by: Geoff Ficke
4 Crucial Elements to Include in Your Consumer Product Branding Strategy
When I started to Market Consumer Products 40 years ago the term “Branding” was one I never heard. The term was not one that enjoyed the currency it enjoys today. In the years since formal Branding and Branding Strategies have become key foundational elements that Marketers employ to imprint their products in the psyche of consumers.
There are many pieces involved in creating a successful, enduring Branding Strategy Campaign. These components have been discussed, studied, analyzed and debated since the term has come into such popular use among the professional Marketing crowd. These elements include everything that is visual and relates to the product being branded: package design, colors, icons, print fonts, shapes, delivery trucks, uniforms, advertising formats, etc. For this article we will look at creating powerful Branding Statements.
The following are 4 creative rules that our Marketing Consulting and Product Development firm utilizes when creating Branding Statement Strategies for clients:
!. The Branding Statement should have spatial symmetry.
Unbalanced phrasing leaves an uneven impression in consumer’s minds. This reflects on their acceptance or rejection of the product being branded. The goal is to leave a crisp, clean impression. The Vidal Sassoon Hair Care Product Branding Statement is a fine example of utilizing excellent spatial symmetry:
“We don’t look good,
if you don’t look good”.
2. The Branding Statement should offer some lyricism.
Note the many messages contained in the short, pithy wording of the Vidal Sassoon Branding Statement. There is a nice lyricism, not poetry, but a flow to the verbiage. This Branding Statement was one of the most successful Beauty Product Branding Statements ever utilized.
3. The Shorter the Branding Statement, the better.
Several of the most famous contemporary Branding Statements have become ubiquitous and are classics.
Coke is it!
Ford is Job 1!
Just get out there!
The Ultimate Driving Machine!
Das Bug!
Virtually every consumer can name the products that are branded by these Branding Statements. Most could also hum the jingle that supplies the musical backdrop to their television commercials. This should be the goal of every Marketing Consultant when creating a campaign and it becomes easier if the copy is as short as possible.
4. Implant an uplifting message in the Branding Statement.
The venerable, 250 year old Geneva, Switzerland-based luxury watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin, is renowned for the incredible “complications” they have engineered into their timepieces. In 1819, Vacheron Constantin presented one of the first Corporate Branding Statements. It is still in use to this day.
“Do better if possible,
And it is always possible.
Note the messaging so subtly implanted in this seemingly simple statement. There is also near perfect lyricism, tone and symmetry. In addition to producing the most desirable watches in the world, this Company has always enjoyed excellent Marketing. In 1819, long before we studied Branding as a component of a successful Marketing Strategy, Vacheron Constantin was unwittingly perfecting the practice.
Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.
After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.
Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, (www.duquesamarketing.com) has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.