BRAND IDENTITY AND BRAND IMAGE: MY DEAR MSMEs CHECK TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE MISSING

 

 

Do you know there is a difference between Brand Identity and Brand Image?

Make no mistake about it. The difference is clear, very, very clear. Please, pardon my grammar. It is understood, accepted and indeed in very high demand within the constituency of my choice, the one that I represent, speak for and is so dear to me: the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), presently dominated in Nigeria by the Micro and Small sub-sector categories.

Yes, Brand Identity and Brand Image are the issues here. The two, as a matter of fact are marketing related and should be at the radar, closely monitored by the MSME business operators always.

Between the two, one is however, driven through the actions, efforts and commitment of the Brand or product owner(s). What this means is that the efforts are initiated, supported, monitored and evaluated consistently by the product or Brand owners to ensure desired impact is achieved.

The Product or Brand owner(s) referred to here is you, my very dear MSME business operators.

By Brand Identity, it simply means the efforts and commitments put in place by product or Brand owner(s): their representatives or agents, working directly or indirectly, individually or severally, but collectively to achieve their objectives. That is to say, what they do, what they give out, produce or try to communicate through their branding efforts and activities, about their brand or product.

Brand Identity efforts are internally driven. They are carried out by the product owner(s), but the public is the target. It is therefore public oriented.

In the case of Brand Image, it is short and simple, what the customer(s), the product consumer(s) perceive of a brand or product. It is something that lies, resides or occurs within the jurisdiction of the customer or consumer of a product or brand. Thus, issues of a Brand Image are things outside the control of a product or brand owner(s), but the Brand owners do not just live it at this, hence the intensity with which Brand Identity is driven by the Brand or product owners to ensure that their customers build very positive Brand Image of their Products or Brand.

Dear MSMEs, please note that it is solely your responsibility to beam your search light regularly on the consumer to conduct surveys intermittently about your brand or product image. The survey will help you to generate or ascertain from the public, customers or consumers, whichever it is that you decide to refer to them as, reliable information, for you to understand their “Brand Image” of your product or brand.

The benefits that accrue from such surveys are not easily quantified, but surely numerous. Among them is: your enablement to make informed decision about what to do having identified exactly where your Brand is residing in the minds of the public, customers or consumers of your brand.

The benefits of “Perceptual Map Reading” and ascertaining accurately the existence of a gap, if any, are huge. Similarly, the need for you, the MSMEs to work committedly and consistently at closing identified Brand Perceptual Gaps can never be over emphasised. My advocacy is strongly for both.