Blind branding

by cerwayne

Branding is like loving. You tend to focus on making one like you. You therefore fail to notice others around you. Moreover, branding is considered as a long term asset, however it doesn’t stay forever.  Due to the problem of changing environment and the opportunity associated with it, it is possibly required for a business to change it’s position therefore affecting its brand and its target market. As they said “Finding love is like finding shoes. People go after the good looking ones, but they end up choosing the one they feel comfortable with.”

One of the most important fact that all business are paying attention to is that the market is continuously changing and evolving. Because of the changes in the environment and in consumer buying behavior, consumers are becoming more particular and strict on their purchases. The changes in the environment is also the main cause in the changes on the preferences of the consumers. This leads to the need to change either the brand’s position, image or product offerings. The business has to be able to adapt to the fast changing environments.

Changes in the environment especially in the technologies provide companies a better access to their consumers. It gives them the opportunity to be able to reach their customers easily. It helps them understand their customers. However, this leads to consumer empowerment. It makes the consumer more particular and specific on what they want. This ultimately shows the segments in the market. This will prove useful for companies to finally really target the consumers they want to make a connection with. Instead of blindly going after a larger market segment which they consider as their target market, the technological changes in the environment helps them identify and locate their specific real target. The companies then will have to adapt to that market’s specific needs.

Positioning refers to your position relative to your competitors. What if a new entrant or an existing competition decided to follow onto your positioning strategy? This happened in the case of Converse. They felt threatened about the capability of their competitors. Moreover, their market share and sales were starting to decrease. Since it was already obvious that the competitors were doing much better than them, they chose not to compete head on. Instead they felt the need to change their positioning, their target market and their product offerings. Instead of being a basketball shoes they highlighted their creativity. Instead of being a sport shoes, they became known for being associated with music which market. Instead of trying to fix their relationship with their previous customers, they opt to chase after the untouched.

Branding is like love. Despite it being a long term asset it is possible that a time will come for a company to change its branding strategy, a time to look for a new relationship. This is mainly due to the changing environment, consumers and competitive actions. This also serves as an opportunity into tapping niche but strategic consumer markets.