Question

In A BRADING agency specifically,   What types of marketing, selling, and human resources analysis are performed (cost system, evaluation of consumers, needs, product strategy, distribution strategy, promotional strategy)?

Answer 1

a) What Does a Branding Agency Do?

A branding agency specializes in developing and launching a brand. Clients hire branding agency to either launch a new brand or to re-launch a poorly performing brand with a facelift. Branding agencies typically formulate the branding plan for a client's Go to Market strategy. Value added services include executing advertising campaigns and even end to end marketing activities in some cases.

b) Analysis performed by branding agencies:

The ultimate aim of a client hiring a branding agency is to boost its sales/profit by leveraging a well established brand. Thus whatever branding agencies do should ultimately boil down to better business for the client.

1) Customer Persona Analysis: The first step to bulding a brand is to understand the customers being targeted. Branding agencies use Updated Communication Model and reach out to target customer base to understand the needs, wants and desires of the customer. Customer perfona is very important because the brand should be compatible to it.
2) Product/service Offering: The next step is to understand the product/service offering to the customers. This is done to see where the product fits in the customer need continuum. If needed the product/service can be tweaked slightly. It is important to note that customers cannot be changed, what can be changed is the product or service. This analysis helps in formulating the product placement.
3) Brand Identity: This is where the core work happens. Branding agency develops a brand identity that will connect the product offering with the customer persona. The ultimate aim is to create a brand that has a top of the mind recall with the customer base. At this level only the brand identity is determined. The medium used to promote the brand is yet to be determined.
4) Resource Analysis: The marketing/advertising strategy depends heavily on the resources available. At this step the monetary resources, human resources and distribution channels already available are analysed. Human resources are also looked at as financial resources and analysed for what they can do to increase brand awareness and effectivity. At this stage the strategy is decided for implementation - Do more with more or Do less with less.
Monetary resources are analysed to decide the value proposition that would give the best conversion rate.
5) Distribution Strategy: A brand identity once created has to reach maximum number of customers with the available resources. Distribution strategy is decided to leverage existing distribution network and supplement it with the best of the rest. Disital channels include Search Engine Optimization, Social Media content marketing, Influencer marketing, E-commerce marketing, Games, Videos, etc. Traditional channels at disposal include TV, Mailers, Newspapers, Magazines, Hoardings etc.
6) Promotional Strategy: Once the medium is decided the final step is to determine the promotional strategy. This will depend on the stage of the brand and the need of the client. Promotional strategy can be designed to deliver Brand Recognition, Brand Credibility, Conveying problem solving capability, Customer Connect & Loyalty, Face-lift & relaunching, Niche positioning, Competitive positioning, etc