Brand Zero , livre ebook

Marshall Cavendish International - Jacky Tai

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50 pages

English

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If you are thinking of starting up a business - whether online or in a pushcart or a small cafe - you need to look into your branding. (how does it work, anyway?), brace yourself...According to Jacky Tai, you should start your branding exercise as early as possible. Brand Zero distils the author's wealth of experience in grappling with branding strategies in the real world into a practical and easy-to-understand guide anyone.

Sujets

Employabilité, métiers et formations

Entrepreneurship

Informations

Publié par	Marshall Cavendish International
Date de parution	10 octobre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814516747
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

2014 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd

Published by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Request for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196.
Tel: (65) 6213 9300, Fax: (65) 6285 4871. E-mail: genref@sg.marshallcavendish.com . Website: www.marshallcavendish.com/genref
The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Other Marshall Cavendish Offices:
Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited
National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Tai, Jacky, 1970- author.
Brand zero : the complete branding guide for start-ups / Jacky Tai. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, 2013 pages cm
eISBN : 978 981 4516 74 7
1. Branding (Marketing) 2. Brand name products - Management. I. Title.
HF5415.1255
658.827 - dc23 OCN849190701
To all the tiny start-ups out there, remember that even mighty oak trees started out really small.
Contents
Introduction:
Today s Start-Up, Tomorrow s Big Thing?
What Monsters Are You Here To Slay?
Is There Light At The End Of The Tunnel?
Define The Idea That Defines Your Brand
Sum Ting Wong And Other Such Names
Why Should They Buy From You?
What s Your Story, New Kid On The Block?
How Are You Going To Make Money?
Is Your Hammer Big Enough?
Watch Out For Those Banana Skins
How Long Can You Burn?
Final Word
About The Author
Introduction
Today s Start-Up, Tomorrow s Big Thing?
If you are thinking of starting your own business, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that if you look at the big brands in most categories, they were start-ups at some point in the past. Established companies rarely, if ever, come up with the next big thing. This may seem like a paradox because the big boys have all the resources needed to create the next big thing such as money, people, expertise and experience.
Let s take a look at some of the leading brands that have taken the world by storm.
The leading search engine today is Google. It was a start-up founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It wasn t a brand that was started by an established technology company like Microsoft even though Microsoft had all the resources to do it.
When the category of overnight air express is mentioned, one of the brands that very often comes to mind is FedEx. When the founder, Fred Smith, submitted the FedEx idea as his thesis, he got a grade C but, today, FedEx generates over US 40 billion (S 49 billion) 1 in revenue a year. 2
The leading online book retailer is Amazon.com . It was a start-up founded by Jeff Bezos. It wasn t a brand that was started by any of the established bookstores such as Barnes Noble even though Barnes Noble had all the resources to do it.
Skype wasn t started by AT T or one of the other telecommunications giants. It was a start-up that was eventually acquired by Microsoft for US 8.5 billion (S 10.5 billion). 3 Not bad at all for a start-up that a number of people in the telecommunications industry had dismissed in the past as just a passing fad.
When the category of online auction is mentioned, the only brand that comes to mind for the majority of people is eBay and that was a start-up founded by Pierre Omidyar and his wife in a dormitory room. It wasn t a brand that was started by a well-established auction house like Sotheby s or Christie s.
Starbucks was a start-up.
Microsoft was a start-up.
The Body Shop was a start-up.
Pixar was a start-up.
Est e Lauder was a start-up.
Disney was a start-up.
IKEA was a start-up.
Southwest Airlines was a start-up.
Coca-Cola was a start-up.
General Electric was a start-up.
Why is it that the next big thing almost always comes out of a start-up?
START-UPS DON T HAVE AN EXISTING CATEGORY TO PROTECT
What made the big brands successful in the first place is usually the creation of a new category or a next generation product. Once they have successfully cemented their position as the leader of that category, they usually play a defensive game and protect their turf. That is the right thing to do. But not all categories live forever. New categories will come along that will make the old ones obsolete.
So, these companies are stuck between the need to grow and protect the category they invented and the need to create the next generation that will make the current category obsolete. Most companies choose the former route, naturally, and this opens up opportunities for competitors to attack them with new categories.
The mechanical typewriter was first mass-produced by the Remington Sons Arms Company in 1873. Consequently, the Remington brand became known for mechanical typewriters. Then came a new category called electric typewriters. Brother quickly became the leader of this new category. What came after that? The word processor. And it made the typewriter obsolete. Who created this new category? Wang. Could Brother have pre-empted this category? I am sure it had the technology, expertise and resources to do it but it was too late. So, Wang became the leader in word processors. And Wang most certainly could have created the personal home computer that made the word processor obsolete. But it was too late. Compaq ran away with that category before Wang could react. That is why it is easier for start-ups to create the next big thing than the established players.
If you don t establish your brand right at the formative stage of a new category, you are too late, no matter how powerful you are. Sony is a giant in consumer electronics. Sony created the Walkman, the first portable cassette player. It became wildly successful. Then, Sony created a new category of portable CD players called the Discman. Again wildly successful. But even with Sony s expertise and marketing muscle, it couldn t beat Apple and Creative in the MP3 players market because it didn t invent that category and it got in too late.
START-UPS DON T HAVE THE PROBLEM OF A LINE EXTENSION NAME
Even when the current category leaders do manage to create the next big thing, they sometimes squander their lead by using a line extension name. New categories require new brands. You cannot use the old category s brand name, especially when it already stands for something else.
Guess who invented digital photography? Canon? Nikon? Olympus? Nope. It was Kodak. Surprise, surprise! Yes, Kodak pioneered this category way back in 1976. But Kodak made one big mistake. It did not launch a new brand for its digital cameras. It insisted on using the Kodak name because it was already a well-known name. That may be true but what is Kodak known for? Photographic film! That mistake probably caused Kodak the lead in this sector. Look at the market share of the various brands of digital camera today and see where Kodak is on the list.
NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS
I did say that I have good news and bad news if you are thinking of starting up your own business and the bad news has nothing to do with money. In fact, money is the least of your problems because in this day and age (especially in Asia), money is easily available due to the influx of capital into this region.
The bad news is that the failure rate for start-ups is very high. I have observed many well-funded start-ups go belly up after less than five years in operation. According to research conducted by the University of Tennessee, 50 per cent of start-ups fail by their fourth year. Although this research was done in the United States, you should still pay attention because many of the factors that contribute to start-up failures are applicable the world over, and that means there is a 50 per cent chance that your start-up could fail in four years time. 4
If start-up failure is defined as a company liquidating all of its assets, with investors losing most or all of the money they put into the company, then the failure rate for start-ups is between 30 to 40 per cent, according to Mr Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School who has held top executive positions at eight technology-based start-ups. 5 And if failure is defined as declaring a projection and then falling short of meeting it, then the failure rate is at least 90 per cent.
Very few companies achieve their initial projections, says Ghosh. Failure is the norm.
The chart below from Statistic Brain summarises the results of the University of Tennessee research. It shows that by Year Three, 44 per cent of start-ups will have failed. It also highlights the survival rate of start-ups from various industries after four years of operation. It is not a pretty picture.

(Source: www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/ )
WHY DO START-UPS FAIL?
The University of Tennessee research also highlighted the key reasons for these start-up failures.

(Source: www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/ )
ENTERING THE DANGER ZONE
Even for