Let's talk Branding

Branding for a PR person is an intricate job description. We are always the brand's ambassadors. Michelle Foley always says that she wouldn't be at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa Fla, if she didn't connect with the hospital's motto. She also said that she wouldn't be able to sell the brand if it hadn't fallen in line with her personal conviction. So, a PR's person is more than just an advocate, but a brand's advocate.

So what then is a brand: text-book reading says a brand is "something that leads you to feel something in your gut about the product - an aura, essence, personality and invisible layer that surrounds the product. And what makes it different from other products." I however would say that a brand is the totality of the package.
A friend asked me last week to be his PR campaign manager as he would be competing in a reality show: Next Movie Star. I agreed to help create a buzz but reminded him that since I was not in Nigeria, I was limited and couldn't do much. Now in his mind, all he wanted was publicity. However, I realized that there wouldn't be publicity yet until we built a brand. Tomiwa is the product, but we needed a brand.

Now it has been drummed into me so many time that I must rehash it, " a brand is not a logo, as it is merely a symbol for the brand. It is not a product, as that is just the tangible element of a brand. It is not a corporate identification system: mission statement, newsletter, reports etc." A brand is what would make people keep voting for Tomiwa week after week in order to win the title. What people would connect to before and after they see him on-screen.

A PR person is always involved in one aspect of the branding process or the other, if not all: from creation to sustenance of the brand. However branding, in the case of all media related matters, cuts across a diverse forum of platforms and not just Public Relations alone. The use of IBP (Integrated Brand Positioning) cannot be over-emphasized when it comes to a brand or a product. IBP is "the process of using a wide range of marketing tools that work together to create a widespread brand exposure. Its goal is to create a consistent message and impression of teh brand across various platforms to be used and to speak with one voice. Another word that relates with branding is of course Marketing which encompasses direct marketing, advertisement, sales promotion, events/sponsorship, public relation & publicity and new media.

So what is a PR's position in branding? that my friend would be another post. Have to run.