Branding: Just Ask

Natalya, a brand manager in Moscow asks:

"Have you ever encountered a product in which meaningful branding is not possible? For example, plastic buttons. Their cost and perceived value is so minimal that building any level of consumer loyalty is out of the question. Can a product like this even be branded?"

Natalya, thanks for asking.

Our strongly held opinion is that anything can be branded. Think about vodka, a relatively colorless, odorless liquid. We imagine that people who were never exposed to vodka brands might think that vodka could not be branded, but we all know that there are numerous brands of vodka, some of which command quite a price premium. The same is true of bananas, chicken and water. If these items can be branded, anything can. Whenever a potential client tells us that their company is in a commodity industry, we tell them that they are just not thinking about the product category or their product/service offering properly.

Any product or service can be turned into a brand even in the most price-sensitive categories in which all manufacturers’ products seem to be the same. It just becomes a matter of carefully transforming that product or service into a brand through a brand development process based upon extensive customer research.

Have a question related to branding? Just Ask...

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Comments

[Gareth S Price]

Off the top of my head, several other clothing components are strongly branded - YKK and Riri zippers are often counterfeited due to the value of the recognisable brand.

It would be interesting to see a "case study" on how you would approach branding something like plastic buttons.

[Ed Roach]

Natalya, when you say that any product or service can be turned into a brand, don't you mean that they can be turned into a successful brand since everything has a brand whether they want one or not. What we can do is make that brand stronger, more desireable. We can control the brand instead of the position the lowly button finds itself in today, where the marketplace is defining it's brand as simply a commodity.

Ed Roach