Building A Loyal Brand Identity

So if I asked you what brand comes to mind when I say mobile phone you would probably immediately think of Apple or Samsung. What about if I said sports clothing? Maybe it would be Nike or Adidas. But what differentiates these companies from their competitors? This is what I am going to explore in this blog.

After a recent trip in Vietnam I noticed that the Apple logo was everywhere, even if it wasn't a store selling Apple products. The picture to the right shows a shoe store with an Apple logo, is this a good idea? Well, Apple is a global brand and is associated with innovation, loyalty and good quality products. Therefore, if these entrepreneurs in Vietnam want to start a shop, what better brand is there to associate themselves with than Apple? These people want their shop to be attractive to customers and because of the global Apple name, this is what they opt for. However, saying this, in the U.K., we could not set up a shop and put the Apple logo out front as this would be a copyright issue. So how do we build a good brand that has the connotations of loyalty, reliability and good quality products associated with it?

At the entrepreneurial conference I ran at University last year, we were fortunate enough to have Jo Fairley, founder of Green & Blacks Chocolate, speak to us about her journey. One thing that I will never forget she said was “if you have a good product, give it away for free”. Surely that can't be a good idea can it?! In fact, this is used as a marketing spree and also builds your brand reputation very easily. If you and your customers believe in the saying “the best things in life come free” then you can play on this and use it to entice them in to try your product.

Just think about it for a minute, take the scenario where you are going through freshers fair and someone hands you a free chocolate to try. You taste it and you absolutely love it and you end up going round the fair hundreds of times to get more! Similar to getting as many Domino's pizza slices as possible (you know who you are!). At that point, you have built a relationship with the firm and that firm has gained a customer to an extent. Secondly, you have associated that firm with a great product and free stuff! So if we forward on one month from freshers fair and you just had lunch and still feel a bit peckish, so you stroll into the nearest shop and there, in the chocolate section is that chocolate you tried from freshers fair. You then buy the chocolate because you know it's good because you've tried it and subconsciously you feel you should since you got many for free a month ago at the fair! This is something that I have done in the past so it does work.

So next time you brainstorm your marketing strategy think about giving your product away for free, it could do your business wonders.

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