Mid-Hudson Marketing

What exactly is branding? What comes to mind immediately is an image of cowboys using a hot iron to sear onto their cattle a unique symbol of their ranch to convey ownership when selling on the open market. In a sense, that in a nutshell is a very appropriate analogy of what branding means to business marketing.

It has been called corporate identity or corporate image; but it all refers to the same thing. Branding is the cumulative effect a carefully designed and orchestrated group of business attributes, symbols and verbiage has on our perception to create a permanent impression and awareness in our mind. A successful brand is one we immediately recognize sometimes by a mere couple of words, a defining couple of musical notes, a logo, or a color scheme. When a brand has been established, it is one of the most powerful forces in life, transcending time, place and culture. Who in the world has never heard of Coke®, IBM®, or Tiger Woods?

How is a Brand Built?

Building a brand is something that takes a generous budget, plenty of time, and strict discipline. First, the brand needs an appealing identity including a well-designed, memorable logo, striking, memorable advertising and ubiquitous, diversified, repetitive exposure.

Above: A small sampling of the many technical jobs we performed for a scientific company catering to an international market. These included product data sheets, ads and direct mailers, the cumulative effect of which fortified the company's brand over many years.

Above: A small sampling of the many ads, billboards, and other material which has reinforced the brand of a Hudson Valley, New York source for high quality carpeting, flooring and blinds/shades.

For the purpose of this discussion, most companies seeking business advice from Mid-Hudson Marketing are small businesses with a limited market. Is it possible for such entities to build a brand on a small scale? Absolutely, without equivocation, small-market branding is as possible as large-market branding but on a smaller scale.

Consistently excellent marketing is the best answer with emphasis on the word consistent. As we learned in Psychology class, conditioned reinforcement is most conducive to retention. Just as Pavlov's dog salivates at the sound of a bell, we respond to branding in much the same way. The more often people are impressed with a consistent presentation of a meaningful and appealing message, image or jingle, the more likely they will be to remember what was being advertised. Just consider the unfathomable branding successes of such products as Band-Aid®, Vaseline®, Scotch Tape®, and Kleenex®, which transcended their status as mere products to become bona fide words in the global lexicon. We don't treat a wound with an adhesive bandage, we put on a band-aid. How many of us think of the words petroleum jelly while asking for vaseline? Yet, it is probably hard to pinpoint a specific advertising strategy which led to such branding awareness. More likely, those successes were the result of many, many years of consistently memorable marketing that simply crept into our psyche without our ever realizing it was happening. There have been astonishingly successful slogans and advertising jingles that to this day still resonate in memory even though they have been out of circulation for decades. Examples? "Winston® tastes good like a cigarette should"; Maxwell House®: "Good to the last drop"; Alka Seltzer®: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is!"

Global brands such as Coke, IBM, Tiger Woods, Band-Aid, Vaseline, Scotch Tape, Kleenex, Winston, Maxwell House and Alka Seltzer are all registered trademarks of their respective companies and corporations and are not affiliated with Mid-Hudson Marketing.

Above: A small sampling of the many instances of advertising, social icons, business stationery, trade show displays, website home page and other collateral material which has established a strong national brand for a major roofing company.

Above: A small sampling of the many ads, billboards, and other material which has reinforced the brand of a Hudson Valley, New York source for high quality carpeting, flooring and blinds/shades.