Marketing Management

Building brand with social responsibility

Core Brand Message – How to build a unique brand
TN - 8280BC Core Brand Message-How to Build a Unique Brand

The next step Is to create a core brand message that communicates the essence of your brand, key
message that your company will be communicating to all its audiences.

The more closely your core message reflects the reality of your brand and why it exists, the more effective
your brand message will be—both within your company and to the outside world.

1.- SEPARATING PERCEPTION FROM REALITY: If you run into a serious internal problem, you’ll need to
correct that problem before you focus your resources and marketing materials on branding.

2.- COME UP WITH A BIG IDEA: Make sure it will be as valid in five or ten years as it is today. It’s important
to look at the overall values that motivate the culture to which you’re marketing and to identify those that
have existed for at least twenty to thirty years.

2.1.- stepping away from your day-to-day business. Then take a few more steps back until the
category you’re in disap-pears.

2.2.- Take a few more steps back until the whole business world disappears.

2.3.- step back until you can see the cultural horizon and spot which landmarks are a constant part
ofthat land-scape.

The pioneer spirit is something you can tap into as a company, which can lead to powerful core ideas like
these:

•Constant improvement (Avis:“We try harder”)

•Tenacity (Timex:“It takes a licking and keeps on ticking”)

•Individual betterment (U.S.Army:“Be all you can be”)

•Perseverance (Citibank:“The Citi never sleeps”)

3.- CRAFT YOUR CORE BRAND MESSAGE: analyzed why your brand exists in the marketplace, clarified your
perception versus reality issues, studied various cultural value checkpoints, and pinpointed your positioning.

•Is your core message simple and clear enough?

•Does it differentiate you in the marketplace?

•Is it true?

•Is it relevant?

•Is it consistent with your company’s core brand values?

•Can you be the first to say it?

4.- Core Message Simple and Clear Enough: The brand message need to be oversimplified, if you read it to
someone, and after that you ask the listener to repeat it back. If he or she can’t, it’s not simple enough. Slim
to none that it will survive.

5.- Core Message Differentiate You in the Marketplace: Make sure it positions your company uniquely in
the marketplace, rather than conjuring up the names of other companies that exist in your category.
Sometimes your brand message is too close to your competition message.
 Marketing Management
Building brand with social responsibility
Core Brand Message – How to build a unique brand
TN - 8280BC Core Brand Message-How to Build a Unique Brand

6.- Your Core Message True?: The core message has to be aligned to your company, people has to believe in
your core message. Example: “Seriously committed athletes wear Nikes”is afact. Campaigns are based on
number of facts.

7.- Your Core Message has to be Relevant: Has to be relevant to the people you want to reach, the market
you want to focus on. No one wants to know about the company, they want to know what is in front of
them, not the company’s ego, Relevance. Where marketers believe repetition is: The key to memorability is
relevance. The key to annoying people is mindless repetition.

8.- Core Message Consistent with the Core Values of Your Company: The message is usually delivered at
the point at which you’re letting people know who you are, and they’re basing the beginnings of a brand
relationship on that knowledge. If what you’re communicating isn’t really who you are, then your brand is in
jeopardy.

9.- Be the First to Say Your Core Message: Many valid messages get eliminated because someone says,
“Wait, our competitor can say that, too.” The concern should not be with what your competitors can
theoretically say, but which message you can actually own. The first company to state its message simply
and clearly usually owns the message.

10.- If You’re Stuck, Steal from the Best: It´s always helpful to look at advertising slogan from the best ones.

TRANSFERRING YOUR MESSAGE INTO PEOPLE’S LONG-TERM MEMORY

Long-term memory is where brands live, and short-term memory is where brands visit. - Short-Term
Memory Is Information That’s Meant to Be Discarded.

Long-Term Memory Is Information That’s Meant to Be Stored: Any information that contributes to a
person’s physical and emotional well-being gets stored in long-term memory. Once the message is
lodged there, it’s very hard to change that perception.

CREATING THE RIGHT MESSAGE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

Sometimes the lightning-rod targets are the people we call experts. Nike gets buy-in from the
sports “experts”—successful coaches and athletes—who then influence others to wear Nike shoes
and apparel. Sometimes the lightning-rod target is a person known as a gate-keeper to the
brand.

Making sure your brand message is communicating what you want it to communicate two
approaches are fairly common in marketing circles: focus-group testing and copy testing, with
qualitative or quantitative testing¸

Qualitative testing involves some sort of interaction between a moderator and

another person or a group. Generally used at the initial stages of an idea, when a company is
exploring ideas, opinions, reactions, and the impact of various messages.

Quantitative testing is meant to turn reactions into raw data. Used at the end of the
process, when a company knows what it wants to say and who it wants to say it to. In this
situation, a company can quantitatively measure specific reactions to predict the reactions of the
greater population.
 Marketing Management
Building brand with social responsibility
Core Brand Message – How to build a unique brand
TN - 8280BC Core Brand Message-How to Build a Unique Brand

- the most useful and informative communication check is to talk to a person in his or her
own environment. It’s amazing what you can find out.

PROTECTING YOUR MESSAGE – INPI Mexico

Now, see if that message can be owned and defended out in the marketplace.

1.A bigger or more popular brand already owns that message.

2.The message isn’t believable coming from your company.

3.The message requires too much education to be easily under-stood by

potential customers.

4.The message is too new in the culture and requires time and other
businesses to validate the category, product, or message.

5.Something happened previously to another brand that rubs off on your brand.

Bulls Eye exercise:

To better understand where you stand in relation to your competitors, create your own series of
concentric circles, and put your core message in the middle circle. As you start moving outward
with broader messages, start adding competitors and dollars. You’ll soon discover, given the
resources of your company and the competitors you’re facing, where you’ll want to focus your
message and dollars.
Notes:

- Creating a core message, always try to have as more perspective of the company, reference
from it, Getting as many points of reference as possible can help createa more accurate
message.
- Core brand message is the core idea that later gets expressed by slogans and headlines.
- Slogan, also known as a tag line—because it’s usually “tagged” ontothe end of a television
commercial or the end of a print ad—is the line that generally sits near the logo. Example:
General Electric’s “We bring good things to life.” – Almost never change.
Most memorable slogans are only three to five words long.
(http://www.adslogans.co.uk)
- Headline is generally what goes at the top of an ad. It’s the encapsulation of whatever message
the company is trying to deliver that day. It tends to be more of a tactical message. Example:
GE’s case, it could be the announcement of a new dishwasher. – Can change
 Marketing Management
Building brand with social responsibility
Core Brand Message – How to build a unique brand
TN - 8280BC Core Brand Message-How to Build a Unique Brand