Brand Essence - Definition & Meaning
What is Brand Essence?
Brand essence symbolises what the brand stands for in the minds of a company’s stakeholders and stakeholders. It defines the core competencies of a firm along with its culture and values. It is the single line or word that defines how the brand is differentiated from other brands. It could be a brand’s tagline or could be the 1st word that comes to a person’s mind when he/she hears about the brand.
Example: Volvo reminds one of safety, Volkswagen’s tagline ‘Das auto’ i.e. people’s car comes to ones’ mind when they hear the name Volkswagen.
A brand essence can be defined in various ways. The few basic ingredients of a brand essence are:
a. Uniqueness: A brand essence should claim the uniqueness of its brand.
Example:
Visa’s brand essence is that it is available everywhere and Jeep’s automobiles are suited for every terrain. These core competencies are reflected from their brand logos and taglines.
b. Intangible: A brand essence is usually an intangible aspect of the brand.
Example:
People believe in Dettol for being the safest anti-bacterial.
c. Single minded: A brand essence should be described in the shortest possible way. Too many words or too many core competencies show that the brand is not focused.
Example:
Britannia has a defined tagline which says that it supplies healthy and tasty food. While, united biscuits does not have a well-defined tagline.
d. Experiential: The essence should also capture what the audience experiences after using the brand.
Example:
Volvo vehicles users know that it is one of the safest car brands. Dove users know that it keeps the skin soft.
e. Meaningful: The essence should be meaningful.
f. Consistency delivered: The brand essence should be consistently experienced by the customer.
Example: Maggi noodles are known for being easy and fast to cook. The brand has consistently managed to deliver ‘2-min noodles’. Coca-cola has managed to serve the same tastsince its introduction.
g. Authentic: The brand essence should be authentic. The brand should be able to deliver its promise.
Example: Domino’s pizza has the ’30 minutes nai toh free’ policy. It promises to deliver pizza in 30 minutes. But then often the 30 minutes service time is compensated by low quality of pizza.
h. Sustainable: A brand essence has to remain unchanged for longer time.
Example: KFC has been using secret herbs since introduction. Therefore, the taste of KFCs food has consistently been the same.
i. Scalable: A brand essence should be quantifiable.
Brand essence is also believed to be the emotional heart of a brand. In B2C markets, brand essence is the way customers connect to the brand emotionally. So, if the brand is not performing well for some time, even then, customers use that brand due to their emotional attachment to it. Thus, brand essence increases customer loyalty.
BRAND ESSENCE WHEEL
The brand essence wheel shows how to analyse the brand essence of a company. It tells us about what the customers want and feel. It is thus, very important for a company to develop and sustain a good brand essence.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Brand Essence along with its overview.
This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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