Strategies on Brand Building by Top Brand Gurus

1. The fundamental law of Marketing is the Law oftelevision, Cable television, and Satellite television. TV
Leadership. It is better to be first than to be better.sets branch out into becoming Cathode-ray tube
Microsoft launched in '81 while Apple launched in '84.(CRT), Liquid - Crystal display (LCD), Liquid crystal on
Apple is better in hardware, software and other areasSilicon (LCOS), Digital Light Processing (DLP), Plasma,
but has only 3% share while Microsoft has 94% share.Organic light-emitting diode (OLED). Hotels will diverge
2. Inspite of this law, every company focuses on beinginto being Expensive, medium price, low price, motels,
better. The best voted Marketing book in America islow price motels, suite hotels, weekly hotels.
titled "Simply Better".15. Divergence comes from Darwin who has explained
3. If first is perceived to be the best, then automaticallythe concept in 'The origin of Species'. The panthera
the company will attract good people, good distributorstree has a lion, a jaguar, a tiger, and a leopard. The
and so on. The key is to create the perception in thehumanoid tree has the Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan,
mind that being first means being the best.and the Human being. Man did not evolve. He diverged.
4. To win the battle in the market one needs to winEvolution is gradual change. Divergence is abrupt
the battle in the mind. Xerox invented the laser printer.change.
But did not enter the market. HP was the first. Red BullBRAND SENSE BY MARTIN LINDSTROM
was the first energy drink. Coca cola introduced KMX1.Branding is what goes on in one's mind.
energy drink. Red Bull outsold KMX 20:1. Last leader2.Brand is not a logo. The test is that if one removes
brand produced by Coca cola was 'Sprite'. Theirthe logo, will one still be able to recognize the brand !
strategy has predominantly to be better.3.Traditional communication no longer works because
5. Instead of trying to build a better product win thewe are being over-communicated to.
'better perception'.4.What appeals to as many senses will be
6. Another Law of Marketing is the Law of the Mind.remembered.
First in the market is nothing. First in the mind is5.The story goes that the challenge given to
everything. Duryea was the first car in the market butCoco-Cola was to create a bottle that if smashed
Ford's Model T was the first in the mind. Yuenglingcould still be recognized from its glass pieces.
was the first beer in the market but Budweiser wasTherefore the meaning of 'Smash your Brand' is that
the first beer in the mind. Similarly the first bookstoreone needs to look at all the small pieces which the
on the Net was but is the first in the mind.brand can be broken into and see what the brand can
7. The first search engine was Alta Vista. But the firstmake its own.
search engine in the mind is Google. Focus gets one6.The Brand wheel is a tool which indicates portions of
into the mind. Alta Vista turned itself into a portal. It lostreal estate which a brand can optimize and own viz.
its focus and was ultimately sold to Overture and thenPicture, Colours, Shapes, Name, Language, Icons,
to Yahoo. Today Google is the leading Search Engine.Sound, Behaviour, Service, Tradition, Rituals and
Not enough to be first but need to be first in the mind.Navigation.
8. The Law of Leadership is the Law of PR. Building7.Orange has appropriated a colour. Absolut branded
buzz makes news. Being first in a new category'spelling error'. So it's variants are Rasberri, Vanilia,
makes news. Not being better than your competitors.Kurant and so on. The brand needs to own something
9. Law of Profits. You can sell anything if it's cheapelse besides the logo. Absolut has also branded the
enough. To make money you need a brand.shape of its bottle.
10. Motorola invented the cell phone. But Motorola put8.The icon of the 'Idea' brand is the 'Sumo Wrestler'. So
its name on a variety of products. In the last 10 yearsif one removes the logo and keeps only the Sumo
Motorola has achieved a sales of $ 289 bn. And a netWrestler the brand 'Idea' will be recognized.
profit margin of less than one half of one percent. It is9.Brand creates community and belonging.
now in the process of getting focused. It has sold its10.Louis Vuitton was renovating its store in Paris. To do
satellite and other businesses. Nokia too once madethat it created a façade in the shape of its
everything including paper. But it decided to focus onluggage bags and accessories. The people
cell phones and has now dominated this market. Nokiaremembered the façade. In fact they identified
in the last 10 years achieved a sales of $ 193 bn. Andwith it. To the extent that when it was going to be
a net profit margin of 11%.pulled down after 2 years when the renovation was
11. What makes India successful today ? Highcomplete there was a demonstration outside the store.
intelligence and low wages. Success will turn the low11.The Tiffany Box is trademarked. The shade of
wages into high wages. As a result business will movePantone colour used for the Tiffany box is owned by
from India to China. U.S.A. is a country with mediumTiffany. Therefore one needs to get permission from
intelligence and high wages. It is successful because itTiffany if one wants to use the same shade of colour.
has powerful brands. India will not become powerful if it12.Branding is about consistency.
does not have powerful brands. If Indian brands don't13.Today Pepsi owns the colour 'blue'. Pepsi took it
go global, global brands will come here and take over.away from IBM. If one wants to secure ownership
12. The Law of Line Extension. You can't stand forthen one needs to stick with it.
something if you put your name on everything. In the14.The Peuguot car has branded the '0' in the middle of
Japanese electronics market everybody makesits car plate numbers. The story goes that the creator
everything. It's a line extension society. Nobody builds aof the Peugot car used to experience breaking the
brand. Everybody sells on price. Nobody makesnumber in the middle into 2 pieces for using the
money. The total consumer electronic industry in Japancrankshaft to get the car started. Because the
over the last 10 years has made revenues of $ 3crankshaft had to pierce that number. So he thought
trillion but its net profit margin has been just 0.2%.that if the crankshaft had to be inserted into a '0' then
Whereas in America the revenues of the top 500there would not be any breakage of a number into 2
companies in the last 10 years has been $ 7 trillion andpieces. And so all Peugot cars have '0' in the middle of
net profit margin 6%. The automobile market in Japantheir car plate numbers.
is more focused.15.Ipod now has extended its branding to even its
13. Japan has everything. Intelligent workforce,earplugs. By seeing a person with the Ipod earplugs
worldclass production facilities and so on. But noone can recognize an Ipod user.
Marketing. In the last 15 years the Japanese stock16.There are certain words which are owned by
market has gone down by 59 % while the AmericanDisney and are recognized by people as being
stock market has risen by 378%. The same thing willassociated with the Disney Brand. These words are :
happen in Korea. They too will put their name onFantasy, Dreams, Magic, Smiles, Happy, Creativity. The
everything and fail to build brands. IBM too put its namepersonnel in Disneyland use these words. These
on everything. It suffered a mainframe mentality. Didwords are built into the lyrics of Disney songs. And so
not capture the position in the mind for PCs. In the laston.
23 years has lost $ 15 bn. on PCs. It has now sold out17.Colgate owned the smile but it has gone to Disney
to Lenovo. The leader in PCs is Dell. Ironically the 2ndand Mcdonald's.
year student of the University of Texas was pitted18.One needs to create a difference in the mind.
against the world's largest viz. IBM and the student19.We are too focused on the visual aspect of
won because Dell had one product, one market, onebranding. We need to see how we can brand 'sound'.
distribution channel and has had an outstanding stock20.The James Bond movie theme song. In fact James
market performance.Bond has branded so many things around it. The logo,
14. Law of Divergence. As time goes on every'Bond, James Bond', 'Shaken not stirred', the gadgets,
category will diverge. Telephones will branch out intothe vintage scenes, the title introduction, character
becoming regular telephones, cordless telephones,names, the gun, the topic, the filming and so on.
walkie-talkies and cell phones. Similarly television willVisit the blog : management-gurus.blogspot.
diverge into Broadcast television, Pay-per-view