What's up brand builder Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're
going to learn what product branding is and this brand strategy pros and cons so you can build
your brand beyond your business allowing your products to grow a reputation all on their own
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals using
strategy psychology and creative thinking and you're in the right place hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab the pro
brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now for most of us
when we think about branding or brands we tend to think of companies so we think of apple or
nike harley-davidson or levi's but sometimes the business brand under which the product lives isn't
enough on its own to be uniquely distinctive as a product in the market even if that brand under
which it sits is apple so for example you might be in the market for a new phone but an apple phone
might not have the distinction the relevance the capabilities the sense of novelty or even
the social standing that the iphone promax would and this is where product branding takes center
stage and in this video you're going to learn what product branding is why it's so effective
and the pros and cons of building product brands so let's start by answering the question what
is product branding now the easy answer is that product branding is the branding of a product but
you didn't want a surface level answer did you so let's dig a little bit deeper than that and
dig into the bones a little bit more now product branding is the discipline of actively building a
positive reputation for a product now this type of branding focuses on the distinction of the product
rather than the company and professional brand strategists are able to achieve this by using
effective positioning distinctive brand assets and tailored brand messaging so in other words
product branding is exactly like branding but for products so how exactly does product branding
differ from corporate branding well when you build a business you want to build a reputation
of that business so more people trust it and ultimately buy products and services from it
actively building the reputation of the business is known as corporate branding
and it helps businesses to stand out from the competition stand out from other businesses
in the marketplaces and it influences the decisions of the consumer to choose it over
those competitors actively building the reputation of the product then is known as product branding
now often the product brand leans on the brand equity or the reputation of the business brand
under which it sits and the stronger the business brand obviously the greater the advantage for
the product brand now in reality most businesses put all their efforts into branding the business
missing out on an opportunity and an advantage that product branding offers but what about the
difference between product branding design versus product branding strategy well for many the term
product branding refers to the design of the product and its packaging and while that is a
very important part of product branding product branding as a strategy is the strategic decision
to actively build the reputation of the product as a standalone brand so while you
might design the packaging of a product for a business brand product branding as a strategy
defines the product as a standalone brand so why is product branding important as a strategy well
although we don't tend to think of specific products when we think of branding chances are
many of your favorite brands are product brands so for example sprite airmax macbook pro big mac
mustang photoshop 501s these are all examples of products that stand as their own brands they stand
as individual brands in their own right apart from the parent brand under which they live and in most
cases the parent brand or the corporate brand that they live under is excluded when the product
is referenced so for example most people don't use the name adobe photoshop it's simply known
as photoshop and likewise you wouldn't call it a mcdonald's big mac it's simply known as the big
mac now if you stick around to the end of this video there are plenty more detailed product
branding examples that i want to show you now for most business owners the priority lies with
building the brand of the company which makes sense if you're successful in building a positive
reputation for the company selling products becomes much easier that said there are some
advantages and disadvantages for building both a corporate brand and product brands so let's dive
into what they are but before we do if you do have any questions drop a comment below and of course
if you like this video give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe and the notification bell will let
you know when i release new videos just like this now finding success in product branding offers
many potential advantages for the product for the business and its consumers as well so let's dive
a little deeper into what these advantages are advantage number one it distinguishes products for
consumers now have you ever visited a website of a brand where they offer different services but it's
very difficult to tell which offer would be best suited to you that's because the business didn't
leverage product branding or at least it didn't leverage product branding effectively anyway
branding your products individually makes them easy to distinguish from one another ultimately
making that buying decision process easier on the customer the easier you make it on your customer
to buy a product the more likely it is that they will do just that advantage number two hyper
targeted positioning and messaging now corporate brand positioning and messaging must accommodate
and appeal to the broader target market who's likely to have different wants or needs now
many brands offer different products and services to meet the needs of different market segments
product branding allows for messaging that differs slightly from the corporate brand though it does
always have to align with that corporate brand but it appeals more directly to those
who are more likely to buy a specific product advantage number three unique visual identity
product branding provides an opportunity for visual differentiation and distinctiveness
amongst a portfolio of products adobe do this really well within their adobe creative suite
now although all of the icons look and feel like they belong to the same family
their brand colors and unique image style make them uniquely memorable advantage number four
it makes brand advocacy easier last year i bought a pair of sony wireless headphones now
they're great and i still use them to this day but i don't know what they're called now even though
i can see the name of the product every day when i pair them with my devices the name of the product
is so obscure i simply can't remember it now for the record it's something along the lines
of the mxc double zero one three or something ridiculous like that now i could of course
look up the name of the brand for the purpose of this video but that would defeat the point that
i'm trying to make here if a friend asked me to recommend a pair of wireless earphones it's
not that easy for me to do so but if on the other hand i used air pods it would be really easy for
me to just say i use airpods they're really easy they're really great and i really recommend them
and this is a massive opportunity missed by sony for brand advocacy and market share growth now
although there are plenty of advantages to using product branding as a strategy it's not always
an option there are also reasons that you might not want to use that strategy so
let's take a look at some of these disadvantages disadvantage number one interconnected reputations
now product branding can be a little bit incestuous essentially the products that
your brand are interconnected through the relationships with the parent brand and
the risk here can be mitigated let's say in a house of brands architecture where the brand
is managed independently by the parent brand so you have sister brands that don't really have a
relationship between each other so for example the way unilever manages both dove and axe dove
and axe don't really have a direct relationship with each other that is managed through unilever
now that said where there is a more direct link between products a fault in one product brand
can tarnish the reputation of its related parent brand or sister brands disadvantage number two
more expensive marketing now another downside to product branding is that it's more expensive to
brand multiple products and run multiple marketing campaigns now from brand assets to websites
advertising creative and media spend product branding can get quite expensive and may be out
of reach for many businesses brands with limited budgets might be better placed investing those
resources into a single brand for the business and a single marketing campaign to promote it but all
that being said branding products separately may only go as far as the name of the brand to provide
distinction for the customers now look i know when you think of product branding you might think that
it's only for the big brands of the world with massive budgets but the reality is branding is
not always about building entire ecosystems of distinctive brand assets digital platforms and
complicated marketing campaigns at ground level product branding is about making your products
easy to remember and if all you take from this video is that simple principle you can
leverage some of the most effective benefits that product branding offer without the costly expense
now if you want to see more examples of product branding to inspire your own strategy then my
next video will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video