Creating brands: From tangible to intangible

BRAND! BRAND!! BRAND!!!

Undoubtedly, this was the most used word in past one year at the uni. No class, no discussion, no lecture was completed without the mention of this word in some context or the other. Neither could one expect to remain aloof of this word while studying marketing. So what did I learn about brands in this past one year?

One of the most unique thing that I have been intrigued about brands is their intangibility. For starters, intangibility may not even sound synonymous with brand as a brand is often restricted to its name, logo, symbol or a jingle, the tangible features. But is that all about brands? Are these features enough to make a consumer remember, recognize and differentiate a brand from others?

In its most simplest explanation, a brand is defined as an ‘intangible’ asset that must be carefully managed by a company in order to gain the benefit of strong customer relationship. But, it is not unusual to come across companies which consider the tangible features of a brand to be the only face of the brand. With the multitude of competitors out there and a whole lot of creative agencies who can create the most attractive logo, symbol and taglines in the world for these competitors, it is difficult to survive relying only on these tangible aspects. A brand should essentially rise above the functional and tangible features and include some intangible features. Intangible features like trust, peace of mind, pride, security and sentiment are key asset of a brand that allows it to last longer and achieve competitive differentiation and gaining customer loyalty.

But, how to build a brand around intangibles?

To build a brand around intangibles, a branding campaign should be designed in a way that it personifies the brand. One of the most recent campaign I remember is the #CoolestInterviewEver campaign by HCL Tech, an Indian IT giant. It is the first of its kind recruitment drive conducted via Twitter (Read here: Why Twitter?). But more than fulfilling its objective to recruit someone via twitter, this campaign helped in creating a ‘cool’ and ‘transparent’ brand for HCL Tech. as against the usual ‘uncool’ or ‘serious’ brand image of any IT company. Yet another example is of Canon Europe, which launched an advertisement in 2002 trying to shift the gears from communications based on functionality and distribution to communications aimed at creating emotional bonds with customers. These are few examples of campaigns that helped in giving an intangible face to brands. It would be worth mentioning here that though every buyer is driven by emotional consideration, the degree of influence may vary from buyer to buyer depending on personal characteristic, role and degree of involvement in buying decision.

Why is it important to create brand around intangibles?

A company should focus on creating intangible attributes around its brand to facilitate the creation of a long lasting relationship with its customers. It is of critical importance for a company to identify what factor drives the decision of its customers to buy its services and accordingly create a brand around those attributes. IBM, yet another IT giant for example, recognized that its target customers look for peace of mind when making a purchase decision of its solutions and hence it intelligently build an advertisement that read ‘What most people want from a computer service company is a good night’s sleep’. It clearly emphasized on hitting the right emotional chord of its buyers and hence communicating the intangible attribute of the brand. Therefore, a firm should recognize various intangible aspects that affect the decision making of its buyers which could be trust, peace of mind, ease of doing business and security. Once these aspects are identified, the firm should include and focus on these aspects in their branding campaigns. And Boom!

Also Read: 5 Reasons Why Brands Need Integrated Social Media Marketing