Brands: A Compelling Point of Differentiation


Branding occurs when a distinct head and heart response happens in relationship to a company symbol or logo. This reaction is the purpose of branding because positive thoughts and feelings inspire behaviors such as speaking favorably about services and products, joining clubs that relate to brands, paying higher prices, tolerating errors and shortfalls, and purchasing more of branded products and services. Today's brands are likely to be seen as living entities complete with personalities. Elaborate stories are built around them that companies hope are elicited with a minimum of stimulation every time a consumer has contact with their brands.

The first step in branding is to create a compelling, consistent, and sustainable point of differentiation. Differentiation, in the words of brand experts Young and Rubican, "is about making the brand greater than its individual parts." [6] Your competitors by and large possess your "individual parts." The task of branding is to figure out how your combined offerings create a value proposition that is unique.

Without this differentiation, products, services, and entire organizations enter what some refer to as the "gray zone," [7] where customers are unable to distinguish what you do from what everybody else does. They cannot describe your offerings in a few simple words. Neither do they feel connected to your brand, edging you perilously close to becoming a commodity. Unfortunately, this happens all too often. As Patrick Gourney, former CEO of the Body Shop, points out, "Lack of differentiation is not something you notice straight away as a brand owner, but it creeps up on you and then it's too late." [8]

Historically, companies have used differentiation to influence consumer perceptions, expectations, and purchasing decisions primarily through the power of advertising and public relations. After all, when executed effectively, marketing attracts the right customers from a targeted market segment and delivers them to the organization. The organization must then begin to take advantage of these marketing successes. One of the best ways to engage customers in long-term relationships is to consistently deliver, both logically and emotionally, the brand promise. When this happens, brands are noticeably intensified. An alignment will occur between the assurance about "who you are and what you stand for" and the reality of "what you do and what you deliver."

[6]Martin Grant and Tim Opie, "Making More Than a Difference," Admap (April 2001).

[7]The "gray zone" is David Haigh's term. Haigh offers three basic branding tests: the grayness test, the nonentity test, and the simpleton test. David Haigh, "Service Branding," Professional Marketing (2000), http://www.warc.com.

[8]This comment was made after the Body Shop began to lose its consumers between the ages of twenty and thirty. See "Body Shop's Roddick Stands by Her Brand," Sunday Post Online, October 14, 2001.




Branded Customer Service(c) The New Competitive Edge
Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge
ISBN: 1576752984
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 134

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