Brand Strategy and Channel Push/Pull Strategies

A brand strategy (ブランド戦略) uses product names, logos, a reputation for quality and similar cues so customers can tell a company's products from its rivals', and it deliberately builds the brand value (ブランド価値) that makes them choose those products again and again.

Brand value is an invisible asset made of the trust and goodwill customers call to mind when they see a name or mark. Once a brand is established, people tend to pick it by name even when similar products sit side by side, so the company can compete without leaning only on price cuts.

AnalogyIn a town you are visiting for the first time, you tend to walk into the shop with a sign you recognize rather than an unknown one, because that sign carries the trust it has built up over time.

How to rememberThe English word brand also means the mark burned onto livestock, and that idea of a mark identifying the owner carries straight into what a brand does today.

An opinion leader (オピニオンリーダー) is someone who adopts a new product early on their own judgment and passes their assessment to people around them, influencing what the consumers who follow decide to buy.

The idea of grouping consumers by how early they adopt a new product (イノベーター理論, diffusion of innovations) calls the very small group that adopts first the innovators and the next group the early adopters. Opinion leaders correspond to the early adopters, and their impressions and ways of using the product become the cues the majority who buy later rely on.

AnalogyWhen a new kitchen gadget comes out, the people around a friend known for loving to cook wait to hear how it worked for that friend before deciding whether to buy. That friend is the opinion leader.

How to rememberOpinion means a view someone holds. A friend's view is more believable than a store's advertising, and the opinion leader is the one who tries the product early and gives that view to others.

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Omnichannel (オムニチャネル) is the approach of linking every touchpoint (channel) between a company and its customers, such as physical stores, e-commerce sites and apps, so that shopping flows as one experience wherever the customer starts.

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By sharing stock, purchase history, points and similar data across channels, customers can move back and forth, for instance ordering online and collecting in a store, or buying an item through the app days after seeing it in the shop. From the customer's side, every touchpoint behaves like the same single store.

AnalogyIt is like a bank where a consultation you began at a branch counter can be continued that evening in the app or online.

How to rememberOmni is Latin for all, the same root as omnibus, the old horse-drawn coach meant for everyone.

A push strategy (プッシュ戦略) is a promotion method in which the manufacturer works on wholesalers and retailers so the product is pushed through each stage of distribution toward consumers.

Negotiating for a prominent shelf spot and supplying in-store promotional materials are typical examples. Because the store staff recommend the product to shoppers, it works well for products whose names consumers do not yet know and for products people choose only after hearing an explanation.

AnalogyPicture the manufacturer upstream pushing a boat off downstream, setting the product afloat on the current of distribution.

How to rememberPush means to shove from behind: the manufacturer pushes wholesalers and retailers, and those stores then recommend the product to shoppers. What gets pushed is the distributor, not the consumer.

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A pull strategy (プル戦略) is a promotion method in which the manufacturer reaches consumers directly through advertising and the like, sparks their desire, and gets them to ask for the product in stores on their own, pulling the product toward them.

Once consumers start asking for the product by name, retailers have a reason to stock it, and orders travel back up the distribution chain to the manufacturer. It combines easily with mass advertising such as TV and with efforts to raise brand awareness.

AnalogyA child begs for a toy seen on TV, and the parent goes to a shop and asks for it by name. Requests like that are what move the shop's orders.

How to rememberLike the PULL sign on a door, it means to draw toward you. The product is drawn toward the consumer's side like iron to a magnet.

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Direct marketing (ダイレクトマーケティング) is a method in which a company bypasses retailers and other distributors and reaches individual customers directly by mail, email, phone and so on, receiving responses such as orders and inquiries directly.

Customer lists and purchase histories let the company tailor what it sends to each person. Because responses are recorded customer by customer, it is easy to see which outreach worked.

AnalogyIt is like a mail-order company sending past buyers catalogs matched to their tastes, then learning from the returned order cards which customers responded.

How to rememberDirect means with nothing in between, the same idea as buying straight from the maker or having goods shipped straight to your door.

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