Purposive Intellectual Property for Value Addition in Branding

Article published in Small Enterprise India.com ( http://www.smallenterpriseindia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=919:purposive-intellectual-property-for-value-addition-in-branding&catid=82:featureone )

Employing purposive intellectual property in creating a brand image is one of the biggest challenges facing event mangers across the globe. In the new and competitive marketing strategies advertisers often loose sight of the actual goals while creating intellectual property for their clients. The clients on the other hand do not fully understand and appreciate the employability of such intellectual property towards adding value to their business. These ideas must be generated creatively, imaginatively and proactively with focus on the target audience and marketing objective tangibles.

Elements of Successful Branding

Event managers are in hurry to churn out ideas that are less purposive and often misdirected. The large numbers of events such as beauty pageants, contests, fashion shows and expos that are being hosted on a regular basis do not add much value to the brand, since they are unable to abide by the basic principles of branding. In today’s extremely competitive environment branding must create a unique identity for the product or service so that it is distinctly recognizable, desirable and credible. In order to achieve this goal the intellectual property must be designed to draw attention, engage and associate the customer with the product or service. Promotional events have to be oriented towards cementing a more enduring emotional bonding with the audience.

Parameters to Gauge Effectiveness of Intellectual Property

Clients will invariably demand evaluation of the returns on investment in terms of money and effort. However in the case of developing and employing intellectual property one needs to go beyond the realms of merely assessing the returns on investment to take a more long term perspective and evaluate the returns in terms of impression, association, engagement, objectives and opportunities that are generated through the intellectual property.

• Creating Impression: Impression in most cases refers to the mere number of views that have been achieved through the campaign. On the internet this is easily determined through the number hits or clicks to that page. However practically the impression should go mere viewing and take in account the perception generated through the impression. Perception in this context refers to the kind of attitude the customer develops towards the product. The way he feels about the product and the level of emotional engagement that takes place. Discussions on social platforms are great indicators of perception created through an intellectual property employed. The IIFA ceremonies have become a much awaited event year on year as millions of Indians associate national pride to the event.
• Developing Association: Association with the product can be of two types –attribute based and non attribute based. Attribute based association refers to the customers knowledge about the features and characteristics that are intrinsic to the product and their performance parameters. The scent of a particular brand of perfume or the looks of a design of a brand of shirts. However on the other hand non attribute based association deals on an abstract level wherein certain feel about the product is emphasized such as opulence associated with owning a Rolls Royce or the level of fun anticipated when visiting the Disney Land.
• Generating Engagement: An intellectual property that is designed correctly and employed purposefully will generate engagement in terms of the ‘Buzz’ that will be created about the product. The social web is the ideal place to gauge this ‘Buzz’ where the number of shares, likes or taggings will reflect the interest and debate/ discussion generated by the campaign or event about the product. The positive online buzz and word of mouth advertising can work wonders for the product at an accelerated rate of spread of impression. Smart intellectual properties when deployed purposefully have the potential of creating millions of likes and shares in a matter of days. The Airtel’s ‘Har ek friend zaroori hota hai‘was one of the most talked about ads on the social platforms for a long time after initial launch.
• Harnessing Opportunities: In order to effectively harness the true potential of the market the intellectual property must create opportunity for the growth of business. Any specific marketing initiative must have adequate and distinct advantages over other conventional methods to be justifiable in terms of finances and effort committed towards it. It should result in evoking a positive response and attitude among the target audience which shall subsequently boost the business. The Femina Miss India event has been credited for boosting sales in the cosmetics and beauty care segments of all brands across the board throughout the country.
• Achieving Objectives: This is the most difficult of the measurable involved in evaluating the effectiveness of a particular intellectual property. The process is long drawn and hence conclusive evidence in terms of tangibles cannot be collated. However any client worth his reputation and money will be able to gauge the overall feel and mood that is created through an event or campaign to able to evaluate the intellectual property at an abstract level. The overall communication of a forceful brand image is more of a matter of perception rather than hard data analysis.

Maximizing the Commercial Value of an Intellectual Property

Effective branding and strategies for brand creation is one of the highest priorities for any business in today’s world of marketing saturation. Funds being always limited, deriving maximum commercial value out of the intellectual property invested in, is a natural focus for any business.

• Right Focus: The best results are achieved when the intellectual property is focused. What works well for a pizza restaurant or car company may not produce the same results for an academic institution. The Idea’s ‘No idea….Get idea’ campaign is case in point here.
• Timing: There are two aspects of timing an intellectual property for maximizing gains. In a long term perspective, the idea to relate to the social outlook of the day. A musical evening might have drawn huge crowds in the eighties but was not be as effective as a fashion show in the nineties. The short term aspect of timing is the prevailing mood of the audience. Organizing an inert neighborhood cricket championship right after the IPL season is certain to generate more interest than hosting a volley ball league. The Lay’s World cup flavors idea worked wonders in 2011.
• Flexibility: Both brand creation and developments are dynamic in nature. Thus the ideas must incorporate inherent flexibility to add new dimensions at a later stage. In a rapidly evolving consumer scenario the ideas must allow for shifting of focus in order to retain the relevance and attractiveness of the brand. The Vodafone Zoozoo superman 3G campaign lent tremendous flexibility to cater for various types of projections in the sequels.
• Brand Plan: The intellectual property must be integrated with the overall brand plan. The plan must include concrete provisions to protect, manage and leverage the idea to for long term brand success. The Amul Butter slogans on billboards across have outlived competition because of having been intricately integrated with the overall brand plan over the years.

A purposive intellectual property provides the brand with competitive business advantage and enhances the overall brand value. The client needs to be made aware of the long term implications and the integration plan of a particular intellectual property with the strategic brand plan. This will boost their confidence in the idea and provide assurance for the returns on investment.