Israel Romero / Tuesday, February 9, 2021 / Categories: Blog Brand awareness: essential for people to know you. Getting to Know the Brand At university I already read, in my marketing classes, the great Luis Bassat and his red book on brands. Because brand value is not something new from the pandemic — it’s definitely something that, if you don’t have it, you will hardly survive in the market. And Spanish gourmet brands, unfortunately, are very little known. Overly accustomed No Awareness, You Don't Exist The website, the cornerstone of our company I must admit that for as long as I can remember — and I can assure you that doesn’t go much farther back than when I was 11 or 12 — I’ve succumbed to brands. They certainly gave me that false security that it had to be that brand or I didn’t want any similar product from another brand. As Luís Bassat said, “Products are made in factories, but brands are created and live in the mind.” And that quote fits Spanish gourmet products perfectly. Why? Because the biggest reason I hear at MadeinSpain.store for people not wanting to work with us is that many producers don’t understand that investing in the brand comes before short-term sales. Yes, before. And of course, when you argue that, you’ve practically lost the chance to work with them. Because sales have always been the priority in our country, of course in the short term, and creating brand value — an action that is slower and carried out in the medium and long term — is not very attractive to producers as a priority. Overly accustomed Last year’s tourist figures for those who came to Spain have set off all the alarms. We’ve regressed to 1964 — almost 60 years back! We could say that even under Franco we had better numbers than we do now. All the work we didn’t have to do because demand was internal (let’s not kid ourselves: it was external in the sense that the demand came from tourists when they visited Spain) to sell our products, now comes back to bite us. We haven’t done our homework; we haven’t treated our brands like people, as other neighboring countries have done, and therefore our brands haven’t jumped borders to the rest of the world. Because, as Bassat asserted, “If we really want to understand what a brand is, we must start by asking what meaning the product has in the consumer’s life.” But apart from having a good time in our country and enjoying a summer fling with the foreigner who knew our Spanish gourmet products, they later forgot about us and our products until they returned to Spain. And as for the brands associated with those products, better not even talk about them. Knowing the brand: essential to be known No Awareness, You Don't Exist I tend to be quite tough in my advice to my partners, because it’s better to receive pain from a friend than poison without knowing where it comes from, from the enemy. And I’m very honest with them: “If you’re not known, you don’t exist.” It’s that simple. And then come the laments. Because people want to do quickly and badly what hasn’t been planned in 10–20 years… or even longer. No! First you have to look in the mirror and recognize yourself. I admit that the first look can horrify us, because we normally hide things about ourselves we don’t like, but when someone forces you to see your flaws, until you acknowledge them you realize you’re lost and there’s much to do. You need a very demanding audit to see how prepared the company is for 2021. And before trying to go to the international market to sell, first we must see if we are ready for it. The website, the cornerstone of our company If we want to improve our brand positioning, simply having a digital marketing plan (SEO and SEM) to obtain results won’t be enough — in that case you’ll burn money and end up in the same place you started. We must know the customer we want to persuade, and if we don’t speak to them in their language, they won’t pay attention and we’ll lose them forever. If I say “EVOO,” “acorn‑fed ham (jamón de bellota)” or “Manchego Reserva cheese,” to cite products that are flagships of our gastronomy, how many brands in each product category would come to mind for a potential European customer? I’ll give the answer: zero or none. Until that is solved, selling on the basis of the brand’s prestige won’t work for us. That’s why you have to work very hard on brand value — its story, its tradition, its production processes, its unique features, its packaging, the people who make up the company… all of this must be conveyed on the website and through a smart communication plan that reaches people who can be moved by our products. Hard work, but nobody told us it would be easy or fast. Our website is the key to reaching further and more people, but do you already have it optimized and loaded with enough content to go further? Only if the information is perfectly audited, positioned with keywords, and well created can conversion improve; and only if the audience — the customers — is perfectly worked on (an email marketing plan, looked after to the maximum to optimize loyalty), then the company is ready to invest in Facebook and Google ads to grow. But before those first two steps, it’s simply throwing away money. I can say that from my own experience. Therefore, before thinking about internationalization, ask yourselves, Spanish producers, if your company is prepared for it. And I mean brand value, not the search for distributors. Because true growth comes when the brand is desired by the consumer, is known, and has the authority to retain the final customer forever. Because “brands are like cathedrals; they are built over the years by different people, from different generations, but with a common goal — brand recognition.” If you want to succeed abroad, build your brand well, adapt it to the times, and offer something that makes you unique so the market wants your products. That is the first step; the next ones are to work very hard and always believe in yourself. Sucralín, the revolutionary natural sweetener Spanish preserves on MadeinSpain.store: gourmet selection Print 3 Rate this article: No rating Please login or register to post comments.