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Brand and marketing

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Brand and Marketing​

Definition & Summary: Using traditional marketing and brand positioning to shape user perception . This strategy leverages advertising, branding, and messaging to create an emotional connection or image that influences customer behavior in your favor.

Detailed Explanation: A strong brand can command customer loyalty even in commoditized markets. Brand & marketing gameplay focuses on binding a specific customer segment to your product by appealing to identity, values, or status . The origins lie in classic marketing warfare -- framing your offering as the one that "fits" the customer best. Key principles: understand your target segment deeply and craft messages that resonate. Sometimes it involves casting competitors in an unfavorable light (subtly) and emphasizing your unique story or quality.

Real-World Examples:

  • Historical: BlackBerry's famous "It's not a toy" campaign positioned BlackBerry phones as professional tools, implicitly labeling iPhones as frivolous . This brand positioning aimed to keep corporate users loyal to BlackBerry by appealing to their professional identity.

  • Historical: Large telcos often create sub-brands to target niches (e.g., Orange launching "NJU Mobile" for youth) . The parent company uses marketing to speak the language of a segment (teens) without diluting its main brand -- a dual branding strategy to cover all bases.

When to Use / When to Avoid:

  • Use when: You need to differentiate in a crowded field or build trust and familiarity quickly. Brand marketing is key for consumer products and when selling lifestyle or image (e.g. luxury goods, tech gadgets). It's also useful defensively to hold onto customers by reinforcing why your brand aligns with their identity .

  • Avoid when: The market is highly rational and price-driven (brand matters less), or when your product has quality issues (marketing can't fix a bad product for long). Also avoid over-indexing on brand if innovation is what's needed -- marketing hype without substance can lead to backlash.

Common Pitfalls:

  • Mis-targeting: Getting the messaging wrong for the audience (e.g. using "professional" tone for a youth product) can alienate customers.

  • Over-promising: Aggressive marketing that sets unrealistic expectations will backfire when the product disappoints.

  • Ignoring product fit: Believing branding alone will carry a subpar product (it rarely does beyond initial sales).

Related Strategies: Education (which can be seen as informative marketing), FUD (competitors might use FUD to counter your marketing), Differentiation (branding often highlights differentiation points).

Further Reading & References:

  • Wardley Maps Forum -- "Gameplay: Influencing your customers" (Brand and Marketing section) . Discusses examples of brand-focused ads and sub-brands.

  • Chiefmartec: Beyond FUD -- Building Brand Trust. Illustrates how 1990s IBM and Microsoft used marketing messaging to solidify brand safety vs. competitors .