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Sridhar Ramanujam, CEO, Brand-comm

Branding is undoubtedly the much talked about topic in the board-rooms of big corporates, but less-practised practice among the startups. On the second day of E-Week, Sridhar Ramanujam, CEO, Brand-comm, a brand communication consultancy, shed light on the importance of branding for startups.

He dicussed at length about branding and its various aspects. Explaining about branding, he said, "A brand is a product/ service plus something extra. And the extra is actually a combination of both rational and emotional things."

Talking about brands, he said, there are two qualities that make them successful. The first being, relevance to consumers and the second, different from competition.

It is the second factor, most entrepreneurs struggle with. It is essential for any entrepreneur starting out to be able to differentiate his product/ service from others. Unless, he can, creating a brand with a good deal of recall value will only be a far-fetched dream.

Looking into another crucial aspect of branding, Ramanujam said, "A brand is a sustained delivery of trust." Stressing on the word sustained, he said that it is important to keep deliverying at  a maintained quality at all times. An entrepreneur cannot afford to be slack. He has to continue delivering what he set out to without compromising on any level.

From that, it can be said that branding is a continuous process. To maintain a brand, an entrepreneur has to keep on his toes.

Having covered all possible definitions of branding, Ramanujam further dicussed the various elements of branding.

1.) Brand Name- It is the highest visible and longest lasting connecting element between a brand and the consumer. People remember most brands by their names. So it makes it very important for an entrepreneur to choose a name that represents the business best and is also catchy. Some entrepreneurs go for names, which  has no connection whatsoever to their business, for example, Blackberry, Orange, apple, etc.
However, the challenge with naming companies with something totall different from the nature of your business is that you have to shell out a lot of money in communicating to people what business you are into.

2.) Identity or visual element-This is a crucial aspect of branding as people remember colours, shapes, logos, etc more than anything. While choosing a logo or colour for your brand, an entrepreneur should ideally keep it different from his competition. It should be differentiable.

3.) Tagline- A tagline, succinctly, says what a brand does. It symbolises what the company stands for. Examples of some very famous taglines are-- Just Do it (Nike), Imagination at Work (GE).

4.) Position- To stregthen a brand, it is importnt to position it in a different way. In a way that pulls in customers. A company can choose to position it in any way, say for instance, it can position it as a value for money brand or cheapest brand in town or most reliable. But when you are positioning yourself in a certain way, it is important to remember you should not make any false claims. You should claim to provide what customers can actually experience.

Lastly, Ramanujam spilled the beans on how to build a brand. He said that communication is the very way to building a brand. You can opt for mass media advertising or public relation or online advertising or website, as per your need and what your pocket can permit.

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Ralph Lauren Outlet
written by Ralph Lauren Outlet, August 12, 2011

Your thought is excellent; the issue is something that not enough people are talking intelligently about. I’m very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something referring to this.

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