Rachael Ray
Rachael Ray - she’s everywhere! Whether it’s a bookstore, supermarket, or kitchen retailer, she’s smiling at you from every corner. Her self-deprecating wit, appeal and hyper-energetic approach combine to make her a celebrity powerhouse. However, she did not get her celebrity status from a Hollywood plot, she earned it the old-fashioned way. Rachael was born in Cape Cod and grew up in the Adirondacks, working from the very start.
After failing to create food that sold well, she almost gave up, but her 30-minute cooking classes persuaded local chefs to try them and she appeared at the TV station herself. The show was well-composed. They served a huge party. play theme music,” on camera.
She has become a become a chef that other people look up to and model—she has cookbooks that have millions published, and The Rachael Ray Show, coproduced by mentor Winfrey, has become a daytime hit. She’s everywhere— providing for astronauts, and influencing corporate America to send many employees to cooking seminars in order to improve their management and interpersonal skills. As the New York Times reports, the cooking class approach to corporate team building has caught on. She isn’t afraid to be real, and she loves having a fun favorite word. Here are a few recommendations for things to share from her magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray: “Smiles with people passing on the street, time with someone who might be lonely, good thoughts with people you love, a great joke, your 300-plus thread count sheets.” She works very hard, writing all her own recipes. Typical days start very early in the morning as she deals with endless interviews, photo shoots, and meetings. “I feel like an ox at the end of the day. I like working hard.” It’s easy to see why people connect with Rachael’s personal warmth, sincerity, and never-ending energy. One thing that most successful celebrities have in common is that they love what they do, and they work hard. However, even working hard does not guarantee a successful brand. The key to building a genuine celebrity brand is to follow an authentic path such as this one.
Kathryn and Craig
Many successful individuals have become involved in the wine business, but for Kathryn and Craig it is much more than another hobby: it’s a real passion. Beginning with Sacrashe Vineyard in the Rutherford appellation of Napa Valley, they now own and manage over 3,300 acres with 500 acres being planted in vineyards. Their new Frank Gehry designed visitors’ center for wine tasting, hospitality, and retail sales will serve as a focal point for creating a one-of-a-kind experience that “celebrates life.” Craig and Kathryn Hall are collectors of contemporary art and greatly admire the work of Frank Gehry, believing it is art.
His sculptural approach to sculpture is best seen in his most famous work, the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, as well as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. While they certainly are focused on growing and making fine wines, as Kathryn says, “We are in the wine business to inspire the senses and celebrate life.” Everything they do is about creating an experience for others that fulfill that promise. Hopefully, it’s obvious by now that before a genuine celebrity brand can be developed, a very personal question must be answered: What’s your promise?
Craig and Kathryn Hall would easily qualify as famous personal brands. Craig is a true self-made entrepreneur who started in business at the young age of 10 to become the author of five books and the founder of a multibillion dollar investment firm. And he received the Horatio Alger Award. Kathryn Hall was a successful corporate lawyer who acquired her interest in the wine business from her father, and she was the U.S. ambassador to Austria from 1999 to 2001. Together they are developing their winery into a genuine brand that is destined to become a wine country landmark.
PART 2: LAUNCHING YOUR BRAND
Now that you are clear on who you are and your message that you want to shake the world with, we need to get into action and actually launch your brand! This section is all about how to launch your brand and get fast results!
It is so important to establish your brand and take action. You need to get this part right since this is your one shot opportunity to make it or break it.
When there are unwritten rules in launching a brand, going back to the basics is the smartest move to make. We can start by learning the fundamental the marketing principles of branding, and adapting it to work for your own particular product and niche. Let’s start with the basics of naming a brand. What’s in a name? Choosing a brand name is one of the most crucial factors that determine the success of a product. It can either help the product enhance its image among the target consumers, and eventually build a strong recall among them. On the Internet, however, the most popular brands have some of the most surprising names. For example: Yahoo!, one of the first search engines on the Internet, and Alibaba.com which is the most popular B2B (business to business site), are some good examples.
If you’re confused about what your overall brand name would be, then you should probably just put down this book… YOUR NAME! The brand is you. The main brand name should be your full name and then you can develop further branded products and services under the main umbrella brand.
The fact is that it is from people that consumers buy from. For instance, a few years back there was one vendor I had the privilege of working with named Trent. He was a great guy and whenever we communicated for business there was a level of friendship, as well. Five years later? I can still tell you his name was Trent but not the company he worked for. Do you see my point? This is why it is best to use your own name as a brand.
Also, when you use your name for your brand, it makes it more than just a name and feels quite powerful. It is so much more than a label and gives you the feeling of creative freedom to create exactly the name you want. Rather than just a brand, there are no pre-existing near relatives in terms of style or design, so to speak. You will work to create great products when your name is on the label. It is both an expression of yourself and a reminder that you are indeed an achiever.
Check to see if your name brand is related to current trends and determine if this boxes you in. If you feel it does, then you might want to alter your style. Does the brand you have in mind already have a trademark? Also check to see if there are websites that already have your name. Do extensive research to see if there are similar names to yours and what products these are. Remember, it is a bad idea to rush the process. Stick to your timeline and ensure that you are hitting the target dates without having to urgently rush to maximize clear thinking. Does your brand name speak to your target market? If it does not then it should.
Now would also be a good time to begin developing a logo that is, yes, you got it—your name!
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS
You’ve heard the saying: “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” When telling stories online, pictures and photographs are incredibly powerful tools. A huge reason for Facebook’s explosive growth over the past five years is their addictive Photo product as people naturally love to view and share photos that have been “tagged” to include themselves and their friends.
It is important for your branding that you ensure that you get professional photos taken that encapsulate you, who you are, your vibe and the image that you want to project out to the world.
PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE
Building brands online or building brands on the Internet has its many benefits. It costs a fraction of what companies usually spend on traditional media, like TV and radio. You also have a global reach through the Internet. This makes the playing field even for all companies, whether big or small. You can also measure the results of your efforts online easily and accurately by getting the statistics on how many people have simply logged on to your site. How long did they stay on your website? What are their reviews or testimonials about your products and services? These are usually the questions which can be easily gathered online from your clients and potential clients. The biggest advantage of building brands online is that it allows marketers to implement brand building at lightning speeds. It is very fast to implement, measure, and revis
e compared to traditional methods.
E-Marketing means you choose how you want to receive information with e-mail newsletters. You pick out which subscribe mode in which your Web and product should be marketed. This can be either in the classic mode or in the modern one. It is a matter of how brand builders and marketers will think of ways on making the virtual world of the Internet a customizable medium for their brand. For example, checking in a flight online conveniently, and paying bills online through the auto debit for your bank or paying your bills in that facility of your bank ATM are so convenient. These are the conveniences which will help you build your brand. Innovation plays a key role in this, obviously. By slowly adapting to the needs and wants of your customer and placing it to the internet, this will automatically build your brand to the next level. It is a matter of establishing who you are, conveniently, efficiently, and convincingly. Firms nowadays have realized that, with consistency, brand identity can be foolproof. The era of similarity marketing has come and the influx of “me-too” products is forming along queue in the market today. The challenge is becoming stiffer and stiffer. Loyalty among consumers is diminishing due to this fact.
Implementing differentiation strategies for products and services is being done by most brands today to create their own unique identity within its product category. Similar products do this by having a different approach in their advertising, product usage, and consumer promise. Aware of this problem, wise companies now see the need of making their brands speak directly to their target consumers by becoming free agents of the company. They have perceived the need for brands to have their own identity. According to David Aaker, in his book Building Strong Brands 1996, brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Identity, again, does not refer to the mere brand name of the product. It seems to spring from a single source, transmitted in terms of symbol and messages.
Market the products themselves with consistency. It is being as you are and following your own stable but individual plan that will get you far. Find out the real essence of the brand identity of a particular product and ask yourself:
What is its individuality?
What are its long-term goals and ambitions?
What is its consistency?
What are its values?
What are its basic truths?
What are its recognition signs?
These questions define what the brand is all about. It provides a basic framework that, when maximized and used faithfully in executing publicities and campaigns through the various communication channels/media, can help build up a strong, powerful brand in the long run. Here is the brand identity hexagon:
First, a brand has a physique, which is a mixture of independent characteristics that may either be prominent or dormant. Physique is the brand itself, it is the products of brand support. It derives its features from certain key elements or prominent features of the brand. Second, a brand has personality. It acquires a character. Third, the brand has its own culture from which every product thrives. Culture refers to the system of values, the source of inspiration and brand rendering of the brand. Many companies have neglected this and in short, have just concentrated on mere personality. It is only in recent years that this facet has been maximized in advertising campaigns, again to enhance the identity of the brand. Fourth, a brand is a relationship. It provides opportunity for intangible exchange between persons, especially in the service sector. Fifth, a brand reflects a customer’s choices. It paints the person or personality of the consumer who will be utilizing the product. Lastly, the brand identity is the customer’s self-image. If reflection is the target’s outward mirror, self-image is the target’s own internal mirror. Our position toward a certain brand allows us to develop a certain type of inner relationship with ourselves. Summarizing these facets of a brand identity, the identity prism drives us to one essential point about a brand: A brand has a voice. It is a “three dimensional entity” that can be maximized to enhance the credibility of a certain product or can even be sold by itself alone to the target buyers.
A Brand Value Proposition is the blueprint by in which businesses create companies that define what a brand stands for and brand strategies. It is an enduring set of strategies and how it intends to win against its competitors. There are several advantages to a long-term brand value proposition. It permits companies to identify and develop strategies to own benefits on which category decisions are made. It creates a relevant and differentiated positioning based on an understanding of the overall category and the needs and interests of important segments. It creates organizational alignment because it is shared and understood by everyone within the company. It forces a disciplined approach in prioritizing allocation of resources. It drives messaging architecture, enabling communications to be structured and scripted to deliver a competitively advantaged belief system.
Branding nowadays is one of the most important things a company should take note of. Its strategies should be well planned. Its brand value should always be protected because it will set the product apart from the rest. While brand identity is what a company works on to create a unique impression the consumers, the brand image is how the communication recipient per an entity is presented. It is how the public decodes the signals emitted by the brand through its products, services, and communication program. If the consumers interpret an image far off from what the brand wants to project, then there is work to be done. Of course, it is not purely what the company projects that penetrates the minds of the public. Extraneous factors are also playing a key role in either mold or damaging the image of a brand positioning. Again, brand positioning refers to the difference of a brand or product in mind. Belongingness reminds you that a brand or a product is nothing unless positioned in people’s minds versus the competition.
BRAND POSITIONING
Knowing the right positioning for a brand in the public’s mind is a very effective way of building that omni-powerful brand in the market. However, positioning a brand in the people’s mind entails the use of media, and with the entrance of various media in our society today, communicating information to people, ironically, has become more and more difficult. Influencing their minds, too, has been a greater challenge to people from any walk of life. All of these are due to the simple reason that certain things nowadays are over-communicated; hence, the mind is not able to cope. Furthermore, in the over-communicated environment, people also tend to be more selective in accepting information. So another challenge for the marketing and advertising people is to capture or penetrate the three rings of defence of a person, namely:
The selective exposure;
The selective attention; and
The selective retention.
GOING GLOBAL
The important questions to ask when deciding whether to go online or global is whether it is desirable and is it feasible? The questions to ask whether to go global or not are:
Are you able to ship internationally without spending too much on cost? The differences in culture is another factor since each country has its own way of doing or making things. These include the differences in attitudes and the availability of media and exposure rates. The local marketing environment can also affect global brands since its name may be already used by many different companies. A number of products around the world have decided to go global in every sense of the word, but can all of them really be considered global brands? Why are Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Marlboro, just to name a few, considered global brands? The answer is that they offer consumers across the globe a consistent (i.e., standardized) proposition and the same product formulation (Hankinson and Cowking, 1996). This is so because of the consistency of their brand propositions and product formulations across the world, which makes them global brands. It is this consistency that gives them the same reputation and personality, which esta
blishes the same relationship with the local consumers everywhere. In reality, there are only a few global brands since other brands which are available globally would try to vary their proposition according to their market. Nescafé, for example, has decided to individualize their products to meet the needs of their consumers. A brand will only be recognized as a global brand if there is a single or standardized brand proposition and a standardized product formulation worldwide. The emergence of global brands has become more popular over the years due to improvements in communications. The growth of the all travel has given rise to the growth of demographically similar consumer international across the globe. Popular culture has a remarkable influence on fast food, segments, music, fashion, and politics
Companies today are shifting from the traditional brick-and-mortar stores to the brick-and-click stores. Selling online is growing at an unprecedented rate. This is the main challenge of going global, to grab a share in Internet sales, where profit margins are higher. In establishing the global identity of a brand, it must seek the help of various communications media. In the age of globalization advertising, more than any other promotional activity is about the creation and reinforcement of the brand proposition. Indeed, Ogilvy is quoted as saying that: “Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the brand proposition” (Hankinson and Cowking, the communications mix 1996). Advertising, of all the elements, has perhaps responded fastest to the globalization of the marketing function, no doubt driven by the vast economies of the world which may be gained by standardizing messages and creative executions.
Be Your Brand Page 7
