Team Alpha 375

What is a Brand?

By: Dave McLurg

Standard and Poor states that 86% of a business’s value at purchase is intangible. A large part of this intangible value is the brand. Branding is vital to the short and long term success of every business. Brands thrive or perish based on the ideals they espouse. A brand is a promise shared by an organization, heartfelt by its employees, and expressed in its products and services at all points of contact with its customers. That commitment results in unfettered sustainability and loyalty to the brand.

Starbucks CEO, Howard Shultz, returned to his former role as chief executive with an impassioned mission: Reinvigorating what he calls the “romance and theatre” of coffee making, which he says had been damaged in the retailer’s meteoric global expansion. The stores no longer had the aroma of coffee, which was part of their special appeal. Schultz clearly understood the impact of those brand changes and reestablished and reinvigorated the Starbuck’s brand.

Successful brands, no matter the industry, understand and manage the perceptions they want their brand to own in the minds of their targeted buyers. They manage those perceptions at all key consumer touch points. It’s the ‘intangibles’ that customers buy and a product or service must ‘consistently’ deliver on those attributes. Brands thrive or perish based on the ideals they espouse. What does FedEx stand for? Overnight. What does Volvo stand for? Safety. Historical evidence suggests that the strongest and most successful brands view Brand Strategy and Business Strategy as one in the same, not two different things. The brand IS the business.