Step 1: Identify power.
The first step of brand building is to make customers feel a sense of identity, which comes from the products, services and signs provided by enterprises. In this step, enterprises need to convey the value proposition of their products very clearly, contribute the quality of their products very seriously, and design their own identification system so that customers can clearly identify, remember and distinguish them easily.
Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, Apple, etc. The discrimination of these companies is extremely strong. On the contrary, some enterprises in China often want to imitate, always want their logo to be similar to a famous trademark, and at the same time, they don't pay enough attention to the quality of their products, so they lose the power of identification.
Step 2: Value chain management
The management of the value chain and the distribution of power among the members of the value chain are the second step to establish a brand. This distribution of power is reflected in the rights of suppliers, manufacturers, sellers and customers. Without proper resource allocation for all brand members, it is impossible to form a * * * cognition of the brand.
Therefore, brand enterprises need to coordinate the value distribution among members of the value chain and coordinate the value space so that each member can contribute to the ultimate value of customers.
Intel and Microsoft are two members of the value chain, but their own value contribution will determine the running speed and effect of a computer. Therefore, no matter IBM in the past, Lenovo, Dell and Hewlett-Packard now, as long as they are PC manufacturers, they need to mark the logos of Intel and Microsoft on each PC, because these two logos can determine the brand value of PC manufacturers. Because Intel and Microsoft can manage the value chain of PC and gain their own brand position.
Step 3: the manager who continuously delivers value.
It is necessary to ensure the consistency of products, sales methods and established value positioning. To this end, managers must be able to manage the complete business process from product design and production to sales, distribution and pricing.
The managers of most enterprises do not associate themselves with brand building, but only regard themselves as managers. In fact, the manager is one of the key factors of brand success, because the manager determines a series of activities and resource allocation that determine the value of products, such as product design and quality. If managers can ensure consistent delivery value, customers will get a stable and reliable sense of value.
If managers don't work like this, but work with very low standards, they can't provide stable and reliable products and can't guarantee the consistency of products, brand building will become empty talk. This is perhaps the most likely problem in the process of brand building for China enterprises. When the product quality can't meet the delivery standard, some managers will give up the quality standard and ship the product in order to complete their own performance.
When competitors are in a favorable position, managers will choose to sacrifice the interests of consumers in exchange for their temporary growth in order to regain a favorable market position. Perhaps these behaviors will achieve temporary success, but long-term harm is hidden inside, which is harmful to the brand. The need to acquire a brand requires managers to constantly deliver value.
Step 4: Employees with clear communication values.
The real spokesperson of the brand is the front-line employees of the enterprise. Only when the front-line employees of the enterprise can clearly express the value pursuit and value proposition of the enterprise, will this product really be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. If the front-line employees of the enterprise can't understand the value of the product, then the value of the product will not be recognized by the customers.
I once went to a company to investigate and found a very interesting phenomenon. The employees of this company will seriously say to customers, "It's cost-effective to buy our products, because we try our best to reduce costs, which is our company's value concept." And customers give up choosing this company's products because of the communication of employees.
When I communicated with the customer, the customer told me, "We are worried that the quality of this company's products is not good enough, because the employees of the company say that the company will try its best to reduce costs and may cut corners." I think this is because employees did not clearly express their company's value proposition, which triggered bad associations from customers.
There is another situation that I often see in my research. Enterprise employees sincerely disapprove of their products, and even pass on this feeling of disapproval to customers, making customers doubt their product cognition. How to make employees deeply understand the company's value concept and product value proposition, and how to help employees identify with the company's product value and present it in their daily actions are problems that enterprises that need to build brands must answer and ensure to solve.
Step 5: subdivide loyal customers.
Clear customer segmentation and loyalty are the key indicators to measure the brand. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly diagnose some problems in business processes, which can help companies find out the key deficiencies in brand management.
For example, a company may find that the benefits of the products it provides and promotes may not really be valued by the target consumers. In this case, it is necessary to re-establish the value orientation and market strategy of products in order to gain consumers' loyalty to the brand.
As a luxury brand, Louis Vuitton understands that its customers are those who want to show their superiority and wealth, so Louis Vuitton always puts its "LV" logo in the most obvious position of its products, which makes Louis Vuitton's customer loyalty very high.
However, compared with another group of customers, they want low-key luxury, and their tastes and wealth are hidden, so that Louis Vuitton's products are not suitable for such segmented customers, and Hermes just meets this segmented customer base, designing higher prices, more uniqueness and uniqueness of product types. These efforts of Hermè s have helped the subdivided customers to be more clear about their loyalty, and also enabled Hermè s to gain a higher brand premium.
Step 6: Sustainable growth rate
Growth itself is a goal pursued by an enterprise, but this goal needs to be a foundation of the brand, not the other way around. If the growth of the enterprise brings damage to the market and customer recognition, then such growth is intolerable.
20 10 Toyota's "quality gate" incident caused great damage to Toyota brand. When Toyota is doing self-reflection, they understand that because Toyota pursues the first position in the global automobile industry and continues to expand and grow, it has put growth at the top of its corporate strategy in the last five years, ignoring Toyota's business philosophy of "quality".
Blind growth and expansion make Toyota ignore the product quality, the relationship between technological innovation and quality, and the trust and dependence of customers on the reliability of Toyota products.
In the process of Toyota's blind pursuit of growth, a large number of cars were recalled due to insufficient quality, which led to people's doubts about Toyota brand. In addition, the Fukushima tsunami on 20 1 1 had a great impact on Toyota, making Toyota, which remained the number one in the global automobile industry for 20 years, be surpassed by American General Motors on 20 1 1. Perhaps the continued economic downturn in Japan is also the reason that affects Toyota's development, but the quality problems caused by excessive growth and expansion must be one of the key factors that affect brand loyalty.
The last step: real profit growth
Building a brand requires a lot of investment, from the beginning of product design, to the standard of supplier selection, the standard control of production process, the effectiveness of channels, the value of delivery, and finally to the value perceived by customers, all of which need to be invested in every link of this long value chain and completed with high standards. Therefore, a significant adjustment of brand products is to have a higher price system. It is precisely because of the high investment in each link of the value chain that customers are willing to pay high prices and feel high value when they get the products. At this time, the brand has often penetrated into the hearts of customers, or the brand has been built successfully.
A successful brand will certainly gain high value recognition and make customers willing to pay high prices, so that the brand can create its own value, rather than pure product value, and enterprises will also get real profit growth because of the value created by the brand. If you can't provide a high price, and this price is acceptable to customers, then the enterprise can't get real profit growth. Without real profit growth, it is impossible to build a real brand.
After these seven steps, it can be confirmed that the road of enterprise brand development has been completed, and after repeated cycles, enterprises will get real brands.
So it can be said that the road of brand development is also the road of enterprise development. Enterprises committed to building brands will often achieve sustainable development, because with the road of brand development, they can help enterprises achieve seven stages: product function identification and image identification, value contribution of members of the value chain, managers who continuously transmit value, employees who clearly communicate value, subdivided loyal customers, sustainable growth rate and real profit growth. These seven stages can indeed be effectively realized.