We FedEx our packages, Google our questions, drink our Nescafés, wear our Levi’s, aspire to buy our Rolex watches, and are inspired by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are surrounded by brands – in our homes, at supermarkets, on the streets.
The healthcare industry is one of the most stable and consistently high-performing industries globally; though, it is also highly regulated and competitive. To survive in such an environment, it is imperative for a brand to remain differentiated from competitors and build a loyal customer base that values, trusts, and respects its expertise, capabilities, and believes in the brand promise.
In the face of growing competition and declining consumer loyalty, brands today are continuously on the outlook for new means of survival. Sensory Branding, a tool that has been around for years but has only been noticed fairly recently, has emerged as a key differentiator.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has seen an emergence of home-grown brands. However, a brief analysis of three major global brand rankings from Millward Brown Optimor, Interbrand and Brand Finance show that brands from the MENA region have a lot more potential for growth, with only a few ever making it to the global top 500 brands. Thus, the economic importance of brands remains largely underrated.
Every customer facing company has a brand. Your brand is a promise and a customer selects you based on a number of diverse, often unarticulated expectations. You might have been through a branding exercise recently and your brand looks fresh. But is your new brand promise delivering against customers’ expectations? Is it aligned with your customers’ brand experience?