It is the first step in creating a larger marketing plan, and traditionally where we begin. After all, if you don’t know what your brand stands for, then you really can’t market anything.

 

With every client, Centric starts with the same point, emphasizing that brand is not just a logo or color scheme; it is every experience a customer may have with a company. It needs to be functional and emotional; intrinsic and original; active and intentional. And it's just a start. Your brand needs to be responsive to customers, competitors, the market and any other influence that affects your brand.

 

The Brand Promise

Create a brand promise. Put simply, a brand promise is all about turning every employee, product, services, piece of communication or client interface into a walking, talking, touchable reflection of the brand. This will help the brand to retain and create a word of mouth effect.

 

In order to develop a brand promise you need two things:

1. A clear understanding of the customer base, with special focus on target segments. So, who ever walked in will go out with a satisfaction and your brand name in mind.
2. A thorough understanding of how branding can (and will) make a difference.

 

Brand Relevancy

In order for a brand to be strong and distinctive, credible and feasible, the brand must have relevancy. That relevancy translates into both past and future perceptions. It is what the company once stood for, currently stands for and will stand for in the future. There must be a consistency that acknowledges the brand history in conjunction with demonstrating a deep understanding of customer perceptions.

 

Brand relevancy means stepping back and looking at the cold hard truth, then creating a positioning plan that allows you to plan for the future. There could be some changes in your current way of operating or may be making some older work flow change, in order to provide, best of the bread customer service.

 

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is building a strategy that clearly details where the brand is headed, how it will get there and what needs to be done to make it happen. It’s the development of a distinctive, differentiating and value-based positioning statement, key messages and customer value propositions. It can be defined as an activity of creating a brand offer in such a manner that it occupies a distinctive place and value in the target customer’s mind. It addresses specific niche markets, uniqueness, sustainability and financial goals.

 

When positioning is completed and combined with brand promise, a brand strategy takes form that directs the market strategy.

 

While the marketing strategy will take into consideration variables such as budget, scope and reach, the brand strategy has the luxury of being slightly quixotic. But it must always do so with relevancy as the rule and focus as the guide.

Knowing the competition is a key ingredient for success. Centric highly recommend that competitor analysis should always be included in the marketing plan and brand strategy, as this gives a clear picture of what has to be done.

 

Depending on the market segments; Centric looks at the publicly listed data of our client’s competitors to see how they are performing in the market and what type of digital strategy they have.