Brand Play: Creating Brand Associations

Brand Play

Tuesday's seminar was all about Brand Play. This is a term I had never heard before and I am very happy I had the chance to learn about it. Essentially, Brand Play uses multiple forms of marketing to help brands, as Matthew said, "find their way into consumers." With the astonishing number of brands in today's market, it is important for brands to distinguish themselves by going beyond their basic offering. I believe Brand Play is the perfect solution to standing out in the large crowd of brands, as it forces the brand to better connect with the people it serves. One brand that I feel has done a great job at using Brand Play is Coca-Cola. They are constantly developing new marketing campaigns that pave their way into the consumer, such as their personalized bottles and the "happiness machine". These campaigns create positive associations with the brand and not just the product itself.

A New Outlook

Brand Play has changed the way I view marketing strategies. It forces you to find your way in and really think about how you are going to connect with the consumer. But, before finding your way in you really need to think about who your target market is, what they like, what they associate with, how they interact with your brand and other brands, etc. The goal with Brand Play isn't to differentiate from your competitors, rather it is to strengthen connections to form personal and relatable associations. Therefore, you need to revolve your strategies around the people. When building marketing strategies, I will now dive deeper into the customer to pinpoint where valuable connections can be made and I will not disregard the power of traditional marketing tactics.