Progress_Audio_Script_2.doc

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Progress Test 2 (Units 4-6)

Track 3

Brand strategy is the driving force behind a business, there’s no doubt about it. Brands are what all businesses are trying to create and build on. Successful brands are a company’s most valuable asset. You see, your brand is the unmistakable symbol for your products and services and to get that unmistakable symbol you need to make sure it has all the characteristics of a successful brand.

First of all, it needs to be distinctive, you know, it has to stand out in the crowd, not be easily confused with competing brands. Then, it needs to be easy to memorise, so complicated images, too many colours and sophisticated names are out.

The next thing is that the brand name must be easy to pronounce and, if possible, in several languages. Your brand also has to fit the image of the product. I mean, there’s no point in coming up with a wonderful concept if it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual product.

Finally, it is important that the brand communicates the right emotional appeal to your target customer.

Once established, a successful brand will almost never let you down. Other things may change: positioning, packaging, whatever, but the brand will remain the same. Take for instance, Chanel’s ‘No 5’ perfume. It is still the best-selling perfume in the world. Imagine, with all the competition that’s out there – the thousands of perfumes that have come onto the market since its launch and there it still is

– right at the top! A perfume named ‘No 5’! Not veryinspiring, you might think, but the brand is Chanel. The name speaks for itself. That’s the power of a brand. Well, No 5 may have been helped a little by the famous remarks from Marilyn Monroe in the 60s when she said she slept in nothing but Chanel No 5. There’s nothing like a celebrity endorsement to push up sales.