CORPORATE

BRAND
STRATEGY
From Brand Identity
to a True Brand

Onwubuche
Tobechi C.
Brand Management &
Marketing Expert
CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

YOUR MINDSET
ABOUT BRANDING
One of Nigeria's new genera on banks, many years ago, launched a branding campaign with
a redefining tagline. The campaign was aimed at reposi oning the financial ins tu on as
one that relates to every customer as unique and different. Amazing strategy!
But one year a er its launch, curious, I sat with one of their customer-facing staff. I wanted an
insight about how things had come together. I s ll remember how exhaus ve she was while
telling me about the bank's changed iden ty. But about the cultural change towards
personaliza on, she noted how so li le had improved. The paradigm shi that ought to have
altered how their staff regarded customers, which should be at the core of the rebranding
effort, never happened.

Many people, without much thought, o en regard branding as a business iden ty. Other
people who wish to be taken more seriously believe it is how a business and its product are
'packaged' or presented.

Well, to correct a wrong no on, branding for any business, is not the logo. It is not the tagline,
color, packaging, or any one specific thing. At best, these are aspects of brand iden ty, a
small component of branding. This iden ty is shaped by an underlying brand strategy that
issues what you see.

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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Back to the bank's 'wholesome'
What rebranding effort that brought
about a new tagline, it was
exactly is important that elements of her
brand iden ty also had to
branding? change. This altered iden ty
was well embraced by her staff.
But will a new iden ty
automa cally drive a new brand
strategy?
Branding, just as the name
entails, encompasses all that a
business is. It is the story of a
business; one which con nues
to e v o l v e i n t h e m i n d o f
customers. This story issues
holis cally from all aspects of
the business. It is the uniform
experience a business creates at
every touch-point. In other
words, it is how it makes people
feel any me they come in
contact with the business.
Branding can be likened to the
DNA of a business. Just as the
DNA cuts across and determines
the nature and func oning of
every part within a living thing,
so also does branding for a
business. Branding is really not
something that is tangible but
something contained in a
con nuous expression of a
business. One may safely say
that the tangible aspect of
branding is the brand iden ty.
For this reason, many people
hold on to this iden ty as the
business branding. But no, it is
not. It is just one li le aspect of
it.
If branding is an ever-evolving
story of a business as it forms in
the minds of people while they
interact with it, let us see how
some business stories may have
shaped up in your mind over
me.
Do you remember when you
had to visit a certain branch of a
bank; a branch you had never
visited before and you had a
premoni on of mee ng many
people in the banking hall? This
premoni on arose from a
mental story of the bank you
have cul vated over me. And
this story can be interpreted in
different ways. At one me, it is
a story of strength, at another,
one of inefficiency.
Remember heading to a 5-star
hotel and you had to change
your ou it a couple of mes for
some reason not so clear to
you? Think about it now, it was
more of your ou it 'not being fit
enough' for the idea of the
brand you have created in your
mind.
Branding gives a person
something in mind, a
premoni on about how to
interact with a business; what to
bring and what to expect. The
sum of your 'business story'
gathered over different touch
points form a certain picture of
your business in a customer's
mind which guides him as he
makes up his mind to approach
you. Whether you are conscious
of this story you write or not is of
no importance.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Branding Strategy
Since whether inten onal or not, a business
con nues to write her story, it becomes
per nent to develop a strategy, a well
defined plan which ensures the right story
that targets, a racts and retains a
par cular type of customer with certain
foreseeable needs and behavior, is
incessantly wri en. This strategy, if well
designed, ought to affect every aspect of
the business. These aspects include the
business offering, selec on of the people
behind the business (staff), the customer
service approach, policies, iden ty,
campaign strategies, product design and
feel, a er sales support, etc. It must
encompass all tangible and non-tangible
aspects of the business. A good brand
strategy is one that guides you into telling a
consistent story in every minute detail of
your business. Remember, we already
likened branding to the DNA of a business.
Terms to note about
branding
Brand purpose: This answers the ques on
why your business exists. It clarifies that
problem gap which a business has come to
fill within a market.
Brand posi oning: It is that posi on in the
mind of a customer which a brand has come
to assume as they con nue to interact with
the brand.
Brand equity: It is that extra money or
expense a customer is glad to incur in order
to interact with a brand.
Brand iden ty: A series of indicators
chosen by brand owners to enable people
iden fy the brand.
Brand values: This refers to that which a
brand has at its hearth on which every
behavior of the brand is orchestrated. To be
relevant, it must align with the values of
your target customer segment.
Brand image: It is the picture that comes to
mind when a person thinks of a brand. This
picture dominates the mind at the thought
of the brand and affects the choice of words
the person a ributes to the brand.
Brand differen a on: It is that which a
customer can quickly point to when trying
to set your brand apart from others.
Customer segment: A specific set of
product users with similar behavior and
mo va on which make them likely to
respond in the same manner towards a
product.
Frame of reference/product category: that
group or category to which your product
will be classified with respect to use. E.g.
Coca-Cola will be classified along with
water and some other products as
something that refreshes the body.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

Why branding?
From the foregoing, you must have started to figure
out why branding is important. Below are two
major impacts of branding:

Longevity:
Have you heard about businesses that have
survived over 100 years? This is only possible
through a con nuous, consistent and effec ve
branding. Branding isn't what makes you have the
most number of customers; instead it is what
makes you keep a par cular customer for the rest
of his life. This way, your business cannot fail so long
as you con nue to study this segment of customers
and keep adjus ng your offering to sa sfy that
aspect of their need that your brand fulfills as this
need evolves over me.

Equity:
Equity here refers to that extra cost one is willing to
incur in order to interact with a brand. This extra
cost does not necessarily earn any extra tangible
value. Remember driving past five restaurants to
get to a sixth one where you had to pay a higher
price for the same meal that was probably less tasty
than what is served in some of the restaurants you
passed? Equity represents that extra cost of fuel
and the extra amount you paid for the meal.
Everybody does that all the me. Now think about
it, why were you willing to incur that extra cost? You
were comfortable incurring that extra cost because
you craved for an experience that all other
restaurants were not 'posi oned in your mind' to
guarantee. You paid that extra price not necessarily
because of the meal. Think about it again. You had
this percep on that this par cular restaurant is
specially designed for that experience you craved.
Now imagine if the restaurant failed you. That
restaurant will simply lose its posi oning in your
mind and will totally not fit anywhere else. At least
not any me soon.

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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

Marketing and branding

Today, most local businesses are focused on marke ng. But before marke ng there was
branding. When a business gets her branding right, soon her marke ng won't be about
'convincing' customers to try. Instead it becomes a con nuous effort to ensure that her
values are constantly preserved and that it accommodates her customer's evolving needs,
ins ga ng dependency. Maintaining brand values that align with customer's evolving needs
become an effec ve way of acquiring new customers. Customers will be a racted not
lobbied.

In this light, let us review a common local brand, First Bank. Think about the significance of
her name. Think about her logo, an elephant. Think about her story of resilience captured in
her tagline, "Since 1887". Think about her low employee turnover. Do you no ce how all
these align into values of strength and stability? Now, do these a ributes reveal why word
on the street has it that First Bank is a 'strong ins tu on' even with no quick data to back this
assump on? Without deep research, many customers seeking a stable, long-las ng
rela onship with a financial ins tu on choose First Bank. But they may not necessarily be
the most reliable or stable bank. However, consistency in branding over me seems to have
driven them there in people's minds.

If a value you cherish most is innova on or ease of transac on, a certain bank must come to
mind. What bank is that? This phenomenon goes on and on and knits more ghtly where
brand values align with customer values.
The beau ful thing about branding is that it does not cost extra! It only demands the
knowledge about how it works and consistency across all touch points over me.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Defining your
brand strategy
Think about this: if you
were to produce all the
shoes used in Africa,
your major challenge
will not be the capacity
to produce the number
of shoes the African
market consumes. Your
greatest challenge will
be to sa sfy the diverse
need of shoes as they
come in different forms.
Pe o p l e a re u n i q u e ,
differing from one
another and so do their
needs and preferences.
No one offering is
a uned to sa sfy the
diverse needs of all
peoples. When a
business tries to cater
for mul ple segments of
customers, the business
is bound to lose all its
customers in the long
run. This is because, no
par cular people will
feel that the business is
scaled to their needs.
No one will feel
a ached to the
business. The feeling of
a achment to a
business emanates from
branding and is cra ed
through a brand
strategy.
Successful branding
targets specific kind of
customers. The brand
iden fies this customer
segment, studies the
group's predominant
behavior and adapts her
offering to the
underlying mo va on
found to be behind this
behavior. The branding
goal for such firm is to
build an iden fiable
'personality' out of itself
which appeals to people
who fall within this
customer segment
using a defined strategy.
Lets say, for example,
you are a restaurant
specifically targe ng
mid-level business
execu ves during their
lunch break. What
brand strategies will you
adopt to make this
segment of people feel
at home when they are
at your restaurant; how
will you make them
return over and over
again? Or do you believe
the taste of your meals
will be just sufficient to
ins gate this behavior?
You might not be totally
right about this.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Crafting your brand strategy
Your brand strategy is the tool you use to
build your brand personality. To design an
effec ve brand strategy, whether for a
mul na onal or for a startup, your brand
strategy must address the following three
fundamental categories of benefit people
seek:
· Physical benefit (reason to desire),
· Psychological benefit (reason to
choose) and
· Emo onal benefit (reason to stay).
Physical benefits are addressed by the
'purpose' of your brand.
Psychological benefits give a customer a
reason to choose your brand. This choice is
o en influenced by your 'brand posi oning'
in the mind of the person. Your brand
posi oning is an effort to align your
purpose, offering and values to the deep-
seated mo va on that guides the choices
made by a customer.
Emo onal benefits keep a customer
returning to your brand; i.e. to con nuously
have you as a brand of preference.
Emo onal benefit is the outcome of a
customer having a percep on of being
found and understood by you. He feels
associated with your brand. Not just
choosing you from me to me but he
begins a real rela onship with you. This
rela onship is anchored in his 'percep on'
of himself and how your brand supports this
percep on.
As a rule of thumb, it is important that your
brand strategy addresses a purpose, a
posi oning and a percep on. They are the
three P's of branding. You may have started
to wonder at what stage of your business
development you may begin to address
each of these P's. Inasmuch as it may seem
that these three P's should be addressed
separately in the process of building a
brand, this isn't the case. The three P's of
branding should be wholly intertwined in
every aspect of your business star ng with
the plan all through to product/service
design, and brand communica on etc.
In order to capture these three P's
effec vely, here are a few considera ons
that will help.
· Consider the purpose of your
business. What pain-point does it
wish to address and what physical
values and characters must the
brand bear if it must gain people's
confidence? - Physical benefits
· Define your target customer;
inves gate his daily rou ne with the
aim of recrea ng his thought process
as he interacts with your product
category. Deep within, what really
are his needs, fears and concerns
that are highly mo va onal with
respect to your product category?-
Psychological benefits
· Inves gate what values lie closest to
his heart? What emo onal strings
ac vate him the most? Who does he
perceive himself to be?- Emo onal
benefits
Now, let us get more prac cal. Let us try to
create a brand strategy (although not
exhaus vely) that cuts across every facet of
a business and addresses these three
benefits or three P's (as you may wish) that
are most influen al to a person as he aligns
himself with a brand. For this purpose, let us
create a brand strategy for a FMCG product,
a new baby diaper brand.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Case study:
Crafting a sample brand identity
For our baby diaper brand, our primary
customer is a nursing mother and our
primary user is a baby. Let us say our brand
purpose is to make available in the market a
diaper brand that can hold rela vely large
quan ty of moisture over a long period
without causing rashes. This also means a
diaper brand that is quite reliable. Now, the
first aspect of our brand strategy is to ensure
that our product, at least, holds as much
moisture as some of the best diaper brands
in the market. We will also ensure that it is
hypoallergenic, i.e. it doesn't cause diaper
rash. These two quali es fulfill our brand
purpose and will be quite defining if
effec vely addressed by our product. But
they will not have the capacity to hold our
brand strategy together. They simply keep
our product on a level playing field with
other good diaper products. Nothing
ins gates admira on yet; that s cky
a achment with customers that we target.
You know that excellent product that
nobody buys for just no reason? With these
alone, our brand will likely have the same
story.
Next we must enter into the thought process
of nursing mothers (we skipped profiling
her). What exactly is she trying to achieve
while purchasing a diaper. To define this
mo va on, we must dig deep enough into
her life with her baby. This is o en the tricky
part since when asked, different mothers
will present this deep-seated mo va on in
different ways. We must listen beyond what
is said. To make it easier, we can ask about
her worst fear of not having a diaper and
what they will enjoy most if they had the
best diaper in the world. Their response will
bring us closest to this mo va on. For most
mothers, you will be surprised to realize that
they simply desire a product that keeps their
baby comfortable enough to sleep for longer
periods. This sleep will enable such mothers
have me for other things and equally to
catch some sleep themselves.
N o w, w e c a n a d o p t s l e e p a s t h e
psychological pitch for our brand. Do not
forget that for a different customer
segment with a different pain point, this
pitch will be altered to reflect what holds the
most influen al value as it concerns diapers.
Also, as the customer's need evolve (for this
instance, as the baby grows) we must keep
re-evalua ng the mother's mo va on for
needing diapers in order to preempt her
needs and adjust our offering to it.
So far, our brand strategy has been based on
ra onality. It is ra onal that a nursing mum
will opt for a high moisture holding,
hypoallergenic diaper. It is also ra onal that
she will deeply consider our brand if we tell
her (especially for mother's with new born
babies) that it is a sleep panacea for her
baby. But human beings are not always
ra onal creatures; we are o en more
emo onal than we are ra onal. For this
reason, the first two approaches may suffice
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

to get a mother to choose our brand from me to me, but they won't suffice to create an
a achment, an emo onal connec on that binds her to our brand. For us to a ain this, we
must look beyond ra onality and create an emo onal feel for our brand. Not many local
brands have been successful at this.
At this point our goal will be to infuse a set of emo onal elements that makes our target have
this percep on that our brand relates to her and that we see the world in the same manner
as she does. This emo onal perspec ve makes this segment of people feel that we are part
of their team and that we see people with this emo onal inclina on as special. Ins lling an
emo on into our brand allows us to build some sort of 'humanlike feel' for it. It could be one
encompassing emo on or a set of complimentary emo ons that emphasizes such feeling as
happiness, love, care, affec on, empathy, beauty, luxury, exclusiveness, na vity, power,
strength, authority, innova veness, elegance, op mism, realism, spiritualism, fun, freedom
and such emo ons con nue. Some brands are even built around savagery or sarcasm for
example Nestle's Yorkie Chocolate that emphasized, "Not for girls".
A well selected emo on relates to that personality which the customer relapses into
whenever he desires to find himself. Now, considering the nature of our customer as at the
me she desires our product (bearing in mind she wasn't profiled thus, we will be generally
speaking), we can simply say that the emo onal feeling of love, affec on and care will
dominate her as she tends devotedly to her baby. Many nursing mums will relate very well
with these three emo ons at such period. But remember that another purposefully profiled
customer segment can have us targe ng mums whose emo onal triggers are neither love
nor care, but rather exclusivity, power, luxury or even na vity. But let us s ck to the emo ons
of love, affec on and care as we already selected.

So far, having laid a founda on for our diaper brand, let us now a empt to build an iden ty
over this founda on.
Brand name: Carnie Baby Diapers.
Brand color: Pink. (This name and color were derived from the Pink Carna on flower
which is a tradi onal symbol of motherly love and affec on).
Logo: a simple outline of a flower with 'Carnie' wri en over it.
Font: playful serif.
Tagline: Even affec onate mums deserve some sleep.

Our effort above only gave forth a unique brand iden ty for a new diaper brand. There are
many more aspects to branding that must s ll be addressed as you will find out below.
At this point, we can go a step further and create a brand statement for our new diaper
brand. This brand statement defines who we are, what we want to achieve and how we are
achieving it. It will take this form:

"For every loving nursing mum, we at Carnie Baby Diapers understand the importance of rest
for you and a healthy sleep for your baby. That is why our highly absorbent, hypoallergenic
diaper is made to give your baby maximum comfort that enables her have a sound sleep
allowing you more me for self care so you can be the super mum you truly are".

How does it sound?

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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d
Other Aspects of
Brand Strategy
A brand as equal to the people and system
behind it:
Brands don't just form and maintain
themselves. There are people and systems
behind ever y brand. To ensure we
effec vely engage our brand personality,
our brand strategy must include selec ng
the right people and crea ng the right
internal environment that establishes and
maintains that brand personality. The
people and system behind a brand must
align with our brand personality. Thus HR
and management func on of a firm become
indispensable in building an effec ve brand
strategy.
Imagine a happy brand run by angry people.
What about a fun brand run by boring
people? You definitely won't see any of
these because they don't exist. The HR
func on is where a brand either lives or
dies. Only people complimentary with a
brand personality can bring the brand to life.
This makes culture as important as
competence while assembling a team for a
brand. Think about this, if your brand is one
that is emo onally pitched on love,
realis cally only people who are familiar
with the expression of love can sustain it. If a
team with such a tude isn't put together
from the onset, then effort must be made to
inculcate this a tude in them as quickly as
possible. Frequent training, workshops and
discussions may suffice to improve the
expression of love by the team. This
emo onal value must run through the team
ver cally (hierarchically) and horizontally
(across mates).
In the same vein, the system that manages
the firm must be one that promotes the
emo onal value of the brand. To ensure
this, some firms have created a set of value
tests against which all major decisions they
take are weighed to ensure brand values are
not lost in the complexity of management.
Also, the physical environment must
intensify the value, culture and personality
of the brand. Within the business, the brand
must live; the office design, artworks,
pain ng, furniture, etc. Everything ma ers
in branding. Nothing is le to chance.
Branding as every touch-point of a business
As we have noted earlier, a brand is the sum
and consistency of its feel at every touch-
point. A touch point is any channel through
which a customer experiences a brand. At
touch points, percep on about a brand is
ins lled. Every singular touch-point adds to
a brand's story and thus con nues to
deepen its personality in the minds of
people. Few examples of touch points
include your product or service itself, your
product commercials, customer service,
website, social media content, press
men ons, blogs, visibility materials, staff
rela on with poten al customers, office
architecture, office space design, word of
mouth by exis ng customers etc. A uniform
message and feel must persist. For a brand
where its values don't live within the firm
and amongst its team, it is u erly
impossible to maintain a consistent feel
across every touch-point.
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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

Conclusion
Although we defined branding ,
examined how to cra a brand strategy
that works, and even went further to
create a virtual brand, there may be
more to making brand decisions in
prac ce But, no ma er how limited the
context of this presenta on, you, who
have read this far must now be well
equipped to transform your business
into a strong brand. Remember,
branding is not about capitaliza on
neither is it about product pricing (we
didn't men on either of them here), it
is about understanding what your
customer needs, clarifying what you
want to achieve with your business and
being consistent about it at every
touch-point.

I hope you found this ar cle quite

helpful and that you can now begin
yo u r j o u r n ey towa rd s effe c ve
branding of your business more
confidently.

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CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY | Fro m B ra n d I d e n t i t y to a Tr u e B ra n d

About
Onwubuche
Tobechi Chidimma
Tobechi is a Brand Management and Marke ng
expert with competencies across corporate
branding, business marke ng, product launch
and adver sing.
With field experience spanning over ten years,
accomplishing mul ple brand and marke ng
campaigns, Tobechi has been at the heart of
strategies and execu on of na onal and
interna onal campaigns. I align purpose, voice
and behavior to induce immediate and long-
term return on investment.

In an effort to support small businesses and

budding professionals with my knowledge, I
speak to learner communi es on such topics as
brand strategy, business visibility and PR
campaigns.
Feel free to contact me let's discuss how I can
help you build that appealing popular brand
you've always dreamed of.

tobechi12@gmail.com
+2348039154438

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THANKS
FOR
READING