Because, while rebranding may include changing a corporate name, the truth is before any brand “name” can become effective it must first mean something in the minds of its market.

What after all is in a name? Nothing but vowels and consonants strung together to form one or more words. The words themselves mean nothing until they have been defined (or branded), deliberately or accidentally. While some describe parallels to the act of burning a red-hot symbol onto the side of a temporarily mollified steer, in truth marketing branding is far greater than any analogy. Even if you create the best company name in the world it is immediately meaningless, until you start to touch your market and you begin to give the name meaning. Then, and only then, are you branding.

Who knew that the word Verizon meant wireless telephone service? Who knew that the name Yahoo meant an Internet portal/search engine? Who knew that the letters AFLAC meant reinsurance? Or that Amazon meant “the world’s largest bookstore?” Only after communicating to and touching their markets did anyone get the definition of these monikers. That’s branding.

Let’s say that one day you were walking down the street, needed to make a phone call and your cell phone was dead. Suddenly you noticed a phone booth painted yellow and blue. The phone was very different, with an LCD display, a real human operator and a charge of only 25 cents for local calls. Other phones around the city were the typical type – painted various colors, automated assistance and a charge of 35 cents for local calls. Over time as you encountered more of the yellow and blue phone booths you began to notice that in the winter they were heated, in summer they were cooled and the glass sides were tinted to protect your privacy. BUT, you never saw the name or logo for the phone booth company. Would you have a feeling about that company so that every time you saw the yellow and blue phone booth you felt a certain way about it? That’s branding. Without a name or logo being involved.

So, now let’s clear up the confusion. Branding, or rebranding, is the act or process of building a concept in the minds of people that is associated with an entity. It may include naming and logos and ads and product functions and product design and customer service and other aspects, but it is not one of those; it is all of them and more.

Okay, that was interesting. Now let's look at some common beliefs about branding that are just not true:

1. MYTH: True “branding” requires advertising.

FACT: In a recent issue of Fortune, Krispy Kreme is reported as one of the hottest brands in America, but yet the company has yet to have an advertising budget. With a little investigation, it’s easy to see that promotional marketing is their forte, not advertising. Granted, the product is good, which is also part of delivering on their brand, but they also use location, aroma, visual appeal, promotion and publicity to build brand awareness and association. So, think you need to advertise to create your brand? Think again. In a May 2001 McKinsey & Co. study 67% of US consumer sales are influenced by word of mouth. You can use all kinds of tools to influence word of mouth, including promotion and PR, ala Krispy Kreme.

2. MYTH: Just put it out there and they’ll buy it.

FACT: This is also called the Greater Fool theory. If you make something that hasn’t yet been proven to meet a demand in the marketplace, and you introduce it to the marketplace, the result will determine who is the bigger fool – your company or the market.

3. MYTH: Form without substance – Lie about what you can do. This myth is often perpetuated by those who believe that good marketing can make up for bad products or services.

FACT: Don’t be stupid. You’ll be found out. Good marketing will just help people find out sooner.

4. MYTH: Make it loud and long and your market will accept it.

FACT: This is one of the tools in propaganda. Goebels said that if you tell the people something long enough they will believe it. Okay, that was 60 years ago. Get over it. Awareness without association isn’t valuable. You have to say something meaningful that hits your market intuitively. Otherwise, you’re just making noise and given the amount of marketing “noise” out there now, people will resent you as being obnoxious.

5. MYTH: Dissemination of brand messages always has to be carefully controlled.

FACT: Not true. You can create a strong brand message and use viral marketing to spread it. Witness the Honda “Cog” commercial that defied all odds. It’s two minutes long, meaning it would be way too expensive to run as a TV commercial. But this amazing commercial is so unbelievably entertaining that it has been the darling of the media around the world. Word of mouth spread it around the globe in days. Within the first few weeks after Honda put it up on its website almost one million people downloaded it. There is also an underlying psychological concept at work here that once you understand it, you can absolutely use as a secret weapon.

6. MYTH: Your supply chain is not affected by your brand.

FACT: If your supply chain doesn’t buy into your brand then they’re dealing with you on how much money you are worth to them, a pure dollars and cents basis. That’s fine where it sits, but the cachet of a strong brand can keep your supply chain solid through ups and downs, the need to squeeze even more cost out of your product, and changes in management. If your brand is strong, your suppliers will want to be able to claim they do business with you. That’s worth something. And, it reinforces the message of your brand’s strength.

Brand Oops Do you rent cars when you travel? We do and during one recent trip we noticed a charge on our Thrifty Rent-a-car receipt called “FF Surcharge.” When we inquired what that meant the agent said it stands for “frequent flyer surcharge.” That’s right, Thrifty was adding a surcharge because they were “giving” us frequent flyer miles for our rental! When we inquired further, the agent said it was company policy and standard industry practice. Suddenly, we felt duped. Not only weren’t the paltry 100 miles we got not a thank-you gift for using the company, it seemed the company was using the brand loyalty we had for our favorite airline to get our business without giving anything in return. When you create a “company policy” that makes your customer angry, it’s a brand no-no. Remember that emotions imprint brand messages far stronger than analytical thought. It’s been two months and we still haven’t forgotten the little add-on that Thrifty slid onto our bill. This negative retained brand impression will obviously affect our choice of rental car companies in the future. Remember that a bad brand experience is five times more likely to be retained than a positive one. Your customers are also many times more likely to tell others about their negative experiences than their good ones.

Every Luminor project includes best practices for branding. You get the benefit of the branding expertise that has been put to work for top brands like Microsoft and HP.

We offer a free, one-hour, no-obligation meeting for companies wanting to consider how to be even more effective in a tough market.

We’d love to meet with your company. Please call either office - Seattle at (206) 956-0300 or in Southern California at (949) 589-2478.

Remember, times of change are times of opportunity. Now is the time to position your company to come out of these slow times in better shape than ever.

Here’s to your marketing success.

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