Creating and reinforcing brand value through strategic communication

Branding is a critical source of competitive advantage for firms. It is one of the only sources of sustainable competitive advantage, because your competitors can never duplicate your brand. This paper will explore the value of branding, to highlight the ways that a company can create, reinforce and leverage its brand to enhance corporate value.

Nature of Branding

A brand is a significant source of differentiation between products, and in many cases it is the primary source of differentiation. The brand is the name and marque of the product or company, and the value of a brand lies in its ability to communicate in shorthand a set of attributes to the audience (Wood, 2000). The more strongly the attributes are associated with the brand, the more effective the brand is.

Companies create their brands in order to convince consumers that these attributes are valid. Sometimes the attributes are related to the product, and other times they are not, but they are the attributes that the company wants to associate with the brand. The ultimate objective is to create widespread recognition of the brand among consumers, and immediate recall and agreement that the brand does represent the desired attributes. If the consumer shows interest in acquiring goods or services of that brand because of favorable views of those attributes, all the better.

Reinforcement Strategies

The most used brand reinforcement strategy is repetition. The message is repeated in all media, both advertising and in public relations communications, and through these repetitions an association is created between the brand and the attributes (de Chernatony, 2010). If the company wants to amplify the reinforcement, it can do so with added advertising expenditure -- some companies advertise extensively even though they are household names, just to reinforce the messages that they have built up over the years.

A key factor in brand reinforcement is that the brand message needs to be consistent over time, because inconsistency will reduce the degree to which the consumer associates the brand with certain attributes. It is also worth considering that the brand can be marketed to different audiences. To do so will allow for an expansion of the audience of the message. If the message becomes embedded in society, then people will spread that message on their own, so that a brand can become known and associated with specific attributes even without the need for advertising.

It is also important that the company defends against threats to the brand equity. For example, if a competitor uses branding or even attributes that are similar to yours, it might create confusion in the marketplace. So it is important to defend the brand position that you have established. While this is not reinforcement per se, this tactic does defend against brand erosion, allowing the company to continue strengthening the brand. I

Building a Brand

Building a brand should follow roughly the same formula as strengthening a brand -- consistency and repetition are key -- but with one key difference. When building a brand, it is important to understand that the audience needs to learn about the attributes and associations. With an established brand, communication shortcuts can be taken because you are explaining less to the audience as they already know what you are saying. But with a new brand, the message needs to be made more clearly, as the audience will need to learn about the attributes in the first place.

Thus, building a brand requires times, money, repetition and consistency, but it also requires a more direct approach with respect to learning. The communication style will rely less on specific triggers to rejuvenate associations and more on establishing those associations -- use fewer allusions and take a more direct tone in order to have a more effective engagement with the audience.

The messaging will also need to be more frequent, because it takes more repetitions to build a brand than it does to reinforce it. It will also take more time, as time is required for learning among the audience. Thus, more repetition over a longer period of time, with more direct language, will help to build a brand. Of course, it also helps if the product/service delivers on the brand promise, but quality control is another matter altogether.