Brand health and wellness

After attending a curated seminar on health and wellness by Council for Fair Business Practices (CFBP) recently, I am inspired to pen down a few words about brand health and wellness. The CFBP summit, which was curated by Micky Mehta, under the leadership of Swapnil Kothari, president, CFBP, dealt with various facets about health and wellness. The illustrious panel, consisting of some of the best names, offered enlightenment to the audience. 

Mukesh Batra, Manisha Koirala (the movie celebrity) and Micky Mehta himself, along with many other eminent panellists, participated in the discussions. And Shekhar Bajaj was the guiding force. The talks revolved around the fact that, just like a person’s physical and mental health, a brand’s health is important too, to ensure top line and bottom-line growth. 

The inspiration from the seminar also served to make the approach more holistic than piecemeal. It stressed that brand health is important to be able to, first of all, serve consumers and then look at the benefits to the community, to the channel and, then, to the company itself. 

Just like an annual health check-up is needed for a person, a brand too needs a regular health check-up on various parameters, so that it remains healthy and serves its varied audiences the way it is supposed to. The brand health check-up would bring out the strong and weak indicators within the brand. Just as you examine various parts of the body – whether it be bones or eyes or heart – across various measures, a brand too needs to be checked up across various elements, so that it remains healthy and performs well both financially, as well as from the consumer satisfaction level. 

Brand awareness 

To begin with, you need to check the brand’s awareness of health. Do people know about your brand? Are they aware that you exist, for what purpose you exist and what benefits you could provide, irrespective of whether you are a product brand or a service brand. If the awareness levels are low, then they need to be measured and actions need to be taken to improve the awareness health of the brand.

Many companies have good products and services. But they remain unknown. Hence, they do not get the benefit of good health for the brand. From being ‘unknown, you need to be known, you need to be recognised and your benefits and core values need to be recalled.’ 

In Hindi, this could be described as, ‘anjaan to jaan pehchaan, and then gyan,’  This is what would help increase brand awareness health.

Brand trials 

The next level of health which needs to be checked is the brand trials’ health. Even though consumers know about your brand, have they tried it?  The brand could be a product or a service. If it is a product like, say, a biscuit or a soap, have the relevant audiences tried it, or is it that they are aware of it, but have not been motivated to try?

If it is a service brand, like an airline or a bank or a hotel, have they tried your brand? Have they tried your restaurant? Have they flown your airline? Have they stayed at your hotel? If not, then this trial parameter of health of the brand is weak and you need to be able to correct the situation. 

Whether you need to use the technique of sampling, or tactics related to trials through trial rooms, or techniques related to trying out a service – all these would help generate trials, because without that, it would be difficult for consumers to judge whether they should actually be able to indulge in the consumption of the brand or not.

Brand repeats

The next health indicator for your brand would be brand repeats’ health. While you may have tried the brand, it is not necessary that you would repeat it, repurchase it and use it again and again. It is not necessary that you would recommend the brand to your friends and family. If you like the brand, be it a product or a service, you may want to reuse it and re-purchase it and also say a good word about it to your family and friends. But suppose you have not liked it or it does not serve the purpose for which you bought the brand, then you may be spreading negative and bad impression, which may stop other people from trying it and, thereby, bring down the reputation of the brand.

Brand repeats’ health is important, because if you have not taken care of the ingredients in the brand and if the brand does not perform well, there will not be repeat of your brand and the brand repeat health score will be low. This needs to be corrected at the ‘product ingredient’s quality’ level itself. Only then would people repeat your brand and the brand repeats health score, would go up.

Please note, it is not enough to only look at the product quality of a brand, but one should also be looking at the service quality of the brand. In product brands, a large proportion of the stress would be the product and its ingredients and only a small proportion would be for services. In a service brand, a large proportion would be for service quality and a small proportion would be for the product and its ingredients. It is important to balance both product and service since both product quality and service quality are important.

Brand revenue 

The next brand health indicator is related to revenue and sales. Are the sales and revenue of your brand going up? Are they consistently going up? Is the rate of growth healthy? Or is it that, after the initial burst, the sales have started coming down, or the rate of growth has slowed down? All these brand health sales indicators are important to be checked for the brand revenue health of your brand. The topline growth of any brand is a good indicator about the health of the brand.

Brand market share

In the journey of brand health check-up, the next thing to be investigated is the brand market share’s health. In this highly competitive world, is the market share of your brand going up, when compared to other brands? Or, is it stagnant or declining? Are you losing market share? These are all important indicators to be observed to know the health of your brand.

Many airlines in the world do not do well. In terms of top line and bottom line, IndiGo has consistently spread its wings, increased market share and has been consistently growing against competition. Despite new entrants as well as old ones, IndiGo has kept a strong grip on its market share health and has been in fact consistently growing in a robust manner, dominating the skies. With over 60 per cent market share, IndiGo has turned out to be a healthy brand – both in terms of top line and bottom line – and this market share health also reflects in the health of share market. 

Brand profit 

Finally, a brand’s profit health needs to be measured regularly so that its profitability goes up and it enjoys a surplus and uses those funds to satisfy customers better, improve innovation, expand and also reward the shareholders. Profitability health of the brand is as important or, in some cases, even more important than other parameters of brand health. 

Brand profit’s health is an important parameter to be checked up on a regular basis. Just like the top line is important, so is the bottom line.  Measures need to be taken about pricing strategy or cost-cutting measures – all increasing the price realisation per unit – or handling the margin structures for the channel or other parameters to enhance and boost profitability, regular brand profit, health check-up is a must. It should not happen that while you have runaway growth on the top line, the bottom line suffers and ultimately the company and, of course, its brands, fold up. Brand profit’s health is an important measure to check up about the longevity and life and death of a brand.

Brand health and wellness is an important aspect of brand building. And, a holistic approach in this regard is essential. Three cheers to Brand Health!!!