WCRC Brands Illustrated up till 15 October | Page 8

BI Brand Quiver

values and associations that consumers perceive the brand
brings to them leads to fulfillment of their expectations. The
feeling of fulfillment becomes the reason for the success of the
brand, and the basis for the relationship. Ultimately building
brands is about running a marathon. And it makes huge business
sense to invest in brand building. Strong, reputed brands, like the
ones mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, have a lasting
bond with their consumers. Their brand loyalty is very difficult to
break. The loyal consumer base raises the entry barriers for
the competition and enables the company to enjoy benefits
like premium pricing and sustained market share over
longer periods of time. All these put together result in the
brand being able to leverage in equity with the consumers
and reap long-term profits for the company.”
Chris Jaques, the iconic founder of SPARK
INNOVATION CONSULTING – which specializes
in developing innovation strategies to ignite specific
business areas, however pooh-poohs this entire gyan
and aggressively supports his logic with a clinically
chronicled 5-point rationale. He believes that the days of
Branding being the prime discipline to communicate the
consistency of a given product and the reliability of its
promise, are clearly over. There’s been a paradigm
shift in the Market-Product-Consumer connect
with the money going into the SERVICES
not products, slot. He supports it with hard
facts. “Walmarts’ revenues are three
times bigger than the entire revenue of
both Proctor & Gamble & Unilever
combined! Citibank & ING, too, are
twice their size. This is the age of
SERVICE not PRODUCTS and
service marketing requires a totally
different set of rules. Services are
customised, not mass-produced”.
Expanding this line of thinking
Jaques a ɝՕ́ѡ