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In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth – and the first Brand -“The Forbidden Fruit”. But this brand was so strong everyone was intrigued, motivated, aware and accessible – a marketer’s dream. So much so that 50% of the world’s population ignored the health warning and tried it!

Branding is the single most important element to business. The back office, the sales people, the stationery, the whole box and dice revolve around the Brand. It is what people see, what they hear and what they repeat.

When businesses are sold the Brand value is represented as the share price or buyout price. Many businesses do not understand that it is the Brand that will determine whether the owners retire to Noosa on the beach or a caravan park in a regional town.

It is also that same purchase price that can afford you a trip away each year or that prevents you from affording a private hospital when you have a trip at home.

Your brand is impacted by many things:

• Service – turnaround times, sticking to commitments, knowledgeable etc
• Your people – how good they are, the clothes they wear, the language they use
• Your promotions – quality vs tacky, appropriate vs just plain costly
• Your price – are you value, quality, prestige or junk
• Your product – is it as promised, do I get my monies worth, do I get value?
• Your budget (spend a lot and even poor Brands can survive)

Brand is about the 1st, 5th and 6th sale: The 1st sale gets them in, and if you make it to the 5th and 6th sale, you have a loyal customer. If your plan is to maximise revenue whilst in the business, and maximise the purchase price when you want out of the business, then Brand is the only thing that will do it.

As your PE teacher said – “Image is everything.”

Most people and businesses see the brand via its physical or visual manifestation (VM) as in name, logo and tag line. The power of the brand is more than the VM just as the role of IP is more than just trademarks and patents.

Fa’toomsh look at the IP and Brand issues slightly differently – yes it is governance, yes it is part of risk management, yes it is design, but in Marketing terms it has to be more.

We work with start up and existing companies – new businesses who have great ideas and need a way to create a going concern and older businesses that have concerns about the way they are going. With 8/10 companies failing within the first two years and the private sector, especially small business, being the cornerstone of employment, growth and innovation in the economy then surely the application of IP and Brand has to be seen more broadly than just from a due diligence and artistic perspective.

In Marketing, the fundamental question of “what business are you in?” has to be asked and answered correctly in order for a business to survive. As businesses strive for the break in the market, that little point of difference, they design and create unique offerings, ways of working, delivery methods, products, processes, language and culture that give them an edge. This drive for “uniqueness” and its subsequent application into the business and the marketplace provide revenue opportunities that otherwise would not exist. In Marketing that “uniqueness” forms the basis of the USP’s and Competitive Advantages of the business.

It is the “uniqueness”, or IP, that we try to patent/trademark. Logically the sole reason we do that is to “control” that uniqueness – because control gives you the power of options. And, because we strive for as much “control” and as many “options” as possible in business, we bring processes and disciplines to bear on IP such as due diligence, governance and risk management to ensure that it is a management and business priority.

The role of Fa’toomsh is to:

• Find or build uniqueness/IP – i.e. marketing edge
• Build and encourage the use of processes – i.e. governance edge
• Implement strategies to increase business success – i.e. marketing and governance

Unfortunately for Marketing, the Boardroom table has traditionally been a matter for the accountants and lawyers; as a result we mostly see IP, and now Brand, from their perspective fields. The real value of IP is from a Marketing perspective i.e. the drive for uniqueness and the processes that get you there. This is what creates the business’ revenue that accountants count, and the lawyers are paid with.

Brand is the summation of a business – the people, processes, product, USP’s and Competitive Advantages, market drivers etc. In its physical form, seen as a name, logo and tag line, – we demand it to be as “unique” as possible in order to give us another, or sometimes sadly the only, USP and/or Competitive Advantage we have over our rivals. Hence why graphics and IP are all a legitimate and fundamental part of the Marketing process.

Customers buy a product/service because it will satisfy a need. IP is a Marketing issue because it is about the control, valuation, development and protection of the “uniqueness” that is part of every customer offering.

BRAND is the most important part of your business.

Without a strong and robust Brand your sales efforts cost more, your service levels are required to be higher, your promotional costs are higher, your product development costs are higher, your channel opportunities are reduced.

It is all bad news when you have poor Brand image or an unsuccessful rebrand.

Conversely, strong Brands enjoy less promotional effort to gain the same awareness, are able to trade off their Brand when things go bad and the value of the company is a lot higher – impacting share price and sale price of the company.

At Fa’toomsh we create Brands that have cut through and market presence – building it in to your IP and company worth.