Keep Your Brand Name Pure

I love assessing the various marketing tactics of companies. I see and pick apart the workings of the campaign. Needless to say, I stumble across some peculiar strategies that defy common sense. For instance, once I was exploring an aisle of a sporting goods shop when I noticed, in the kayaking corner, a sight that I will never forget�

It was� a Bic� kayak. There it was� big as daylight� the Bic� logo� you know the one, the small ball headed man holding a pen� proudly displayed right on top of the boat.

I later found out that Bic� Sport was established around 1979 as a surf board company striving to create a low cost brand. By 1997 they had produced 1 million boards. I didn't know that many people surfed.

Bic� Sport has a great website that is dedicated wholly to equipment for water sports. Apparently the brand means "economic quality." How many of us thought that Bic� meant "low-cost pens"?

Nearly all reports of large corporations on the topic of brand reveal that your brand is most successful when it represents a solitary meaning. I believe that statement and have verified this principle in my own businesses. Nevertheless we ought to be aware of some basic myths concerning branding and use science as a guide to help us stay on the right path.

Myth number one. Your brand must correspond to one single product. No, the meaning of your brand should be focused in its meaning, yet big enough to be put on many products. For instance, if Tide� meant, "It removes dirt when nothing else can." Then some of your products could include Tide� vacuums and cleaning equipment/chemicals. Tide� is an exceptionally successful of laundry detergent. They've kept the brand name pure and focused on cleaning clothes. Companies like Proctor and Gamble and Johnson and Johnson release a number of single product brands, which is a method I prefer.

Myth number two. The whole world understands what your brand means. Actually, the markets of the world are extremely fragmented. Every niche is a community within itself with personalized publications, opinion leaders, and trade associations. Because our lives are exceedingly high paced and we have so little time, individuals have become really choosy as to what they pay attention to. In most cases, one community knows very little about another community. Contrast the rodeo cowboy community versus the soccer player community. What does this mean?� a solitary brand may possess several different meanings in different communities.

I would not recommend distorting the meaning of your brand. I promote the alternative of having your brand have an extremely focused meaning that can encompass a large range of products.

NOTE: Use of this article requires links to be intact.

Rod Alan Richardson has dedicated his life to teaching people to succeed in free enterprise through Leadership Training. Mr. Richardson believes he can change the world by putting people on the path to Transcend Money.