The Keys to Brand Success

2012 has been a year of success for several brands making an entry for few brands in the Top 20 Global Brands.

Looking at several runaway stories of the top 20 global brands, today we will discuss on what are the key elements which have brought these brands to such heights.

Any brand’s success depends on several key elements. The top 3 elements according to my experience which need to be considered for making any brand a success are confidence, competence and customers.

No brand is build over night, but through careful management of even the most granular details of the customer experience. Apple is one example who has efficiently and strategically used the above mentioned elements and today holds the position of the top global brand with a brand value of US$m 70,605 for the past financial year.

Amongst the mentioned 3 elements Customer is one of the most important one for which all the brands fight for to have the maximum market share and brand awareness.  Apple is the brand that puts innovation into the hands of the consumer and as a result consumers have a love affair with the brand. At the same time when Toyota heard the shocking news that thousands of its cars were being recalled due to reports that several vehicles experience unintended acceleration and pedal entrapment. Toyota’s response to this reputational damage was excellent and should be used by any global brand that unfortunately finds itself in a similar situation. The brand responded with complete openness and communication with their customers and the media. Toyota engaged with customers through print, TV, video, social media and blogs. The brand provided large quantities of information through these mediums. Once the media coverage began to die down Toyota responded with an advertising campaign and a new strap line to reinforce quality and trust, ‘Your Toyota is My Toyota’. This ability to adapt along with the brands historic reputation for quality and trust is what makes Toyota one of the world’s most valuable brands.

As we are talking about the customers, how can we ignore our company’s internal customers i.e. the employees! The growth of any brand largely depends on the employees who work for them, their motivation level, their loyalty towards the brand etc. Procter & Gambler in the early 1887 introduced the first share scheme for employees because they reasoned if the employees were shareholders they would not go on strike, which proved to be the case and this has resulted in the growth of the company by an astounding amount of US$82.6 billion. The company has grown both organically and by acquisition in the last 175 years.

So you must be thinking after reading this post is that why are we talking so much about customers, it is because all of us know that they are the important element for our brands success but we often tend to ignore this important element while designing our products as well as our communication campaigns.