'To win customers, you must win minds'

Founder of logistics firm says a good branding strategy must connect with people on an emotional level

Chinese companies are starting to realize the importance of branding products and services as they face narrower margins in the domestic market and high competition abroad.

One company that has embarked on the branding journey is Interfreight Logistics, which in based in the southern city of Shenzhen and employs 70 people.

The company has grown fast over the past decade thanks to huge demand in the domestic market, says Melissa Liu, its founder and managing director. However, she adds, this is no longer the case, as the world economy is slowing.

"New technology has enabled companies to easily replicate the products, systems and services, and the internet makes everything transparent. This means our customers can simply go on the internet to search for rates and services, which makes our profit margin minimal."

At the same time, with running costs increasing year by year, Liu says she realized more competition was coming if no changes were made, and that her company needed a branding strategy to set it apart from its competitors.

Knowing that good brand management helps to make strong brands and build great customer relations, Interfreight Logistics launched a new branding strategy three years ago.

Liu says developing a strong brand is not easy and can take a long time.

"To begin with, we set our brand vision, added brand personality, delineated our brand position and included touch-point analysis," she says. "Internally, we also set up a team to execute the branding strategy."

Brand positioning is important, she adds, as the company must know how to make its brand different from competitors to retain customers.

According to Liu, one of the biggest challenges comes from making employees aware of the company's branding and emotional engagement. "Also, how can we make them committed to change when we have our branding strategy?"

But the key question, she adds, is how to make customers recognize the brand and stay loyal.

"We need to run the branding strategy throughout the company and train our employees to ensure they know what the brand means, how important it is, and how they can apply it to their work. For customers, we make sure our workers deliver our services and manage the customer experience in a consistent manner."

Liu says connecting emotionally with buyers while producing a successful global brand is important, adding that the leading brands around the world are emotionally focused.

"For consumers, when they decide what to buy, it's driven by heart and mind, so if you want to win customers, you must win minds, make them feel respected, happy, so that they enjoy buying your products and want to work with you.

"Branding is about occupying and winning a customer's mind," Liu adds. "In my 20 years of experience, when I conduct business with a customer, my first thinking is to build a relationship with them, let them feel great about cooperating with us and make them recognize us emotionally. As a result, I tend to win customers easily."

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/09/2016 page7)