How to Build a Brand for Modern Consumers in the Information Age

Branding

Branding refers to the promotion of the brand name ie the identity / 'personality' of a corporate entity, product line (aka 'family'), single product targeted to relevant stakeholders. A modern Marketing guru once said that, even if the logo or any other signage is removed from your offering, the market will still be able to recognize a well established brand. Relevant stakeholders are targets of this type of communication. Depending on the type (whether corporate branding, family branding, product branding, etc), these stakeholders include shareholders, wholesale customers, employees (for corporate brands) and consumers (for family and product brands). In short, branding is a matter of reputation for making one's way in the world of relationships. Reputation has such far reaching implications that, according to research, even contribute to the likelihood of customer evangelism (the ultimate in generating new leads).

This post discusses the trends associated with the information age and their impacts on branding, the ideal focus and techniques for branding and means of measuring success. 

Trends in The Modern Consumer's World

Corporate brand building can be thought of as creating your company's personality with which your target market can have a relationship. Corporate brand building today should not be undertaken without due consideration of modern consumers and their world. Modern consumers enjoy a world with the internet, social media, cameras being available to everyone and a culture moving ever closer to full and open disclosure of what used to be humans' deepest darkest secrets. Consequently, real people behind products and services are far more exposed than their pre-information-age counterparts. For instance, while several Hollywood actors played the role of very masculine heterosexual men when, in reality, they were secretly gay. This era of reality television and regular Joes becoming significant celebrities from home videos forces the issue of authenticity upon anyone trying to sell something.

As the information age took off, consumers became so well informed and scrutinous that they now can even shake the erstwhile unshakeable credibility of companies that once seemed larger than life. For instance, Monsanto has faced so much criticism for GMO products that many consumers began tuning in to YouTube homesteaders and health food stores. In short, consumers distrust in large companies has risen to such a large extent that social media influencers (on YouTuber, Instagram and so on) get far more traction from messages about brands than brands themselves. Previously, marketers used the psychographics of their target market to create advertisements in Facebook or Google accordingly. They knew that their target market's social influencers were personal friends and family and could only hope they had imagined their profiles correctly and trust that the brand's good word would be spread. Today however, longer term blogging / vlogging internet-based influencers present a huge opportunity. They remove the guess work out of imaging the details of significant influential persons in the lives of their target market. In short, these influencers are essentially living, breathing target customer avatars that marketers had only imagined up from data. 

Another major trend is that branding efforts need to be increasingly more personal from both sides, ie in terms of how the brand is perceived by the target market and the level of emotional engagement customers may need.

In the minds of consumers, the lines have blurred between a brand and the face behind it (which is often a founder). Consequently, just as a product in marketing has an extended definition to also include all aspects of the marketing mix, so too has the definition of a brand become extended to include the human being behind a brand. Whether or not we realize it, every human has a brand, ie what they are known for. Especially if linked to a company's brand, it is therefore ideal to manage one's personal brand strategically.

Trust is a significant area, especially among generation Z and millennials who are unlikely to trust conventional forms of communication. Accenture research suggests that modern consumers prefer brands that stand for a purpose that reflects their own values and beliefs (regarding issues that are social, cultural, environmental and political). They expect authenticity and nearly 50% will even stop doing business after 'brand disappointments', ie when brands deviate from their expectation regarding what that brand stood for. Furthermore, many will not hesitate to complain their disappointments over social media. 

Furthermore, companies now seek out influencers, ie regular people who have built a large online following. Unlike previously in which branding focused on a product's functional value, this new approach to branding focuses more on creating a relationship, ie responding appropriately to the fact that modern customers do business only with brands they KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST. Essentially, these three criteria correspond with the sales funnel.

• Get known; be real! For product branding, consumers are weary of curated perfection. Many consumers want to know about the founder, the company's story and inner workings. For large companies, consider the cases of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs and so on. Modern consumers prefer realism. However, even small cottage industry companies showcase their founders in some meaningful way. Examples include Skin Passion (Ayesha) from Ghana, who ... "is dedicated to natural home made herbal soaps and skin care [...] using all natural ingredients." [Her YouTube channel description]. Her success illustrates that it is no longer necessary to appear buttoned up to be considered professional and trustworthy. To be clear, 'being real' requires you to present yourself without a facade or pretention, ie show your flawed self unapologetically. Your true self can not please everyone, and that is fine. However, you are likely capable of delighting a niche with a personality or other attribute that is sufficiently developed and strong. Our true self will attract people who can truly relate you and will establish sustainable relationships. Skin Passion videos mostly showcase her making soaps in the casual setting of her backyard. Others showcase provide information about the benefits of her wild harvested ingredients, her stall at the farmer's market and plants from which she gets her raw material. Her children make cameo appearances to help display her work. This product-related content, along with the odd story about personal life experiences (like the healing 'Bed Wetting' with herbs video) gives her clients insight into her, even family life. Although her videos often have camera shake, slanted horizons or the slightly distracting sounds of children playing in the background and she rarely ever wears makeup, her unpretentious, no-frills presentation adds to the very down-to-earth appeal of her brand. Ultimately, consumers feel they 'know' her, her workspace and work conditions and the source of her materials.

• Get known; evolve your brand image as your business evolves! As your brand evolves, signal the changes to your target market. Example: Rihanna's album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' exemplifies this. It risked losing audience likeability of her earlier innocent girly image for the sake of representing more authentically who she was becoming. This move towards authenticity proved hugely successful. Rihanna's new imperfect presentation was easier to relate more relatable to an equally imperfect audience. Consider this process on par with appropriately establishing your target market's expectations. After all, if expectations are set correctly, you are more likely to satisfy your customers when you and or your brand act accordingly. It was therefore neither shocking nor damaging to Rihanna's reputation when pictures surfaced of her smoking marijuana with her then boyfriend Chris Brown who had had a reputation for being a 'bad boy'.

• Be known; tell your brand's story, ie the compelling reason you started your brand. Storytelling is arguably the most powerful way of bringing your brand to life in the minds of your customers. There are several winning formulae like having stories that showcase a problem with which target customers can relate and then resolve the problem with your product; doing social good. Example(s).
• Social good. A traveler found a remote village plagued by poverty. However, upon noticing the people's ability to make hammocks, he created a dropshipping business using his knowledge of the internet along with their craftsmanship. The story shows the people's lives before and after this business initiative. It shows the faces of real people, introducing many by name along with some bio information.
• Problem resolution. The conceptualization of a t-shirt company specializing in ultra soft shirts was said to have begun the day after his girlfriend threw out his favorite t-shirt that he loved endlessly but had obviously become too worn for social tolerance.

• Be known; let your customers tell your brand's story. Testimonials told as a story that delves into the customer's challenges and how they were resolved can be very convincing.

• Be known; declare your core values. Modern consumers assess companies as they would people they just meet. They likely want to know if a company's values match their own. Avoid superficial and cliche mission or other value statements. For ideas, consider the deepest desires of consumers that your product fulfills. In many cases, companies do not merely have a single mission statement but also statements related to specific aspects of their business. Also remember to use a tone that suits your industry and target market.
• Example. Adidas' core values  essentially suggest that they believe in winning. Their mission is to be the best sports clothing company in the world. This is ideal since consumers of sporting clothes are likely competitive in nature and can therefore relate to this core value.
• Example. Types of statements: product mission, economic mission, social mission, purpose / vision, mission, culture statement.
• Ben & Jerry's
• Our Product Mission drives us to make fantastic ice cream—for its own sake.
• Our Economic Mission asks us to manage our Company for sustainable financial growth.
• Our Social Mission compels us to use our Company in innovative ways to make the world a better place.

• Get liked; Be authentic and personal in ways that target customers can relate. As mentioned above in Rihanna's case, the emergence of her authentic persona was more relatable and therefore more likeable. The same is also true for the abovementioned case of Skin Passion's Ayesha. You either love or hate these women.

• Get liked; target customers emotionally! Adopt applicable emotional marketing techniques as triggers to branding. Emotional marketing techniques commonly apply to sales. However, consider the following a means of selling the idea of your brand's superiority. 
• Example(s): Products mostly resolve a pain point or provide pleasure, the former of which is more powerful purchase motivator. For instance, if you provide therapeutic products, they promise to resolve the pain points associated with health concerns that you should address. However, if competitors create their product with harmful ingredients, this provides an emotional branding opportunity. Start by highlighting the problem, ie your target customers are forced to trade off between wellness in one area and toxicity that affects other areas of their health. Your natural brand can promise superior quality control that never forces consumers to make such compromises.
• Example: Heinz entered the baked beans market when many producers were suspected of using undesirable fillers. Heinz responded by offering their product in clear bottles that differentiated them as more trustworthy. Consequently, that brand's reputation of trustworthiness allowed it to continue demanding higher prices many years afterwards.
• Example(s): If your product's quality is on par with that of the competition, use middle positioning pricing; ie apply neither the cheapest nor highest price. Your brand will be perceived as having a higher quality to the cheapest brand and more reasonably priced than the priciest brand.

• Get liked; employ influencers. They are your target market's electronically adopted friends and families who can put in a good word to your target market about your brand and positively influence the buying decision. 
• Seek out influencers whose attributes are those of your target customer avatar, most importantly having the problem or desire for which your product is a solution.
• Specify the details they should include when introducing your brand, like noteworthy things to know about the brand, emotional brand marketing to encourage emotional engagement / liking, reasons to trust the brand, processes / CRX, etc  
• See how to select suitable influencers, how much to pay and how to negotiate costs with influencers.

• Get liked; differentiate! Since today's world allows mostly anyone to create a high quality product or service, competition is rarely based only on product quality and there will always be someone else with comparable products willing to undersell you. Capitalize on the fact that no one can compete with you to be you in whatever unique, innovative and differentiated way you present yourself and brand. In short, presenting your unique personal brand builds sustainable competitive advantage. The person behind a brand can achieve this merely by being him or herself; by having a unique mix of life experiences and talents.
• Example(s): Grace for the Millers on YouTube is a unique family channel. They are unusually large, with 7 children. However, 4 of those children are adopted from different races and countries. Some needed special medical attention. Their family rose to quick stardom as they showcase their very active life of adventure, holiday celebrations and challenge. They are the modern day 'Brady Bunch'. Their stardom comes simply by being a family of 9 with different individual challenges and personalities. Their life on display has become a successful brand against which no other family can compete on the basis of the mix of characteristics that make them wildly popular. 

• Get liked; be imperfect. Being imperfect is perfectly relatable! Example(s). A clothing company even speaks of mistakes the business made (like opening a branch that failed miserably). In the 'About' page, the founder mentions the failure even in a funny way. Specifically, he says the only good thing about that branch was the launching party.
  
  

• Build trust; be transparent! Be transparent even when the truth reveals something controversial about your brand or you. 
• Example: Companies are encouraged to support the national economy by using national manufacturing. In fact, part of many American companies' competitive advantage is consequently based on being 100% American. However, one American business explained that they use national manufacturers whenever possible but hired a Thai company for some of their business. They explain this by starting to speak of their goal being to offer the highest quality and the fact that national companies often offered much more costly work that did not always comply with quality needs. They go on to assuage the common concerns associated with foreign manufacture. For instance, they speak of the Thailand business being ethical and having other compliant standards. Consequently, although risky, they reveal the positive reason for their unpopular decision. Their brand arguably fares better than Khloe Kardashian's Good American whose US-based alleged sweat shop conditions to cut costs brought bad publicity.
• Example: See the example above of how Heinz charged a premium for not using fillers like competitors and using transparent packaging to engender trust.  

• Be trusted; be consistent! Every aspect of your marketing mix should remain consistent with the brand values. Even your brand's key public person's personal reputation management should also comply. Since a company's brand is often inextricably linked with a key person (like its founder), it could suffer if the reputation of the human face somehow becomes inconsistent and, within the context of the brand, 'tarnished'. Additionally, let your actions reflect the values you claim to espouse.  
• This is evident in the case of Uber which saw significant backlash when its CEO's reputation came into question when he nicknamed his newfound luck with women 'Boober'. He ultimately needed to resign from his own brain child in order to save the company's long term trustworthiness. Arguably, authenticity helps to prevent major fallout when / if the person behaves in a way that deviates from an otherwise curated personna. For instance, when Rihanna was seen smoking marijuana with 'bad boy' Chris Brown, swearing and having runnings with a property owner over her nudity, her brand was not ruined as these behaviors were more in line with the more authentic image of her that had been portrayed in the 'Good Girl Gone Bad' album.
• In keeping with their stated mission to 'make the world better', Ben & Jerry's created a charitable foundation that receives 7.5% of its anuual profits to fund community-oriented projects and, a little more risky, activism (which includes preventing climate change).  

Measuring branding success
After using appropriate brand awareness strategies, compare the results with SMART branding objectives. Objectives may look like this. 

• to increase brand recognition by 75% within 2 quarters. Brand recognition can be measured within the context of the 3 Rs, ie being Recognized, Remembered and Revered. Do customers know that you exist? When they encounter your brand, do they recognize that it is you? What do they remember about your brand? 

CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND BUILDING

• Brand awareness promotional strategies
• Building a brand is like creating a personality. It signals to your target market what they can expect. Ensure that, at the very least, the customer experience meets that expectation (ie is satisfied with the relationship).
• Manage your brand story.
• Understand the personality type of your target market and how to adapt appropriately.
• Emotional advertising; deeply personal emotional triggers
• When approach sellers, get an advantage by introducing you and your company effectively.
• Measuring brand awareness
• Genericide is noteworthy phenomenon for very successful brands! Know how to care for what you hoped for. Wildly successful branding can result in losing your brand if you do not know how. Learn how to prevent brand genericide.