Brand is religion
Religion is belief - convinced, unshakable and steadfast. Resolute belief is rooted in truth, knowledge and experience. Profound belief helps dig out insights and lights up the path - the right path.
When a set of closely knit worthy beliefs are methodically imbibed in a brand it turns it into an abstract faith which eventually belongs to a cult of consumers. Brands grow unrestrictedly when uncompromising consumers own it. Branding is all about establishing a set of coherent beliefs into a faith for consumers who seek them to own them.
At Religiate Branding is Religion; as much and as intense. We brand brands - new, old, and struggling and even the great. Our beliefs on the branding work is seasoned by years of ‘work’ on brands - many, and across many business kinds.
We help our clients aggregate their brand awareness, customer engagement and experiential initiatives by delivering integrated deep insights garnered from their prospects, connect with their brand touch-points and social graph, thus creating meaningful synergy.
How can we help you brand your company?
What story
does your brand tell?
Do brands tell stories? All brands do. Even those that are not promoted overtly do. Brand communication happens seamlessly across multiple conduits in connect with audience sets that vary in the intensity of involvement with a brand. All brands tell stories, so what’s the cut?
The chance of branding effectiveness! To put the question in right perspective; do brands tell right stories and tell them right?
Does your brand sail by the market currents or does it sail through it?
Most brands lack a powerful central theme that can last and yield to adaptations to changing business situations. Such brands happen to sail by the market currents. Brands that cultivate market forces in their favor are the ones that build their brands with stories crafted around a powerful central theme in a sustained manner. Texts on branding call it as ‘consistency in approach’. With the story concept Religiate takes branding to a level that is hardly practiced.
Broadly branding happens by three sources; by the level of satisfaction consumers get from the products, by the behavior of the company in the interactions with the consumers, and by what the company tells about the brand to the consumers.
The story framework for branding
The story framework, a proprietary primary tool of Religiate that provides the fundamental holistic direction for branding is a comprehensive work process. It involves revisiting promoter’s beliefs, consumers’ perceptions, competition factors and the critical task of evolving the fundamental story for the brand. Globally there are quite a few highly successful brands dominating their spheres by the strength of the stories they have lived by. In India too there are a few. Think about them and think about the question; what story does your brand tell? Or, what should it be for your brand to thrive by?
What human wants do your products satisfy? What are the worthy beliefs about those wants? What are the social thoughts about those wants and the products that satisfy them? Are there elements of competitive advantage in your products?
Creating emotional
fanaticism - raving fans
What does your brand offer?
Popular brands across product categories are created by vast sets of consumers who would settle for nothing else.
What does your brand offer to consumers beyond appreciated products? Underscore the word appreciated because product performance to the delight of consumers is an essential requirement to be able to generate sales by the branding perspectives. Fanatic consumer attachment to a brand happens only with a great product. Though not necessary that such products are premium by quality and price. Popular brands across product categories are created by vast sets of consumers who would settle for nothing else but their brands even if an other brand is as good and cheaper by the campaign. Branding is about creating such unwavering demand.
When quality in product is taken for granted branding is all about augmenting proposition with values external.
In established sectors where product quality and features happen to be equal across the competition branding becomes very crucial in creating marketing advantage. The ‘story’ we spoke about earlier becomes all the more critical with that imperative. When quality in product is taken for granted branding is all about augmenting the product with innovative features and associated services and also about creating values with external associations that appeal to consumers’ interest and emotional convictions.
The task in creating such values is about fusing them into the brand. The ‘story’ mentioned earlier ought to be good enough for doing that effectively.
Methods and techniques for fusing values into the brand :
Such values and also the stories ideally arise from the real aspects of business operations and genuine connected external associations. They can emerge from within - business intent, products, policies and operations, and also from a good set of external factors of association that provide a connect for the brand with the consumer sets.
In our work we appraise and stipulate the impact criteria on each and suggest methods and techniques for fusing them into the brand in creating potential brand value.
Religiate develops long term value thesis for brands substantiated with rationale for all such superior value elements in due consideration of the market-scope and competition aspects. We work though a value assimilation process in progressively positioning the brand with distinct competitive advantage.
What is your ‘story’ on the products? Do your customers know of the value enhancement processes you have on that? Are your Customer assistance processes good enough to belittle product values? What among the external association options would consumers wish your brand is part of? Do you have brand-society linkage map?
What are the responsibilities?
What are the brand rituals?
Driving viral communications and serious discussions.
Brand's stand
Brands essentially signify physical products and service experience more than anything else. Nonetheless, as brands achieve competitive standards on product quality branding efforts ought to move to level next by deliberately creating direct connections with real life situations in facilitating brand experience.
Augmenting direct brand experience
Scope for augmenting direct brand experience exists in the usage of its products by the consumption - customs, situations, and methods. They are far more thoughtful than the normal usage instructions put on the labels. In fact, to be able to derive positive impact with that in the revenues such moves ought to be ingenious and executed competently in driving viral communications and word of mouth brand propagation with serious discussions.
Conceptually superior ideas
Though branding with product usage situations happen normally across product categories with normal impact the task on competitive branding with that is to create major brand advantages with conceptually superior ideas. Often such usage related connects that can be established with situations totally external to the products happens to be even more potent to positively impact the brand leading to powerful marketing advantages.
What story has your brand been telling? Are your communication costs competitive? What are the communication options for your brand?
Are you able to create competitive advantage by being innovative with communication programs?
Creating visual hooks
based on brand strategy
The need to reinforce brand values repeatedly.
Strategy is a shrewd plan and marketing strategies ought to be evolved from the brand perspectives. Most failures in marketing are owing to plans without the brand-sense. Long term strategies are fundamental to the brand and provide growth directions, medium term strategies tackle competition in driving revenues, and short term strategies are necessarily aggressive and help exploit passing opportunities and in overturning marketing hurdles.
Implanting brand signature on things and at places
Tactical maneuvers and aggression are essential part of any marketing plan for accelerating pace of growth. In crafting tactical branding strategies we work with a whole set of intricate questions on the market and competition with the brand’s value framework as the force on deployment.
Visual hooks help reiterate and reinforce brand values repeatedly. It is about implanting brand signature on things and at places that give it clear visibility leading to active discussions on cleverly guided topics that are strategically relevant to the brand.
Do you build-in marketing strategy in your communication works? Do you build-in branding strategy in your communication works? Are the visuals in your communication works related to your brand ‘story’?
How to amplify brand communication with visuals?