[Instructor] Hello, and welcome
to the video lecture of this week,
which is about the brand
and how do you build and how to sustain the brand
associated with your business or organization.
Here's a rundown of what we'll be doing.
We're going to first define a brand,
why it's important,
talk about the building blocks,
the elements of a brand,
and the goal of a brand, which is to have value
in and of itself, or brand equity.
Here is what our textbook author defines it as:
it's the name, sign, symbol,
or combination of these things
which identify the product or service
and differentiate them from the competition.
Here are a number of well-known brands.
These are logos, and a logo is not exactly a brand.
It's actually one of the brand elements,
but it's often the most recognizable part of a brand.
Others might define it
as the public face of your business,
but my favorite way of thinking about it
is it's your promise.
It's what you want to be promising to your customers.
It's the embodiment of value.
It's what makes you you, it's what makes you great.
And as we'll see, it has something of value
for you and your customer.
It's a powerful asset,
something that you have to manage.
And every firm has one.
Every firm should have one,
and it's really something that you need
to develop and nurture and take care of
and strengthen over time.
Here is a graphic.
This graphic describes some of the parts of a brand
and just for a visual representation.
Why is a brand important?
First of all, it has benefits for you,
for the firm, for your business organization.
It differentiates you.
It tells you what is great, what is special,
what is novel about you.
It embodies your business model,
your core values, the mission,
and it can help to draw and retain customers.
And, in many cases, a strong brand
also has the advantage of giving you access
to suppliers and channels that,
all else equal, a supplier wants to sell
to a business that they think
is very well established,
and distributors or market channels,
hopefully for obvious reasons,
are much more likely to sell a product
that has a strong brand,
that already has a market
and that already has a loyal customer base
so that, rather than them doing a favor of you,
of moving your product,
you are actually bringing them business
by bringing your customer base to them.
And for many of the same reasons,
a strong brand can give you access to capital.
An investor is going to be more likely to invest in you.
A bank is going to be more likely to sell,
or give you a loan if you have a strong brand,
if you already have a strong presence
in the the marketplace
and have established yourself
as a business that's around for the longterm.
It also has value to the customer.
It decreases risk, increases trust,
it makes them feel safe.
It lets them know what are they getting into.
So if it's a promise, then they can rely on,
when they buy your thing, your good or service,
that they know what they're going to get.
It's reliable and they understand it,
that it's a clear understanding
where they feel safe of,
"I can buy this because I know
that I'm going to get what I am expecting."
Here are a list of brand elements,
and I'm going to go through each one of these.
So these you can think of
as the building blocks
or the components of a brand.
So I'll go through each one.
First is the name,
which is basically just the name of the company,
the words that are used to identify it.
The logo, which we we saw earlier,
is the graphic representation.
A tagline, so for those of you
who can remember from the past,
the quicker picker-upper is Bounty.
Can you hear me now was one for Verizon.
You can think about what is one
for McDonald's right now.
Graphics are shapes
which help to identify it.
Shapes are also very close to graphics.
So those are, they're very close,
but like the Coke bottle, the Volkswagen Beetle.
I guess in this case the shape of the product
rather than of the logo or graphics.
Colors and sounds, here are examples:
a certain group of products are known
for distinctive colors or sounds,
scents and tastes and movement.
So let's go through,
and on the next slide,
I'm going to invite you
to think about other examples.
And we'll do this in class as well.
So if you want to, pause it here
and jot down or think about other examples.
So here are a few that I thought of.
Heinz 57 got that name because of
the number of products they sell,
the Apple logo,
we'll talk about what Motel 6's line are,
the Nike Swoosh,
the shape of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups,
what color is UPS known for.
The, you know, a jingle goes into the sound,
so the ESPN's "SportsCenter" sound.
Anybody who drives by Al's on Williston Road
on the way to the airport
knows that they have a very distinctive smell.
Certain products have very distinctive taste.
I think Frank's RedHot sauce
doesn't really taste like anything else.
And I had a harder time with movements,
but in the Red Bull ads,
the sort of movement of the wings,
the Red Bull gives you wings.
So that's also a tagline,
but the way that the wings move
seems like it's a distinctive part of the brand.
So here are the characteristics.
So it should communicate the distinctive value,
it should reinforce the intended position,
so it should be a good fit
for the position and clearly articulate that,
and it should be consistent and unifying.
So we'll discuss this in class, but think about now
do you think Apple is going to release
like a really cheap phone or a really cheap watch,
so something that's way down
on the commodity end of the scale,
the low price,
sort of bargain-basement product?
Would they do that? Why or why not?
And if they did do it,
what might be a strategy that they would use?
So think about that and we'll discuss it in class.
Think about as well what would be
an off-brand product or service
that your business would choose not to do?
So what's a thing that would just not be a good fit,
that wouldn't reinforce your position,
that wouldn't be consistent
with what you already do?
So maybe UVM, who I think
we've made our name as being green and sustainable,
having a class on fossil fuel extraction
or how to externalize costs,
like that would not be a product
that we would hopefully offer
because it would really go against
and, in a way, taint our existing brand
and our existing products.
So a good brand should build brand equity.
It should be easily understood,
so, again, this is a clear promise
and they know what they're getting themselves into.
And it can be sustained over time,
so a good brand, if you invest in it,
if you tell a good story,
if you have a clear promise
that this should stand the test of time.
So we will do a number of these in class,
but I want you to think about,
as you see these brands, what do they stand for?
What is their promise?
What do you know that you're getting
when you buy one of these products?
So I'm just gonna flip through each one
and what we'll go through class.
Feel free to pause it and jot down ideas
so you're ready to discuss it in class.
But here's one, here's another one.
What do you know what you're getting
when you get this on a product?
What are these folks known for?
What are you getting? What's the promise?
And ponder this and this.
Here are three well-known Vermont brands.
Well, what are they known for?
What's the promise?
What do you know that you're getting
when you're buying something from each of these?
I wanna spend just a little bit more time on the name,
which is the first of the brand elements
and maybe the very first thing that you consider
when you're developing a brand.
So what should you name your business?
And then what other brand elements go along with that?
And you'll notice that many businesses
are named after their founders,
such as Ford and Calvin Klein.
Can you think of any other examples?
So here are some suggestions for a good name,
that it should suggest the benefits and function,
that Home Depot is somewhere where you buy hardware
and things to work on your home.
Best Buy hopefully offers a good product.
It should fit the image.
There should be no legal restriction.
So, certainly, if I start to sell
a soda called Coca-Cola
or anything that sounds anything like that,
I'm going to be getting a letter
from their legal team very fast saying,
"Don't do that."
It should be easy to pronounce and remember.
It can have emotional appeal.
Like, here's an example of Grandma's cookies.
Maybe other family members may not have
such a positive emotional appeal,
but grandma seems like that's on pretty safe ground,
hopefully for most of us.
And it should translate well.
So especially if you're going to sell it overseas,
make sure that it isn't anything
like confusing or contradictory
or offensive in a language where you hope to sell.
And I don't know if it's actually,
I've heard that this really isn't
a completely true story,
but the idea that Chevy had a car called the Nova,
the N-O-V-A, and when they tried to sell it
in a Spanish-speaking country,
it says no va, which means it won't run
or it won't go, which is a bad name.
But anyway, it's more of an example
than a sort of truthful story.
But I think hopefully you get my point.
So I want you to think about brand equity.
So here I'm thinking the word equity has many meanings.
Some is it means fairness.
So like gender equity or racial equity.
That's not what I'm speaking about here.
I'm speaking in terms of value.
Like if you get a home equity loan,
it means that there's value in your home
that you could sell your home right now
for more than the amount of your existing mortgage.
So you've built up equity
and sometimes a bank will let you borrow against that.
But you can think of it here
as what is the value that the brand adds to the product?
What does that brand name,
what does it do for the product?
So it is sort of the sum of the value,
the trust, the perceived value, et cetera.
And one way that you could maybe measure this
is how much more are people willing to pay
for a branded product?
And we see that on the grocery store shelf.
So you'll see a box
of Kellogg's Raisin Bran, say,
and then you'll see a box of Hannaford's
or the sort of local, they're like house brand.
And they are basically made from the same ingredients
in the same factory,
in the same way, same recipe,
but one of them receives
a lot of marketing support, one does not.
So you can think about that,
that the extra price that you pay
is what you're paying for the brand.
So these are the strategies.
So you wanna forge strong, favorable,
unique consumer associations.
And here are the four steps.
So, first, you wanted to develop awareness.
You want people to know that you exist
and to associate it with the attributes
and the benefits and the promise
that your product or service brings.
So think about how did you become aware
of these entities and we'll discuss it in class.
Next is the meaning.
Well, what does it stand for,
both what is sort of its practical value
and what sort of like imagery or abstraction goes along?
And, basically, what is the promise?
What are you getting? What are you known for?
Here are two well-known products
that Vermont are known for,
that we're known for having outstanding maple syrup
and outstanding cheese.
So both we want them to think,
"Oh, this is high quality, it's superior,"
as well as sort of the feeling
that you get from the state of Vermont,
this beautiful state with its mountains,
its farms, it's clean,
it's, you know, pro environment.
And like, hopefully, people will associate
those emotions with these products as well.
Then, we hope for a response,
that they try it, they buy it,
they like it, and they'll buy it again,
and in the long run,
they become that sort of loyal customer
who are the backbone of your business.
And in an ideal world, it will begin to resonate
that people will have an active loyalty,
they'll have a psychological bond,
that they'll be known, like,
"I am a Mac user," or, "I'm a Ford driver,"
that they really sort of start
to identify with that.
One way of thinking about it is
do people wear your logo on clothing?
You know, so you see Harvey Davidson shirts,
you might see Apple shirts,
but where they really start to identify,
like, "This is my product.
I am a loyal Harley motorcycle rider
and I have shirts and, you know,
leather jackets that have their logo on it."
Another way of thinking about this
is know, like, and trust.
So, first, we want them to know us,
know that we exist, know that we are out there,
and then that they want us to like us.
"Hmm, that was good.
I like that, I bought their thing,
it worked well, it was what I was hoping for,
it made me happy," et cetera.
And finally, trust, "I can trust
that, next time I buy it, I'm going to like it.
I know what I'm getting.
They keep their promise."
So I wanna show you these in class.
Please watch these and we will discuss them.
This is what we did:
what's a brand, why it's important,
and we talked about brand elements and brand equity.