Natalia Milekhina, Author at Global Trade Magazine

What makes a good product? Quality, design, usefulness, and the proper market are all contributing factors. But there’s one more thing that relates to products of any size and scale – product branding. It’s the best strategy to attract the right people and encourage them to come back.

But do it wrong, and you’ll confuse even the people who came specifically for your products.

Let us help you do it right with this brief yet very informative guide.

What Is Product Branding and How Is It Different from Corporate Branding?

Product branding is a combination of actions that brand a specific product. Basically, you analyze the item, look for unique specifications, and market them, creating a separate identity for the product.

The combination can be very extensive, with months of research and tons of effort invested. Or it can be a lucky combination of package color, catchy name, and motto.

Don’t confuse it with corporate branding, though. Branding products or services means separating them from the whole picture, and evolving and adjusting them to the market.

For example, when you want to brand logistics and/or your supply chain, you’ll be emphasizing the promises made and kept, and encouraging customer and partner loyalty. This means delivering quickly and always on time, fast responses, etc.

Remember how quickly Nike’s shoes get to the shelves of most stores? That’s because of the company’s supply chain that delivers a great customer experience and supports the corporate brand associated with the speed, strength, and ease of the ‘Just Do It’ motto.

To achieve such results, your supply chain and marketing teams have to stay in touch and create a message that will sell a particular aspect of the business. A change in logistics branding can also garner more loyalty even from current unsatisfied customers.

Intel’s ‘Just Say Yes’ campaign has helped it pacify frustrated clients dissatisfied with the quality and speed of the company’s services. The campaign introduced a new standard of customer care and the company improved the speed of request processing.

A supply chain is crucial in product branding because it establishes trust and customer loyalty. And this doesn’t just mean giving people what they need quickly. It means doing so in a way that will make them want to come back and trust you.

Why Is Branding a Product Worth the Effort and Investment?

Especially if you include supply chain and logistics into the product branding strategy, it’s definitely worth the investment of finances and effort.

We have 4 reasons why:

Your product becomes recognizable.

By hearing a phrase, seeing brand colors, or through another association, people will immediately think about your product. Remember the Nike product branding examples. When we hear ‘Just Do It’, we think of Nike and its straightforward strategies like delivering at light speed.

You distinguish the product from competitors.

Once your product becomes recognizable it will stand out, like the brand H&M, which is marketed as a representative of affordable fashion but without the burden of cheap, exploitative labor. Their supply chain transparency definitely stands out.

You establish an emotional connection with customers.

Promoting the speedy and ethical qualities of your supply chain will cause emotional responses from potential and current customers.

It separates the parent company from product failures.

Having a certain product branded farther from the company’s design allows for experiments. Ideally, even a failed one won’t really taint your reputation because the association won’t be too strong.

Now, to the top recommendations on branding a product!

Tips to Focus on While Developing Product Branding

So, we’ve established the importance of product branding. We’ve found out that a ‘product’ isn’t just an item but can also be a service, such as logistics or supply chain. Finally, we know that not every branding is successful.

But how to make it work well for your company?

We have compiled some of the most effective recommendations for your product and service branding:

Deep research of the audience.

One of the most important things is finding out who your target is, what they want, how they will use the product, and what their values are. By knowing key characteristics of the target audience and their needs, you can start building a strategy to meet their needs and brand your products accordingly.

Why is this important? 89% of shoppers tend to trust brands that share their values.

If we’re talking about branding services like supply chain and logistics, you’ll also need to learn about the location and demographics of the audience. User behavior will let you know where and how they look for the services you provide.

Identifying competitors.

There are multiple ways you can identify and analyze competitors. First of all, remember that every business that wants to stay afloat nowadays works on its online presence. If your competitors are online, you can track them by simply searching for products and services similar to yours.

To find your competitors online, you can search for targeted keywords and see who is on top of Google. Alternatively, you can use an SEO platform like SE Ranking for a competitor search. There, you can enter your website to see who your main organic and paid competitors are and how well they perform. This will help you see what approaches they use and, possibly, what they are missing in their strategies.

Also, pay attention to the advertising aspect. How are their press reports built? What do customers say about their companies and products? Also, don’t pass over business directories, informational websites, questionnaires, etc.

The key to this step is further analysis using the data you get about your competitors. Find out what kinds of products your competitors release, who they target and what marketing channels they use, what their brand values are, how they distribute, etc.
To summarize the data, you can use the SWOT strategy. It’s easy and to the point.

Include product personality and its brand identity.

You have to know exactly where you and the product or service in question stand. What’s your goal? What gaps do you want to fill with the product? What do you have for customers that others don’t?

First of all, people see the picture, and 5-7 impressions can make people remember and even build trust in your product and brand. So be prepared with a great, stylish logo, high quality packaging, taglines, and the name of the product. If we’re talking about supply chain and logistics, it’s the clothes your drivers wear and the condition of their vehicles.

As you finish preparing the picture, it’s time to get deeper. Tell the history of your product or service, dive into its values, the glorious mission, uniqueness, etc. By going gradually, you’ll create a funnel that people will exit already wanting that product or service.

Embrace consistency.

Even if you do all of the above, if you’re not consistent, people won’t trust the brand. One mistake is fine, you can do damage control, but you’re going to waste a lot of money and effort if you don’t have the same message spread across platforms. The design of images and the quality of products and services also need to be uniform.

We’ve already answered the question of whether the investment is justified. But let’s add that sticking to your product brand consistently has a huge impact on its success.

That’s why creating a system and following it is so important.

Don’t forget about your staff.

Your staff has a large influence on how your company and products are perceived. We already talked about driver clothing and vehicles, but what about their tone and values?

Your teams should share the values of the brand and highlight this the best way they can. The job of the company is to remind the staff of the mission, the usefulness of the product, and the goal of the company. It’s essential to keep everyone motivated to not only do their job well but take those values and communicate with them.

The best-case scenario is having a team that shares your corporate philosophy and supports the importance of the product you’re trying to brand.

An excellent example is how your people deliver the product, what they say, what tone they have, and how it correlates with the image of your company.

Summary

Product branding is a powerful tool that can bring your business to a new level. It allows you to experiment without risking the company’s reputation. It provides an opportunity to give personality to each of your products and gain a target audience for them that is separate from that of your business.

It helps enhance what you create and give it life. But you have to do it right. Include every element of design and history into one system, be consistent with your message, and, of course, create high-quality products and services so that people who are drawn to the brand actually have something to love.

The food industry has learned more from the pandemic than it bargained for. The pandemic taught us some important lessons about improving quality, paying attention to employee and partner safety, and working regularly and consistently with suppliers. The past 12 months have been focused on response and short-term solutions. Many companies found that their operations and supply chains were not prepared to handle unpredictable peaks, and supplier pools lacked flexibility and diversity. Manual logistics processes similarly did not show the flexibility and speed of results needed, and it was difficult to make the quick decisions needed to keep businesses, customers and employees safe. With uncertainties in the safety of food imports and the functioning of restaurants in 2020, food and beverage companies were suddenly faced with new challenges.

Prevention is better than the cure

As the Covid-19 crisis set, a crisis in the supply chain followed, triggered by people’s responses to the spread of the virus, such as panic buying, which submitted the supply chain to an unusual stress, and eventual disruption. As the situation evolved, it became clear that digital transformation and technology upgrades were actions that could not be delayed if you wanted to make decisions based on actual live data.

In preparing for the future, we shift from “responding to challenges” to proactive action. First and foremost, you need a selection of technology solutions that support scalable and transparent processes. There’s a lot of talk about predictive analytics and supply chain modeling solutions these days, but the first step in this process is always the implementation of operational management systems and data exchange systems.

By standardizing your processes and transforming your technology, you can create a system that lays the groundwork for staying ahead of the competition, improving efficiency and preparing for long-term growth. Here are a few ways to get started:

First: Think about continuous quality control.

Food-related industries need to rely on a dynamic system that shows how your business is performing every day. It’s time to set goals for maintaining continuous quality control with your suppliers, within your own walls and in every part of the supply chain.

The first step is to look at all the software or technology you’re using now to see if you can consolidate or eliminate point solutions or irrelevant applications. Once you have a clear picture, you can ask if your systems can “talk” to each other and connect all decision data into a single source of truth. This helps eliminate siloed data and improves communication.

To give examples based on our company’s portfolio of solutions, the WMS system features automatic tracking of expiration dates, including residual expiration dates based on customer requirements. And personal customer accounts based on Generix Supply Chain Visibility provide data on availability products at various points in the supply chain, both in warehouses and in transit.

Second: Move away from manual processes.

How many times has a document or other data been “lost” in email or file-sharing folders? How many times have you worked extra hours to put together a report manually from multiple spreadsheets?

It’s time to let technology take over most of your administrative and routine work. It’s time for the food industry to stop relying on paper, spreadsheets and other manual tools. Chapman’s Ice Cream was enabled to effectively track their ingredients throughout the supply chain thanks to automation, and thus had the data required to react quickly to changes in consumer preferences and protect food safety. During the early days of the pandemic, John Fleming reports in a recent webinar that Chapman’s used the real-time data provided by their WMS to anticipate the supply of their ingredients and manage their customers’ expectations accordingly.

It’s important to remember that modernization doesn’t exclude people from processes. It is the use of human-centered technology that reduces human error, reduces administrative work and improves results. Certainly, you will have to invest in innovation, but technology creates efficiency and transparency that will ultimately save you time and money. Chapman’s for example, were able to reduce losses by gaining real-time visibility over their inventory.

Generix offers its customers an end-to-end process implementation based on the Generix Supply Chain Hub solution. All modules of the solution are interconnected by an integration bus to which you can connect your accounting system (ERP) and other applications in use.

Third: Upgrade your supplier management practices.

Integrating new suppliers and working with existing ones comes with many challenges. Emails go unanswered, contract renewal dates are often missed. Updating certificates, documents and audit results is a chore, to say the least. In addition, supply disruptions during the pandemic may have prompted you to diversify your supply chain. To summarize, working with suppliers is a lot of communication, paperwork and dates to keep track of. In addition, you are responsible for making sure your suppliers meet government and industry standards.

Using vendor relationship management software makes it easier for all parties, allowing everyone to work faster and more collaboratively. Supplier contacts, certification submittals and audit results are all centralized in one place, allowing you to work quickly and accurately to develop and renew contracts. Automated renewal reminders eliminate routine monitoring or worrying about updating a common Excel file on time.

Our company’s portfolio includes different level solutions to standardize work with suppliers: SCV based supplier accounts for goods and services, EDI based supplier portal solution, Generix Collaborative Replenishment for VMI based work. Our company methodology allows us to develop onboarding packages for fast integration of new vendors.

To Summarize

Modernization of systems makes sense both competitively and financially. However, in my opinion, the most compelling reason to upgrade is the well-being of your employees. In these volatile times, they are doing more with the same or even fewer resources, taking on more workload, which can lead to faster and harder burnout. If you can do more to support your employees and their effectiveness, you will achieve better results in the long run.

Generix Group North America provides a series of solutions within our Supply Chain Hub product suite to create efficiencies across an entire supply chain. From Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and more, software platforms can deliver a wide range of benefits that ultimately flow to the warehouse operator’s bottom line. Our solutions are in use around the world and our experience is second-to-none. We invite you to contact us to learn more.

This article originally appeared on GenerixGroup.com. Republished with permission.

Product Branding: Small Tips that Bring Huge Success