The Headquarters Pt. 1— What an Advertising and PR Class can teach you

Written by The Headquarter’s team member: Georgiats (Georgia Tsoukala).

During this semester we learnt lots of useful information about branding and startups in general in the Ad Discovery and Creativity Lab, a class offered in Panteion University, led by our professor ms Betty Tsakarestou. Among them, were the guidelines about the brand trust and the “Iconic Moves”

One of our key takeaways is the fact that it is obligatory for the brands to be one step ahead, due to technology’s fast evolution, causing the customers to be more demanding.

Firstly, a brand needs to decide what consumer needs it will cover and how it will achieve that. The only way to decide these, it depends on the business, the customers and their interaction.

Another important factor, when owning a brand, is the “Iconic Moves’’. They are capable of changing people’s choices and perspectives and can even change one’s behavior in the market. From the marketers’ perception, the “Iconic Moves” are able to establish the continuous evolution as a requirement for the brands.

The guideline of achieving the Iconic Moves consists of 5 steps. The first step is about the continuous change. The brands need to adjust in order to meet the customers’ needs and evolve besides them. The second step is to be able to sense the weak signals. As for the third step, brands should seek for alignments not only between the customers, but between other businesses, too. The fourth step is about strategies which are going to broaden the options and the way customers interact with the agencies. The last step is about the dedication to commercial enterprise and the need to follow-through and never left behind.

The brand trust is built when a customer interacts with the product, and when the time comes their choice will be the same. The customers need to be sure that the product they are buying is worth it and does what is right for the consumers as well as the society.

Once a brand has built trust, the consumers will pay them back by buying it, supporting it, recommending it and lastly, when the consumers defend it when someone is making a bad critic.

You can find our presentation on Interbrand’s Iconic Moves & Brand Trust Guide here.

Building a brand takes time. In order to get successful, a brand needs to be unique and consistent. You have to know the targeted audience and what they need, but also the audience needs to know the brand and what it stands for. In order to know the audience a persona must be created, that will help to get to know the audience and what they need and when they need it. There lies the answer of how to improve your product.

Another helpful tip is that you have to go social. Create a website or social media accounts that fit your brand and use them to communicate with the consumers. You can always monitor the competitors and evaluate where an open spot in the market is, and use the analytic tools in order to understand better which moves of your brand work best.

All things considered, having a brand is not an easy thing to do, but if one acts responsibly and operates with passion about what they work for, the results may be incredible.

You can find our presentation about HubSpot’s guidelines on “How to Build a Brand” here.

Read the next parts of our trilogy:

Part 2 — Learning Advertising & PR through Case Studies
Part 3 — Creating our own agency & Promoting our First Client

The Headquarters Team Members: Panagiotis Theofanopoulos, Αγγελική Κλήμη, Billy Mpakas, Georgiats

Lab Professor: Betty Tsakarestou

The Headquarters Links: Website, Facebook, Instagram & Twitter