In this topic, we focus on the development of a brand. You will learn:
- What needs to be included within a brand
- How to create a brand suited to your business
- How to effectively market your brand to your specific target audience.
Terminology and vocabulary reference guide
As an allied health professional, you need to be familiar with terms associated with basic exercise principles and use the terms correctly (and confidently) with clients, your colleagues, and other allied health professionals. You will be introduced to many terms and definitions. Add any unfamiliar terms to your own vocabulary reference guide.
Activities
There is an automated quiz at the end of the topic. This is not part of your assessment but will provide practical experience that will help you in your work and help you prepare for your formal assessment.
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or many times a combination of these that identifies the seller of a product, business or service.
Have a look at the following slide of images to view some very well-known brands that may resonate with you. What comes to mind when you think of these brands?
- Coca Cola
- Air New Zealand
- Sony PlayStation
- McDonald's
- Disney
A brand should aim at attracting the right kind of clients who wish to seek benefits from the business and its services offered. A brand represents the promise of the service, what the business stands for and should impact peoples’ perception of what the business offers to them. It is important that the brand represents quality and consistency when used for promotion so that clients can become attached to the brand and can recognise the business when they see it at a glance.
Some important factors to consider when developing a brand are:
- What will be the brand name?
- What will the logo look like?
- Will the brand have a slogan?
- Will the brand need a website?
- What are my advertising options for the brand?
- Should my brand be trademarked?
- What do I wish to convey to my target market?
Be mindful that a brand is a lot more than simply just the product you sell.
Characteristics of world-class brands
Here are the ten common characteristics of the world’s top brands.
- Excels at delivering the benefits which customer’s desire
- It stays relevant
- It's pricing strategy is based on consumer’s perceptions of value
- Is properly positioned in the marketplace
- It is consistent and remains so
- It's portfolio and hierarchy make sense
- It coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build equity
- It's managers understand what the brand means to consumers
- It is given proper consumer support that is sustained for a long time
- The company monitors sources of equity
When it comes to the fitness industry, what kind of brands come to mind? Perhaps a popular gym logo? A renowned fitness instructor? An activewear logo? A slogan or quote by an inspirational fitness icon?
TIP
A great way to find a brand for yourself is to reflect on five traits that describe you. This can be achieved when asking 4-5 people who know you reasonably well from different walks of life, to describe you using five of your most prominent traits. You will soon see that there may be some commonalities in the responses, this can help you form a basis for building your own brand identity.
Branding decisions play an essential role in shaping how consumers view a product or service. While there are many types of decisions to be made, each should be driven to address and attract the needs of their target market. This means, ensuring that the clients you wish to attract are drawn in by the decisions you have made for your brand. Some branding considerations include the following:
- Name
- Logo
- Slogan
- Pictures
- Colours
- Fonts
- Information.
The following image illustrates the familiar signage of Jetts brand logo. Below it contains simple information that encourages the need to use the gym as it has flexible hours which suits many with busy lifestyles. What other things might you think of when you see the Jetts logo? Quality? Easily accessible? Economical? These thoughts are not by accident! Jetts have given themselves a fantastic reputation by building their brand to meet the needs of their clients.
What can be noted from the above observation is that strong brands forge lasting connections with customers based on brand meaning, let us look a little deeper on ways to further engage our target market through branding.
Brand meaning encompasses the beliefs and associations a consumer has about the brand, therefore, business people build brand loyalty based on brand meaning. Today, brand meanings can spread virally as people share their story online with one another, with the increasing popularity of social networking and all forms of digital communication, business owners find this is an effective method to use for storytelling to assist in building on their brand meaning. Through brand storytelling, marketers seek to engage consumers with compelling stories about brands that connect with consumers and establish their identity.
Brand personality is a distinctive image that captures the characteristics and benefits of a product or service. It is the image that a consumer has about a brand and is closely related to brand meaning. These are all important aspects to consider when developing the image and voice you wish to obtain for your own brand and support effective marketing.
In this topic, we focused on the development of a brand. You have learnt:
- What needs to be included within a brand
- How to create a brand suited to your business
- How to effectively market your brand to your specific target audience.
