Who is Brand Book

I've been telling people but they don't listen. Online Social Media is growing, this is the right time to get into the mind of your audience. And they just ignored me again%u2026..Their competitors will run away with their customers and they'll keep on serving their conventional wisdom.

What they say? Read my comments in brackets:

"How many customers are using internet, still many people don't have computer?" (Better come out of cave now)

"What if you write articles online or you're a blogger, you're still not writing for any (prestigious) magazine or publication?" (And people are continuously making their online brands)

"So what, if customers read and post reviews online for brand, we're selling well?" (Let's see, for how long)

The Myth:

Online social media is an important marketing tool. But don't confuse it with marketing strategy. In simple words, social media is one of the essential tool you use to promote your brand. That's it. Marketing still plays 90% strategy part. Social media can't do all the work alone. If I just create a Facebook fan page for a brand, say, casual wear category, I'll still be needing to promote brand's fan page on brochure, magazine ads, TV commercial, stores, press releases.

Kamil's BONUS: Your magazine ad and flyers, should end with your brand's Facebook fan page URL.

See how my fan page looks like?

Killer Feature 1: Interactivity

Will the Traditional Ad be Effective on the Internet? (Ad man's first question, huh)

Nope! Why? Because internet is an an interactive medium. Social Media best works because of it's interactivity. If your audience is interested in you, they will subscribe to your RSS feed, read your status, join your group, Retweet your quote. Consumers have full right to ignore you, hide you on their news feed.( Ad man's spamming won't work here.)

Question: Why do people love TV remote control?

Answer: It allows them to flip through channels as soon as ad appears.

In online world, your audience have full control what they want to see, read and hear. Advertising best works for credible brands. Those who have consumer's permission to talk to them. New brands are not supposed to launch through advertising. For new brands, PR , Word-of-Mouth and Online Social Media will do the best. Those new brands, who have played with these three mediums right, have a chance to offer an advertising message with consumer's permission.

Facebook has a killer feature of showing you your favorite live feed and posts of your friends/fan pages above all others. So it doesn't matter to have 500+ friends on your personal profile or 500,000 + fans on your fan page. If users don't care, Facebook doesn't care either. Marketing through this medium has become more important to get to the exact target market.

Why fan page? For example: Stone Age update its status "50% discount, limited time offer, rush now!" via fan page and It will appear on your news feed (If you're a fan). And these days, where young generation is being caught red handed? They don't read news papers or magazine or go to library. All the time they're Facebooking, Facebooking and Facebooking.

Kamil's BONUS 2: As still many people don't know how to do business through social media, you have the chance to develop a leader brand.

This is the right time for you. Right now!

Killer Feature 2: Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is the idea where promotion is built-in the product. When product is being utilized, at the same time, the product's value has been conveyed to everyone. The more you use the product, the more people see it. And the more people see it, the more people want to own it. And the brand and its value will spread and make the company rich along the way.

Unfortunately, every product can not utilize viral marketing. To go viral, the product has to be communications focused or very public. For example: You might be thinking to put your (credit line) name while designing a brochure for your client. But that can't go viral because it's not very public. Only you or your client knows that you designed this brochure (or your potential client whom you just given an introductory presentation of your company). Not every one, it's not very public.

"Sent from my BlackBerry", this sweet note tells you how cool owning a BlackBerry could possibly be.

The car, when it moves on the road, shows its beauty along a brand name, carries a message with it self.

You "Like" or "Recommend" something on any website and your friends at Facebook know what you did " 1 second ago"

Try for this article now:

One way to use Viral Marketing in online media is to use your brand's fan page with your email signature. (Making it standard for every employee of the company is not a big deal, anyway.) I'm using WiseStamp signature add-on for it.

There are still some brands having exceptional target market and social media is not suitable for them. Yes, it's possible. These brands have right to ignore me for the time being, until their consumers get sophisticated. As I said, marketing still plays 90% strategy part, social media is just a new tool to strengthen the promotional plan.

I hope these two Killer Features of Online Social Media, are enough to understand the importance of it and to get started .

So what else would you like to see covered here? Got ideas of your own for what's working well on social media? Let me know in the comments below!

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Related Post: Linchpin's meet-ups are growing at the speed of light, across the world!

"Our brand's sales will increase" thinking goes "If we'll promote various ways of using our brand"

That's a mistake!

If Haleeb talks to the tea-drinking market with its thick milk, Milk Pak talks to health conscious market with its nutritious or vitamin milk. With whom Olper's talks to? Do you know? Me neither!

First of all, what is Olper's? It's good for drinking, making tea, custard, cakes, you name it.

Your brand can only stand for one word! One brand can own one Positioning at a time. Olper's should have an "attribute" to dominate in the mind of consumers like Haleeb and Milkpak do.Think Safeguard. It has only one target market, kids. Safeguard is talking to kids about germs-free revolution. So what do you think that elders don't use Safeguard?

Here's the trick: Brand should be best for one purpose or one target market (with substantial market) and the consumers of other target market will follow you (on their own, if required) because you're the best of the breed (in your category)

Now look at "brand-for-All-Purpose" issue from another aspect :
You have one pizza and four friends. Your friends won't allow you eat full pizza (in the front of their eyes) when they are also available there to do the same. Neither your competitors in the milk (or almost any) category will allow you to put the whole (yummy) market share in to your tummy.

BONUS: What's the lesson? Well, the lesson is to get a chunk of a pizza.

Olper's are trying to be the "better" from its competitors, where it supposed to be "different" from its competitors. They should adapt a "differentiation strategy".

Olper's still has opportunity with its current brand. If Milkpak has drinking market and Haleeb has liquid tea whitener market, what market Olper's should have? You can find it easily!!! When you will find the answer, that would be the category to dominate the market leadership for Olper's. Olpers cannot become in "drinking milk" . Although, Haleeb is losing market share due its own mistakes. Sounds like an opportunity for alsorans!

About the yogurt market: I think, yes, Olper's has an opportunity to capture the market. Because Nestle and Haleeb are making the line-extension mistake by putting their names on its yogurts (eiher). For that, Olper's should launch a new brand (with a new brand name, of course!) and position it as special yogurt brand.

Nestle and ,may be, Haleeb are working good with their yogurt because of three reasons:

1.Competition is weak.

2.Their competitors are making the same line extension mistake.

3.There is no specialized yogurt brand in Pakistani marketplace.

Olper's could also can come up with fruit yogurt with (again) a new brand name. That's the way they can dominate any one yogurt market, fruit or regular. Not for everyone and not for all purposes.

Dear readers! Also read Kamil's official blog http://KamilAlicom/

It's difficult to build a global brand from a country that doesn't have a favorable "perception" for that category. Germany has a favorable perception for engineered products like automobiles. So, Mercedes-Benz is a global brand from Germany! France has a favorable perception for fashion and wine, but not for automobiles and engineered products.

What's the "favorable perception" of Pakistan, for a category, to make it a global brand?

Go ahead. Participate!

Marketing students (MBA, BBA) and professionals are still confused about marketing and its application in the real world. Dear friends your precious education and experience are not an easy one to learn, trust me, it has been adapted as an exclusive tool. In this article, I will try to resolve a major misconception about marketing.

This article will provide guidance to young marketers and students of marketing and business, who have been asking simple questions about marketing definition and after completion of course, ending up no where. However, before understanding the definition of marketing, we have to understand the most important part of marketing.I call it "______".I'll tell you later, I promise! Keep reading.

We've learnt that marketing is nothing but a commonsense. "Every one can do it. Even I can do the business better", thinking goes, "look around you! Without having marketing and business education, businessmen are doing well." Right? Wrong!

I agree that everyone can do business without having marketing and business education, but that would "only" be a business having no brand. Yet, businesses, without any brand, suffer; moreover, these businesses are also not responsible of increasing the GDP or GNP of the country in the long run.

If your pocket is jam-packed with money. I tell you what to do: Go to China, get a container of emergency lights, sell it in Pakistan and make huge profit. But how many times you're going to do it? Forever? Forever! without a brand? There's no need having business education for doing simple plus and minus math.

OK leave this! Ask yourself! Can you win in a court effectively without having law education? Can you win a war without having military education? Can you save the taxes of your company without having accounting education? Well, if your answer is no. Try this question:

Can you win in a marketplace without having marketing education?

Ofcourse not! Ask any top marketing guru all around the globe and you will get the same answer.
Al Ries, the father of "Positioning", said in an interview.
(I'll appreciate if you read EACH WORD carefully)

"Marketing principles are not commonsense. Marketing is a discipline and it's more complicated and confusing and harder to learn than legal or medical or any other discipline. And I think there's not too much recognition on the part of CEOs or management people today that marketing is a discipline. They tend to override the advice of their marketing people all the time; I see it everyday." (Marekting News)

Despite learning what the marketing "is", we have to learn ,what the marketing "is not". Guess what? Marketing is NOT a commonsense. Hence, before understanding the definition of marketing, we have to understand the most important part of marketing. I call it "Marketing Sense".

Dear readers, marketing is an art, not a science. There's always room for exceptions. The good part is, generally, those exceptions possess marketing reasons. Like science, we marketers, have no formula to put in to get exact results. And it makes marketing more difficult then any other field on the earth. It's difficult to study, even more difficult to apply.Marketing is an almost in a Heisenbergian way!

Like military's strategy, marketing is 90% strategy and 10% execution. It's recommended not to use your commonsense in 90% part. (Note: We don't need to discuss the 10% execution part, reason being that,most of the people are already learning from their experience. And students will learn after their completion of their degrees.)

Commonsense is mainly a management issue. Management thinks marketing is a commonsense, but educated marketers always talk about "Marketing Sense". Now how many CEOs, marketing managers or directors, you've seen, who use their "Marketing Sense"? Very few.

The best CEO I have found is A.G Lafley, P&G America. Just because of that remarkable guy P&G is having outstanding results, winning both in the marketplace and in the consumer's mind. Not only in USA, but also all around the world. Pick any P&G's brand you'll find almost each brand having its own positioning, own identity, own market. They've different brands for higher-end customers,different brands for middle class and different brands for lower-end customers.

Here're some interesting excuses behind brand extension,marketing guys and CEOs, have to make:

1.Brand Extension is an easy way out. Launching a new brand requires time and resources plus a new idea. (Who wants to burn out his or her lunch hours to work hard on a new idea from scratch)

2.Our successful brand has too much goodwill in the marketplace that any customer going to buy it.

3.It increases sales. Increases the portfolio and shelf space.

4.CEOs has to prolong it's tenure by showing growth and to increase their take-home pay.

5.CEOs have to answer the board of directors.

6.Stock brokers also need to increase their take-home pay.

7.That's why, stock brokers ask CEOs that "How much your profit or sales is going to grow in next quarter or year? "

And after lying to brokers CEOs call in marketing guys to tell them to increase sales and profit. "And your deadline is the next month". Poor marketers go back to their department and start thinking how to increase those awkward sales. And that's normally leads to wrong decisions. Wrong strategy! That strategy talks about Brand Extension.

And "Brand Extension" is a commonsense. Of course it is!

So how can we grow sales in next quarter? We need a shortcut!Let see what does commonsense tell us? Well commonsense tells that you should put your most successful brand name on each of your brand, like Nirala, Gourmet, Haleeb are doing. Yes, your sales will grow rapidly but you have an advantage for the short term, not for the long term.

Following what happens generally with your brand in the long term:

In the long term, there will be no positioning or identity in the mind of consumers.

In the long term, you'll lose sales to "specialized" brands that have their own identity, certainly!

In the long term, your brand won't be having any reason to be bought.

"But Hye! I've got the reason",commonsense wisdom goes,"Our brand got quality, one day customer will know that and they will come to us." Alas! That day will never come.

Let me tell you this in the long term, quality does not matter for the strong successful brands.

Are you sure Rolex gives more accurate time than Timex?

Are you sure your tailor makes better cloths than Hugo Boss?

Rolex gives you prestige. Now where's the quality of the product in it? It's the quality of the brand! Quality resides in perception of the consumer. Now ask yourself another question, if you are a coffee lover, will you go to the special coffee shop (Gloria Jean's) or a restaurant that sells everything?

BONUS: Positioning: Gloria Jean's = Expensive Coffee Shop

Speciality also creates the perception of quality. That's also one of the biggest reason why Brand Extension is a disease for your brand.

Now this point leads to another Marketing Sense:

It is, "Marketing is the battle of perceptions, not products" wrote Ries and Trout in their books.

Does it mean that we should not care about quality at all? No, I'll rather suggest you should build your quality but it has little to do with your brand success in marketplace.BONUS: Develop the quality perception in your brand.

Let's talk about our favorite Pakistani vocalist brand, Atif Aslam. Remember his song "Hum Kis Gali Ja Rahay Hen"? You might know that critics didn't like it due to several reasons.

Did Atif Aslam sing it bad? May be. Does it matter? May be not.

The song was a big hit and must have brought alot of money to Atif Aslam.You see? There's no correlation between success in the marketplace and quality of the product. We have very few experts or critics in each field. Consumers have alot work to do and they want an ease of mind by staying with the brand. And by the way, who wants to be a laughing stock by going against most of the people? Experts are few.

We all know that, blind tastes proved that Pepsi-Cola tastes better. Coca-Cola reacted with New Coke. Learn from Coca-Cola's mistake:

Coca-Cola produced a sweeter cola and conducted 200,000 tastes tests that proved the sweeter cola is better than Pepsi-Cola and their original Coca-Cola. Did you know they end up with zero result? Still the original coke, Coca-Cola Classic, outsells all colas in America. Consumers believe what they want to believe. Lesson Learned: Perception is the reality!

Trust me all marketers! You have a great power to influence brands, and ultimately this country's economic development depends on you. With great power, comes great responsibility (I learned from movie,Spiderman.)

So next time, if you're working on the project in your office or studying a marketing course in university. Do just one thing:

Keep your "Marketing Sense" alive!

"The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the product ladder in the prospect's mind. In the positioning era, the single most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product." Wrote Al and Trout in their books.

Apart from everything, Goodmilk is good, but not a good name. Goodmilk needs to have not only good, but an excellent name to hang in the mind of consumers forever. It doesn't seem to me that a good marketer can make a generic name like Goodmilk. My experiance says, there would be an ad agency, who made this brand name.

I'm sure, guys at Goodmilk and all their consumers will be damn sure, that Goodmilk will not only be serving and striving in the marketplace for the short term. Of course not!

In the short term, they just need a Goodmilk's Positioning and a new market creation to survive, yet survival is not enough. When this mission is successfully accomplished, the next mission is to feed brand for the long term.

(This article is divided into two parts. Part 2 will talk about Goodmilk's Positioning and other strategies. This article, part 1, is about its brand name for long term success.)

What else do they need in the long term then? A 'brand name'!
Why don't you drink Shandy Cola, Amrat Cola or Pakola? Why do the most of consumers (when buying cola) choose between Coke and Pepsi?
Here's the answer: In the long term the brand name is the only weapon to attack on your competitor to gain market share, the ultimate goal of your company. Hence, there's only one difference, it's your brand, and your competitor's brand.

Customers get sophisticated with the passage of time, they learn and adapt.

Haleeb was the first thick liquid tea whitener. This Positioning made Haleeb a powerful brand in the mind of consumers. Today, we have many tea whiteners, but only one Haleeb. The difference amoung them is the brand, (e.g its Positioning or perception), not the product. All other brands more or less are providing the same benefits, making a good tea.

A powerful brand is an asset for the nation. It's responsible for the economic development. So don't make a lousy brand name. Atleast for the sake of your country's growth.

American brands are too strong that their all brands combine can pull back their country from recession. Even Japanese brands combine can not save their Japan, if required. Take Japan, for example, which is considered having best brands in Asia.

Japanese and other Asian companies have more branding problem than U.S. Since 1990, the Japanese market has fallen by 50 percent while U.S. market was rising by 75 percent. In recent years, the top hundred American companies profit on average of 6.2 percent (of sales $3.2 trillion), comparatively, the top hundred Japanese companies profit on average of 0.8 percent (of sales $2.6 trillion). The sales difference is not much, but the profit difference is huge!

It can't be a product quality issue, as Japanese has world wide reputation for quality assurance, quality of work life (QWL), Total Quality Management (TQM), not to forget, they introduced and successfully implement Just In Time (JIT), the zero inventory system etc. They don't have a quality problem at all. They have a marketing problem.

BONUS: When company market their brands with their so called "umbrella branding" concept. It's difficult to make a powerful brand in the long run.

Umbrella branding is good, as far as, all brands have their own Positioning.

Take Dell (computer-makers) versus Sony (everything-makers) including computer-makers. According to 2005 report, in last ten years Dell had a net profit margin of 6.1 percent versus Sony's 0.8 percent.

(Note:Sony's other brands are fine, like Playstation, as it has its own brand name; not brand extended, it's brought to you by Sony. The brand is Playstation, not Sony. Dell recently launched their printers)

Now, one can better judge the economy of Japan than that of America. The same situation is in the most of countries in Asia. Large, unfocused companies making little after-tax profits.

If you don't make money, you can't pay off your bank loans.
And if you can't pay off bank loans, the bank are in trouble.
If banks are in trouble, you know, the country's economy is in trouble.
Hence, which leads to trouble in political system.

The company is measured by its profit, weather it is big or small, not with its highly diversified, brand extended product lines. Adsells Advertising is a big company, because they have huge profit, becasue they're only focused on outdoor advertising. They don't put their brand on everything. Adsells has almost become a powerful brand name of future. The power of brand is in contraction, not in expansion!

Goodmik is making big, big, big mistakes in two ways, one is, as you might suspect, Brand Extension and the other is Generic Names (not brand names)

Goodmilk is a weak generic name. When you say 'generic', it already shows its weakness, though. In order to understand the difference between generic and a brand name, we have to understand how actually the human mind works.

Here's is quote from branding experts, Al and Laura:

"The average person spends nine times as much time listening to radio, music or television than he or she does reading magazine and newspapers. Furthermore, in order to give meaning to the printed word, the mind processes sounds. The printed word is secondary to the sound that it generates in the reader's mind....The problem with a generic name is its inability to differentiate the brand from competition"

The word-of-mouth and brand communication takes place verbally, not visually.
What is Goodmilk? Every brand has this feature: "The fresh milk processed using state of the art UHT technology and aseptically packed in Tetra Pak" is a goodmilk.

Milkpak is a good milk, Haleeb is a good milk,Olpers is a good milk, Nesvita is a good milk.

What If, I say "Milkpak is like a Goodmilk" You might say "Yes! Milkpak is really like a good milk" or you might correct me "It's not only a good milk, it's the best milk" In either cases, I've to make myself clear: "Oh! no, no, no, I'm talking about THAT Goodmilk" How awful that consumers have to promote your compateitor's brand first (Milkpak) to promote yours (Goodmilk).

You've got the idea! "The problem with a generic name is its inability to differentiate the brand from competition"

"In order to give meaning to the printed word, the mind processes sounds.The printed word is secondary to the sound that it generates in the reader's mind".

What your brand name is processing sound? It's nothing more than a goodmillk with a small letter printed word "g" like any other word in the dictionary. But, when you talk about brand like Milkpak, it's something special! With a capital letter "M". Your mind processes sounds, and differentiate it. Milkpak is not with small letter "m" milkpak, it's Milkpak. Your country is not pakistan, it's Pakistan!

It's difficult for a reader to differentiate the sound of word "good milk" from the word "Goodmilk."

Shahrukh Khan, Asif Zardari, Barack Hussein Obama, Atif Aslam.
How about calling everyone by 'human being'? Rather than by their names.

Here're Goodmilk's brand, going no where:

1.Cream (generic name)
2.Khalis Desi Ghee (generic name)
3.Kinnow Concentrate (generic name)
4.Mango Puree (generic name)
5.Oolala (brand name, however, Line Extended)

If they had launched these brands with specific brand name, they would have worked out a good strategy. The "brought to you by Goodmilk or Shakarganj" strategy can work and then develop your sibling brands with separate Positioning.

How many generic brands do you know, hit the consumer's mind and become world successful or major brands in this ultra competitive environment?

"Hiya! I know, how about General Motors, General Electric, Pakistan Television, and National" One might ask.

Good question!

There're two major exceptions which have over come their generic name
disadvantage, but it's not possible for you to do the same now:

The first is that these brands had a great strategy when they got started, not the great name. They were first in their category (GE in electric company, PTV in channel) which made them successful.

The second exception: That was a time of just competitive environment or rather little competitive environment, not an ultra-competitive environment.

Today, in this ultra competitive environment, it's almost impossible to make a powerful brand with generic name. Leaders can afford this leverage because their lots of other benefits on their sides. You're not GE!

"What we're gonna do now? Our brand is too famous. We have invested alot on advertisement." Guys at Goodmilk might think.

Well, don't panic, make a brand name and write "Formerly known as Goodmilk,". By the way consumers always know It's a Goodmilk's brand, retailers always tell the same to their customers to sell it. And who told you to invest huge on advertisement? Ads are not credible at all. The way to build a brand is via P.R, which also requires less budget than ads.

When we launched Pakistan's first and only online DVD rental company, we could have come with a generic name DVDrental.com, however we came up with a very specific brand name, HitBox (www.hitbox.pk)

The most successful online sites are not bookstore.com,searchengine.com and Naukri.com. Its Amazon.com, Google.com and Rozee.pk.(Rozee in Pakistan only)

Compare following brand names and generic names:
Miscrosoft versus Software System,
Dell versus Speedy Computers,
Nirala versus The Best Sweets Shop,
MaryGold versus Tasty Bread,
Dalda versus Good Oil,
Milkpak versus Goodmilk,

I just watched a movie, Golmaal Returns, when Gopal's friend ask Gopal's wife, spotting her brother "Who's he?", "He's Lucky" she replied. Gopal's friend ask again "For whom?"

Brand with a terrible name, bites the dust!

Nirala was only in sweets. Which made this brand an icon. If you want sweets for any occasion the best one is known as Nirala. They made the fortune out of their specialty, which allows them to set higher prices. And higher prices bring prestige with it!
Brand had become strong!

It is one of the most brilliant company who played well with differentiating them with high prices. The strategy was great. Customers are willing to pay more for better product,they want some differentiation, a reason, to buy yours and not buy other's sweet.Nirala really means sweets.

But wait a minute!What Nirala is doing now? Attacking on others tarritories? Launching brands with their renowned brand Nirala? Do they think they will also be the best in other categories with the same brand name?

Brand extension can only work when your competition is weak or non existence.

Nirala Sweets is ok until and unless its all competitors e.g Butt sweets and bakers is making the same mistake. Butt sweets is not leaving its base and not jumping into others markets to capture. (besides this Butt has some other strategy problem, we will discuss in another article).

But for how long? Will they forever keep on fighting with each other? Do they think there would be no specialist in near future, ever? Ok leave this, what about the perception and positioning about the brand?

Does that mean that if Nirala Sweets sells everything make their perception of quality or selling only sweets make the perception of quality that they are best and they know more about sweets then anything else?

"If you are defending your self from every where you'll make your self weaken" wrote Sun Tzu,The Art of War

Nirala should consider it seriously! Niralas brand failures are in the front of us.

(Against)Beverages line: Nestle,Aquafina etc
(Against)Snacks line :Lay's,Pringles,Other famous brand of Karachi in nimko category
(Against)Dairy line:Haleeb,Milk Pak,Dalda etc

With how many categories Nirala has been fighting?

Beverages (Bouncer),Snaks (Snipz), Milk (Nirala Doodh)

(Remember! we're discussing Nirala brand is mentioning 'Nirala' brand name on its each brand. It's means 'Nirala' brand is attacking and defending and losing positioning)

So how many competitors does Nirala brand possesses in each category?

Lots of in Sweets + Lots of in Beverages + Lots of in Snacks + Lots of in Dairy

Do the math and you'll know that how many attacks Nirala is facing from how many industries? Isn't it good to get attacked from one side? (other than from 4 sides?)

Move back to basics,Nirala stands for expensive sweets. Keep this positioning as it is.If necesarry, Nirala has to launch a new category with another brandname!(new category could also be created to change your target market.e.g. If competitor is targeting older folks,you target younger folks.)

By removing it's name Nirala,or writing it in small type, develop another positioning for it's new brand!

(P.S: This Article can be published in a greater detail,for that please comment)

(This blog is open.Feel free to make comments and suggestion for this article)