Marketers often under estimate the value of nurturing a strong well defined brand. Tesco will emerge largely unscathed from the recent horse meat debacle, because fundamentally their customers (and even people who don’t shop there) don’t believe that Tesco would deliberately put horse meat in their beef burgers. And that, in a nutshell, is what defines a real brand - when people’s opinions (and the price they are prepared to pay for your products) are informed by what they believe about your brand and what association might say about them.
Getting it right can save a lot of marketing leg work. Millions of people will happily pre-order the latest Apple product without even seeing it, and packs of “branded” paracetamol outsell “own label” at 10 times the price - for the same active ingredients! OK, so you’re sold on the idea, but how do you go about creating the world’s next “super brand”? Firstly, define who you really are – not what you aspire to be. Distil the essence of what your brand stands for and live it! Every touch point, every employee interaction and every communication should reinforce a clearly defined single brand proposition - after all it’s difficult to believe or trust someone who keeps changing their story!
Andrew Woodger
Andrew is a fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing and heads up Purple’s data and planning teams. Having started his career in the music business, he turned client side marketer with spells at United Biscuits, Asda, Peugeot and Nissan, before jumping ship to immerse himself in the world of data. Now a committed planner and brand strategist, he has worked with clients including First Direct, Next Directory, Honeywell and Flight Centre blending research and data insight with a marketer’s instinct for a good proposition. Away from marketing you’ll find him on a cricket pitch or building sandcastles on the beach!
