By M. Isi Eromosele

Today, consumers are considering value more thoughtfully than ever before and redefining what value means to them. What does value mean in your industry? More importantly, do you know what it means to each of your customers?

How do you know which customer group, and which notion of value is most important to stimulating the growth of your business? If you could understand these shifting attitudes towards value, what would you do differently?

As the current economic recession continues, customers can shift allegiance quickly. Companies’ remaining inactive while waiting for a recovery or leading indicators to start pointing up just isn't an option. They need to become reacquainted with their customers.

What they need to do to is stimulate their businesses, based on insights into their customers’ changing perceptions of a reasonable exchange of value between the two parties.

To gain insights into what their customers value, and be able to act confidently on that information, companies need to clearly understand what’s important to these customers. They should use their brand to stimulate the kind of change that is right for them as an organization and for their customers.

The companies need to spend the time and effort to deepen the relationships they have with their customers so their brands will retain customer trust and loyalty.

Redefining Brand Relevance And Value

A brand is an identity that has a unique combination of value characteristics and promises a desirable and unique experience. While there are many value characteristics among competitive products, a brand is a specific combination of one or more such characteristics.

It is the company’s brand manager’s job to keep these value characteristics intact, not to allow the competition to unravel them individually. In doing so, the company maintains product differentiation verses the competition.

In addition to this distinctive, unique combination of value characteristics, a brand must be relevant. It must fulfill or otherwise serve a need of the consumer. The brand should

also be identified as a source; it can’t be generic in nature.

It needs to have a sense of authority about the class of products or service in which it exists. Another element of a brand is familiarity; it should have some level of notoriety and reputation in the eyes of the consumer.

To redefine or restore the brand relevance, this excellent value experience must be consistently delivered, every time, everywhere. The process of redefining the brand relevance includes developing a comprehensive knowledge of the market and understanding the consumer needs that are addressed in the market segmentation.

In addition, there must be an extensive evaluation of the customer, their views, opinions, habits, lifestyle, demographics, needs, wants and values. It is essential that the brand promise be clearly defined in order to restore and develop the brand experience and consumer trust.

The ultimate goal of any form of brand building is to enhance and maximize the brand experience, making a promise to the consumer, delivering on that promise and doing it consistently.

Creating A Marketing Culture

In redefining their brand value, companies should create and nurture a marketing culture throughout the organization. The most effective brand companies are consumer-oriented. Consumer needs drive their branding activities and unmet consumer needs drive the new product development.

A company with a marketing culture is always consumer-oriented and they take an integrated approach to marketing. It’s not just about advertising and promotions; all elements and functions are part of the marketing mix and play an important role in the marketing plan.

From packaging to logistics to financial metrics, it all revolves around the marketing and branding initiatives. There should also be an intensive obsession with product and service quality.

Another key characteristic of a marketing culture is having a long view of the business. The organization needs to function and run the day-to-day affairs of the business with a 3-5 year view of the global market.

Structure The Company Around Product Management

To redefine and restore a brand, it is essential that the company be structured around product management. The functions within the company must cluster around the management of the products and building of the brand. All the functional groups within the companies should be servicing the product management and product line planning function.

In a sense, the product/marketing team is the customer and all the other functional units are the vendors. This structure starts at the top. The senior management team should be lead marketers. They should always be talking marketing: issues of segmentation, customer behavior, new products and new plans.

The senior team should be walking and talking of building brands, satisfying existing customers, attracting new customers and promoting a powerful entrepreneurial spirit.

In order to add value, trademarks and brand symbols need to carry “associated goodwill,” which is acquired by providing high-quality products and by giving good service over a long period.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

Copyright Control © 2012 Oseme Group