brand concept

Brand concept is developed on the basis of the business idea and marketing researches of the market sector, where this business is going to be developed, its competitors and target audience (TA).

Brand concept development includes several stages:

Determining competitive advantage of the product/service based on the analysis of one's own product/service and competitor's product/service. Compare and find out.

Market situation analysis, including analysis of the competition advertising activity, and target audience analysis. It's done to avoid "using a sledge-hammer to crack nuts", and hit the mark directly. It's necessary not only to know the TA characteristics (gender, age, citizenship, social status, income level, etc.), but also to be aware of its needs (and therefore, distribution places) which create demand, which in turn, creates supply. Correct targeting and competition detecting, awareness of their strong and weak points allows to choose positioning strategy for the company.

It's important to realize that from now on each step of brand promotion would be directed at the target audience, its idea of the brand, that is, how the TA could express ITSELF through the brand. 'Tell me, what your brand is, and I'll tell you, who you are!'

Establishing brand mission and philosophy. Or, in other words, determining the goals this brand wants to reach.

Brand identification, or its essence. Brand's main distinguishing feature, expressed just in one word or a sentence. It's obviously based on the advantages of this brand's product, expresses their arithmetic integer and creates the unique selling proposition (USP).

Creating brand values (generally, argumentation of its essence and its continuation). Defining brand value in simple terms, it's actually what the Customer would like to attribute to his/her personality, using or dealing with a brand.

Brand value reflects the Customer's emotional necessity and goes abreast with his/her functional needs. Product/service characteristics such as quality, taste, usability, performance, price, etc. should not contradict a set of emotional values (e.g., if the value is care, the product should contain healthy nutrients; when the value is activity, the product doesn't contain preservatives; having elitism as a value, your product should have a high price tier).

The next step is brand promise, that is, the expected benefits the Customer could get using the brand. Brand promise is always the continuation of its values, serving as motivation to its usage. In most cases, the brand promise transforms into its slogan.

There is also an associative array, i.e. a set of real additional objects or qualities, communicating and maintaining the brand spirit.

Everything mentioned before, as well as sticking to the brand concept during its life cycle is referred to as brand authenticity. i.e. brand's correspondence with itself, its mission and philosophy, etc.

When applying a brand concept in practice, one should realize, that:

A plan of brand promotion actions (or, for the Customer, brand usage scenario) as well as the choice of communications between the brand and the Customer will be primarily based on brand positioning.