By Ahmed al-Akber/Manama


There are very few things as exciting as rebranding your business. But before you do it, you need to understand what makes a brand, and all the elements that go into developing a successful one.
Most people understand a brand to be a series of appearance factors: such as a logo, a tagline, or advertising. Those are a part of branding, but they are only the tip of the iceberg. There are a host of other elements that go into developing a brand that need to be developed or uncovered.
Determining what direction your corporate brand should go starts by asking a series of questions. These questions can be posed to staff but can include asking customers, which may give a completely different (and sometimes even more honest) perspective:
What are the organisation’s short- and long-term goals? If they are going through major changes, like being acquired, it would be critical to know what the implications of that would be on the business, its staff, and its product and service portfolio.
Why are we here? This question helps determine what staff understands as being the reason the company does what it does. For example, Walmart would not say that their purpose is to sell groceries at cheap prices. Sure they do that, but that’s not their stated purpose.
Walmart’s raison d’etre is to help families to have a little more money to do what they want in life, such as paying for their kids’ soccer practice or to take a holiday at the end of the year. Looking at it that way puts Walmart’s strategy into perspective. Why is your brand here?
How are the products and services that we sell related to each other? Asking something like this will help determine the brand’s current brand architecture, which is how your products and services maximise their potential coverage in your addressable market.
There are two main kinds of brand architectures: a house of brands strategy such as Proctor & Gamble’s, which has a hidden corporate brand and brand names with their own products and positioning (such as Tide, Pampers and Gillette).
The other extreme is the branded house strategy such as Sony’s, which has a very visible corporate brand and products that align to the positioning of the corporate brand and typically don’t have their own brand names.
What are the specific benefits that our product or service provides to our stakeholders? This helps determine what the customer or other stakeholders get out of choosing your brand. Called a value proposition, it boils down your product or service’s benefits into a clear message.
It’s essentially a promise of value to customers and a belief from customers that the value will be delivered. The POS portal Square Register has a great value proposition: “The POS software that’s simple, powerful and free”. Its very clear what the company does and its value is highlighted in this statement.
How is our current brand different from its competitors? The best way to determine this is to ask: “What do we do that our competitors don’t?”, and “What do our competitors do that we don’t?”. These answers will help you understand how you fare versus the competition and if there are any things you need to change with your products or services that will enhance your brand positioning.
Make no mistake, rebranding or launching a brand is hard work. But take some time to answer these above questions to get your brand strategy right, and you’ll be on the right path to having a successful brand.

♦ Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on ahmed@acksolutions.com