Branding has become an invaluable tool to add value to a company or product. With so many options and strategies available to marketers to create and maintain their specific brand name, it is easy to get something wrong. And in this day and age, the consequences of this can be quite substantial.

A recent blog post by “Dave” outlines the importance of delivering on your brand promise; in particular the effect packaging can have on this. In his post he describes how a friend of his bought a frozen pizza that in no matched the description on the box, (the topping were quite scarce) and subsequently posted it on facebook, fueling much comments and debate. You can see the post here: http://davedolak.blogspot.com/2011/05/everything-counts-in-brand-building.html

Obviously the company did not deliver on its promise on the packet, and this mistake was observed and shared with many possible consumers. What the post did note was the gravity of the mistake. If the company producing this was a low-cost generic brand, the result could almost be expected. The infringing company was in fact Freschetta, which prides itself on “frozen pizzas  made with top-quality ingredients and taste-tested recipes, just to make sure your pizza will always deliver FRESCH® flavor.” (see Freschetta website: http://freschetta.com/about-freschetta/default.aspx)

Freschetta is making a real effort differentiate itself using its logo and “FRESCH®” slogan/Brand Personality, and is hoping to create a strong brand relationship with its customers. Mistakes such as this can greatly offset the money and effort being put in, especially with the speed and efficiency news spreads in the current age.

So although branding is an invaluable, immensely powerful tool for companies, the implications of “not getting it right” can be quite serious. I’ll leave you with an example. Last year, Toyota’s brand image and reputation was severely affected when it had to recall a large number of cars due to brake fluid issues. (http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/21/autos/toyota_recall_brake/)

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) was recently in the news because they had offered to pay celebrity Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from the MTV reality television show Jersey Shoreto not wear their products.

Obviously this was a well thought out publicity stunt, that worked well for both A&F and Jersey Shore. Often a unique or unusual marketing campaign or stunt works as well, if not better than the more common ones. In this case, A&F saw an opportunity to generate some free publicity that was still directed at their target market, as well as lots of hype in the news and on various social networking sites.

Although developing a strong and well thought out marketing strategy is the most vital component to a successful marketing plan, the benefits of these ‘marketing freebies’ should not be taken lightly. Often the ‘outside of the box’ thinking can provide unforeseen opportunities for companies that can be just as important as the mainstream.

Which brings to mind an interesting concept, that although you can teach marketing, sometimes it is these ‘outside the box’ thinkers who can make the biggest impact. And that is a way of thinking that is very difficult to teach.

Hi, My name is Kyle. I’m an Australian over here on exchange studying commerce. I’m taking this course because it looks interesting and it is a pre-requisite back home. My main experience with marketing has mainly been as a consumer, being exposed to ads and billboards etc on a daily basis. Something personal about myself is maybe that I can juggle. My favourite Ad is for an Australian beer, its pretty hilarious, check it out:-

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