Creating and Building your Brand without Breaking the Bank
Carol Frank
The value of a branded product is more important then ever
in this crowded pet product space. Recently I was privileged
to moderate a webcast for APPA entitled Grass Roots
Brand Building with Doug Gleason. Doug is the founder of
True Blue Pet products and a former branding expert with
Disney, Pepsi, and Nestle. In other words, he sure knows his
stuff!
I got so much value from working with Doug on this project
that I wanted to pass on the key points from the webcast.
You can also download it from the APPA website at
http://www.americanpetproducts.org/education.
Why Build a Brand?
A brand is the combination of the product’s physical
attributes and an emotional connection the consumer has
with the product. Starbucks is a great example of this. Sure,
Starbucks has good coffee, but people are no more going
there strictly for the coffee than a guy stops at a pub strictly
to taste the beer. It’s all about the experience.
To Build Value. As an investment banker specializing in the
pet industry, I get to see first hand just how important a
brand is when valuing a company. Most companies are sold
as a multiple of cash flow (or EBITDA). Companies without a
strong brand will sell for 3 to 5 times EBITDA. Companies
with a strong brand will sell from 7 to 12 times EBITDA.
Waggin’ Train sold for almost 13 times EBITDA! So even
though it takes time and resources to build a brand, you will
get your money back in spades when you go to value or sell
your company.
Consumers pay significantly more for brands. When
faced with choices between a branded product and a less
expensive store brand, they choose branded at least twice as
often.
A strong brand can’t be copied. If your only competitive
advantage is price, eventually someone will come in with a
lower price and then no one makes money. And no one has
any fun. But if you have a strong brand, you don’t have to
worry about that. A competitor can try to replicate your
product, but they can’t replicate your brand.
How do I go about building my brand?
Doug provided a step-by-step process for you to follow
when fleshing out your brand and subsequent marketing
campaigns:
1. Target your audience. It’s really difficult (and
expensive!) to be all things to all people. When I owned my
birdcage company, Avian Adventures, we would tout our
cages as “upscale furniture for you and your bird.” We never
tried to compete on price and we were always clear that our
cages were high end. Doug tries to accomplish this as well with
his True Blue Shampoo.
2. Position your product to that audience: What does my
brand offer? What is my brand promise? Will this position
maximize my profits?
3. Support your claims. What are the specific product
attributes that support your brand promise? If you claim to be
the best quality at the cheapest price, people won’t buy into that
because it feels inauthentic.
4. Develop your tone. The “personality” of your brand. Is it
fun and whimsical or smart and serious?
Be Consistent
Doug couldn’t emphasize enough how important it is to
maintain consistency throughout all of your marketing
campaigns and collateral materials. Every marketing step you
take, every dollar spent, should go toward consistently building
your brand. Before you go out and create new marketing
campaigns and initiatives, is everything you are already
spending money on helping to build your brand?
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Packaging
Web Site
Retail Point-of-Sale Materials
Trade Show Booth
Business cards
Letterhead
A perfect example of a successful pet brand is Kong. Their name
has become so strong that now they license their name to other
companies. THAT is the ultimate in branding!
Now that you have a strong branding statement, how do you get
the word out? Next month’s column will cover Grass Roots
Marketing and other ideas to introduce your product to
potential customers
Carol Frank of Boulder, CO, is the founder of four companies in
the pet industry. As a Managing Director at SDR Ventures
Investment Bank, Carol leads the team in executing pet industry
transactions including M&A, capital formation and strategic
advisory services. She is also the owner of BirdsEye Consulting,
the consummate source for pet sector consulting expertise.
She can be reached at carol@carolfrank.com