand assets for companies. A good name may not necessarily determine life and death, but it will certainly affect efficiency:

1. Benefit for communication - A good brand name can reduce communication obstacles and make brand communication more efficient. It does not require imposed and brainwashing to occupy consumers' time, while a bad brand name requires a lot of marketing costs to reverse.

2. Enhanced recognition - Legally, brand names are used to distinguish competitors and guide consumers to recognize and choose brands to consume; in the market, the starting point and final end point of consumer brand response are brands, and consumers can remember good names better at first glance.

3. Strengthen cognition - On the one hand, a good brand name is to give consumers a focus of memory, and on the other hand, it also affects the behavior and methods of marketing activities. The battlefield of the brand is in the mental battlefield, and the so-called mental battlefield is to appeal to customers' cognitive reactions.

Introducing several naming methods, you can start from the six major meanings of the brand and guide the brand's full name:

1. Brands first remind consumers of certain attributes (such as Mercedes-Benz, which is a car, Nongfu Spring, which is water)...

2. The attributes exist to meet the interests of consumers. What kind of functional value does it have (those that can reflect the core selling points of the product, such as Libai and Shufujia)…

3. The brand also represents certain aspects of value, emotional and spiritual values ​​beyond functional values ​​(such as Coca-Cola represents happiness, Heytea represents inspiration and surprise feelings)...

4. Culture can be from the aspects of corporate philosophy and vision, founder culture, historical culture, brand IP, etc. (such as the rigor and pursuit of perfection behind Mercedes-Benz, the cost-effectiveness represented by Xiaomi, and the people-friendly performance. A grain of rice in Buddha's view is as big as Mount Sumeru).

5. Culture gives personality, and personality causes association. It can also be named directly from the personality. At the same time, those with personality colors are more suitable for social brands (such as Wahaha, Wangzai, Jinlilai, Jiang Xiaobai, Sandun and Banban)...

6. User, that is, user image, describes typical consumer image and identity in the brand name (such as Taitai Le, kitchen seasoning food, boss appliances, targeting the wealthy class of the business group, Xiaoxiandun, targeting users targeting Xiaoxianmi)…

Two additional naming thinking directions are added: 1. Category thinking, such as Didi Chuxing (Didi Taxi), Daily Black Catch, Taier Pickled Vegetable Fish, Wangjing Xiaoyao... 2. Scene thinking, such as Boss Direct Recruitment, Uniqlo, IKEA, Liangpin Shop... Of course, the above is a combination of use, not a favorable one or the other.

2.2 Brand logo, logo, Vi, etc.

That is, the brand visual system commonly referred to as the brand, generally includes basic logo and Vi, as well as product design, packaging design, brand image or brand IP, offline space, etc. It mainly helps the brand create unique identification symbols and deeply affects users' perception of the brand at first glance.

It should be noted that vision such as Logo and Vi are not the top priority. As mentioned above, many companies only regard this step as the brand itself and spend a lot of effort to create a VI manual, but in the end they are just a waste.

Generally speaking, the current logo design includes the combination of three main elements: graphics, text, and color. It is a design science. In the early days, it may have been designed as patterns or directly used pictures. For example, an apple was really an apple tree at the beginning...

But it is not just a design. Generally, the logo of a brand needs to be linked from product attributes and characteristics (features), brand name and founder, and cultural prototypes. For example, KFC uses colonel images, Starbucks uses siren elements (coffee beans need to travel across the ocean to reach the United States), black toothpaste with black smiley faces, Burger King is a burger...

At the same time, we should also pay attention to the association of the presentation, that is, what will the user think when he sees it? Think about it better or worse? What evaluation will be generated?

Why do some brands look high-end, while others don’t? This is because brand designs are also conveying information to users, which will make users feel the value and image of the brand intuitively. This is because users will associate it. If users feel inappropriate or cannot feel the meaning of any of them, it will be very bad.

2.3 Brand auditory system, brand name, logo, brand slogan, music, songs

Refer to Intel, Motorola, Mixue Ice City advertising songs, Naobaijin’s gift collection songs, Watsons’ 105-degree you, and even WeChat shake, classic phone ringtones…

When building a brand auditory system, the selected sound must be related to the brand, and the recognition must be high and concise enough.

One is whether the brand can be read casually. Xibei’s logo uses I Love U. People read casually when they see it. Although Xibei does not auditoryize I Love U, it still has a strong auditory symbolic effect. You can compare Motorola, which once had the same voice at the end of each video advertisement of Motorola. The same is JD.com.

One is Intel, creating a sound that looks like a shaking WeChat. People listen to it for a long time, and every time they hear that sound, they know it is Intel, just like when they hear someone’s message “Wait…”, they know that Journey to the West is playing.

Another type is the advertising song like Mixue Ice City, Hongxing Erke’s To Be Number One.

There is another type of brainwashing advertisements that people often hear in elevators, such as "Everyone Car~", "Go Up and Up, Go Youxin Used Car", "Adopting a Cow", and even worse, "Are you okay? Are you okay"...

It can be said that it is extremely bad.

2.4 Touch, smell...

Generally, there are many offline entities, just understand.

3. Express brand story

3.1 Brand Story

I think this is also the worst part of many brands, and many companies equate it with brand introductions or advertising ideas. Many brands' brand stories even their employees think they are nonsense.

The story lies in the fact that first of all, it is a story. The twists and turns, the emotions are affected by the story. It should be like a fascinating novel that readers can continue to read.

There are many books on the market about the power of stories. Indeed, among all animals, only humans can cooperate with humans. This is because we can tell stories and spread them everywhere.

Only brand stories with details, personality and emotions can make the brand leave a deeper impression in the minds of users.

Generally speaking, brand stories can be selected from four perspectives, namely founder stories, product stories, employee stories, and user stories.

For example, the founder’s story: milk powder brand Meyzanson, tea drink brand Naixue’s tea, etc. are mostly about brand founders, and they are usually “Why do I do this, why do I do this” and so on.

For example, product stories: generally tell stories related to product history, product culture, product research and development, and production, and usually include evidence on documentary records, place of origin protection, product technology, and patents.

For example, employee stories: The most classic ones are Nongfu Spring and China Post. They have all launched stories of staff members under the company, exploring water sources and postal delivery stories.

But the most moving thing should be user stories, which are rarely told from this perspective. In fact, users should become the protagonists of various brand stories.

Because the products are to be sold to users, and the brand is evaluated and defined by users. Why do people need to consume? In addition to material needs, there are also emotional and spiritual needs. People need to confirm their position in society through consumption.

The reason for consumption is that the brand can help users become the ideal self. How the brand helps users achieve their ideal self is the story that the brand should tell the most.

3.2 Brand Proclamation

Since the brand introduction mentioned above, let’s explain the brand declaration that is essential to the brand.

Brand declarations are usually lying in the brand's brand manual and website. Some companies often make brand declarations into videos for playback. They are usually used at the beginning of the brand establishment to tell users "Who am I", or the brand has been upgraded and no longer the original self, and need to tell users "Who am I" again.

If vision and mission can guide the brand in the right direction, then the brand declaration is the energy that drives it forward. The brand declaration is responsible for inspiring creativity, inspiring people and giving the brand meaning. Emotionally injecting "why" into the brand? Why should we become a brand? Why is it so important? Why is it worth caring for?

As Chris Rangacianos wrote: The Manifesto is a versatile tool designed to articulate what a brand stands for—what makes employees wake up every morning and inspire them to realize the brand’s vision. It is obviously not about a brand’s product or service, but about why they sell it from the very beginning.

Brand statements are the cultural cornerstone for brands to resonate in an individual way. It provides a value proposition that explains why striving to achieve a brand, and also provides the basis for creating excellent brand experiences and user relationships – if you talk about your beliefs, you will attract those who believe in your beliefs.

Although each brand has its own way of expression, generally speaking, brand declarations speak in a collective (our) voice, positive tone, and are driven by a strong desire to change the status quo.

You can pay attention to some characteristics when creating: the power of demonstrations, the firmness of faith, the moving story, the exciting dream, the epiphany of philosophy, and the power of hyperlinks...

For example: "The Next Wave" by B Station, Apple's "think different", and "The First and Forest" by Yuanqi.