Gaining loyal customers versus just making sales
Back in the early 1990’s, prevailing wisdom had it that the brand was dead. Consumers were defecting in droves to lower priced, retailer house brands. Now, three decades later, things are very different with the mainstream retailers completely dominating consumer markets. More than ever, brand marketers are now passionately focused on differentiating and adding value, while building strong and lasting relationships through innovative loyalty campaigns with their customers.
In a published introduction to branding entitled “Neglect brands at your peril”, Derrick Dickens – a past executive director of The Association of Marketers – penned this note…
“I fear for the future of any company that lets brand awareness lapse, because before they know it they will have lost their greatest and most important asset. And all they will be left with are me-too commodities.”
The rationale here is that a brand is a name and brand equity is the value of that name. Without brands a company will be nameless, without a name a company has no equity, and without equity a company cannot build any customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is built on quality, price, image (or perception) and service – all elements that constitute value.
“So brands are the most important assets a company can possess, for without brands they are just empty buildings and idle machinery.”
Brands and effective brand management is something the Coca-Cola Company knows all too well. Coca-Cola’s reward for the management of its brand has been the world’s most recognized product. The elements of this success are manifold and an examination of them provides a case study of successful branding techniques rarely matched in the history of global consumer marketing.
At the outset with the opening of its first bottling plants in 1899, Coca-Cola’s market began to expand dramatically. The distinctive contour bottle was launched in 1915 and is one of the few packing devices outside the technology industry (think Apple) to have been awarded trademark status.
From the very beginning bottling operations have been franchised to companies in the various regions and continents the world over. The trade, therefore, has had good reason to support the brand. Another kind of brand support has been in place from earliest days – trademark protection. Not only is the name “Coca-Cola” registered, but also its abbreviation “Coke” and the familiar contour bottle.
The critically important part of creating a successful brand is to imprint it on the consumers’ consciousness. The instantly recognizable copperplate Coca-Cola logo, on its bright red background, was designed by Frank M Robinson (a friend of the inventor) and has always been central to Coke’s image.
But branding is more than just satisfactory packaging and labeling, important though this is. The most successful brands promise something to consumers that is more than tangible. Coca-Cola’s original basic proposition – that it is delicious and refreshing – has changed only in phraseology geared for the changing times. Coke’s consistent message and positioning have been reflected in its long-running advertising campaigns. In the context of modern-day communications, where changes are often made merely for the sake of change, their disciplined technique has proved most effective. Coca-Cola has demonstrably “one sight, one sound, one sell,” at every point of purchase all around the world.
Coca-Cola has now been in existence for over a century. It has withstood two world wars, numerous Pepsi wars, countless other competitors and, indeed, the complete transformation of society over the decades. Testimony to the rewards of consistent, assiduous branding and brand management on the part of the Coca-Cola Company.
Effective branding and brand management is part and parcel of the marketing skills that are offered through SoloBear, and one of the key factors of successful business entrepreneurship. All in the quest to assist young startups to find, to attract, and to keep satisfied customers.
SoloBear Art & Design Centre is a Non-Profit Company: A women and youth development initiative in the interests of growing budding entrepreneurs.
