Getting your brand into the minds of your customers – and keeping it there

Kent Branch’s final event of the year, on June 13th at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood saw James Hammond, a brand consultant with over 25 years of brand experience questioning existing thinking about Branding, suggesting that most small businesses don’t know what branding is – and even some large corporations are confused!

In his entertaining and thought provoking lecture, James said, it’s not just important to define what a brand is, it’s also crucial to know where you find it. He stated that there is only one place that any brand exists – and that’s in the long-term memory of the customer. The question is, how do you get it there? The answer, says James, is to understand the psychology of branding and the four essential ingredients that create a powerful brand. Put them all together and you have what James has called a Brand Halo™, a total system for maintaining all the activities in a business that keeps the customers coming back for more.

Using material from his forthcoming brand master classes, and his book on branding to be published later this year, James argued that typical marketing approaches such as ‘positioning’ and ‘the 4 Ps’ are outdated and no longer work. Instead, James put emphasis on creating emotional benefits that connect with the customers of today.

‘My main focus is on the small to medium sized business,’ said James in a recent television interview. ‘They are the backbone of UK trade, but because of confusion about branding, plus limited financial and human resources; they often miss out on the ability to move their brand forward. I hope that I can give them some solid, practical steps they can take to create a brand that stands out from the crowd.’

James was originally a graphic designer and copywriter. He then became a brand consultant, working for blue-chip corporations such as Virgin, BT, Yellow Pages, EMI and Honda. He has also consulted for charities and numerous small businesses. His CD-based brand workshop called Mind-Brand™ is due out in August.

Ian Lockyer, Kent Branch Chairman said, ’James was an excellent speaker. Warm, entertaining, thought provoking and with ideas based from an amazing track record in marketing. Our audience thought he was an excellent speaker and carried on asking him questions, hours after the event had finished.’