Let’s Talk About Branding
What is branding?
To me, it is the mental image that you have of a company and their products.
- When you think Volvo cars, you think “safety”.
- When you think Google, you think “search engine”.
- When you think Star Bamboo, you think “bamboo flooring”.
This brand promise is easy to fulfil when the company has only one core product. What happens when the company expands their portfolio of offerings?
Google has gone from search to email, RSS reader, news groups, blogs, photo software, 3D images etc. According to Seth Godin, there is the danger of brand ubiquity.
When your brand is lots of things (like AOL became) then the expectations were all over the place and the emotional resonance started to fade.
This is something we pay close attention to. That is why as we expand our product portfolio, we have to maintain a common theme.
Besides bamboo flooring, we also have:
- bamboo veneer
- bamboo panels
- bamboo furniture
- bamboo decking
- natural flooring oils
- bamboo chopping boards
Which is the odd one out?
That is a trick question because the common theme is not “bamboo products”, but “eco-friendly products”.
We made a deliberate decision to obtain the distributorship of Timberex, a range of eco-friendly natural flooring oils for South East Asia.
It allows us to expand beyond bamboo products, yet maintain our brand promise at the same time.
So the next time you think Star Bamboo, think “Eco-friendly”.
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Gary said,
April 25, 2007 at 6:56 pm
nice blog
thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas!
Marc said,
April 26, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Hi Star Bamboo
Ah, double trick question because you didn’t reveal if there actually was a correct answer at the end of your article. OK, I’m going with “natural flooring oils” because I can’t imagine an oil being good for the environment. For instance, what happens to the waste during production?
Your products sounds fantastic. I rent rather than own, so I’m not really the market for many of your products (flooring, decking etc), but I am so incredibly impressed with your commitment to sustainability. I say that sincerely.
My sister (who lives in Ireland and so is also not really a market for your products) is currently researching and planning a home that is as close to sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. I’m going to refer her to your website so she can learn a little about bamboo.
To comment a little on something I do know something about (brands), your thoughts are interesting. I sense that you (like all of us in a rapidly changing world) are grappling with “what is right and what is wrong in branding” and I’ve come to suspect that there is no right answer to that. You are right, there is some danger of brand ubiquity with Google (or Yahoo who are also many other things including Flickr, or any large brand). However if you look at mega brands such as Coke (who also have a new coffee/cafe division, sell water, fruitjuice and health drinks) and P&G (who actually compete against themselves in many consumer categories), it is still certainly possible to be many things to many people. The overarching “parent” brand itself I think plays less of a part now than the individual product. I’m not saying that brands are dead, but I do think consumers are sophisticated enough to evaluate products on their own merits and endorse or reject them accordingly.
Having said that, I admire and love brands with a strong vision for community good. It is obvious from reading your blog that you are in this category and this is something which will benefit your company and (I’m sure) see it grow and prosper. Doing good by the community and the environment is not only noble but should be on the top of every company’s agenda. Thankyou for doing that.
I think that a strong cohesive vision is indeed “branding” and the way you have interpreted it (”eco-friendly”) is an excellent lateral interpretation that will allow you to play on your obvious strengths.
A couple of suggestions:
1. Consider informing Inhabitat (http://inhabitat.com/) when you have interesting news. They are trend makers.
2. Consider in your “Who is Star Bamboo” on the right panel having the link open in a new window instead of taking you away from the blog
3. Your comments section is pretty unfriendly. Perhaps consider putting the blog on your own server (generally it is free) so you have control of the interface?
4. They say in all the literature “a blog is a conversation”. It’d be nice to have an “about” page and to know who you (the
Hun Boon said,
May 2, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Hi Marc,
Wow thanks for that long comment of yours. Lots of helpful suggestions in there, I’ll keep them in mind.
I’m still grappling with the haloscan interface, which explains why your comment was only just approved. I used that instead of the default blogger comments interface because I wanted to enable trackbacks. I’ll make changes to it along the way, do keep the feedback coming.
Talking about P&G, I would say that P&G is the company and they have many brands under them. I dare say that most customers would not know that. The need for them to have different brands is to create an illusion of choice for us. Imagine if all P&G products are marketed as “P&G”, I think their sales would certainly take a hit.
We do try to build a sustainable business for the long term. It’s quite an idealistic vision at times, especially when we see companies around us putting profits above all else. But we’ll push on as hard, and for as long as we can.