SALES AND MARKETING
‘EVERYTHING IS A BRAND WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT’
too because of increased competition for students.” If a brand is well managed it offers high levels of awareness,
a point of difference from competitors and it should also try to develop attributes that are important in whatever market it operates. “Tis could be a perception that you offer higher levels of
advice, for example. Most service businesses are striving to gain strategic advantage by offering something extra. It doesn’t matter if you’re McKinsey or a small-time auctioneer. Te more you’re seen to be going beyond hygiene factors, the more likely it is that your brand will be better regarded.” Looking at well-managed brands in Ireland, Fanning says a number of small food companies stand out. “Cully & Sully is very well managed. Te founders don’t
spend a huge amount on branding, but have a clear idea of the image they want to portray. Tey are really being very honest about this, using their own personalities at a time when such values are important. Teir online promotion ‘Chef Factor’ was imaginative and quite well done, using their own people.” Tis was a competition where members of the public had
a chance to win a place on a Ballymaloe cookery course with accommodation, together worth over €12,000. Te top prize included two weeks with Colum O’Sullivan (Sully) and Cul- len Allen (Cully) to learn the ways of the food business. Ballynahinch Castle Hotel is another brand that Fanning
sees as an example of best practice. “Tere is a great deal of att- ention paid to the service level and ambience in the hotel, so much so that the guests don’t actually notice until after they’ve left and they then view their stay as an experience,” he says. “In the Eighties, Superquinn was seen to be a well-managed
brand. SuperValu is well managed now as it makes brilliant use of something every supermarket has to have – vans. All of their vans are very distinctively branded.”
BRAND MANAGEMENT
So, how do you go about achieving good brand management exactly? “First of all you need to find out what people think of your brand in relation to others. Tis can be as simple as get- ting your friends to ask people. Tis should give you a reason- able idea of your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. You then need to accentuate the strengths and address the weaknesses,” says Fanning. Once you’ve improved your product or service, following
this process, you obviously need to tell people about it. “People tend to concentrate too much on this part, but it’s
only one part of branding. It’s vital to get everything else right first. One common misconception about branding is that it is inextricably linked with advertising. You don’t have to have advertising to create a brand, but you do need to communicate about it,” Fanning contends. “A business card is a communication vehicle, for example.
It doesn’t cost a huge amount to make it look different and a tastefully designed business card will stand out. Design in general is very important. A shop front can be a major state- ment, or clever use of language on marketing materials can
22 OWNER MANAGER VOL 4 ISSUE 1 2011
enhance a brand.” Digital media has obviously brought a whole range of chan-
nels to small businesses at a minimum cost. Fanning says a good company website and the likes of Facebook and Twitter are just like a business card – ‘must-haves’ when it comes to branding. “Anything you have to have can be made a thousand times
better by imagination rather than money. It depends on how brave you are to do something different. To become a famous brand is to be different.” He cites the Hop In pub in Athenry as a “brilliant example”
of making branding work on a shoestring. “It uploaded funny videos on
YouTube.com, which led to viral marketing [people forwarding the link on to friends]. Tis was very clever as the videos showed the distinctiveness and ambience of the pub, and because they were funny and original, created a social cac- het and bragging rights around the brand. It shows what can be done on a small scale.”
SOCIAL MEDIA – THE FUTURE?
It’s clear social media will play a continuing role in company branding, but Fanning says there are divided views on how exactly this will evolve. “Social media will change the nature of the relationship bet-
ween business and the consumer, but I’m not sure how it will affect marketing and communications in the future. Consum- ers will require more transparency and expect a lot more inter- action with their favourite brands. “Brands will have to listen more closely to consumers. At
the moment it looks as if social media could take over more traditional forms of communication, but I see a problem with this. It’s like in the early Nineties when people made a rash assumption that relationship marketing would take over from advertising. “True, social media has a role to play for certain brand cat-
egories. However, if you take a brand like Kellogg’s, for exam- ple, a lot of people are interested in it, but don’t want a big relationship with a Pot Noodle. “If you have hysterical levels of communication about brands
on Facebook, Twitter and so on, you have to wonder if it’s going to be meaningful. It could dilute the whole effect.” Finally, Fanning has some thoughts on rebranding. “Tere
are times when a specific rebrand is needed for some reason or another. Te building supplies company Aspestos Ireland, for example, had to be rebranded to Tegral Group Ireland because the word ‘aspestos’ became a danger signal. Very often a new brand is needed because of a merger. Or deregulation can lead to rebranding, such as with ESB. “However, to some extent you’re always rebranding.
Different consumers buy your brand, people forget about your brand and you need to remind them who you are; social mores change and the language and design you use has to keep up. Branding is a fluid, continuous process. Busi- nesses that fail in this respect don’t keep up to date with changes in circumstances.”
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