Creating market equity through reverse branding

As consumers become increasingly savvy, traditional branding efforts that begin with the brand (e.g. BMW) and create an association (safe, cautious drivers) become more and more dubious. This is why, in the US, we are experiencing the rise of reverse branding, which turns traditional brand marketing on its head. In the reverse branding scenario, customers start with the category like a search engine or a pizza, and from there they make one brand (Google or Debonairs) the obvious choice.

By Gregory Serandos

20 Nov 2007

With so many brands cluttering the market, we think reverse branding is an effective way to distinguish your company and products. To get your mind around reverse branding, you can start with these steps.

Make a connection

The world is loaded with companies who consistently settle for the bare minimum. You can set yourself apart by create an emotional tie with your customers through handwritten notes, phone calls, gifts, golf days, and most importantly through effective public relations, delivering useful information that will help clients in their business or personal capacities.

Connect your messages with the market

We pay far more attention to comments in the media and recommendations from friends and than we do to from advertising. Is your company up to the challenge?

Start with understanding who makes the buying decisions on your products, then profile how, where, and why they want to receive information. That will help you work out ‘key messages' that your company consistently gets out to the market. Those key messages, if delivered through the right media or medium, will heavily influence purchases over the short and long-term.

Tell your story

Human beings latch on to stories, not clever advertising that wins industry awards. To get your story out there, you can use traditional publicity or PR activities to get write-ups in the press. You need to tell your story with a compelling message with an eye on your position in the market. The story must stand out in the marketplace, stimulate interest, and most importantly turn interest into action.

Choose the right media/medium

There is a lot of traditional media out there starving for good quality, relevant content. Why not your story? Think about connecting your market with your media, including traditional TV, radio, and print, and of increasing importance in South African, online. If you are communicating to any part of the marketing community, Bizcommunity.com is terrific. For the ICT sector, there is ITWeb. For finance, Moneyweb.

Better yet, think creatively. If you are targeting 20-something consumers, think about how you can deliver your message cleverly through MySpace or Facebook or even Internet dating sites. You have no idea how much time this demographic spends online communicating with ‘friends'.

The bottom line

People think about the stuff they want before they think of the brand. If I'm tired and hot and thirsty, I buy a Coke. If I want a consistently bad hamburger, I go to McDonalds. If I want to impress my friends with wealth and sophistication, I order a premium beer like Pilsner rather than a Castle. Customers think about what they want. Then they decide who can meet that need. This is the bottom line of reverse branding.