What is meant by brand loyalty?

Degree to which a consumer will repeatedly purchase a Brand. For advertisers to achieve their ultimate goal of brand loyalty, the consumer must perceive that the brand offers the right combination of quality and price. Many factors influence brand loyalty, such as consumer attitudes, family or peer pressure, and friendship with the salesperson. The degree of brand loyalty=that is, the brand's Market Share=is known as the brand franchise.

Brand Loyalty Definition:-

The extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands.

Brand Ability:-In today's competitive times, where marketing is nothing short of warfare, 18 Brand Astras presents a simple and invaluable analysis of the factors that work to make a brand successful. Ace-Marketer and consultant, Jagdeep Kapoor, presents 18 brand abilities that a brand must have to be successful. Terming them as astras, meaning weapons, he explains how it is critical that marketers have an awareness and understanding of these abilities to promote their brand effectively. Some key brand abilities that he talks of are those of Reliability, Acceptability, Availability and Visibility.

Adopting a simple and jargon-free style, the book explains:

- What constitutes each brand ability?

- The connection between these abilities

- How these abilities must be used in conjunction for maximum results

-How these abilities are integrated to form the CRISP Branding model.

Written in an irreverent conversation style the book simplifies the key concepts behind brands and brand building making it accessible to the novice and expert alike.

Brand Ability Inc. specializes in the creation of unforgettable

Corporate Names Product Names Taglines/Slogans Advanced Branding Concepts

for national and international corporations and organizations.

BrandAbility has a gift for creating the world’s best names, slogans and branding concepts, backed by over 20 years experience.

BrandAbility names, slogans and Advanced Branding Concepts will delight you and your customers!

brand values 

The premium that accrues to a brand from customers who are willing to pay extra for it.

Trust- keeping our promis

Fun- The Marina Mode experience is fun for all!

Entertainment- Here to put a smile on your face

Passion- for the products we offer and for our  customers

Quality- Best quality clothes

Value- good value for your money

WHAT’S THE BIG (BRAND) IDEA? If someone outside of marketing in your organization asked you, “What’s your brand idea,” do you know what answer you would give? If you don’t know for sure, don’t feel bad. It’s one of the harder brand-building questions to answer—at least with any consensus or consistency. It seems that, unlike other strategic, brand-building elements—such as the positioning target or the brand’s benefits and reasons why—which are generally understood the same way by most marketers, the brand idea is open to considerable interpretation. You might say that, more often than not, the brand idea is in the mind of the beholder. And yet, having a widely understood and agreed-to brand idea can be really helpful—for everyone in the organization.  For one thing, the brand idea, when deftly encapsulated in a sentence or less, is highly memorable. For another, it meaningfully and succinctly separates one brand from another—both within the company and (ideally) within the competitive set. In a sense, a well-articulated brand idea makes immediately clear, either directly or by implication, the one thing that meaningfully differentiates the brand. But, as we noted, getting to this well-articulated brand idea isn’t all that easy. Part of the reason is probably that it’s common to confuse communication campaign ideas or advertising ideas with brand ideas. More specifically, when a brand has a highly memorable set of key copy words (what some marketers call slogan or campaign tagline), and when those words stand the test of time, well, it’s just so natural to blurt them out as, fundamentally, the brand’s idea. You can imagine someone calling “Just do it” or “I’m lovin’ it” the Nike and McDonald’s brand ideas. Clearly, these kinds of brand-owned “mantras” are very valuable; and just as clearly, they state or imply the brand’s defining benefits. But there should be more to a brand idea, we think. Brand Idea—A Definition: Some of you may be thinking at this point, “I’ve heard the term ‘brand idea’ before, but I’m still not sure exactly what we’re talking about.” So, before going a whole lot further, we ought to at least

propose a working definition of this thing called brand idea. First though, maybe it helps to specify in a few more words what a brand idea is not. As already noted, it’s not a communication campaign slogan or tagline; nor is it a one-sentence sound-byte of the brand’s positioning strategy (though, naturally, a brand idea would not be inconsistent with either of these). Finally, it’s not simply a re-statement of the brand’s functional and emotional benefits. Here, then, is our shot at a reasonable, working definition of brand idea: A captivating expression of the needs & wants a brand best satisfies…that simultaneously conveys the brand’s ultimate purpose or commitment. Whenever we offer such a definition, we find it helps to break down the smaller parts within it and try to state exactly what we mean by each part: Definition Part Which MeansA captivating expression Words that go beyond the literal,

that typically carry appropriate double & triple meanings or connotations

of the needs & wants Not merely functional problems that the brand’s performance solves, but also those deeper-seated desires that accompany them

a brand best satisfies The most meaningful differentiation—aimed at the brand’s intended target

that simultaneously conveys That by its word-structure either explicitly or implicitly indicates…

the brand’s ultimate purpose or commitment.

The brand’s most valued sense of purpose; what it, more than any other brand like it, is and always has been committed to

 To bring any definition to life, nothing helps more than to look at a few examples. In this way we can “test out” how well each of them delivers on the meanings of these smaller parts. So, for example, here are a few that we have learned from marketers who have actually worked on the brands: 

With Land Rover you can get off the beaten track anywhere in the world.

  

 The wacky, fill-your-face ice cream with a conscience. 

Where families share the magic. Without taking each of these apart in great detail, it seems to us that most of the brand idea characteristics from our definition come through:  --For Land Rover, “off the beaten track” carries the double meaning of, literally, Land Rover’s world renowned off-road capabilities as well as, figuratively, the mindset of so many of its loyal drivers…who love nothing more than the escape only LR can give them; --For Ben & Jerry’s, the one-of-a-kind, quirky personality that has always come through in its flavor names and packaging is clear, as is the longstanding social commitment that the brand has upheld; --And for Disney, despite its very short length, does any entertainment brand in the world better satisfy parent’s and kid’s desire to share the magic of fantasy and reality with each other? Perhaps you might not have articulated the brand ideas for these three brands in precisely the same way. Expressing brand ideas is an inexact science, after all. What’s most important, regardless of the words or phrases used, is that the brand idea consistently carries the same meaning. Of course, once a brand has an idea whose meaning is clear to all (company personnel, brand customers, and brand consumers), the question then is, “Now what?” In other words, after all the trouble of crafting the just-right expression, what value does the brand idea bring? We searched on-line for articles and blogs about brand ideas, looking for a convincing answer to this question. Here’s one that works pretty well (from an article called “Advertising Idea Versus Brand Idea” published under a site named iContact on December 5, 2007):  

“We think brands need more than brilliant creative ideas to be relevant in the lives of people. (Brands) need a cause. A

philosophy, a body language, character and ways of doing things that go beyond its communication. One of the problems with creative or advertising ideas is that they only solve one-dimensional problems. Big brand ideas, on the other hand, could be the way to build businesses by co-opting their many stakeholders, many of whom, like employees and business partners, have to be aligned to the (brand) idea long before a customer walks in through the aisles.”

Brand Idea

The problem - I am a great believer that great ideas start with big problems. And the more fundamantal the problem the better. This has always been my defintion of radical as taught to me by the great Jon Leach - radical means solving problems at their most fundamental level - or root (hence radix or radical) cause.

Your position - this is about showing that you care about the things that we care about. It is partly taken from the Cluetrain idea that people are no longer interested in your positioing only your position and partly from John Grant's idea that brands need to find a bigger enthusiasm to have. Dirt is good is about finding a bigger enthusiasm than detergent. I'm pretty keen now that all brand strategy this more opinionated approach.

Your promise - I think this is an important part of the mix. The promise is the way in which you (implicitly or explicitly) prove to the consumer your credibility in holding that position and what you intent to do about it. Implicit in the dirt is good position is the promise that Persil will get your kids' clothes clean no matter how dirty they get.

Your Brand Idea - This is an outward facing crystallisation of the postion and promise ideally exploiting the tools and tricks of edibility, memorability and transmission I am so keen on. Dirt is good works because it is bold, contrary and based on a familiar structural form. Critically this cannot simply be an idea that the brand has had but should be the idea behind the brand - or as Adrian commented, the brand ideal. Don't confuse this with an advertising idea or a creative idea. These can come out of the brand idea (and great brand ideas should yield great communications in the right hands) but they are unlikely to be the primary manifestation of the brand idea.

Incidentally there should be afollow up chart to show the way then that the activities of the brand should explode out from the brand idea creating the molecular structure Grant talks about.

Branding in Customer Sector

A successful cult has devoted followers. What if your customers and clients were like these committed cult followers? We all know that to have customers these days is not enough, you have to make them fans. How can you put six laws of cult creation into affect when it comes to your brand marketing? Matthew Rock of RealBusiness introduces you to seven brand-building masters that will show you how to use these laws of cult-creation to initiate an emotional rapport between your products and your customers.

Six Ways to Build Your Brand through Customer Service

       

When it comes to brand building, customer service is often the last and most-ignored piece of the puzzle. This is a big mistake–and big missed opportunity. Aligning customer service and your brand is an essential but under-used way to attract and retain customers, differentiate the business, and boost brand loyalty. Done right, it can create a truly sustainable competitive advantage. Here are six ways we’ve seen to use customer service to reinforce brand identity. These methods can be used to align

customer service with established brands or to build a brand through customer service.

1. Establish and execute to a brand-aligned customer service intent

Successful companies formulate a strategic intent and execute to that intent for market success; savvy organizations map that strategic intent to a brand intent. While businesses often capture brand intent in their advertising, they ignore it in delivering customer service, whether it is through their websites, contact centers, stores, or branches. This could result in damage to the brand. It is therefore important for C-level executives to launch a brand-aligned customer service initiative to make sure it is implemented across customer-facing and back-office operations.

2. Design brand-aligned processes

Customer service processes often involve multiple steps, tasks, people, and organizations. For instance, contact center customer service includes call routing, interactions, resolution, and fulfillment, and could also include proactive outbound communications, based on pre-determined business rules. High-touch brands should design processes that emphasize human-assisted customer service over self-service, whether it is in a brick-and-mortar environment or in a contact center setting (e.g., phone and web chat). It is also important to ensure that promised service levels are met through robust customer service process management tools. Non-intrusive brands should refrain from aggressive in-person or live chat customer service.

3. Provide brand-aligned human-assisted service

Human-assisted service is here to stay- complex customer service requests and certain transactions require human involvement. Moreover, some customer segments prefer the human touch. As such, it is important for companies to hire and retain brand-aligned people for customer service. HR organizations could match the personality of the brand to the desired personality of frontline reps to ensure brand-aligned agent recruitment and retention.

The knowledge and conversational styles of “role model” (i.e., the most brand-aligned) call center agents can be captured in customer service management systems in the form of knowledge base content and interactive guidance to agents at the point of customer interaction, and even in customer self-service systems. Forward-looking retail and financial services companies are extending such systems to brick-and-mortar stores and branches to improve the effectiveness and brand alignment of in-person customer service.

4. Provide brand-aligned self-service

Self-service provides a great opportunity to further build the brand. For example, sophisticated guided-help knowledge base systems and online chatbots modeled after the company’s multimedia advertising spokespersons can orchestrate brand-aligned self-service interactions with customers. A hypothetical example would be chatbots modeled after the gecko or the “cavemen” for GEICO and William Shatner for priceline.com. In fact, a leading financial services company in Japan has used a chatbot, modeled after an actor featured in its television commercials.

5. Use brand-aligned metrics

A critical misstep in customer service management is the misalignment of brand strategy and service metrics. For instance, force-fitting Wal-Mart metrics to a Nordstrom brand intent is not a good strategy. High-touch brands should not emphasize throughput metrics such as average call handle times.

6. Brand-align all touchpoints

Most businesses still have interaction, data, and knowledge silos in phone call centers, online service centers, and self-service systems, where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Of late, many companies have started unifying customer interactions and knowledge bases into common platforms as the first step to unify customer experience across channels and service agents. However, most companies have yet to brand-align customer service across communication channels. A unified platform approach to cross-channel customer service and brand alignment can help them get there quickly, and their customers won’t have to face Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as they go from one communication channel to another, or from one agent to another.

Branding in Industry Sector

An industry is a group of people engaged in a commercial enterprise. Industry could also refer to the organized action of making goods and services for commercial.

Industry refers to the production of an economic good (either material or a service) within an economy. There are four key industrial economic sectors which include primary which is involved the extraction of resources directly from the earth, secondary is involved in the processing products

from primary industries, tertiary is involved in the provision of services and quatenary is involved in the research of science and technology.

Top 50 Service Brands1Vodafone2BSNL3State Bank Of India4Life Insurance Corporation5Tata Indicom6Big Bazaar7ICICI Bank8Bank of India9Hindustan Petroleum10Bharti Airtel11Canara Bank12Tata Docomo13Punjab National Bank14Central Bank Of India15Idea Cellular16HDFC Bank17Indian Bank18Reliance Fresh19Aircel20Pizza Hut21Bank Of Baroda22Union Bank of India23Reliance Communications24Indian Oil Corporation25LIC Mutual Fund26Citibank27Axis Bank28Air India29HDFC Standard Life Insurance30Reliance Life Insurance31SBI Life Insurance32Kendriya Vidyalaya33ICICI Prudential Life Insurance34Cafe Coffee Day35Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance36Kotak Mahindra Bank37HDFC Mutual Fund38McDonald's39IDBI Bank40Birla Sun Life Insurance41MTNL42SBI Mutual Fund43Kingfisher Airlines44Reliance Mutual Fund45ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund46Delhi Public School47Tata Mutual Fund48Spencer's49Dominos pizza50Standard Chartered Bank

eBranding Becomes Mandatory for Surviving the Digital Age by Dan Schawbel June 30, 2008

Introduction

Personal eBranding is the next wave of personal and professional development online. A personal brand is how you market yourself to others, whereas an eBrand is a digital representation of yourself online. Your brand is who you are and what you stand for, including values, competencies, attitudes, vision, mission, personality and appearance. The combined sum of everything you are and how you project it to others, whether online or offline, is your brand. Therefore, if your name is only attached to a single blog, that blog becomes your personal eBrand. If you have commented on ten blogs, and have three social network profiles, then the sum of that participation and creation is your brand—it is how people perceive you. Any single individual can and should develop an eBrand. There are no barriers to entry anymore, as the cost of building an eBrand has been reduced to nothing.

The facts

 

Companies, as well as individuals, understand the importance of eBranding, and the untapped potential of social networks. In fact, 40 percent of companies are set to increase spending on social networks next year (Forrester Research). Seventy-eight percent of marketers are using blogs, 63 percent use video, and 56 percent use social networks (MarketingVox.com). Online profiles are monitored by recruiters constantly, and although your personal brand may remain constant as technology advances, your eBrand must be both consistent and up-to-date to accurately represent your brand as being knowledgeable and technologically savvy.

  Google is the gateway to viewing and uncovering personal eBrands. A simple search determines if you have a presence, how many hits depict how impactful that presence is and the content represents the credibility behind the brand. The first page of results for your name is critical for your reputation. Forty-nine percent of people actually change their search terms after not finding a desired result on the first page (iProspect). Being in the first page is great for brand visibility and expert positioning. Thirty-nine percent of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned among the top search engine results are the leaders in the field (iProspect).

People are often—understandably—obsessed with their eBrands. They want to know how many results they have for their name and how their results are manipulated by search engines. Forty-seven percent of internet users have done these ego searches, which is an increase from 22 percent five years ago (Pew/Internet Survey). As the number of communication vehicles increase, the need to constantly monitor and patrol your personal eBrand increases. Corporations have already noticed this trend and are starting to react. In fact, 51 percent of the Inc. 500 companies are monitoring social media through RSS feeds, web statistics, video downloads and more.

The Process

1. Discover – Before you enter the virtual world, you need to focus on finding out who you are and what you want to do. The majority of blogs fail because people don’t take time to learn about themselves, what they are passionate about and the topic they can write about. Passion is the driving force as much online as it is in reality. Before you go to build your brand, it helps to assess what conversations are taking place online and your current life situation.

2. Create – After you’ve taken a stand on a topic, it’s time to choose a platform. Do you want to establish a blog? Are you more interested in joining a few social networks? Do

you want to be a traditionalist and stick with a static webpage? These are questions you need to ask yourself. Choose your strategy wisely, as you don’t want to spread your brand too thin. For blogs, choose between Wordpress.com/.org and Typepad.

3. Communicate – Now that you have an eBrand, it’s time to communicate it to others. There are many ways to promote your blog or website online, such as doing guest blog posts, link exchanges, and by joining social networks. Remember that visibility creates opportunities.

4. Maintain – Once you are established online, you will need to protect your reputation. A few ways to monitor your brand are to perform a Google or Technorati search for your name. Also, you must ensure the accuracy of all your online properties and keep them up-to-date, so as you grow, your eBrand grows as well.

Successful eBranding strategies

In the future, everyone will have some form of online presence, whether it be a simple web page, blog, article, or via comments or appearances on social networks. The following expert strategies offer some insight on how to best exploit eBranding opportunities.

“Figure out your objectives before you do anything.” – Geoff Livingston, Author, now is gone

“Own a niche.” – Ben McConnell, Co-Author, Citizen Marketers “Be curious about social media and study the people that are experts at using these

tools to see what is working for them.” – Mack Collier, Blogger and Consultant, The Viral Garden

“Definitely make sure you've claimed your Zoominfo.com profile. You can make sure its up to date and request removal of anything inaccurate.” – Andy Beal, Author, Radically Transparent

"Don't rely on the old rules of buying access via advertising or begging mainstream media to write about you. Instead publish great (and free) content on the Web that people are eager to consume." – David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

"Invest in an effective logo design. More often than not, your target audience will see your logo before any other aspect of the company, and despite opinion to the contrary, people judge books by their covers." – David Airey, Graphic Designer and Blogger

"Be aware of your digital identity; you can't entirely control your digital trail but you can put your best foot forward with a well-written blog and by being generous in your social networks." – Debbie Weil, Author, The Corporate Blogging Book

“I like creating a personal branding hub to bring together all of your social and online

activities into one jumping off place.” – John Jantsch, Author and Blogger, Duct Tape Marketing

"Be generous with your time. Answer questions, respond to queries." – Shel Holtz, Co-Author, Blogging for Business

Challenges brands face online

There are many challenges that personal and corporate brands face online. Companies are being forced to open their culture and communicate with the outside world in a way that embraces two-way communication. People need to be found and positioned as experts in their niches. In both situations, there are challenges that may impede the branding process. The following experts shed light on these challenges:

“Brands face two main challenges online today: making sure they have a presence where their current and future customers are and moving forward with trends faster than ever before.” – Allen Stern, Editor, CenterNetworks

“With the explosion of so much personal digital communication—social networks, IM platforms, blogs, podcasts, virtual worlds, mobile, etc.—brands are facing the prospect of too many channels. We've gone from the concept of mass marketing to mass micromarketing in an incredibly short period of time, and it's difficult for brand managers to understand which are the most important to focus on.” – Scott Monty, Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Motors

“Moving past message control and stepping into conversations where they are responsible to add value to the community.” – Matt Dickman, Vice President of Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard.

"If a brand value is service and your web presence makes it a real challenge to get immediate assistance, then you are weakening the foundation of your brand." – Ed Roach, Branding Expert

Start today

Within the next five minutes, you have the ability to ignite your personal eBrand by using tools such as a Wordpress.com blog, a Facebook or LinkedIn profile or by simply microblogging using a Twitter account. Indeed, eBranding requires a multi-pronged online strategy that exploits every content-appropriate platform and level available. As each asset is built, you will need to keep tabs on it, provide fresh updates and comments, and use Google Alerts and Technorati to track your online exposure and popularity. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a corporate employee, eBranding will bring meaning to your life and expedite your professional networking profile and

profitability opportunities. Today, eBranding is growing exponentially, and both individuals and corporations who underestimate the power of their online reputation will suffer from arriving late to a venue that is already crowded with established brands. As our entire society is transferred to digital bits, your eBrand becomes a digital asset and an avatar for being a part of a brave new world.

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