The Sweet Business of Branding

By Glen Gardner/Z102.9 and 1600 ESPN consultant

How important is your brand? Several years ago the importance was
graphically displayed to me during a tour of a chocolate manufacturing
company. This company (which will remain unnamed at their request) is
located on the East Coast and produces chocolate bars and other candy
under its own label and also produces products for other companies.
The person leading the tour said he mostly gets school-aged children
touring the facility and was happy that he had a chance to show some
adults through. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him I
helped companies with their marketing and messaging. He looked me in the
eye and said, "In that case I'm going to show you something we don't
usually show folks who tour the plant." He said we were going to see
something called the "label room."

After touring the various parts of the plant that mixed chocolate and
formed it into bars, Santas, rabbits and other confections, he stopped
in front of a door that read "label room." He opened the door and there
were boxes stacked floor to ceiling with labels on all the shelves. The
labels were the outside wrappers for chocolate bars produced by the
company. He said this room is where the same chocolate bars get labeled
and then shipped to the various companies that wanted their own
private-label candy bars.

The tour guide picked up one of the bars that had a Dean and Deluca
wrapper. He picked up another that had a wrapper for a supermarket chain
out east. He said, "You see these two bars. They are exactly the same.
They are the same chocolate and the same weight. But the Dean and Deluca
sells for about $10 and the one you can pick up by the register in the
supermarket sells for about $2." Then he said, "Isn't that just the
darnedest thing?"

Your brand does matter matter. In this case it allows Dean and Deluca to
sell a product for five times what another retailer could ask. It's the
same exact product, but someone is willing to pay five times as much for
it because of the brand.

Think about your image and your brand. Would you rather be Dean and
Deluca, or discount your product by a factor of five because no one
perceives the added value?

The most effective way to brand is to repeat your message electronically
and make sure you repeat your value proposition. It can be a very sweet
deal for you!