How to Create a Brand? The Brand Creation Process

Branding is a Cultivation of a Perception
Bornwell Chipfiko
Branding is pretty much the culture a company portrays to it's stakeholders, or the culture as perceived by stakeholders. Being all about culture, the process of establishing a brand is evolutionary. It can be communicated consciously or passively.

Good Branding Creates a Good Brand
Ramakrishnan, Consultant, India, Member
A good brand signifies an easily recognizable, favorable awareness when people see the brand image. To achieve that you a need well communicated brand icon, and a number of in house branding efforts such as creating customer satisfaction, competitive pricing, highlighting USPs in ad campaigns, innovations to differentiate your product and a highly effective team working toward these objectives with adequate resources allocated.
The brand creation process can be evolutionary when you consistently seek a brand creation path that is different and more efficient than the existing paths, the leadership prompting the team to think differently and test them in the field. The team should have a thorough knowledge of outside forces both in favor and against the product under brand creation to be able to think outside the box.

Branding is the Result of Gaining Acceptance of People
Ranjeet Menon, Project Manager, India, Member
I believe the first step to creating a brand is to have a product and a strategy that beats the constraints of Porter's five forces model. But there is definitely more to it. Advertising is not a simple demonstration of a product, it is about leaving a footprint in the people's minds. We need to look back into the time when media was just print & TV. Catchy phrases and catchy tunes were the biggest influencers. If the product was good, word of mouth used to make it great. But now, because of Internet & social media, everyone looks up on the Internet & word of mouth has almost vanished in urban areas. But it all depends on the products & the type of consumers. Different classes of people can be influenced only with different methods of advertising. A brand is ultimately the recognition of the people because the product is created to satisfy the needs of people and is not something that can be artificially created or created in a short period of time.

How a Brand is Created
Biplab Kumar Biswal, Teacher, India, Member
I don't think creating a brand is an instantaneous process rather it's an evolutionary process. Before a BRAND is created the reputation needs to be established which essentially means what does the consumer think about the brand. Through a serious work culture and focused approach on quality of the products or services offered, the company creates a brand. Customer retention policy, after sales service also plays a very vital role in brand creation. I will agree with @Bornwell Chipfiko that brand is the culture as perceived by stakeholders. So the best way to create a BRAND is to put sincere efforts to give a good product or service to the consumer and creating a robust system which takes care and retains the customer (both internal and external) for long term with the company. The work culture and quality of service is the basic need of a good business.
I wouldn't agree with pricing as we have seen products/services being sold at premium because of brand value. Apple and Sony are live examples.

Branding Process Starts with Attitude, Appeal and Character
Cosmas Phillip Mwaita, Student (MBA), Zimbabwe, Member
The modern branding process starts with your attitude, appeal and character as the proprietor of whatever you want to create a good and strong name (Brand) for. Right from the time you wake up; the way you groom yourself, your attitude towards everything and everyone around you (people, animals and objects included) matters. This creates the "Feel Good Factor" towards your product, THE CUSTOMER, and everything around you if you have a positive and vibrant attitude.
When this is achieved over time you believe in yourself and your products and the customer will have faith in you and your products as well. Every individual is a brand and should behave as such and creating a name for your products (Branding) follows your attitude and behavior. If you are not honest with people you find it hard to be honest with your customers and therefore your brand as a person and that of your products is perceived as such.

Brand is your Portfolio
Hamad Al Sadd Al Ali, Student (MBA), United Arab Emirates, Member
Most of the inputs previously reached very close the ultimate definition of Brand. But Cosmas Philip is the only that simply explained one pillar of the Brand creation process.
My idea is that a brand is when you have a unique assembly, unique service, or anything that others did not explore yet to provide. Think of Samsung products, until they re-engineered Apple technology, we could say they did not explore technology. So, branding is about the exploration of technology and demonstrating that well to the stakeholders.

Branding must be a Continuous Process
ahmed magzoub ahmed, Business Consultant, Sudan, Member
Branding should be a continuous process - accompanied with excellence and quality to obtain maximum consumer satisfaction.

Branding Process Steps
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
A really well designed brand will represent an organization"s internal culture, public offering, and experience; while conveying emotion, trust, excitement and other subliminal messages.
Branding involves customer"s service, product benefits, price, value proposition, strong impression which covers the organization's name, logo and reputation. In my opinion, the branding process begins when the firm invests in a marketing programme.
The branding process has 6 steps:
1. Analyzing decisive brand indicators,
2. Planning strategic brand indicators,
3. Positioning and planning operational brand targets
4. Comparing targets
5. Implementation
6. Steering and controlling.

Branding also Involves Developing Demand
Glenn Thompson, Strategy Consultant, United States, Member
Brand rhymes with demand.
Branding requires the development of a need or desire for the product created... This is perhaps the most difficult part of sales. Persuading a client to see the need that you see and motivate them to invest in it... This, to me, is branding.

Sustainable Brand Creation
Biraj Kholkumbe, Director, India, Member
Branding in the true sense is imbibing virtues and proving their existence over a long, sustainable period. Real branding is therefore not a temporary affair. It has to create confidence in the minds of people which needs continuous honest efforts in establishing and maintaining quality over time.

How to Create a Brand
OCTAVIO AVILA, Professor, Mexico, Member
In the process of branding, it is necessary to include a good strategy of added value, not only in the product, it is necessary to include all the elements that are around the product, just like advertisement, supply, promotions, good salesmen, distribution channels, telemarketing, service support, etc...

Brand and Branding
Olga Aros, Consultant, United States, Member
Your brand represents the culture and strategic direction of the organization. The development of the brand includes icon, image, theme, color, messaging and description of value proposition to identified primary and secondary consumers.
The branding involves the processes that you use to communicate the brand, product and images to your customer. The brand must be consistent and steady, while the branding is ever evolving with innovation, creation and customer changes.

Branding in a Nutshell
sam katz, United States, Member
In its essence, branding is the "promise you make to your customers, employees, and self." Hence, the experience/s that your product/service is to exude is the promise you have made to each and every person who purchases your product/ service = the Brand.

Brand and Branding
irwan sumadji, Professor, Indonesia, Member
Brand is not just the name of the product, but the "meaning" of the product in the mind of the customers (and stakeholders). So we have to develop the mind set of the customers and stakeholders about the brand and that process we call branding.

Brands and Cultures
Andrew Blaine, Business Consultant, South Africa, Member
@Bornwell Chipfiko: There are numerous different, and often conflicting cultures in the World, but Coca Cola, Ford and many others work across all, or almost all, cultures. This, to me, seems at odds with your opinion?

It's All About Choice
Zoniaina, Coach, Madagascar, Member
Let's assume for a moment that the process of creating a brand is the same for a person and for a product or company.
The attributes definition phase should be natural because it relays your choice - the mix of what you want to be and how you want to be seen by others.
Your values, promises, way of life... It's all about CHOICE.
If you consider that your choices will help you to win (and create a win-win relationship), don't hesitate, dare to make clear choices. A brand process should be instantaneous. But branding is also evolutionary because we have to adapt our choices, depending on the context and the target.

It’s All About Consumers Developing Some Form of Attachment to the Product
Sulaiman Kyambadde, Business Consultant, Rwanda, Member
Branding is all about enticing feelings and experiences connected with your product, and nurturing the attachment consumers develop towards your brand. It’s that simple – and that difficult.

Branding Process
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
@Sulaiman Kyambadde, Salams
I agree with you, that nurturing attachment is essential. I also agree with your words - "It is that simple-and that difficult".
It is in community building that individuals in the communities are awakened to their capacity to care for one another (nurturing) to create life and hospitable environment; to build resilience to all economics and to help and support people (nurturing) to live full filled lives.
Great managers are not born; they are nurtured.

Branding Process Develops Addiction
Ramakrishnan, Consultant, India, Member
True, nurturing attachment can result in addiction. Such attachment level can come after prolonged satisfaction in the use of product, or can be created by the branding process to develop addictive elements to nurture constant lure of potential customers.

Conclusions So Far on the Branding Process
Jaap de Jonge, Editor, Netherlands
We seem to agree that the branding process can be seen in a NARROW way as an instantaneous, creative marketing process of developing some profile or personality for a product or entire company, but that we can and probably should really see it in a much BROADER way in which the branding process involves everything we do to entice feelings and experiences connected with your product, and nurture the attachment consumers (or other stakeholders) develop towards your brand.
Then branding includes your quality assurance, customer service, sales practices, your company culture, your vision, strategy, corporate responsibility efforts, and really your entire organization.
A challenge with this last way of defining "branding" is that it becomes kind of difficult to distinguish its exact steps, because it includes everything.

Branding Mission
ali ahamd, Management Consultant, Kuwait, Member
Branding is the process of creating identity, image and character for the business or the organisation. So far, it plays a role in determining the sole of the people who created the business. It is a real reflection for their values, norms and believes...
Many businesses failed because of the incompatibility between the firm's mission and its actions.

Branding for Creating Brand Loyalty
Jagmohan Singh Sirari, Director, India, Member
@Ramakrishnan: Your planning, strategy and process of branding must entirely focus on developing brand loyalty of customer. The after sale service plays an important role in creating loyalty over a long period time if it happens to translate into not only satisfaction but delight of customer.

Branding is People Output, not Virtues
Hamad Al Sadd Al Ali, Student (MBA), United Arab Emirates, Member
@ali ahamd:, with all due respect, there are so many brands in the world that it's not even close to a single virtue. Virtues are kept in home while brand is created in work-floor. Any other than this would not be so-called Branding. You name them. Why is that? Because when virtues are mixed with professionalism, I guess, complexity will be the result. I am sure of that, only in one case I will revise this fact, when organizations become corporatocracy.

Creating a Brand
Andrew Blaine, Business Consultant, South Africa, Member
In my opinion, the question originally posed can be answered as follows:
1. A brand is an entity that has a set of qualitative factors which appeal to the needs of the customer. Note that the needs of the buyer are the same when purchasing a Tata Indica or a Mercedes Benz, but the expectations are not.
2. The brand is an evolutionary creation from the introduction of a product and covers both product and producer where applicable. See 1 above.
3. The brand is more delicate and sensitive to emotion than the product as it can be harmed/devalued by the producer simply being perceived as failing to meet the expectations of the customer, even while producing the same product. Example Blackberry?
4. The growth and maintenance of a brand should always be more important than the product. Not every product can be perfect, it is how the producer/intermediary addresses problem examples that determines the value of the brand.
5. Branding exists to grow, protect and encourage the brand.
Thank you all for sharing.

MARQUITECTURA
Fernando, Entrepreneur, Guatemala, Member
We are developing a mathematic formula that describes the construction process of solid brands. The name of our process is Marquitectura, and we study the image, reputation, brand essence, time, and other items to build strong brands in Central America.

Brand Personality - Brand Mission
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
My humble reaction to @ali ahamd: In my opinion a brand has to be designed, structured and positioned using an effective content planning. The brand then gets a link to organization's vision, mission, and goals. This helps the brand's mission to fall in line with the organization's requirement for success.
This content planning helps to adopt the content strategy in designing the brand like: themes, messages, purpose, business requirements and to do gap analysis etc.

Branding Creation Process
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
I agree with ali ahamed janab.
Here I recollect Mahatma Gandhi's saying in 7 deadly sins:
1. Wealth without work;
2. Pleasure without conscience;
3. Knowledge without character;
4. Business without morality;
5. Science without humanity;
6. Worship without sacrifice; and
7. Politics without principle.
Morality in business links mission and actions.