Brad VanAuken of Branding Strategy Insider says that branding is:
"The Source of a Relationship with Customers"
Here's a good definition by Kristine Kirby Webster I came across over at Marketing Vox:
"Branding allows a company to differentiate themselves from the competition and, in the process, to bond with their customers to create loyalty. So a position is created in the marketplace that is much more difficult for the competition to poach. A satisfied customer may leave. But a loyal one is much less likely to."So, in essence, we could say that branding = marketing = customer service, right?
The most import word in this excellent post is experience. The word relationship works too for the same reason. Brand is experience...good, bad and ugly.
Strategy and awareness of the relationship between what one says and the actual experience is huge.
When the campaign says excellent customer service, but the values of service are not realized, what is the brand?
Posted by: David Sandusky | December 28, 2007 6:42 PM | Permalink to Comment