Six branding strategies that built well-known brands

When it comes to branding, coca-cola is one of the most mentioned names, thanks to its mysterious ingredients. Human beings are interested in difference from other brands, but are even more interested in the mystery.

Here is a summary of the six branding strategies that have created strong brand names:

1. Keep secret and legal

Although coca-cola prints the ingredients of its beverage on each can/bottle, as required by law, it is legal to keep their secret recipe locked in a safe behind a thick bank vault door.  They have built this most extraordinary well-known brand for 129-year period.

     2. Scarce value

I on one occasion had a business dinner with a Chinese client from Kunming, He was generous enough to invite me to taste one of the most expensive teas in China - Puerh tea. The one I tasted cost approximately $500 Canadian dollars per gram. The most expensive one can go as high as $925 per gram.  I am a tea drinker and have tasted many kinds of high-quality teas, but I sipped it very carefully when I tasted that particular cup of tea. An exceptional tea!

3. Sell suspense

Do you remember Paul’s (the octopus) predictions at the 2010 World Cup? Although the world cup was hosted in Africa, Germany used Paul the octopus to advertise/promote the cup, and successfully attracted world’s attention. Can an octopus really predict the outcome? Here,  the suspense and curiosity played a huge role to generate public interests.  

Suspense to some degree, creates a sense of unpredictability and urgency. Zara knows how to leverage the unpredictability to boost the sales. They don’t carry a large inventory. They educate customers. For example, if you don’t buy this T-shirt today,  you may not be able to get the same style tomorrow.

4. Tell a story

I have heard many versions of how the name of “DOVE” came about. Whether “DOVE” stands for the love of a great father for his son, or the love of a man to his lover is not so important. The critical part is that we all remembered that “DOVE” is a short form for “do you love me”. People buy DOVE chocolates as a gift to express love.

5. Make it a ceremony

Disneyland’s parade is a typical ceremony. When the parade starts, hundreds of thousands kids and their families stand on each side of the parade path and eagerly wait for the famous cartoon characters they like. Disney use this kind of ceremony to encourage children to play/purchase with those mysterious characters.  Their merchandise sales skyrocketed.

6. Simplicity

When Xiaomi first launched its Mi phones, nobody knew anything about the smart phone besides its “MI” logo. However, after you switch on the phone and explore many advanced features, you want to know how much it cost. The phone is very affordable. Bingo, people want the phone badly. Xiaomi sold over 61 million phones and doubled its revenue to $12 billion US dollars in 2014.