Four specific roles of brand

This article introduces four specific roles of brands for enterprises. It is suitable for readers who are concerned about brands.

Mr. Drucker once said: "All the operating results of an enterprise come from the outside, everything else is a cost, and the brand is the sum of all the operating results outside the enterprise." It is for this reason that enterprises must treat brand strategy as the core operating strategy of the enterprise. So what other specific functions does the brand have?

1. Brand is a tool for enterprises to formulate strategies from an external perspective

For many companies, strategy is often a very "secret" matter. Several core executives will go to a beautiful place to "retreat" for a few days and get together to have a thorough discussion.

In some companies, the boss has the final say, so strategy is more about the boss sharing his thoughts and others thinking about how to achieve it. In some companies, people like to discuss together, with several people talking about their own opinions. Larger companies also have a strategy department, which needs to provide insights for decision-making every now and then.

However, most companies’ strategic perspectives are often based on “me”: I want to do this and that, I want to do something, our opponent XXX… Few companies think about problems from the perspective of “how others see me”.

If we look at it from an external perspective, we will pay attention to the brand loyalty of our own brand, the popularity of our brand, and the difference between the perceived quality of the company's users and the actual product quality.

For example, for luxury goods like LV, consumers' perceived quality is much better than the actual quality of the product. Is the brand association positive? What are the comparative advantages of the brand? When we examine it from an external perspective and make strategies, it will be more instructive for the operation of the enterprise.

2. Optimize internal communication efficiency and solve cognitive alignment problems

More and more companies have become "knowledge-based" companies. The biggest challenge for knowledge-based companies is management. A physical engineer sitting there does not mean that he is thinking about code in spirit. Communication and cognitive alignment among N knowledge-based employees will become a huge management cost for the company. One-size-fits-all management cannot solve the problem, and it will stifle innovation.

There is something called CIS in the brand, which is collectively called the identification system, including the "visual identification system", "behavioral identification system" and "concept identification system". After repeated practice in China, everyone has accepted the "visual identification system". "I want to build a brand, please help me design a LOGO", this is the most common cognitive acceptance.

However, behaviors and concepts have been ignored. A system for identifying concepts and behaviors will be integrated with "communication techniques, corporate culture actions, strategic introduction, and concept dissemination" to help knowledge workers improve their communication efficiency and become a cultural symbol within the company. Some people would say that this solution is what corporate culture should have done in the past, but the starting point of the cultural department is often unity and atmosphere. If you don't start from the perspective of overall organizational efficiency and internal brand recognition, it will be difficult to achieve results.

3. Review the brand’s market investment and improve the marketing input-output ratio

The biggest annoyance for marketers in the past two years is the "budget cuts". Budget cuts are one of the three major ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency (layoffs, budget cuts, and digitalization). However, in the process of cutting, I found that many marketing expenses were cut in a proportional compression method, and some were cut according to the expense amount. These methods seem to help companies save money quickly for the time being, but there will be serious consequences. Should marketing expenses be cut? How should they be cut? They should be cut according to the brand review method and the input-output ratio should be calculated.

4. The fourth function of the brand is to cooperate with marketing to ensure that the products are of high quality and effective.

The core elements of a brand include "profit" and "reasonable growth rate". When branding and marketing work together, the efficiency of marketing needs to consider growth rate and profit, as well as the company's own brand positioning and value chain management. This is when it is less likely to go astray. For many ToB companies, a large number of front-end marketing and sales staff ultimately focus on their own personal brands, which is also a phenomenon that corporate brands need to be vigilant about. The more ToB companies are, the more they need to focus on branding rather than marketing.

If a company does not pay attention to integrating its marketing with its brand, a large amount of marketing will lose its footing and become a hot "fireworks" or an action of "losing money but gaining publicity".

When people start a business, they want the business to bring influence. There are two kinds of influence: one is at the brain level, and the other is at the heart level. The influence at the brain level is achieved through a lot of images, repetitions, slogans, benefits, rituals, etc. Brand and market marketing is doing this, while the influence at the heart level requires a lot of effort from the business and the entrepreneur. This influence combined with the influence at the brain level, the effect is 1+1>2.

Author: Liu Yichun

Source: WeChat public account "Liu Yichun's Brand Business Innovation (ID: shangyeyiguohui)"