How to create an Effective Brand Message in Retail

Contributed by Charu Gupta

Markets have been flooded with lots of brands these days but there are only few who are able to register a presence in the consumer’s mind. The Retail organizations should take utmost care of what their target segment is and create a brand message which does not create any ambiguity and is easily understood by their target audience. To create an effective brand message, Retail organizations should follow the concept of Brand Prism. Brand Prism mainly comprises of six attributes and is an effective tool to create a brand message which matches the company’s ideologies and persona and helps it communicate to its consumers. Following are those six attributes:

Brand Physique: What are the unique features and associations are you offering? What are your points of difference and what makes you stand out of the crowd?

Brand Personality: If you visualize your brand as a person, what are the key characteristics of your brand's personality? For example, is your brand young, confident, daring, trustworthy, innovative, etc. like Pantaloon’s brand message says “Fresh Fashion” which means the brand is offering new, fashionable, young and fresh products.

Relationship: What kind of relationship you aim to set up between the brand and its users...long term build on trust, admiration and respect. For example, Insurance companies always try to communicate a brand message which instills confidence and long term relationship to its audience.

Culture: Values guiding the brand and its energy should be exhibited in the organisation's brand message. For example, Reliance Retail says “Growth through value creation” which suggests that the company is growth oriented and aims at delivering value to its customers at each stage. Now, this culture is the guiding principle of the organization and is incorporated in the brand message.

Reflection: How users of other brands see my users? It is necessary to understand as it helps to know your brand's strengths and weaknesses and tells you the areas to improve upon.

Self Image: How do the users of my brand see themselves? This is necessary as you get to know the effectiveness of your brand message and the consumer perception about your brand. All the above things should be taken into consideration for creating an effective brand message and should be delivered through all your internal and external communications.

Most companies just focus on launching various marketing programs but if the same brand message is not delivered at the store level through your employees' behavior and services, it could turn off your shoppers instantly.

The importance of brand message is highlighted by the fact that even Mc.Donalds which has always been successful in its branding strategy has once failed with its “Arch Deluxe” which was especially made for adults. It was Marketed as the ‘Burger with the Grown-up Taste’ but the problem was that nobody goes to McDonald’s for sophistication and taste, people visit Mc.Donalds because they prize it on friendliness, cleanliness, consistency and convenience.

Thus, a brand message should be consistent in its values and physique as customers do not want to see different messages being communicated at different intervals of time by the same brand.

References: pospel.vox