Review: Branding Your Business by James Hammond
Coca Cola, BMW, Adidas, Estee Lauder – These are names which provoke images to consumers. “Branding Your Business” by James Hammond, examines how brands are essential to the business of anyone who wants to gain a strong market share. It explores how brands make a grand mark in people's minds and how to use those emotions to sell one's product.
James Hammond has based his book on the theory that a brand is the total perception a customer has about a company, its products, and its services. He often repeats the statement that people, in most cases, buy on emotion and justify with logic. He stresses the importance of understanding the realm of psychology in order to create a powerful brand. He declares a critical factor in building a brand today i.e. we need to acknowledge that all brand purchases are emotional, because all brands are emotional.
Emotions need to be generated in two particular areas. The first being about the specific product/service and the second being the customer experience of the entire operation (thus taking into account both the emotional as well as the logical aspect of being the user of that brand).
What really appealed to me in this book was the fact that it could be used by anyone as it hardly has any technical jargons, and consists mainly of plain and lucid explanations of what we need to do to have a notable brand for our business. From simple advice on telephone etiquette to branding strategies that cater to the five human senses, this book demonstrates - with the help of quotes, images, and real-life case studies - how and why branding can work for everyone who is honest with themselves, their employees, and their customers.
One particular aspect that really caught my eye was that this book places a particular emphasis on building an impressive Brand Halo, which, according to the author, is deemed to be pretty vital. When we make certain decisions, certain bias plays a major role, one such bias is known as the ‘halo effect’,
James Hammond has based his book on the theory that a brand is the total perception a customer has about a company, its products, and its services. He often repeats the statement that people, in most cases, buy on emotion and justify with logic. He stresses the importance of understanding the realm of psychology in order to create a powerful brand. He declares a critical factor in building a brand today i.e. we need to acknowledge that all brand purchases are emotional, because all brands are emotional.
Emotions need to be generated in two particular areas. The first being about the specific product/service and the second being the customer experience of the entire operation (thus taking into account both the emotional as well as the logical aspect of being the user of that brand).
What really appealed to me in this book was the fact that it could be used by anyone as it hardly has any technical jargons, and consists mainly of plain and lucid explanations of what we need to do to have a notable brand for our business. From simple advice on telephone etiquette to branding strategies that cater to the five human senses, this book demonstrates - with the help of quotes, images, and real-life case studies - how and why branding can work for everyone who is honest with themselves, their employees, and their customers.
One particular aspect that really caught my eye was that this book places a particular emphasis on building an impressive Brand Halo, which, according to the author, is deemed to be pretty vital. When we make certain decisions, certain bias plays a major role, one such bias is known as the ‘halo effect’,