Learning how to develop your Branding Strategy - Online branding ideas
Posted by Fione Tan, head Internet Marketing Coach
What is branding? Does your company have a brand strategy? During the Malaysia Branding & Marketing Forum 2008, I was invited as a speaker on Digital Branding topic, on how to use the Internet to enhance your online brand. Participants of the event came from different industries and multinationals corporations. Apart from Case studies of digital marketing were shared, everyone agreed that Online Branding is undeniably one of the most important part of your Branding Strategy.
Branding is the “image” you convey to others. This means how your company or product / service is perceived. It’s an extension of your Corporate Marketing plan, and can be based on your company or product’s Unique Selling Point (USP).
Branding is not just advertising, so this is the intangible characteristic of your company and allows you to charge a price premium over your competitors. In the event the brand’s overall image does not sync, then this conflict will jeopardise your brand strategy. Make sure that the message is Consistent.
If your market is only local like Malaysia, then you can find a branding consultant in Malaysia, but if you are looking at expanding internationally, then you can attempt to find a global brand consultancy firm or by region such as brand consultant Asia.
Here are some important points about Branding:-
- logo is NOT the brand
- branding is not just advertising
There are 7Ps in the Branding strategy context including:-
1. Brand Positioning - what are the core values
2. Perceptual mapping (what competitive advantage is offered, who are the competitors and how they stand)
3. Promotion
4. Place (not just your physical location, but also matching your overall image with your blog and website)
5. People (the behaviour of your staff is also an extension of your brand, so ensure that the expectations are met)
6. Process
7. Physical evidence (the way that you dress., the overall outlook of the company’s interior, etc)
Additionally, understand who is your target audience, and what does your company want to be an expert in?
Your positioning statement, tagline, slogan and logo should be matching the entire branding strategy. One of the popular airlines company in Malaysia (and now Asia), is the slogan of the budget airlines, AirAsia. Their slogan is “Now, everyone can fly” and since they introduced very low cost air tickets, that slogan matches their company’s positioning.
Now, can you recall the tagline of these airline companies? Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific? No wonder AirAsia is one of the most successful branding case study in Asia.
Related Posts
Making You No.1 on the Net
If you like our Internet Marketing Blog, join to receive our blog updates for free here
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
What is eOneNet’s branding strategies? Being the #1 in Internet Marketing in Asia!
Remember our tagline? Making You No. 1 on the Net!
Of course, you will need to live up to the message / claim that your brand suggests
If you have any other suggestions, pls feel free to leave your comments here.
Regards,
Harrace
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Branding of a product must it be the same with the business name. I have read some articles mentioning that the brand is sort of business name. And if creating a website, I am not sure if it is better on the brand name or the business name.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Siti,
This depends on how diversified your company is. Eg Colgate is the brand of a toothpaste and has become so popular that many Malaysians just say “My Colgate has just run out” even though they are holding Darlie in
their hand.
But the name of the company is not just Colgate itself right?
Therefore, we need to check the positioning of your product too.
rgds Fione