Bolt-on branding
is one type of branding, Built-in branding is another.
The former is facade management and the latter is strategic
brand management. If marketers turn to advertisers and
say with infectious enthusiasm, “Here’s my
product, make a brand out of it”, then that is bolt-on
branding at its worst. A brand is not an image that you
tag on to an impersonal product at the end of the value
chain. A brand is that which underpins the entire value
chain, giving it direction and purpose. A brand is both
its physique and its personality. They are two sides of
the same coin, inseparable and interdependent. That is
built-in branding.
A brand of toothpaste may make its buyer, the mother feel
responsible. The “responsible parent” brand
personality is only an abstraction, the end of the more
concrete means, which is the composition of the toothpaste.
Without the appropriate physique, the brand’s personality
is one that is bolted. And indeed, without the personality,
the brand is a mere impersonal product. The physique-personality
strategic combination, as one holistic entity –
one reflecting the other and moving from means to end
and vice versa, is the pith and substance of built-in
branding which will be judged this year.
Brand
Power
Today, brands are
more powerful than nations. In fact, more powerful than
most things. It is estimated that brand value could be
as much as one-third of the entire value of global wealth.
Now, isn’t that staggering? According to the 2005
survey of Interbrand’s Most Valuable Global Brands,
the intangible assets of the top 100 global brands are
together worth over a trillion dollars. That is a number
with 13 digits!! To place this number in context, it is
equal to the combined gross national income of all the
63 countries defined by the World Bank as “low income”
and where a little over half the world’s population
lives.
Mitsubishi, by itself is larger than the economy of Indonesia
– the fourth most populous nation of the world.
General Motors is a bigger economic unit than Denmark.
Wal-Mart is bigger than 16 Sovereign States. The Ford
Motor Company is bigger than Turkey, South Africa or Saudi
Arabia. Toyota is bigger than Norway. Interestingly, who
owns the 100 most valuable global brands? 61 are American,
eight are German, six are Japanese and six are British.
Importantly, the world’s wealth is being increasingly
distributed in favour of those who own and design brands,
rather than those who source, and produce them. Increasingly,
the second and more so, the third worlds are becoming
suppliers and producers for first-world brand owners.
Take our own case of Ceylon Tea. We get only a quarter
of the total value chain. Brand owners are the principal
beneficiaries. In fact, this is the case for the bulk
of our exports.
Excellence
Awards
SLIM’s Brand
Excellence Awards help companies to reinforce their commitment
to brand-building. Indeed, what gets rewarded, gets done!
In the past, the event focused on the adoption of Marketing
Strategies, rather than strategic aspects of branding.
The distinction is important. The Awards, hitherto were
centred around Marketing – mix Strategies. How effectively
a company implemented its product, price, distribution
and communication strategies, constituted the key factors
of excellence.
This year, in keeping with the title of the Awards, Brand
Excellence, the emphasis is placed on Branding Strategies
that form the basis for a well conceived Marketing –
mix programme. Clearly, a brand’s Value Proposition
and its Positioning Strategy must precede the Marketing
– mix Strategies. The latter simply is the means
by which the brand is positioned in the consumer’s
mind.
