Immutable Laws of BrandingHow to build a product/service into a world class brand

A presentation by:

Varqa Shamsi Bahar

A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Contraction

•Brand becomes stronger when you narrow your focus•Ultimate objective of any branding program should be

to dominate the category.•Dominating a category makes a brand very powerful.

E.g. of Magic dominating Toothpowder. • E.g. Subway specializes in the submarine sandwich.• E.g. of Toys R Us: focus from children supermarket concept to a wide range of toys for children.• E.g. of Meril focusing on Winter care.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The law of the Word

• A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.

• Volvo owns the word "safety". • Mercedes owns the word "prestige". • BMW owns the word "driving" and the idea of being fun to drive.• Magic owns “toothpowder”.• Kleenex owns tissue “Don’t put a cold in your pocket”.• Fedex owns “overnight”.• Honda owns “motorcycle”• Make me a Xerox copy, Hand me the scotch tape.

• Conclusion: Once a brand owns a word its almost impossible for a competitor to take the word away from the brand.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The law of Credentials

• The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to specialty.

• A brand should be a specialist and not a generalist. • A way to be a specialist is to narrow the scope of the brand.

• Credentials facilitates publicity:• If a reporter is doing a cola story, he or she will almost always call

coca-cola.• If a reporter is doing a social networking story, he or she will almost

always contact Facebook.• If a reporter is doing a computer software story, he or she will probably

call Microsoft.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Quality

• Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone.

• If you want to build a powerful brand , you must build a powerful perception of the quality in the mind of the consumers.

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The Law of Fellowship

• The rightful share of a leading brand is never more than 50 percent. Don't fight with competitive brands, fight against competitive categories.

• Brands should welcome competition. It would bring more customers to the category.

• The best thing that has happened to Pepsodent toothpowder is Magic toothpowder.

• The best thing that has happened to Coca-cola is Pepsi cola.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of extensions

•The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything.

• Did you know Cocacola launched a brand called “TAB” which had 32 percent market share in the diet cola market. CocaCola later on killed that brand to introduce Diet Coke.

• If the market is slipping away from you, stay where you are and launch a second brand. If it's not, stay where you are and continue building your brand.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of sub-brands

• What brands can build, sub-brands can destroy.• Holiday Inn, the leading hotel/motel operator, wanted to get into

the upscale hotel market, so it developed Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. The problem was, Holiday Inn customers became confused. Their response was, "Hey it's a bit expensive for a Holiday Inn". The company finally just called its upscale chain Crowne Plaza.

• Discussion: Standard Chartered Bank: Priority banking, Preferred banking??

• A brand owns an idea in the mind of the consumer, and by sub-branding, it may be communicating a totally different message to the consumer, who has no idea you are already targeting another market.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Siblings

• A family of brands should be developed that will assure company’s control of the category for many decades. .

• The key to having a happy family of brands is to give each individual brand its own unique identity.

• Sibling strategy can be used to dominate a category. • Time Inc. has several magazines under its wing:

– Time– Fortune (Business related)– Life (pictures related)– Sports illustrated (sports related)– Money (Finance related)– People (Celebrity related)– Entertainment Weekly

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Shape

•A brand's logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes.

• the ideal shape for a logotype is two and a quarter units wide and one unit high.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Color

• A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor's.

• A way that consumer may differentiate between brands in the same category.

• Grameen phone (blue) vs Airtel (Red) vs Banglalink (Orange).

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Borders

• There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders.

• Keep the brand's focus narrow in its home country and go global.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Consistency

• “A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years”

– BMW has been the ultimate driving machine for more than 30 years.

– Volvo has been selling safe for 40 years.

• Conclusion: Your brand needs to stand for something year in and year out. It should serve generations of consumers.

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A presentation by Varqa Shamsi Bahar

The Law of Mortality

• No brand will live forever. Euthanasia (Good death) is often the best solution.

• E.g. Film photography is slowly being replaced by digital photography. But KODAK refuses to face the reality. Instead it is trying to save its brand by using the KODAK name on its digital products.

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