Branding is more than just a marketing term - it has become central to selling products and services. A brand represents tangible and intangible qualities like quality, image, and status that customers associate with a product. Building a powerful brand creates a competitive advantage and can be a company's most valuable asset. Key components of an effective brand include the name, logo, positioning in the market, quality, reputation, and consistent messaging that builds awareness, preference, and loyalty over the long term.

1. Branding As A Tool For Market Access
NECA/NNEW Lecture
‘Lolu Akinwunmi

2. Overview
• Branding is more than just a business buzzword. It has
become the crux of selling in the new economy.
• If the old marketing mantra was," Nothing happens until
somebody sells something," the new philosophy could
be" Nothing happens until somebody brands something."

3. Overview cont’d
• In its simplest form, a brand is a noun. It is the name attached
to a product or service.
• However, upon close inspection, a brand represents many
more intangible aspects of a product or service: a collection of
feelings and perceptions about quality, image, lifestyle and
status.
• It creates in the mind of customers and prospects the
perception that there is no product or service on the market
that is quite like yours. In short, a brand offers the customer a
guarantee and then delivers on it.

4. Overview cont’d
• You might infer, then, that if you build a powerful brand, you
will in turn be able to create a powerful marketing program.
• However, if you can't convince customers that your product is
worthy of purchasing, no amount of advertising naira, fancy
packaging or public relations will help you achieve your sales
goals.
• Therefore, successful branding programs begin with superior
products and services, backed by excellent customer service
that permeates an entire organisation.

5. Key Questions on Brand Building
As you work to build your brand, you are probably asking
yourself questions such as:
• What am I trying to achieve?
• Who should be involved in branding activities?
• How do I manage this?
• What are the tools and techniques to use?
• How do I know I am making progress?

6. What is a brand?
The totality of what the consumer takes into
consideration before making a purchase decision

7. What is branding? (1)
“The strategy for differentiating products and companies
(organisations) and building economic value for both the
consumer and the brand owner.”
David Pikckton

8. What is branding? (2)
“A bundle of intrinsic and extrinsic offerings blending both
functional and psychological benefits”
Garner & Levy, 1955

9. What is branding? (3)
“A name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that
identifies one’s seller’s goods from those of the other
sellers.”
Dibb et al. 1994

10. What is branding? (4)
“A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such
as logo, trademark, or pack design) intended to identify
the goods and services of either one seller or a group of
sellers, and to differentiate those goods or services from
those of competitors.”
Aaker, 1991

11. Purpose of branding
The aim of branding is to create impressions that
differentiate products and companies by saying that one
is not just different from the rest, but in some respect, it
is better than the rest

12. The Importance of Branding
• Key truth of modern business: your competitors can
duplicate your product in a matter of weeks or months.
• If you have a great idea, you can be certain that
somebody will copy it before long. And not only will they
follow your lead, but they may also be able to do a better
job or sell the product or service at a lower price. The
question then becomes, "What competitive edge do I
have to offer that cannot be copied by anyone else?"
• The answer? Your brand.

13. The Importance of Branding…/2
• Creating a strong brand identity will build mind share —
one of the strongest competitive advantages imaginable.
• As a result, customers will think of your business first
when they think of your product category. For example,
when you think of soft drink, more likely than not, you
think of the Coke brand.
• The reason behind this strong brand-product association
is that this company has built rock solid brand identity.

14. The Importance of Branding…/3
• "A brand is the one thing that you can own that nobody
can take away from you," says Howard Kosgrove, vice
principal of marketing at
Lindsay, Stone and Briggs Advertising in Madison, Wis.
• "Everything else, they can steal. They can steal your
trade secrets. Eventually, your patents will expire. Your
physical plant will wear out. Technology will change.
• But your brand can go on and live. It creates a lasting
value above and beyond all the other elements of your
business."

15. The Importance of Branding…/4
• That value is often called brand equity, or the worth of
the brand. Brand equity, unlike other abstract marketing
notions, can be quantified.
• For instance, if you owned the Coca-Cola Company and
wanted to sell it, you would begin to value the firm by
looking at the assets tied to the Coke brand.
• You would then identify the cost of the factories, patents,
trucks, machines and staff." They are worth a small
fraction of what you can sell that brand for," says
Kosgrove.
• "The value of that brand is huge compared to those
actual physical assets."

16. The Importance of Branding
The importance and value of branding becomes
apparent when an entrepreneur wants to sell his or her
company or take it for a public offering or other infusion
of capital. It is often the brand that a business owner has
to sell in such cases.

17. Components of a Brand
• How do you create a brand identity?
• The brand name and brand logo are two crucial
components in the creation of brand identity

18. What's in a Name?
• The foundation of your brand is its name. After its
uniqueness wears off, it will be your brand name against
the brand names of your competitors in the marketplace.
So, how can you create a name that will stand the test of
time?
• "First, it should be able to communicate on its own
without a lot of advertising,"
• Besides making sure that people from all or most ethnic
backgrounds will accept your brand's name, it should
also be memorable and easy to communicate in
packaging and advertising.

19. What's in a Name?...2
• If possible, the name should also complement the overall
core values of the company.
• For instance, Pampers was a perfect name for the diaper
line that Procter & Gamble launched in the late 1970s.
The name is easy to say, has positive associations, and
links to the performance of the product. Besides that, the
brand came out at a time when cloth diapers were still
largely popular with mothers.
• By the name alone, mothers could make the switch to
disposable diapers that were more convenient without
feeling that the product would compromise the comfort,
or pampering, of their child.

20. What's in a Name?...3
• In cases of large companies, a brand name can help
propel a product or service through the marketplace.
• In other instances, particularly with younger brands, the
descriptiveness of the name can have a strong influence
on how well it's accepted.
• For others, the name has no meaning at all until broader
identity building programs are built around the name
(such as ESPN, OMO, laundry detergent).

21. Brand Name
The brand name is the part of the brand that can be
spoken which can include letters, words and numbers
such as Coca-Cola and Prima Garnet. This may be
separate from the trade name, which is the full legal
name of an organisation. The full name of Prima Garnet
for example is Prima Garnet Communications Limited

22. Brand Logo
• The logo is the element of the brand that is frequently
not words, including symbols and pictures. The logo can
also be termed a brand mark, for example the baby
symbol on P&G’s Fairy Liquid.
• Logos help to identify the product

23. Brand Identity Manual
• Many organisations have a brand or corporate identity manual
that clearly specifies how the elements of identity should be
used. This is to ensure consistency throughout the entire
organisation. The manual will show identity designs and
specify the precise use of colours, typefaces, typestyles etc.
• The BIM is a ref book that should be used when considering
the design and production of letter heads, business cards,
packaging etc

24. The Benefits of Branding: Consumer Perspective
• Identification: simplifies the decision-making process
• Risk assessment: a guarantee of consistent quality
• Representation: embodies what the individual stands
for. Hedonistic needs, social status etc

25. The Benefits of Branding:
Brand Owner Benefits
• Price Premium: increased profit margins
• Brand loyalty: reduced threat of price war
• Growth: new product development
• Barriers to entry: hardship for competitors
• Legal advice: protection from counterfeiting and “me-
too” entries

26. Factors for building brand value?

27. What Goes Into A Brand? (Brand Identity)

28. Pricing
A component of value; higher prices may signify to
consumers higher quality, and lower prices may suggest
decreased value.

29. Distribution
This is availability; limited distribution of a product or
service may imply exclusivity to discerning consumers.

30. Quality
• This impacts satisfaction; obviously, higher quality will translate to
more satisfied customers who come back again and again to
purchase your offerings.
• Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the “core
benefits” – the things consumers expect. These must be delivered
well, consistently.
• The branded washing machine that leaks, or the training shoe that
often falls apart when wet will never develop brand equity.
• Research confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a
higher market share and higher profitability that their inferior
competitors

31. Presence
Prominence in the paid and unpaid media; products or
services with a high-profile market presence will lead to
brand recognition and increased sales.

32. Awareness
• Communications also play a key role in building a
successful brand, since brand positioning is essentially
about customer perceptions – with the objective to build
a clearly defined position in the minds of the target
audience.
• All elements of the promotional mix need to be used to
develop and sustain customer perceptions.
• Initially, the challenge is to build awareness, then to
develop the brand personality and reinforce the
perception.

33. Reputation
Enduring public opinion of brand character, which is built
over time and difficult to change once established.

34. Image
Perceptions of brand traits or prototypical buyers; often
represented by qualities the consumer relates to. Like
reputation, image is difficult to change once established.

35. Benefits
Consumers may equate certain positive and negative
consequences with use of your product or service; these
may be warranted or unwarranted.

36. Positioning salience
Differentiation from the competition, which is established
by a combination of all elements of the brand.

37. Preference
A predisposition to buy displayed by consumers who are
establishing brand loyalty.

38. Share of market
Increased market share is a direct result of a successful
branding campaign.

39. Customer commitment
Loyalty is built through long-term branding and close
consumer contact

40. Positioning
• Where do you want to be?
• Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a
market in the minds of consumers. Strong brands have a
clear, often unique position in the target market.
• Positioning can be achieved through several means,
including brand name, image, service standards, product
guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is
delivered. In fact, successful positioning usually requires
a combination of these things.

41. Long Term Perspective
• This leads onto another important factor in brand-
building: the need to invest in the brand over the long-
term.
• Building customer awareness, communicating the
brand’s message and creating customer loyalty takes
time.
• This means that management must “invest” in a brand,
perhaps at the expense of short-term profitability.

42. Internal Marketing
• Finally, management should ensure that the brand is
marketed “internally” as well as externally. By this, the
whole business should understand the brand values and
positioning. This is particularly important in service
businesses where a critical part of the brand value is the
type and quality of service that a customer receives.
• Think of the brands that you value in the restaurant,
hotel and retail sectors. It is likely that your favourite
brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-to-
face contact that you have with the brand helps secure
your loyalty.

43. Questions
Comments

44. Thank you