In today's market economy, staying afloat and successfully operating in the market is not an easy task for any company, no matter what it does. In order for the enterprise and the goods or services it produces to be correctly positioned and presented to the consumer, the help of professionals is required.
Today's marketing is a real art. Professionals in this industry are able to sell anything. When it comes to a brand with a big name, marketers develop a whole range of measures to promote it and develop a brand platform. What is this marketing tool, what are its components, and how it affects the position of the company in the market, we will discuss below.
Brand platform: definition of the concept
Strategic planning is one of the central places in the marketing mix. To understand how to most effectively sell a particular product, or how to properly position the company itself, specialists from the departments of analytics, promotion, and advertising accumulate their efforts. At the same time, it is important to studyconsumer demand, offer of competitors, calculate the market capacity. These are components of the external environment. On the other hand, it is necessary to formulate the concept of the uniqueness of your own product in such a way that the client has no doubts: your company is exactly what he needs.
A brand platform from a theoretical point of view means a set of properties and characteristics of a brand and everything connected with it. From the point of view of application in practice, this is a document in which the company is considered on clearly defined points and positions.
Line items considered by marketers
So, in the document provided by the marketing department to the management, the key points of the semantic field associated with the trademark are spelled out. Brand platform development considers the following aspects:
- The uniqueness of the product / service produced against the background of the goods of competing firms.
- Immediate quality characteristics of the goods.
- Brand image.
- Peculiarities of the target audience.
- Philosophy and mission of the brand.
Descriptions of all these categories are meant to be presented in a concise manner and usually do not take up more than two or three sheets of printed text.
Advanced Marketing Plan
In addition to the document provided to the management, the specialists of the relevant departments study their areas of responsibility in detail and provide concepts, as a result of which the brand platform is formed.
Examplesfirms that have successfully coped with this task do not have to look long: these are world-famous corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Danone, Nestle and many others. These companies were able not only to survive in domestic markets, but also to become transnational, which indicates the highest level of skill of the marketers involved in the work.
So, what is included in the extended, detailed strategic plan and is part of the brand platform:
- Long-term strategy and goals of the company.
- Firm identity.
- Visual attributes: logo, font, corporate identity.
- Corporate interests and values.
- Viewing a brand from the point of view of the 4P marketing concept - the product itself and its characteristics, pricing policy, promotion and distribution channels.
As you can see, additional elements of planning are no less important for the successful functioning of the company.
To conduct an analysis of all the indicators and parameters described above is a very difficult and costly task. Without the involvement of qualified specialists in this industry, it is not possible to do this. If the firm's budget allows it to maintain its own workforce, a structured plan can be developed in no time. In the case when there are not enough own personnel, it makes sense to temporarily attract third-party specialists.
What does the brand platform give in practice
Theoretically, dealing with the concept under consideration is quite simple: all the componentshave long been clearly defined. But what are the practical benefits of a brand platform? The main advantages of its development and implementation are described below:
- Building a company's reputation and building consumer confidence in it. The brand is called that way because it is not “one of the firms”, but unique, with a unique selling proposition.
- Increase in profit due to sales growth and production optimization. When a company clearly knows its target audience with its needs and adequately assesses its capabilities, it does not produce too much and at the same time satisfies the needs of the client as much as possible.
- Resilience to crises. Systemic cyclical crises, which are capable of sweeping away small-scale production in their path, bring only a minimum of losses to large brands with a developed platform. In addition, the strategic plan allows the company to recover in the shortest possible time and quickly reach the required level of profit and continue to grow.
As you can see, the brand platform gives the company a clear advantage over its competitors, allowing it to expand production and maximize profits. With the necessary financial resources, this essential marketing component cannot be neglected.
