If you deliver a consistent product, place and promotion don’t matter much

The chicken leg pieces are lip-smackingly good.

The other day, I was going gaga over the accessibility factor to make your products reach more and more customers. And I fell flat when I visited this eatery in a remote corner of Mid-Western Nepal.

And let me share with you this gem of wisdom: You don't need to be stationed at an accessible place if you deliver consistent taste to your customers!

Puri Leg Pieces, a small eatery at an awkward place, defies all the theories of marketing. This restaurant is located at Khairapur which is almost an hour's drive from Nepalgunj in Mid-Western Nepal and the roads aren't great either. However, people flock to this place to taste the chicken leg pieces, fried in cooking oil with spices added to enhance the taste. They serve the pieces with tomato chutney and let me tell you it's amazing!

The lady running the place said, "We sell 40 chickens and make 50,000 Nepali rupees ($ 500) every day." They have introduced some interesting recipes which isn't found at other places. In addition, they make money from selling liquor and beverages.

Her family migrated from the hilly district Dailekh to Bhurigaun in Bardia some 10 years ago and they had rented the space with a small building in Khairapur to run their business.

When I asked about the recipe of her success, she said, “It’s all hard work and the consistent taste is paying off.” But she didn’t divulge her trade secret. “Does Cocacola share its secret?” she asked.

Within an hour’s stay at the famous Puri Leg Pieces, I deduced these nuggets of knowledge.  

Quality product is the key to attracting customers. It should be different than what others are offering in the market. Something ‘out of the box’!

Consistency of the product is another step towards success. The customers come to you for that special attribute of your product.

Ability to deliver the demand is a must trait to retain the customers. If they come to you and you’re not able to cater to their demands, they won’t return again.

Controlling the willingness to grow is another factor that will always help your business grow with time. It’s always good to have a bigger pie in the industry but you must be sure that you’re well established before you spread your wings. I remember the wise words of the lady at the restaurant. She said, “Ghati herera had nilnu (meaning: cut your coat according to your cloth).”

Trade secret is something you’ll need to maintain although it’s all about sharing in today’s world. Why in the world would anybody come to you if they find the same thing everywhere?

Word of mouth advertising is still the best way to sell your products. People have returned to the ‘referrals’ and it’s still a huge hit in this age of social media boom.

Simplicity matters

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

I always had the feeling ‘simplicity is the most beautiful attribute’ and whenever I was asked to coordinate the design of either a book cover or an annual report, I would opt for the simplest designs. But, the units placing the orders would want to go ahead with jazzy, colourful and heavily designed stuff. And I sometimes struggled to convince them how simple designs work better.

However, I had with me this simple but highly effective advertising campaign to show them. I have been a great fan of this campaign since my working days as a copywriter in an advertising agency.

 Artwork by Doug Lyon, Lyon Advertising. Used with permission.

The campaign was created by Doug Lyon of the Lyon Advertising to generate awareness for Austin’s newest hair salon.

The website states: “RESULT: Campaign has been running for over 10 years and has won numerous industry awards.”
See why and how simplicity works!

Are you now convinced that simplicity matters?

Have your ever thought about these hidden messages in brand logos?

Designers and advertisers are creative, crazy and cryptic. And while designing a logo for a brand they try hiding some key messages in the logos. Not always, but they try their best to do it!

So why do they do it?

As Thompson’s rules of ad-making say, they try to do something different; they draw; and they train their eyes to see. They see patterns in everything they glance at.

And that’s why they try to hide messages related to the product in the logo, attracting the subliminal mind to the product.


Some of the most talked about brand logos with hidden messages are FedEx, Amazon, Toblerone, Baskin Robbins among others.

If you look carefully between the ‘E’ and ‘x’ in the FedEx logo, you’ll see a white arrow pointing to right. It signifies forward motion.

In the Amazon logo, a yellow arrow runs from ‘a’ to ‘z’ trying to say that they sell everything from A to Z.

In the Toblerone logo, you’ll see a dancing beer in the mountain. It has been dedicated to Bern, the city of bears, where the chocolate was developed.

Now look at the Baskin Robbins logo. The pink and blue ‘BR’ has pink ‘31’ hidden in it. It denotes the 31 flavours the ice-cream brand offers – one for each day in a month!

Want to know more?

Here is a list of brand logos with messages hidden inside them. 

Are you with the brand managers of Shiva Pale Ale?

Let me start with an interesting incident from the Shiva Purana, one of the 18 genre of Sanskrit texts in Hinduism.

When the gods and demons were churning the ocean (Samudra Manthan), Halahala (deadly poison) was produced and its venomous poison started killing both the gods and demons. To save them from the consequences, Shiva drank the poison. 

A can of  Shiva Pale Ale. From Anand Chaudhary's Facebook post.

Now let me relate this with Asheville Brewing Company’s Shiva India Pale Ale.

I came to know about this after one of my friends posted a picture of the ale can in his Facebook timeline. As soon as saw the image, I was scouring the Internet to know more about the drink.

Here is what I found.

The brewing company’s website says:

A crisp, citrusy India Pale Ale with a light color, Shiva will destroy all your preconceptions of an I.P.A. A transcendentally simple malt bill accents a generous helping of Columbus hops, lending an intense floral aroma with hints of grapefruit and a pleasant bittering quality. Your palette will be lifted to higher planes of consciousness with a bittersweet finish.

It seems the brand managers in the West have a fascination with Hindu gods. Earlier, owing to protests from Hindus, Burnside Brewing Company, a Portland-based American brewery, postponed the limited release of "Kali-Ma Beer" in 2012.

Rajan Zed, President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, had called for an apology and the removal of Shiva’s image from the ale’s packaging.

Likewise, a petition was filed in Change.org for the removal of Shiva’s image from the beer bottles and cans.

So, while knowing the consequences, why are brands created around religion?

Is it the fascination for the powerful gods as described in the holy books? Or is it all about cooking a controversy and build a brand around it?

For me, the first and foremost thing, it gives the brand a strong personality and it’s easier to explain the product benefits.

Shiva, the god of gods, connotes power and the drinker (if he or she knows about Shiva) would be elated to grasp a can of beer named Shiva. For those who don’t know anything about Shiva, it’s always some fascinating Hindu god. And obviously, it fascinates the drinker. But for Hindus, using the image of a revered god is a complete No-No.

So, did you get the message?

Be cautious and respect others’ sentiments before creating a brand around gods and goddesses.  

Do spoofs and propaganda help brand building?

Marketers love propaganda and they think it helps promote a brand. However, sometimes you play with the sentiments of a community if you vilify their beliefs and denigrate their legends. Eventually, you end up losing a band of loyal customers. 

Recently, I was in Cebu and came across a marketing blunder of a company producing EQ brand diapers.
   

In early 2013 a television commercial of EQ diapers took resort to the history recalling the famous battle of Mactan. In the commercial, the Spanish conquistador Ferdinand Magellan arrives in Mactan and gifts the king of Mactan Lapu-Lapu a box of diapers. However, his wife Reyna Bulakna finds out that the diapers are of inferior quality. This enrages Lapu-Lapu and thus, begins the battle of Mactan.    

Many people found the advertisement funny and found nothing wrong about it. However, Balbino “Ka Bino” Guerrero, a tour guide and a tourism consultant of Lapu-Lapu City and Lapu-Lapu Mayor Paz Radaza, along with many others, found the advertisement insulting.

Ka Bino launched an online petition to pull out the commercial and the mayor demanded a public apology from the company and stoppage of advert airing.

Later, the Advertising Board of the Philippines recalled the clearance to air the EQ diapers commercial.

In another instance of marketing blunder, New England Brewing Company of Connecticut, USA, had been marketing its India pale ale under the name "Gandhi-Bot". On the label was a robot version of Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of nation, led India to freedom from the British rule and is revered by Indians throughout the world. The brewery drew the ire of Indian community for insulting the great soul.

The company had to apologise and stop using the name and image of Gandhi on the beer cans. It later decided to rebrand the beer. 

The company, however, claimed that they hoped the product would inspire people to learn about Mahatma Gandhi and his non-violent methods of civil obedience.

Likewise, the EQ diapers wanted the people to recall the famous battle of Mactan and remember their hero Lapu-Lapu.

However, in both the cases, playing with the sentiments of people backfired. Both the cases, along with many other similar cases, convey a simple message – though spoofs and propaganda bring a brand into limelight, it is short-lived and in the long term deter the brand building process.

5 branding lessons from bodybuilders

Gym: A hotbed of branding ideas. (c) www.morguefile.com

Being a gym freak and a brand enthusiast, I always compare the learning at the gymnasium with the steps of building a brand. Here are some nuggets of knowledge I learnt from gymming.

Try doing opposites
Super sets – doing a mix of exercises without rest especially involving opposite muscles – build muscle faster. Practised by Arnold Schwarzenegger, it helped him win Mr Universe title for five years and Mr Olympia for seven years. In bodybuilding doing opposites at a regular interval enhances your muscles' growth.

However, doing opposites is a totally crazy thought in branding where brand managers strive to create a consistent brand image. Ever thought of Coca-Cola producing a whiskey? Well, sometimes it can work wonders. A tooth paste brand can sell a tooth brush, a shaving cream brand can promote an after-shave and a tea brand can market its own brand of cookies.      

Heard about the Post-it invention? Actually Dr Spencer Silver wanted to develop a super-strong adhesive for 3M. However, he accidentally created a "low-tack", reusable, pressure sensitive adhesive that brought a revolution. It was used to create the ubiquitous sticky notes. And the rest is history.

Tweak your regular regimes
In bodybuilding you need to deviate from your regular workout schedule, at least once a month. If you tweak your regular regimes, the muscles get teased and you grow muscles at a faster pace.

Similarly, innovation doesn't come from regular work. Had Nokia kept on producing galoshes, it would not have delved into cellular phone making business. Again it kept producing the regular cellular phones and had to be left behind in the race of producing smartphones. Eventually, it had to be sold out to Microsoft.

So, the message is – keep on tweaking the original. Never stop thinking outside the box.

Diversify your portfolio
For developing a particular muscle you need to do different sets of exercises impacting different muscle parts. It helps the muscles grow uniformly. Can you grow biceps just doing barbell curls? Never. You need to do preacher curls, concentration curls, dumbbell curls and hammer curls along with the barbell curls for beautiful biceps.  

Likewise, you need to build a portfolio of diverse products to build a stronger brand. Earlier it was thought that indulging in diversification would make you lose focus. But the times they are changing. Take example of Samsung – it not only produces home appliances, TVs, cameras, laptops and tablets, but is a leader in smartphone business.

Diversifying your portfolio decreases the risk of sinking down. It has become a truth in the tumultuous market.   

Warm up is necessary
You might have heard from your trainer, "Don't start lifting weights without proper warm up."  You must do the warm up exercises before the main regime to prevent sprains and strains.

So is the case in branding. Before launching a brand, the most important thing is building a story around the brand. These days, gossiping in Facebook and Twitter is good to create a buzz prior to the launch. Like teaser ads in earlier days, the word of mouth creates excitement among the consumers and your brand gets a warm reception.

Concentration is of the utmost importance
Concentration curls are very effective and peak your biceps, especially the outside part. It's called "concentration" because you need to concentrate on your biceps contraction while doing this exercise. Not only in case of biceps, you need to concentrate on the movements of each muscle while gymming.  

Like in gymming, to create a brand, you need to concentrate equally on each spheres of human experience. Be it the public sphere, where you move from one place or activity to another in the physical and virtual worlds or the social sphere, where you interact with and relate to one another. Be it the tribal sphere, where you affiliate with groups in order to express your identity, or the psychological sphere, where you connect language with specific thoughts and feelings.

So, now don't you feel bodybuilding and branding have lots in common? If you can relate more examples, you are welcome to add to the list. 

The benefits of creating a local brand

Rentury Turmeric Powder - a local brand

Almost like all kirana pasal (general store), the shop is crowded with a melange of daily essentials. At the cash counter plastic pouches of edibles, and sachets of shampoo, hair oil and tobacco almost cover the shopkeeper. As a customer appears at the sales desk, he peeks out, shows his head amidst the dangling strings of sachets and pouches.

I am a regular visitor to the shop and I find nothing new about the hanging sachets and pouches. However, when I saw a lady haggling over a packet of turmeric locally produced and packed in the same locality, my eyes fixed to a string of yellow packets. The shopkeeper tore off a packet and handed it over to the lady.
   
Actually the lady was resisting the shopkeeper's advice of buying a well packaged carton of turmeric powder over a local product. There was a vast difference in the package quality. The one she resisted belonged to a well-established brand Century. She had chosen a lesser-known brand Rentury Turmeric Powder. In fact, it was the copy-cat product of the well-known brand.

When the lady left, I enquired about the sales trend of turmeric powder and in particular the Rentury brand. I also talked with few buyers and it offered me some insights in product branding.

Creating a local product not only contributes to local economy but also creates employment and sense of belonging among locals. The buyers had the feeling that the product was from their own place and they should promote it. The product matches their expectations and is at par with other well-known brands.  The product is generating economic benefits for the locals and is providing impetus to the local economy.    

Besides, I saw minimal packaging. A printed plastic wrapper contains 50 grams of turmeric powder. Meanwhile the nationally renowned brand packs the powder in a plastic packet which is then put inside a paper carton of thick printed paper laminated on the outer surface. Local products generally spend less in packaging which is in a way good for the environment. The carbon footprint is lower in case of a local product.   

Another satisfying logic that the buyers put forward was the freshness and genuine nature of the product. The buyers are always afraid of getting adulterated products. The local products are closer to the production points and less time is spent in transportation. It maximises the chance of retaining the freshness and natural flavour if consumed within the stated duration. As the product evades the chain of processing, the adulteration is controlled.

A crucial factor that controls the purchase behaviour is the price of a product. A local product is generally cheaper than the products that spend a fortune in refining, attractive packaging and transportation. In case of Bhattarai Spice Production and Packing Industry, the owners of Rentury brand, turmeric is sourced from the neighbouring districts, processed, packed and sold in the Surkhet (a district in Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal) and neighbouring districts. Due to the demand, now they have been selling even in the major cities in Nepal.
 
Looking at the benefits of going local, even multi-nationals have jumped into creating local brands. Recently, McDonald's added rice products to its menu for the first time in China, including Chicken Rice Wrap, Beef Rice Wrap, Chicken Rice Bowl and Beef Rice Bowl, to cater to the Chinese customers who can’t move away from the local tastes.

Earlier McDonald’s had introduced McTikki and McAloo to tickle the taste buds of potato loving Indians and a rice burger for Singaporeans. Likewise, KFC sells fish ball soup, spring rolls, several varieties of rice porridge and egg custard tarts including rice sets.

Like the lady who preferred local copy-cat brand Rentury over the well-established brand Century, a local product can beat the Goliaths and create a brand of its own. It just needs to retain its freshness and avoid adulteration. 

What is branding?

Let’s start with the American Marketing Association (AMA) definition. The AMA defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

However, a brand stands for more than that. It’s a set of values, experience, sense of belonging, and much more. Let’s understand it in simple words by simply running through the below video. It presents the basics of branding.



So, did you find anything new? I am sure you will say “it’s the same definition everywhere”. Now, let’s see what these people have to say about brands.

Stephen King of WPP Group, London distinguishes a brand from a product as he says, "A product is something made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by the customer.” “A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique."

Likewise, Marketing Guru Philip Kotler says, “If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.” Advertising Guru David Ogilvy simply puts it as - "Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand."

The creator of Revlon, Charles Revson also agrees with them when he says, “In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope." While Walter Landor of Landor Associates takes it to the next level when he says, “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”

Al Reis and Laura Reis, the authors of 22 Immutable Laws of Branding also connect the brand with consumer’s mind. They say, "A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer."

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon personifies a brand. He says, “A brand for the company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

David Ogilvy adds the human experience to the definition of a brand. According to him, “Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.”

Stuart Agres, the Principal at Adduce Consulting and Owner, Adduce International Corp., links a brand to a set of promises. In his words, "A brand is a set of differentiating promises that link a product to its customers." While Harry Beckwith, the author of Selling the Invisible, draws in the trust factor when he says, “It is not slickness, polish, uniqueness, or cleverness that makes a brand a brand.” “It is truth.”

Talking about brands, consumers and brand loyalty, Edwin Artzt, the former CEO and Chairman of Procter & Gamble, says, “Brand value is very much like an onion.” “It has layers and a core. The core is the user who will stick with you until the very end.”

Brand has been compared with time. In Stephen King’s opinion, “A product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless.” Creators and curators of brands die but a brand lives on, if managed well. In former Diageo Chairman George Bull’s words, “Well-managed brands live on – only bad brand managers die.”

Brand is a complicated story. Its innumerable connotations are never-ending. Scott Bedbury, an American Advertising Executive formerly associated with Nike, Inc. and Starbucks and the author of A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century, says, “A great brand is a story that’s never completely told.”

Choose right brand colours, connect with consumers

There’s something special about brand colours. Colours say it all - WWF’s black and white, Facebook’s blue, Twitter’s light blue, Coca-cola’s red, McDonald’s golden and red, and likewise other colours convey the psyche of a brand (read the article Colour communicates).

Rummaging through the webpages, I found this interesting article by Jason Miller talking about how different colours can help you connect with your consumers.



Read the original article True Colours: What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business.       
 

Overuse brand colour at your own risk

Use brand colours wisely. (c) www.freepixels.com

I was overwhelmed by the red colour during the festive season of Dashain, the most important festival of Hindus. Everywhere there was red – little children wearing red dress, women wearing red saris, family members wearing red tika on their foreheads after receiving blessings from the elders and even the decorations in the marketplace – all were red.

It perfectly matched the adage, “Paint the town red”. Then I landed in this newly opened restaurant. I would not take its full name so that their marketing efforts are not jeopardized by my comments. It was named “The Red…..”.

When I entered, there was red and only red everywhere. The door was painted in red, the sofas, tables, chairs and curtains – everything was red. When the waiter came with the menu, not only its cover was red but even the inside pages were red. To my dismay, even the plate and cup were red in colour.

While eating, it felt as if the red colour will stick to my tongue. You can imagine what others have felt. The restaurant was well designed, located at a prime point in the marketplace, well promoted in the local media, and of course the dishes were delicious. However, I saw, the customer turnout was not so exciting.   

Talking about the use of brand colours, I can’t forget another example where the marketers have overwhelmingly used their colours to brand their product. It’s of NCell, a telecom service provider in Nepal. The marketers have not spared any nook and cranny in the country. They have painted with purple the flower pots, street lamp posts, bus stations, small restaurants, public parks and to my dismay even the national monuments. The roundabout of Kohalpur in the Western Nepal has been smudged with their brand colour. Seeing all purple in the surrounding, I was feeling as if I will puke purple!

I don’t mean that it’s bad to use brand colours and your logos in abundance. It’s what the marketers have done in the past to subconsciously attract the customers and influence their purchase decisions. But there is a limit to everything. Simply painting the surroundings with your brand colours won’t help your brand make its way to your customers’ hearts. Instead, they will be annoyed to see the same colour everywhere.

Use your primary and secondary brand colours wisely. Remember the saying “if you overeat sugar, it will seem bitter after a while”.  
 

Stick to roots, comply with changes, build a brand

There are logos and there are brands. Logos are simply brand elements and sometimes these are so widely recognised that other brand elements like name, character, slogan, packaging, jingles etc. are overshadowed. Many brands have changed with time, changing all elements including their logos. However, many brands have stuck to their origins and haven’t changed a bit from their day of genesis. Taking the mid-path has always been beneficial to brands. The brand should upgrade its elements with the changing time, but must stick to its origins.

Al Ries and Laura Ries in their famous book The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding say that whether the market conditions change, the brands should stick to its consistency in the chapter The Law of Consistency. However, in the next chapter The Law of Change, they advocate that brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully. The same has been followed by the world famous conservation brand WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature. The beautiful panda representing the world conservation organisation has changed with time to revitalise its image in the minds of millions of its followers.

There’s an interesting story attached to the history of WWF logo. When the group of conservationists who found WWF was looking for a logo to represent it, there was a giant panda named Chi Chi at the London Zoo. Naturalist Gerald Watterson drew preliminary sketches in admiration of Chi Chi. Sir Peter Scott then designed the world famous black and white logo of the giant panda which later became the symbol of the conservation movement.

In 1961, the WWF logo just had a giant panda and the panda was not looking straight at you. In 1978, the panda symbol was copyrighted and a © was added to the logo. In 1986, the logo was upgraded with the panda looking straight at the viewer. It helped the brand interact and create relationship with its followers more easily. Remember you interact more easily with a person who faces you from the front and looks into your eyes. Another brand element, the name of WWF in a trademarked serif font was also added. With the popularity of san serif fonts, the name WWF was replaced by WWF in a trademarked san serif font in 2000. The copyright symbol was shifted to the hind legs of the panda to balance the brand elements evenly. The same logo is being used till date with no changes. During its journey from 1961 till date, the brand has stuck to its origins with little tweaks and additions to revitalise its image among its followers. And it has been highly successful in creating the top of the mind recall among its audiences.

Apple is another famous brand which has stuck to its origins. Like WWF, its logo has displaced all other elements and has been the sole brand driver till date. The first Apple logo was designed in 1976 by Ronald Wayne, sometimes referred to as the third co-founder of Apple. The logo shows Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree and an apple dangling above his head. It was dedicated to the historic moment of the falling apple and discovery of the theory of gravity. The phrase on the outside border read, “Newton… A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought … Alone.” The first logo lasted only for a year.

Steve Jobs, the man who looked into details of brand building commissioned graphic designer Rob Janoff to modernise the logo which looked archaic. He was asked to stick to the origins and change just a little bit. Eventually he came with one of the most iconic and recognisable corporate logos in history. Janoff put a “bite” in the Apple logo to represent an apple, and not a tomato. Steve Jobs is rumoured to have insisted on using a colourful logo as a means to “humanise” the company. So Janoff added a rainbow stripe to the apple. Janoff arranged the colours without following any pattern as he wanted to add the green leaf at the top.

The multi-coloured Apple logo was in use for 22 years before Steve Jobs once again commissioned to modernise the logo. The colourful stripes were replaced with a more modern monochromatic look that has taken on a variety of sizes and colours over the past few years. The overall shape of the logo, however, remains unchanged from its original inception 33 years ago.

As the company started to innovate and produce sleek and cutting edge products, it needed a logo providing more flexibility in branding the products. The sleek and suave design of the monochromatic logo added to the brand value of the products.

The brands WWF and Apple stuck to their roots but upgraded their brand elements with the changing market trends. The wide recognition, customer loyalty and top of the mind recall were results of keeping the brand elements intact, with just little bit of tinkering from time to time following the market trends. Not only WWF and Apple but many brands have followed this trick to stay atop in the fierce competition, in the hearts of their loyal customers.

- WWF and Apple logos have been downloaded and adapted.

Brand differentiation – the tea drinking hen way

When I saw a hen pecking at a glass of tea, drinking tea from the glass at a town (Khanikhola) 23 kilometres west from the Kathmandu Valley, I was inspired to write this piece. The hen, at the moment, created a lasting differentiation in my mind. Generally, chickens are meant for either meat or eggs and they don’t have any brands as such (leaving aside the species of chickens). You can broadly categorise them as local or broiler breeds.

In the recent days, the local chickens have lost market to the broiler breeds. However, the local breeds are in much higher demand owing to their superior quality. The tea drinking hen, besides being a brand in much demand added value to its demand (at least for me). It was a differentiated product!

In line with the weird bird habit, have you ever seen a parrot with dandruff? A witty television commercial delves into the psyche of consumers and uses the punchline to denounce the herd mentality. When the owner of a parrot sees the bird dusting off its wings, the word spreads and the parrot becomes an instant hit with visitors from all over the place coming in hordes to have a glimpse of the unique parrot. The commercial runs well, but at the end the real reason is discovered by a curious cameraperson who sees the dust from the peeling interior paint on the ceiling falling on the parrot. The advertisement has been successful in differentiating the said paint from the competitors.

The marketers analysed the weaknesses of the competitive brands (peeling off easily) and developed the same weakness into its strength. They took care of the customer experience gap and packaged the product promising to deliver it.

Now talking about bottled water – you will see a horde of companies bottling water in blue bottles with blue logos except few like Evian which uses pink logo. However, when I saw a green bottle of mineral water with green logo, it was a welcome sight for me. And the brand, Davidson mineral water, also kept its promises by delivering good quality drinking water. The marketers thought of offering something different than the usual run-of-the-mill product. They tried to position themselves differently.

If you travel around 20 kilometres to the east of Kathmandu Valley (the place is called Janagal), you will come across a modest eatery where toast with khuwa (Nepalese local butter) is served instead of the regular toast with butter. An extra plate of potato-pea curry is served along with the toast. The taste is incredible and the brand differentiates itself from the regular eateries serving the regular menu! The eatery owner analysed the customer engagement drivers, and added a competitive input to his product.

Talking about differentiation to create a brand name, I would never forget the exercise taken by Pepsi thereby changing its regular colour to blue. It was a disaster differentiation, at least in the Indian subcontinent. In Nepal, the colour matched the colour of the kerosene and though being good in taste, it seemed you were sipping kerosene out of a regular Pepsi bottle! And, it was outright flop in terms of sale and moneymaking. So, care should be taken while differentiating a brand by keeping in mind the local culture and context.

Now coming back to the basics, you need do three important analyses (as done by the marketers above) before going for differentiation – 1) internal analysis, 2) customer analysis and 3) competitor analysis. Just go for a quick TOWS Analysis. I prefer looking for opportunities and threats ahead prior to jumping into the strengths and weaknesses. The opportunities and threats are external traits and can not be influenced. However, strengths and weaknesses are internal traits and you can work towards converting your weaknesses to strengths.

The next in the line is analysing the customer perception, behaviour and desire to add competitive input to your brand and position your brand differently, keeping in mind the local culture and context.

As Shiv Khera says, “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently” in his book “You Can Win”, your product will win only if you differentiate it from others. And while you are designing the differentiation strategy, just remember the tea drinking hen and it will inspire you all the way!

7 As of branding Jumla apples

Jumla is a far-flung remote district of Nepal with harshness and beauty of nature juxtaposed on the same canvas. While more than 90 per cent of Jumla habitants crave for food after six months’ comfortable consumption, the big, juicy and crunchy organic apples can be bought here at a mere price of NRs. 10 (USD 1 = NRs. 80). The climate is harsh here. There are no all-weather roads to reach Jumla. The only one road that joins Jumla to rest of Nepal is the Karnali Highway which is dusty, bumpy and dangerous, and almost impossible to travel through during the rainy season. In spite of all these challenges, the atmosphere and scenic beauty here is beyond imagination and the journey of Jumla apples from an unknown commodity to a brand in demand is fascinating.

Accessibility
Apples were introduced in Jumla in the 1970s. However, it was only since 2006, when the Surkhet-Jumla road (the Karnali Highway) opened as a seasonal road, the Jumla apples started reaching customers in nearby Surkhet and Neplagunj. Earlier the apples remaining after household consumption were fed to the cattle. Only few people working in Jumla used to take few apples for their families and relatives as gifts. The only way to reach Jumla was the airway and being a remote place, no one was allowed to carry more than 20 Kgs of possession.

The market accessibility snowballed the apple plantations. Since 2008, farmers have been planting more than 100,000 saplings per year. In the years to come, there will be more Jumla apples in the market.

Acceptability
Within a short span of time, the apples from Jumla have created a niche in the Nepali market and the demand for the brand Jumla apples is growing each year. Earlier, the Jumla apples found in the market used to be bruised, unevenly coloured and unevenly shaped. However, the apples were still tasty, crunchy and juicy. As the apples were harvested haphazardly, even by shaking the tree and picking from the ground, the bruises appeared after it reached the market.

After the farmers got training in improved harvesting and post-harvest management, they started grading and packing the apples properly. The apples for the first time saw foam nets, wrappers, and cartons. Traditionally farmers stored apples inside their houses in cool dark rooms. Now some improved zero-energy apple stores have been developed.

In comparison to Chinese and Indian apples, Jumla apples are widely recognised as tasty and crunchy apples in Nepal.

Attestation
Jumla declared itself an organic district in 2007, and in 2009, the District Agricultural Development Office initiated organic certification of apples for three Village Development Committees. Even before announcing Jumla an organic district in 2007, pesticides were only used by the larger famers, an estimated 5 per cent.

The farmers went through various trainings and were inspected by Organic Certification Nepal (OCN) in August 2009 and were certified “Organic in Conversion”. The OCN is a Nepali certification agency which applied the Government of Nepal’s Organic Guidelines for this certification.

The marketing was supported with posters, banners and “certified organic in conversion” stickers for each apple to create demand and trust among consumers. In a similar manner, in 2010 these farmers organised themselves into three cooperatives, and 200 farmers were certified fully “organic’ and another 150 as “organic in conversion”. Slowly the uncertified apples also started benefiting from the increasing awareness among consumers about Jumla being an organic district.

Association
Till 2009, apple producers in Jumla were hardly organised and sold apples independently. Therefore, they did not have much bargaining power for better prices. They also did not have direct contact with major apple wholesalers in urban markets and depended on apple sales to local traders.

In 2009, the three certified farmer groups undertook joint marketing, and in 2010, nine Jumla cooperatives did so under the umbrella of the Jumla District Cooperative Federation. More farmers started being organised as the group certification is cheaper than individual certification. This further helped the marketing and branding of the apples.

Affordability
The Jumla apples are affordable at a price of around Rs. 120 per Kg in the departmental stores and fruit shops in Kathmandu. It has to compete with the Indian and Chinese apples which sell at around Rs. 100 and Rs. 80 respectively. Being organic and tasty, Jumla apples are favourite among the consumers and they do not hesitate to pay a premium price. The resulting price is due to the transportation costs incurred in flying the apples from Jumla to Kathmandu and other cities. However, the price at Jumla just increased to NRs. 30 from earlier NRs. 10.

Availability
The marketers made available the apples at major departmental stores and places in Kathmandu, competing with the Chinese and Indian apples, though in small quantities. Meanwhile the fruit wholesale market, the retail shopkeepers and the cycle vendors helped Jumla apples reach the customers.

In 2008/09, China supplied around 70% apples, followed by India with 29% apples. In 2009/10, China’s market share was around 90%, with only 9% for India. The rest is occupied by domestic production.

Awareness
To aware the people about Jumla apples the traders went for aggressive marketing. The marketers put banners and information stands at the selling points, advertisements were aired from radio stations and stalls were put at the major crossroads.

The farmers from Jumla and the traders gifted the Jumla apples to the President and the Prime Minister which created ripples in the media. The people got curious about the Jumla apples and started buying the apples which looked inferior in front of Chinese and Indian apples. Once they tasted the crunchy and juicy apples, there was no looking back.

Way forward
Besides the 4 As (Acceptability, affordability, availability and awareness) of marketing, I saw the other three As (Accessibility, attestation and association) equally responsible in building the brand Jumla apples. As an avid marketer, I believe the Jumla apple will be able to turn itself into an established brand owing to its superior quality, if it further incorporates another A (Assurance – assuring the consumers that the brand will maintain its acceptability and availability) in its branding journey.

Lessons in branding from a remote village

What will you do when you are overwhelmed by copycats producing your brand? On my recent trip to Eastern Nepal, I was puzzled to see around two dozen shops producing the same brand. Peda – a sweet made from milk is not only delicious but is also offered to Hindu Gods and Goddesses as offering. The pedas from Barmajhiya, a village in Eastern Nepal, have earned reputation not only in Nepal but even in the adjoining districts of India.

Perseverance pays
It all started with an old man’s perseverance to make and sell the sweet. When he started making pedas, there were no other shops making and selling the sweet. He just had a small hut and when nobody was interested in eating pedas, he started selling the pedas to the locals and the passengers travelling from other parts of the country to the Eastern Nepal. The taste of his pedas started making place in the hearts of local people and the word spread to the surrounding villages.

The tipping point
When the passengers travelling from the capital Kathmandu and other major cities started liking the taste of his pedas, the word of mouth advertising did the trick and the brand was talked about throughout Nepal. The pedas were so tasty and marvelous that people soon started flocking to the shop, journalists started writing about him and his pedas, making not only the pedas famous but also making the place Barmajhiya famous.

The amount of milk he used to collect from the local farmers increased by leaps and bounds, his profits soared up, and the area around his shop started developing into a cluster of shops. Seeing the old man’s prospering business, many started considering him as role model while others started looking at him with envy.

The bandwagon effect
Then started the bandwagon effect – other nearby shopkeepers started making pedas and to the chagrin of many, all of them put boards claiming to be the “original old man’s peda shop”. As a result, the passengers travelling through the highway were duped by the “me-too brands”. Still most of the passengers travelling don’t know which one the original shop is.

Differentiating from others
The old man, Baidhyanath Sah’s business, is however, flourishing as usual. To differentiate himself from other shops, he has put his picture on the board – which can’t be copied by other shops. And I say, that is a clear-cut clever move to prove his genuineness.

Quality matters
Not only the size and shape of the old man’s pedas but the taste itself stands out among the other pedas sold by the two dozen copycats. The locals and businessmen in the area know his shop and pedas. The businessmen purchase pedas only from his shop which is further sold across the country. Even near the Patan Durbar Square in the Kathmandu Valley people can purchase the genuine pedas from the old man’s shop.

The old man needs no advertising to refresh his brand. He just keeps sticking to his brand – the quality remains constant – and it does the rest for his business.

O & A of branding

Observing and analysing are the two most important elements of building a brand

I am returning from a restaurant and lounge bar and before I forget the bits and pieces of my conversation with its owner, I must share this piece of knowledge on branding with you all. I now firmly believe on the “connecting dots” concept of Steve Jobs – during his speech at Stanford, he said that all past incidents are connected to each other and they have a certain meaning in your life. I met this wise man during a class of elementary French at Alliance Francaise. I didn’t know at that time that our friendship will lead to enhancing my learning on branding.

Bikram, the CEO of the restaurant and lounge bar, an education consultancy and an import and export business is nowhere in his early thirties. However, his eyes are like that of an old wise owl. He sees a pattern and cause in each of his observation. As one rightfully said that a designer sees a pattern in each nook and cranny, he analyses each and every incident and adapts the lessons learnt from those incidents in his daily life. That’s how he builds his brand.

Lesson 1 – Observe well. Like a designer viewing pattern out of the blue, you will get to know the reason behind any design. Take the case of Bikram – whenever he goes to any restaurant, he observes the milieu, food and service – and if he finds something special, he scripts them in his memory, so that later he can decode the secrets for his own use. He doesn’t even leave the nuances – the colour, light bulbs, cutlery, crockery, seating arrangement, menu, staff behaviour and even the way he is served.

Lesson 2 – Analyse well. If you analyse well, you will find the right reason behind any happening. Take the case of Bikram – whenever he finds a food too good at a restaurant, he has the habit of calling the chef – to say thank you for the good food and hand him some extra tips for tickling his taste buds. In doing so, he befriends the chef and gets to know a little bit of secret of the good cooking. One of his analysis that I would always remember is – you must not make the arms of sofa too wide – the reason being, not to let anybody sit on the arms. That’s a brilliant piece of analysis – if people start sitting on the arms of your sofa in the restaurant, you can imagine how long it will last.

Lesson 3 – Adapt well. If you adapt the good aspects of competitive brands, you will obviously be able to make your brand stand out among the plethora of other brands. Take case of Bikram – he is a superb adapter. Out of his observations and analysis, he has decorated the interiors of his restaurant with warm orange colour. He says, “Orange colour stimulates your appetite.” He has taken care to choose high quality cutlery, crockery, lighting, seating arrangement and well trained staff. Those are the results of the cues he had taken from his observations at the different food joints.

His observing and analysing skills have given an extra edge to his brand. His menu is full of foods that have something special in comparison to the same ones served in other restaurants. He has managed to build a team of highly qualified chefs with tasty hands (who can with the touch of their mere hands turn any food into delicacies). To my surprise some of them are the ones whom he had thanked earlier for the good food. I must describe his adapting expertise a further – he has managed to design tables similar to a restaurant in China, he has managed to summon a sofa maker who used to make sofas for the royals.

After talking about the O&A (observing and analysing) of branding, now I must talk about the human aspects of building brands. It’s crucial to maintain the camaraderie and spirit in your team. Otherwise the brand can crumble down any moment. Now let me take the case of Bikram once again – he has 27 staff and he never forgets to celebrate their birthdays with a blast. Out of 365 days, he keeps aside 27 days to make his staff think that they are the special ones at his restaurant. And this motivates his staff and his brand gets further momentum.

Go nuts, create lasting brands

Never feel shy to tell your crazy ideas. (c)www.morguefile.com

“Branding” has created a special brand inside my heart. The man behind instigating the brandophile (I am not a cigar band collector, but a brand lover) inside me is – I would call “nuts”. He is an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) alumnus. In fact he is a gold medalist at both the top institutions. We call him “GB” and he loves the monicker.

There’s an interesting aura around him. Before he starts a class, he asks, “Does anyone have asthma?” If the answer is “yes” then he goes outside and puffs his famous “India Kings” cigarettes. If the answer is “no” then he apologises first and then starts smoking in the class itself. He smokes none other than India Kings.

When the class gets tough, he takes a break and sips few drops of “Chivas Regal” right from the small shiny aluminium bottle tucked carefully inside his coat. It’s the one and only whisky that he drinks.

He always rides an “autorikshaw” and asks the driver to wait for him till he completes teaching – it could even take more than two hours – till then the driver keeps waiting, and he pays the guy for the waiting.

His way of teaching is totally different from the traditional teachers who go by syllabus and lessons. He deconstructs the boundaries and creates his own interesting lessons via anecdotes and examples which create an everlasting impression in your memory. He is a strong brand himself and I bet most of my classmates and his students remember him – he has created a “top of mind recall” among the hordes of teachers.

Now you may be wondering why I am talking about the past and GB while sharing some branding tips with you all – well, GB is a live example of creating long lasting brands. Some tips to create lasting brands follow the first tip of going nuts (this is the term GB uses when he finds someone creative and crazy).

Think outside the box. To create lasting memories and lasting brands, you need to think outside the box. The top of the mind recall can’t be gained by thinking like what all morons do all the time. To think outside the box, you need to rise above your normal level and think crazy, but with strings attached to normalcy.

I have created many advertisements, but the one that emerged as an “Eureka” when GB asked us to create short commercials within a time span of 15 minutes, is what I always consider one of my best short and sweet advertisements.

It goes like this – my product is a boot polish and I create frames of black and white for the advertisement. First frame – it’s totally dark and black, a firefly whizzes past and in the glow of it’s tail appears an outline of a boot and the word “SHINING” appears in the background. Frame two – again the boot is shown, and a spider is shown crawling up the boot, but like King Robert’s spider, it falls down each time, and the word “SMOOTH” appears in the background. Frame three - black paint is being poured on a white surface from a paint can, an ant emerges out of the paint and walks tiny steps creating black marks as it walks by, and the words “PERFECTLY BLACK” appear in the background. Then in the last frame – “XXXXX Boot Polish” appears in the background.

Isn’t it interesting and outside the box? The advertisement has created a brand of its own in my grey matter. So can your ideas create a lasting brand in the minds of your customers.

Content is the king. You all know, consumer is the king, but I love to say otherwise. If your product is not up to the mark, then advertising and branding don’t make sense. The branding will further deteriorate its brand value. It’s like negative marketing – the word spreads faster when your voice is louder. If the product is good, it’s certain to create ripples in the market and create a known brand in its segment. However, if the product can’t meet the expectations, it will be dumped into oblivion faster than your expectations.

Spread your social tentacles. When I say tentacles, it’s none other than networking. It’s not only the social networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the whole lot of other social networking sites but the brick and mortar chain of associations, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and loyal customers. They are the ones who talk good about your brand, pulling more and more customers into your network. Networking is not only useful but essential in this world of competitiveness. Even the hundred year old companies are vying for respectable spaces and fan following in Facebook and Twitter.

Knowledge is never enough. Keep updating yourself with the new findings and theories in the field. Read, read, accumulate and spread the knowledge – because knowledge is power. Start from classics like “22 Immutable Laws of Branding” by Al Ries and Laura Ries, and I say sky is the limit. Devour all the interesting reads in branding. The ones I would recommend are “No Logo” by Naomi Klein and “Unleashing the Ideavirus” by Seth Godin. Browse the internet and choose the best ones, book reviews will help you sort out the best ones.

Revitalise the brand. Nothing is perpetual. You need to keep on adding fuel to keep the engine going. So is the branding. You need to keep on revitalising your brand periodically. If you observe the major brands, you will see that they have changed their brand identities over a period of time to keep up with the pace of growing competitiveness and keep them fresh in the minds of customers.

Wrapping up, you must come up with something intriguing, genuine, and unique to catch the customer’s attention. For this as GB says and I say, you must go nuts – the ideas will start unleashing and flourishing.

Interactive branding

Move beyond the traditional advertising – the terms below the line (BTL) and above the line (ATL) advertising are passé. Advertisers are coming up with new ideas incorporating latest techniques to provide the leading edge to their clients.

Nicely decorated kiosks, larger than life billboard with products oozing out of the frame, live models posing in the latest launched apparels, sensory testing at the trade fairs, painting the town with the colours of the newly launched brand – all of these ideas seemed creative and sometimes crazy. When I once saw a huge billboard with a real Enticer (a brand of Yamaha motorcycles) attached to it, I thought the advertising guys are going nuts. Then I noticed some live models in lingerie inside showcases in Europe and thought well the brands are getting livelier, with a human touch!

When the brand “Hutch” owned by the cellular service provider Hutchison Essar was launched in Delhi, the whole of the city was filled with the hoardings and banners with the message “Hi” for many days and people were left wondering what the hell is being launched. When the variants of boards were replaced with “Hutch”, the brand registered in the minds of Delhites strongly and within a short time, the brand gained the numero uno status in Delhi.

Now shifting towards the social advertising, who can forget the lissome models posing for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)? The stunts done by the PR and advertising agencies are now getting more and more creative and outrageous these days.

Let’s take the case of young achiever Anup Tapadia from India who owns the creative firm TouchMagix (www.touchmagix.com). His idea is just fantastic – with products like Magix Floor, Magix Wall, Touch Table, Touch Window to name a few, he has added another dimension in advertising and brand building. With the three keywords, interact, engage and communicate, Touchmagix allows the consumers to engage in a whole new experience interacting with the brand. It offers variety of interactive display solutions that attract the audience to experience interactive content in the most memorable way. Unlike other available technologies today, TouchMagix combines an advanced optical hardware sensor, MagixSense together with sophisticated movement recognition software that interprets the user interaction into high resolution events on the display. The interactive floor projection converts any floor into an interactive projected surface which gives the consumers the chance to touch and feel the brand.

Now move beyond this. It’s the turn of 3D holograms. Provision Interactive Technologies has announced that it has enhanced the capability of its 3D holographic display platform to be fully interactive with Mobile Mouse, an Apple iPhone application (www.marketingvox.com).

Grocery store shoppers, now will be able to interact with a floating 3D hologram via an enabled Provision 3D display that consumers access though their devices. When they click on the image they can get more information about the product or see it from another view or even receive a coupon. The app uses the built in accelerometer to translate a person's hand motions into mouse movements on the 3D hologram.

A Canadian firm, RabbitHoles Media, specialising in 3D holographic posters, embeds up to eight seconds of 3D video footage into a poster – an image which can be viewed in 3D without special glasses.

Marketing agency Grain&Pixel designed a life size book on Christian Dior which could be flipped pagewise by the wave of hands. It used the interactive, gesture-controlled hologram technology called AirStrike that was developed by LM3 Labs.

High five branding

Creating strong brands catering to all the senses


Starting on a cheery note – let me start with an anecdote. During my college days, I was bunched in hostel together with like-minded friends and we ended up having frequent drinking sessions in the name of ideating. Once we had just started pouring drinks and as we were to raise the toast, one of my seniors asked, “Do you know why we tinkle the glasses before starting to drink?”

“Well, obviously to say cheers and wish good health to all,” was my immediate reply.

To this he said, “No my friend, you are wrong and not only you, a whole lot of people think so.” “While drinking, not all five senses are engaged – the skin touches the glass, the nose gets to smell the aroma, the tongue tastes the flavour, the eyes get to see the colour of the drink, but the ears have no job to do – so people came up with the idea of saying cheers and tinkling the glasses so that all five senses are engaged and we get the maximum satisfaction from the experience.”

His point of view was an oral history that he had heard somewhere and we all appreciated it. However, the marketers are well aware of this phenomenon and have introduced the involvement of five senses in their marketing pursuits.

I remember a friend of mine from India who often says, “Baingan ko dabake dekhna” meaning you need to press a brinjal before buying. In the past, the marketers well-captured the “touch”, “see” and “feel” aspects of the products in their marketing plans in the past through consistent packaging, colours and ambience respectively.

Consistency and coherence alone is not enough to create the “top of the mind” recall among customers. So the marketers are experimenting with the rest two remaining senses – hearing and smelling – turning the whole exercise into sensory branding.

These days if you visit the leading eateries, you will notice that they follow a certain theme to spread the design throughout the room and create a coherent ambience. However, that alone doesn’t sell. It’s a first time curiosity factor which attracts the customers for the first time. To retain the customers and make them visit again you need to create consistency in the delicacies, aroma and music around the room. A soothing music and fresh fragrance not only refreshes the customers but if the experience is consistent all the time along with the good service, then you are bound to create a horde of loyal customers.

Well, the sensory branding can not only be created in case of eateries alone but for a whole gamut of products that are being produced to cater the customer needs. The only thing that you need to consider is aim for five and not just three senses!

Read the article Sensory branding - tickling all five senses

Human bonds make your brand stronger

How people branding can help create stronger brands


Does human bonding strengthen the brand? The answer is – yes. The brand loyalty develops among the employers if they bond well together and the brand loyalty capitalises into brand equity.

Spending on your people can lead to building better and stronger brands. In the recent years, organisations have recognised the power of people branding and have come up with everyday solutions to make their brands stronger.

The first one is, of course, team outings. Once in a while the teams should be encouraged to get together outside office environs and feel that besides working together at office, they are good buddies as well. This strengthens bonding, creates better teams, increases outputs, effectiveness, efficiency, and eventually helps build the brand. Trust among team mates is crucial for successfully achieving a common goal.

Imagine how you feel when you are invited to a bar by your immediate boss and s/he behaves like your closest friend. It encourages you further to put forward your creative inputs during discussions. You come out of the fear factor that haunts you all the time when you want to assert your ideas forward or disagree with your seniors.

The team building exercises also build stronger bonds leading to strong brand building. You never know who is good at what. Someone who might be too slow in grasping might turn out to be an idea champ. The team building exercises bring out the unseen qualities inside a person. Identifying and recognising talents is another crucial step towards building better teams.

Hiking the whole day in the weekend, sharing each others’ experiences in the way, competing with each other in terms of stamina, in terms of creativity in the photos you click on the way, sharing lunch, coffee, tea together creates a camaraderie which shows up in the group performance. Especially, if certain hikes are turned into a corporate social responsibility (CSR) stunt like distributing notebooks and pens to a remote school, teaching students about the environment, it generates sense of responsibility among the group.

It is high time organisations work towards bringing cohesion among the informal groups within the organisation. It is proven fact that the informal groups help nurture organisational politics that eventually hinders the growth of the organisation. Social events like “Happy Hour” once a month help bring together the whole organisation.

Every Fridays can be turned into a learning cum idea sharing platform. Well known think tanks can be invited to the organisation to interact with the staff. It not only infuses enthusiasm among staff, but also provides them ample opportunity to speak up their mind and put forward their opinions that might be worth a hundred dollar idea.

Bonding together motivates the staff to work effectively and efficiently. Organisations should seek to turn the workplace into a playground where camaraderie and ideas flourish together. It turns the workplace into a magic wand - waving it, the teams can create miracles anytime at the drop of a hat.

Make your brand more visible

What are the cheapest ways to step up your brand recognition? This is the most asked and nerve-wracking question to the brand managers and corporate communication specialists. And the frequent reply is – “Rome was not built in a day, it takes time to get your brand recognised”.

However, apart from your brand manager or corporate communications specialist, you too can help raise your brand recall everyday. There are simple solutions that can be implemented without expending an extra penny from the office coffers.

Let’s start from the workplace. Displaying a visible and large size board in the office premises gives the passers-by a chance to glance and a point to ponder over the brand. If the office is located in a busy street, then of course, daily hundreds of people get to see the brand and out of those hundreds, some will have the brand in the subconscious corner of their minds. Their brains will recall and reiterate the brand if they happen to see it somewhere else. Just have a look at the corporate offices of some of the big brands.

Now let’s get the brand moving. By moving I mean to say put the brand sticker with some catchy slogans on the back of your vehicles. At least some hundreds of followers on the busy road will get to see the brand daily while you are driving to or from work. Especially, at traffic lights and jam, the followers will notice the brand.

There’s another amplification factor to make this more effective. If the office has a pick and drop facility – then the whole bus or car can be painted with the brand. Or a huge, easily visible sticker can be stuck to the vehicle. This will not only make the brand more visible but give a dynamic touch to the brand – more people will get to see the brand everyday. You can imagine how much the DHL vehicle running across the city advertises its company.

If you can spare a day for your office and environment, there’s another cheapest mean to spread your brand visibility. Wear the office tee shirt and cycle to your office every Friday. This will obviously get your brand noted on the streets. And you will feel proud to go green at least once a week.

Word of mouth branding leads to tipping point results. Talk about your brand while talking with your friends during get together and parties. If they find it interesting, they will again talk to more of their friends and it will in fact bring the chain effect to spread the message. Haven’t you been tempted when one of your friends recommends a particular eatery to you? So effective is the word of mouth branding.

The buzzword social marketing can prove profitable in your organisation’s case. Partner with a media house to occasionally place the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages in the media. The intermittent messages in the media keep people interested and curious towards your brand. Haven’t you seen the WWF messages to save the endangered species? It reinvigorates the brand everyday.

Celebrate some important days which matches with your organisational values. This will again rejuvenate your brand once or twice a year. Have you not heard about the “Walkathon” organised by Standard Chartered Bank? It obviously gets you noticed – on the streets and in the minds of probable clients.

Corporate gifts, especially calendars and desk souvenirs which have a long shelf-life give your brand that extra space in somebody else’s office. Not only the holder but the visitors to the office of the holder get to see your brand and appreciate it (if it’s really good). Everybody will look at the calendar if it’s from Pirelli!

Appoint an ambassador. Of course s/he should be a public figure. It will not only connect your brand with the admirers of the public persona but will also highlight your organisation’s cause. Just ponder why UN appoints goodwill ambassadors every year.