| 10 Rules for Brand Marketing .....
David Biernbaum, Senior Marketing/Sales VP and Consultant, The Consumer Packaged Goods Industry.
1. The brand must function as a brand that sustains the company's or store's image. Store brands should be viewed as far more than margin boosters, and should serve as reinstatement of the store identification itself. It's important to note that true value-oriented brands build customer loyalty far beyond economic downturns or recoveries. The quality of the merchandise itself should be communicated effectively, not understated, nor overstated!
2. Top management must be totally committed to support the brand 's strategy. Private label branding should not be a function of individual buyers within a category that are autonomous from each other. Top management should team up with marketing skilled people, inside and outside of the retailer infrastructure. Branding needs to be broader than any individual item or single-category within the store.
3. Create your store brand cohesively. Its not usually a good practice to blatantly imitate other brands, at least not if your purpose is to build brand equity in your own store brand or company name. Don't create category stand-alone's that ignore the need to achieve cohesive brand franchise.
4. Define the company's or store's point of difference. Retailers need to know and understand their target consumers and store brands should reflect the store-branding philosophy, and also the image of the store, itself.
5. Be unique to generate curiosity. Invest in innovation to keep on the leading edge and continue to build brand equity. Refrain from "look-alike" marketing. Doing so will only breed confusion and fail to build brand equity. You need to build consumer confidence of "equal or better."
6. Design and implement the brand packages constantly. Always be aware of quality-perception across an array of products and packages. Analyze each category probing how best to present the products to the consumer, and avoid the rubber-stamp approach. You want an overall consistent look that consolidates store brand imaging. The consumer visualizes the product though packages, shapes, colors, symbols, words, and then forms an opinion about value and performance. Every detail in your marketing, merchandising and planning needs to be thought out carefully and purposely.
7. Position the brand to function effectively in each product category. Most effective are your niche designs. Retain your stylistic relationship to the overall private brand program.
8. Reflect the price and quality and value strategy of the store. Resist the temptation to make packages as tempting as possible. That mistake will always backfire. Glamorizing to the extreme will cost you consumer-credibility. Your products should not look cheap or inferior, but they should also not try to oversell. They must fulfil the right promise or they will not be purchased again.
9. Renew excitement with each new product line. New products deserve attention and fanfare. Retailers own the shelves and the ability to crate and stimulate interest in their own brands. Use media advertising, packaging, ads, promotions, shelf displays, points of purchase, displays, and signs to create the right attention to your new products within in your brand.
10. Monitor your brands constantly. Monitor packages that represent the store brand and use data to analyze consumer shopping habits and performance. Never become complacent. You should look at making modifications and changes about once every 18 months or so. Keep it fresh.
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