Building branding on quality and integrity3

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 | Filed under Branding

Branding is always a hot topic among all types of businesses.

Every chief executive knows branding is important. It has become a vital business tool to improve competitiveness in the marketplace. It has become a way of doing business.

Branding happens whether we like it or not. Being human, we cannot help but form opinions about anything and everything.

That is why branding isn’t just for companies. It is something that is even applied to people such as politicians, entertainers and business or sports personalities.

It often explains the difference between someone who is competent and doing okay and one who earns a high income and makes the news.

In a competitive environment, you either brand yourself or you will be branded. Consumers will form perceptions of who you are, what you stand for and how efficient you are in delivering your brand product.

And if consumers don’t brand you, then your competitors will; not by changing your brand but by changing theirs. If they succeed in positioning themselves as more creative and innovative, more relevant and “with it”, you risk being seen as “past it”. 

Although Malaysian business people are fast warming up to the fact that good branding can translate into great bottom lines, many still do not seem to have a clear idea of what branding really means or the process it involves.

Some business people actually believe that a brand image could be created just by spending enough money on advertising; that it is just about creating a clever logo or a fanciful name.

Branding does not happen that way. A company brand is not just a name and logo and the business you are in. Brands own a distinct position in the minds of your customers and your competitors.

The basis of any successful brand is that it is different, memorable and relevant.

Branding is everything you do to differentiate your brand from its competitors, and everything you do to build a bond between the customers and the brand. Therefore, branding covers the whole process of delivering on what you do, and the outcome of that experience must be satisfying.

Truth well told

Inevitably, branding must be built on what is true. It is truth well told. Advertising helps, but advertising can only communicate what must already be there in the first place.

You have to be what you say you are and doing what you say you do, and doing it better than anybody else. That establishes your brand image and it becomes your branding.

At the heart of that branding, therefore, must be consistent quality and integrity.

Basically it is the sincerity and commitment of the Malaysian business people to nurture quality and pursue it relentlessly that will bring its own success.

They must have the means, power, patience and conviction to travel the distance that an image requires to be developed over time.

And in time the name of the product will be respected. The symbol of their company will be respected. Anything their company produces will be respected.

It is time Malaysians wake up to the fact that the extra effort and commitment in creating our own brands will help the country build up a strong international reputation for quality. 

Foreign investors use Malaysia as a manufacturing base and many Made-in-Malaysia products are sold to the world on the strength of foreign brands. If we already have the quality, why let others earn from it?

We can learn from the success stories of established brands that have managed to cross geographical, cultural and economic borders.

Branding role in politics

Does branding have a role in politics, political leadership and political elections? Of course, only more so. You have to ensure that public perception of the political leadership and party is always positive.

Politics is about public perception and public opinion.

Branding is driven by public perception and public opinion.

Like everything else, successful branding in politics has much to do with quality of service and efficiency of delivery, which together form the basis of public perception and opinion.
As with entrepreneurs, politicians rise and fall with what they do and how they do it, not just what they say or how they say it.

When a political party is not working well or doesn’t perform well in elections, the perception of the party will be negative.

If it is a commercial organisation, you know you have to reinvent and revamp it.

If it is a product, you know it is one that has been rejected. As time goes on, it will be given less and less shelf space because it is a product that doesn’t sell. Eventually, it will be taken off the shelf altogether because it is not viable.