Product vs. Brand: Which Matters More?

Product vs. Brand: Which Matters More?

Disclaimers:

1. Your barber always thinks you look better with a haircut. And if you only have a hammer, you'll treat every problem as a nail. I'll strive not to be the barber who recommends a haircut every time they see you.

2. All advice is autobiographical. I would rather pick lessons from a whole host of brands built by us and others, rather than tell you what worked for Kenyan Grafik.

I didn't bring my little one to the office today. She isn't here cooing and smiling at me, getting me caught up in a staring-and-smiling game. I have time to look at my desk - lacking any baby items - and count the brands in front of me. About 15 brands sitting on my desk help me be efficient in my research, content creation, design, and everything else entailed in my work. I can’t help but wonder, did I buy them because the brand was good or because the product was good?

Simple answer? Both.

That’s it, you can stop reading if you just needed the answer. If you want more, keep reading.

Definitions

First, let us define our terms.

1. A product is a physical item or service sold. It can be something tangible like a car or a smartphone, or intangible like insurance or consulting services.

2. On the other hand, a brand is what your audience thinks and feels about your product.

Think of it this way: a product is what you sell, while a brand is what people buy. And branding is your effort at influencing their gut feeling about your product.

The Case for Brand Focus

Story Brand author, Donald Miller, said that branding isn't necessary unless you are doing more than $50m in annual revenue. I don’t agree. Not at all.

Imagine walking into a phone shop to buy a phone and you find three phones. They look identical in all ways and specs, except on the brand. The first is an iPhone and the second is a Musi (fictional), while the last has no branding. Which one would you believe is superior quality? My bet is on the iPhone. Nielsen found that 60% of consumers prefer to buy products from familiar (trusted) brands than switch to a new brand, even if the new brand's product was of better quality.

You can’t go out and sell a product without needing to influence your audience’s gut feeling. You want them to buy - and you want to have a competitive advantage as you do so.

Brands are such a powerful thing that your audience makes buying decisions around the brand, rather than the product. Branding ‘presells’ the product. You need to do your branding and marketing well. “No one knows how good your product or service is until after the sale. Before they buy, they only know how good your marketing is,” wrote Allan Dib in the 1-Page Marketing Plan. And I agree - because your marketing builds your brand.

The Case for Product Focus

Here’s the thing, people can buy because of your brand, but they stay because of your product - ask Samsung.

When Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was launched in August 2016, they were riding on the past success of the Samsung brand. It was a smartphone that was meant to be a major competitor to the iPhone. However, it didn't take long for problems to arise. Reports of the phone catching fire and exploding quickly started to spread. Airlines banned the phone from flights. Soon thereafter, Samsung had to issue a global recall of all Galaxy Note 7 devices.

The issue was traced back to a battery problem, and Samsung attempted to fix the problem with a second batch of Galaxy Note 7 phones, but these had issues too. By the end of the incident, the Galaxy Note 7 was a major loss for Samsung, with the recall costing the company an estimated $5.3 billion.

On the sales side, people stop buying Samsung phones. The incident damaged Samsung's reputation as a reliable and trustworthy brand, and some consumers even switched to competitors as a result.

They have since worked to earn trust again.

Lessons

1. Don’t focus on branding at the expense of the product. Good marketing and branding will bring clients but not keep them. In the long run, word will get out about your failures and you won’t even have anyone trusting your brand.

2. Don’t focus on the product at the expense of branding. You will not win their trust and will remain the best-kept secret.

Conclusion

Building a successful brand requires a balance between product focus and brand focus. While branding is crucial for influencing consumer decision-making and creating competitive advantages, a product that fails to meet expectations can damage a brand's reputation and hinder long-term success.

Focusing on both - at the same time - all the time is the winning combo! Apple, Tesla, and Nike are doing this well. Plan wisely. Get a budget. Allocate finances to both product development and branding. By doing so, you will build a strong brand and maintain customer loyalty over time.

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