Brand Creative’s Managing Director talks regional branding issues with the Kippreport.

The Kippreport.com speaks to our Managing Director, Mohammed El Hijazi, about branding. He tells us why strong, compelling branding is more important now, than ever before, and why this is especially relevant in the MENA region. Check out his article below.

Kippreport.com

  Today’s market, for any given industry, is at its competitive peak. 

In fact, success rates can seem disheartening, with 50 percent of businesses failing within their first five years and 24 percent of Fortune 1000 companies from 1995 no longer existing.

Gone are the days when great products and services were enough.

With today’s brand-conscious consumer, powerful branding is the foundation of connecting with your target market.  Your brand’s “voice” and “personality” can be clearly heard and experienced through your messaging and physical manifestations of design through packaging, collateral and environments.

There are more mediums than ever – with social media having added a new and dynamic layer in recent years – that help brands connect with consumers. Effective connection requires a strategy and strategies need to be reviewed often for their effectiveness.

In this age, the variables that dictate a brand’s “next move” can change very quickly.  

Competition is everywhere

Entrepreneurs and organisations looking to launch new brands in the MENA region must understand that competition is no longer local. Having any type of online presence means that a brand established in the Middle East can and will be experienced across the world. The opportunities stemming from that possibility are truly exciting for this region. Our goal is to create brands worthy of being franchised or sold, not only regionally, but also in international markets.

How many times have you heard someone in the UAE say: “I went to this great restaurant, but I can’t remember what it’s called?” In the branding world, this phrase is a complete failure and an indication of a weak brand. Strong branding solidifies brand recognition. It creates a memorable message, highlights your company’s strengths and connects on a visual and emotional level with consumers. If you’ve branded yourself correctly, even subtle nuances and details, such as business cards or colour selection, will become memorable components of your customer’s experience. They instantly recall your message and will act as your brand ambassador – assuming that their experience was positive. Take caution that negative memories can also be created and are even easier to recall, which is why first impressions really do matter.

Whether you’re a local start-up, a developing SME or a large corporation, a full, professional branding exercise should be allocated 20 to 30 per cent of your overall marketing budget.

Your yearly budget will depend on your goals. If you are looking to reposition your brand’s message, launch a new product or appeal to a new type of customer, your budget will need to increase from the above-stated amount. For start-ups, having a memorable brand story in place before launching is the foundation to growing your business. For all businesses, a full branding exercise should take place every five years. This will keep you on trend, analysing your current and forecasted positioning and formulate or amend your strategy.  

Quality matters

Whatever your budget, it is essential to not compromise on quality. When faced with a low budget, ensure that a large portion of it is allocated to the development of the brand strategy and guidelines. When done correctly, any competent creative team – whether it is a graphic design studio, interior designer, advertising agency or marketing firm – will be able to translate your story into whatever deliverable you have hired them for. The true testament to the strength of the strategy will be the consistency and quality of deliverables coming from a variety of creative teams that you may hire to execute work. Essentially, creatives (good creatives) speak the language of branding and a solid strategy document is akin to a dictionary.  

Brand loyalty

Market-leading companies like Nike, Coca-Cola and BMW have branded themselves so successfully that they naturally instill trust and loyalty in their consumers. Despite these products coming in at a premium, they still command a large share of their market and experience amazing repeat figures and patterns in consumers.

What’s fascinating about these brands is that all of them continued to invest and evolve their branding through the recent recession, yet none of them dropped their retail prices. The frequency of purchases saw a slight decline (which was happening globally from 2009 to 2011), but brand loyalty was sustained. With the brand-centric mentalities of the Middle Eastern market, this point is especially important to note. Local and start-up brands will experience the same consumer behaviour patterns that the brand “gurus” of the world have experienced, so, ensuring you are investing in your brand at all times is imperative to the consumer perception of your products and services.      

Create your own voice

Differentiating yourself in a competitive, developing market such as the Middle East is difficult, to say the least. It is proven that in instances where products and services are similar, consumers will gravitate towards the economical option. Interestingly, local studies have also shown that in instances where price differences were marginal (five to ten percent), a product that had stronger marketing messages or more aesthetically pleasing packaging was more likely to be selected.

Humans are programmed to spot and compare differences. How does your branding compare with your competitors? On the various platforms available, does your brand make an impact compared with the rest? Emulating your competitor can actually be the most detrimental move as sophisticated consumers can identify this and “call you out” on being inauthentic.

  An Apple a day

The launch of the first Apple store in Dubai (a first in the Middle East) has once again propelled the brand into the limelight and has businesses talking about how to emulate their success. Apple has a brand value of $145 billion, according to a Forbes list published in 2015.

That’s higher than the GDP of Hungary.

Apple has proven that if you have innovative products, impeccable service and strong leadership, the sky truly is the limit. But what fundamentally separates Apple from its competition is its branding. It shouts passion, innovation and simplistic beauty.

These positive characteristics immediately come to mind when you think of the brand. When products live up to such powerful brand messaging, you seamlessly connect with your consumers on an emotional level and you ultimately generate brand loyalty. It is proven that even if a “loyalist” has never used or even tried an alternative product, they will say with confidence that it cannot compare to Apple. That’s what successful branding strives for.  

Understand your audience

At the crux of understanding how to develop or redefine a brand for the MENA region – which can obviously be applied globally – is having a grasp on understanding human psychology and behavior. Every region will be different, as cultural nuances and socio-economical situations within communities will impact people’s emotions and their reactions to what your brand is offering. Working with talent agencies and thinkers that have an on-the-ground perspective to the market’s ever-changing conditions is crucial.

A brand’s ability to respond to current affairs or local subtleties by working on a human, emotionally based level will always translate into authenticity and genuineness. Any successful business in the region will attest to the fact that strong relationship-building techniques are fundamental to doing business here and the qualities of authenticity and genuineness truly sit at the core of these techniques.

  Mohammed, Director of Dubai branding studio Brand Creative discusses branding in the MENA region with the Kippreport.com.