The coordinated image of a company is its most powerful strategic weapon to generate a strong and recognizable position on the market. Creating a good coordinated image is a demanding, complete and creative process. A good coordinated image must be simple, captivating, original and recognizable for consumers. The individual parts of a coordinated image must be carefully chosen, because too complex an image can harm the company.

Strictly speaking, the coordinated image includes organized visual stimuli that are inserted into figurative structures (e.g. symbols, colors) by graphic designers. In a broad sense, the coordinated image does not only include the logo, symbols, colors, font, business cards and other visual images, but is a perceptible unit that reflects the real identity of a company with material attributes and intangible.

The development and maintenance of a coordinated image requires a well-defined strategy, which includes careful management of symbols and graphics. Renewing the graphic image does not only mean changing the symbols, but also the recognisability, mission, vision and values ​​of a company.

The components of the coordinated image are:

• Brand name: it is an indicator for recognition and communication.
• Slogan: must communicate what the company intends to communicate to consumers and reflect the company's philosophy.
• Brand symbol and logo: reflect the essence and image of the brand.

Source: Repovš, J. 1995. Kako nastaja in deluje učinkovita, tržno usmerjena celostna grafična podoba kot del simbolnega identitetnega sistema organizacij (The coordinated image as part of the symbolic and identity system of organizations: how an effective and effective coordinated image is created and works market oriented). Ljubljana: Marketing Studio.

The brand corresponds to the name, expression, sign, symbol, shape and their combination and has the purpose of making a product or service recognizable to a consumer or group of consumers and to differentiate the products or services from those of competition. Marketing managers are responsible for creating, maintaining, protecting and strengthening brands.

The brand:

• Identifies the seller or manufacturer,
• Identifies the product or service and reduce research costs and purchase risks,
• is the seller's exclusive right of lasting use,
• can communicate a wide range of messages to the consumer,
• can be a guarantee of quality,
• differs from other elements that have a limited duration (e.g. patents).

Companies must create a brand policy for each product in a product group. Management must therefore decide whether:

• Define a product brand?
• Define the brand of the manufacturer or distributor?
• Create different brands?
• Relocate any of the brands?
• Expanding the brand with new products?
  

The brand can communicate up to six levels of meaning:

• Characteristics: the brand can remind consumers of certain characteristics (e.g. quality, durability, cost).
• Benefits: the characteristics of the product must be translated into benefits (e.g. long life means that the consumer will not have to replace the product for a while).
• Values: the brand also expresses the manufacturer's values ​​(e.g. safety, prestige).
• Culture: the brand can represent a certain culture (eg Mercedes represents German culture).
• Personality: the brand can correspond to a specific personality.
• User: the brand can indicate the type of consumer who buys and uses the product.

Source: Kotler, P. 2004. Management trženja (Marketing management, 11. ed.). Ljubljana: GV Založba.

In developing a brand identity, marketing managers must choose:

• The name,
• The logo,
• Colors,
• The slogan is
• The brand symbol.

The brand is not created with advertising, but by living it and creating its experience. The brand is the promise that the merchant makes to the customer regarding a specific set of characteristics, benefits and services. It is up to the marketing managers to create a brand mission and vision. Customers must verify that the company keeps its promises on the benefits it should generate. All company employees must understand the brand promise in order to pass it on to customers.

Source: Kotler, P. 2004. Management trženja (Marketing management, 11. ed.). Ljubljana: GV Založba.

Advertising is less and less important in creating a brand. People are exposed to huge numbers of ads daily, so they often ignore them. For this reason, in the contemporary world, marketing managers use new tools for the development of their brands:

• Relationship with the public and press statements (short stories in selected magazines and newspapers).
• Sponsorship (internationally known events, e.g. motor racing).
• Clubs and consumer communities (consumer communities such as Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners).
• Factory visits (e.g. theme parks in factories).
• Professional fairs.
• Event-related marketing (e.g. organization of events for the launch of a new product).
• Public works (support for public works, e.g. sports hall).
• Marketing in support of charity events (e.g. charity payments).
• High value against the money invested (offer customers the maximum amount paid).
• Personality of the founder or a famous person (use of famous people to present the brand, eg Michael Jordan).
• Marketing via mobile phone (e.g. sending SMS and MMS).

Marketing managers strive to develop customer events (e.g. fairs, exhibitions, round tables, etc.), because in this way more results are obtained compared to television advertisements.

Source: Kotler, P. 2004. Management trženja (Marketing management, 11. ed.). Ljubljana: GV Založba.

Brand equity or brand value represents a part of the company assets and can be defined as the positive differentiating effect that the brand name has on a customer's reaction to a product or service. Brands can last longer than a product, so analysts count the brand's assets as one of the fundamental lasting assets of a company. A strong brand corresponds to a high number of loyal customers, and this increases the company's assets in terms of customers.

Brands differ in the strength and value they have on the market. A brand can generate in the customer:

• High level of awareness,
• High level of acceptability,
• High level of preference,
• High level of loyalty.

Based on the customer's relationship with the brand, there are five levels of relationship (from minimum to maximum):

• Not faithful to the brand. The customer will change brands for price reasons.
• Satisfied customer. There are no reasons why it should change brands.
• Satisfied customer. If it changes brands, it will have to bear costs.
• The customer appreciates the brand and sees it as a friend.
• The customer is completely devoted to the brand.

The value of a brand is linked to the level of recognition of the brand name, the perception of the quality of the brand and strong associations of thought and emotional and with other sources of value (e.g. patents, registered trademarks). It is also linked to the number of customers in the last three categories presented. In fact, customers are willing to pay more for a strong brand. The heritage of a brand is reflected in the fact that the consumer gives priority to one product over another even if they are identical and is measured in terms of the customer's willingness to pay more for a specific brand.

If a company wants to maintain the value of its brand, it must manage it with great attention. Marketing managers are responsible for maintaining or increasing brand awareness, perceived quality, functionality and positive associations. This requires continuous investment in R&D, advertising, services to customers and commercial intermediaries etc.

Source: Kotler, P. 2004. Management trženja (Marketing management, 11. ed.). Ljubljana: GV Založba.

The logo of a brand expresses its essence and self-image. The fundamental characteristics of a good logo are:

• Learnability: when customers can recall a logo or describe it or draw it in detail, the logo is learnable.
• Recognisability: it is measured in terms of the time required for the customer to recognize the logo in a multitude of other symbols.
• Differentiability: characteristics that differentiate the logo from others and prevent it from being confused.
• Readability: occurs in terms of the time it takes for customers to read the symbol. The logo must not give rise to doubts about the word or syllable it contains.
• Referentiality: it is the ability of the logo to present events, things or people.

Source: Repovš, J. 1995. Kako nastaja in deluje učinkovita, tržno usmerjena celostna grafična podoba kot del simbolnega identitetnega sistema organizacij ((The coordinated image as part of the symbolic and identity system of organizations: how an effective coordinated image is created and works) and market oriented) Ljubljana: Marketing Studio.

Gardner and Cooper (2014) define the development of the brand as the life cycle of the maturing of the relationship between business and consumers. 

Figure 1: Brand as a relationship

Source: Gardner and Cooper (2014) 

This process goes through three phases: (1) the creation of a brand (creating a relationship in the early stages of the life cycle), (2) the growth of the brand (the growth of this relationship after creating a correspondence and a balance at the level of product - the market - brand) and (3) brand management (taking care of a sustainable brand). Above all, they emphasize that the brand has long gone beyond visual elements such as the name of the logo and the like (this is a micro-meaning) and suggest understanding the brand as a relationship. 

Their brand development framework is designed to function similarly to the lean business methodology. The framework is designed for companies that use a lean business model. Like "out of the building" based lean business, their framework is based on working with consumers (the authors designate the environment outside the company as an audience, and the methodology is called "coming from the other part"). Their structure, together with the lean business methodology, provides a platform for the design of a business model, including the development of an effective and successful brand. 

The framework consists of four stages, including so-called gaps (they can also be understood as challenges). If the company wants to move from one phase to another, it must devote some time to these gaps and find solutions. 

In the first phase of the formation of a lean brand, the company poses assumptions and hypotheses, and this phase is followed by a gap of hypotheses. 

 Figure 2: The first stage (hypothesis) of the development of a lean brand and the first gap (the hypothesis gap).

Source: Gardner and Cooper (2014) 

Each company is actually set up with a series of hypotheses. Based on these assumptions, the company begins to experiment with development and tries with assumptions about who they are, why they should be important, what they want, what they think and what they believe. At this stage, the company needs to understand why it will make an impression on the market and why consumers will buy their products or use their services and why consumers will become their loyal customers. 

To fill and overcome the first hypothesis gap, he must first formulate the assumptions mentioned above and test the ideas generated with the initial audience. In this way, we get the first answers and we can synthesize the real idea from different generated ideas. First of all, the company generates ideas (using conventional techniques such as design thinking, structured tasks, observation, subsequently comparing them), creating new assumptions, testing the most promising and least known, and then following the synthesis phase. 

Figure 3: The second phase (the simplest but acceptable brand) of the development of a lean brand and the second gap (validation gap)

Source: Gardner and Cooper (2014) 

The second gap that a company must fill is a validation gap. In this step, the company, through validation and learning, tries to find out what will be successful on the market and what is not. If an entrepreneur acts emotionally, he will try to build his business from his initial hypotheses. Therefore, in this phase, avoid the emotion, and for this purpose it is preferable to find some empirical evidence, obtained through experimentation. 

Experiment in several cycles, but always use "Build-Measure-Learn" feedback. A similar loop was originally used effectively in the innovation process, but proved useful in the brand development and innovation process. The goal of multiple iterations of this cycle is to create a complete correspondence between product / service, brand and market (product based on the product brand). Sometimes the company is surprised by the result of the simplest acceptable brand development. Therefore, one should be aware that the most acceptable basic brand is only the starting point for brand development. It represents only the beginning of a relationship that a company wants to create with its audience. The public will be the one from whom the company obtains the most useful answers, both qualitative (whether the public was connected to the company or not) and quantitative (how many people participated and how much they were connected to the concept of the company). Always, regardless of whether the company has already established a relationship with the public or this relationship is still developing, the company must think of itself as a learning organization. This means that they constantly learn from their interactions with the company's consumers. 

Figure 4: Third phase (product-brand-service combination), third gap (growth gap) and last, fourth phase (growth)

Source: Gardner and Cooper (2014) 

In the context of product / service-market correspondence we understand the connection between a strong market and a product / service that fully satisfies a specific need in the market. However, if a company wants to remain on the market in a sustainable way, it must also achieve brand matching. It is necessary to include the emotional level and create a relationship between the company and consumers using the brand. By guaranteeing the connection of the company's market with the product and the brand, it guarantees growth. The problem is that the product is timely and the brand remains. 

The third gap is the growth gap. It is essential to move from hypotheses based on feelings to hypotheses of growth.

Through the growth hypothesis, the company checks the demand and at the same time checks the area of ​​operation of the relationship generated with the public. The growth of the company is entirely based on effective solutions and the correct functioning of the brand in the direction of attracting, ensuring and shaping the relationship with new consumers. 

Figure 5: Correspondence between product / service - market - brand

Source: Gardner and Cooper (2014)

Bence (2011) particularly emphasizes the importance of the customer in the branding process. He argues that without customers there is no revenue and without revenue there is no company. He claims that every company has many assets and resources (including in marketing) that must be used intelligently.

 Figure 1: Company-owned forms that are to be used in brand development

Source: Bence (2011) 

Brand positioning is how we want our customers to perceive our brand compared to the competition, what to think of it and how it should feel (Bence, 2011). Brand perception is the reality of marketing. It is only right that we are satisfied with how customers perceive our brand. What buyers think and feel about the brand can lead to long-term loyalty and increase revenue. 

Bence (2011) stresses the importance of the six factors that determine whether a brand on the market will be successful or not. These are:

(1) Public - Who are the customers of your brand, are they men, women, rich class, the poor, educated? What are these people's dreams or fears? 

(2) Needs - What are the customers' needs? 

(3) Competitiveness - Which brands could customers choose on the market? It should be noted that multiple brands are competitors for the same customer. Why does the customer choose one and not the other? 

(4) Benefits - What does your brand offer customers? What are the benefits? 

(5) The reasons- Why does the public trust your brand? 

(6) Brand character - the brand must have a personality. How would you describe your brand if it were a person?

 These six factors are fundamental for the whole business. Figure 7 illustrates the influence of these factors.

Figure 2: The positioning of the brand

Exercise: for each of the aforementioned six key factors of brand positioning, prepare a measuring instrument. Or otherwise, ask questions for an interview with an entrepreneur. Help yourself with the book Smarter Branding Without Breaking the Bank (Bence, Brenda, 2011).

 Property number 2 is represented by buyers. Bence (2011) calls him the hidden diamonds. Much attention must be paid to existing buyers, while new ones are continually being acquired. Emphasize the need to communicate with customers. For this purpose, it is useful to publish blogs, send newsletters, notifications, questionnaires and so on. An open dialogue with their customers should be established and all answers to their questions should be personal. Often they need to be thanked for their loyalty and invited to various events. 

Products and services are property number 3. If you have such products and services that are better than competing products and services, then you can celebrate. However, if you believe you have similar products and services, like your competitors, then you need to work to make sure your customers continue to think that your products and services are the best. You need to make sure that your products and services are different and turn this difference into superiority. You can help yourself with the same six factors that we mentioned as a key to brand positioning. If you intelligently manage the target group, the needs, the competitiveness, the advantages, the reasons and the characteristics of the brand, you will most likely be able to create a perception of the superiority of your products and services with customers. 

Your team represents resource number 4. We probably agree with the statement by David Packard (Hewlett-Packard co-founder), who said: "Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department." The people who care about your marketing are far more than you think. This includes all employees, vendors of products and services, customers, members of various associations, other entrepreneurs, your friends, suppliers and more. 

 Finally, property number 5 is competition. You need to know the company and the business of your competitors and your company. Knowing your competitors can become an important tool in developing your brand. You can also use the six factors mentioned above here. Try to find out who your competitors are targeting, what their customers' needs are, what benefits their products and services offer, what their reasons are why customers see them as saviors of their problems, and what their character is of their brands.

The authors Maja K. Ruzzier and Mitja Ruzzier presented an innovative point of view on the development of the brand in the book Startup Branding Funnel (2015). They used the so-called funnel approach. This means that the brand must be viewed from two angles, by the manager / entrepreneur and by customers / users.

Figure 1: Two-dimensional view of the brand

Source: Konečnik Ruzzier and Ruzzier, 2015

In order to develop the brand development process, they conducted several interviews with entrepreneurs on four continents. They are forced to start-ups because they believe they are more dynamic in the brand development process, while larger and "older" companies are more static. Mostly they have the same way of communicating with customers for many years. Start-ups are more aware of the need to focus entirely on the user and to adapt communication to customer needs. Start-ups are trying to offer users a unique emotional experience, making users more aware of the brand. 

We must understand the funnel approach in the brand development process (SBFunnel) as a dynamic approach, like a ring, through which we always enter and readjust all the elements of the brand. The channeling approach is precisely because of these dynamics adapted to start-ups. The cycle forces an entrepreneur to continually satisfy, only such an improvement can lead to success. Through the cycle, communication takes place two ways, from the entrepreneur to the buyer and vice versa. 

The concept, which represents the brand development process, consists of four phases: research, development, implementation, certification and evaluation. Figure 2 shows the five elements of the brand (vision as a fundamental element; contextual elements (industry, competition, me, users), the elements of development (history, visual elements), the elements of implementation (brand developmnet, communication, channels ) and the elements of confirmation / validation (value) and the elements that compose them. All these elements are necessary in the channeling model for the functioning of the cycle. 

Figure 2: The elements of the brand

Source: Konečnik Ruzzier and Ruzzier, 2015.

The starting point of the entire brand development process is the vision. Without a vision, an entrepreneur cannot start his way. Having a vision means understanding the meaning of the brand, knowing what key challenges (technological, social, environmental ...) will solve the company in the next five or ten years and what the role and impact of your brand will be within five years. Having a vision also means knowing what important player you will become after a certain period of time.

Contextual elements include the following elements: the sector, competition, self and users. The sector element means knowing the trends in your sector and how to use these trends. It is important to know the main competitors in the key segments of your business and you need to analyze what you can do better or differently than the competition in order for the group of key customers to appreciate it. You must take steps to position yourself better than your competitors, but you must also be able to communicate this advantage. An important element of the contextual elements are the users. You have to know their pain, for this you need to establish a dialogue with them and find out what they think of your idea and your brand. The element "self" means the entire team of people who together seek to develop a successful brand. Knowing the "self" means knowing the advantages and disadvantages of the company, being aware of the availability of resources, knowing the volume of financial resources that can be dedicated to the development of the brand and knowing the strength of its corporate network. The team must have the appropriate knowledge, the more heterogeneous the better.

In the phase that we call development, a story must be formed and presented with different visual elements (name, slogan, logo, domain). Branding is the starting point for raising consumer awareness about your brand, so it's very important. When choosing a name, one must consider how easy it is to memorize, the meaning, the sympathy of the name and the protection. The logo and packaging influence the perception of the brand among your target users, therefore they must be used to show the core of the brand. The packaging is the one that in most cases represents the first contact of your brand with the consumer and often influences the purchase decision. The role of the slogan is to present the brand identity and bring the message you want to give to your users. The story is an invisible part of the brand, so the aforementioned visual elements with which a story presents itself are very important. In addition to the visual elements, the brand identity is also important for the creation of a story, this one claims for characteristics, advantages, values, culture, relationships and prices. The story should include information on the key brand features, the difference from the competitors, the brand benefits, values, personality traits, the uniqueness of the brand elements, the relationship between the brand and the company's products / services on the origin of the brand, and more. Designing a story that explains the whole brand is a demanding process and a lot of knowledge and experience is needed. A good story tells the user what the company sells, to whom it sells, what is different from its competitors and what is the brand identity within the company. Make the story unique. 

In the implementation phase, it is necessary to build the brand in the company, define communication methods and select the channels through which the brand idea will spread beyond the company. To build a brand within a company, there must be a specific culture, values ​​and rules within the company. The environment must be creative and give employees sufficient incentive to participate in brand development. The authors believe that in recent times, and especially in start-ups, mainly marketing strategies are used, which are widely adapted to end users. Marketing communication has changed and tools such as mouth-to-mouth marketing, interactive marketing, public relations, advertising, personal sales, direct marketing are often used. The goal of every start-up is, of course, to find the most suitable and convenient combination of innovative advertising tools and, above all, it is necessary to select different tools, such as those used by competing brands. 

In the validation and evaluation phase, the brand must be evaluated and its value determined. A well-known brand value helps to find the answer to the question of how users perceive the brand and what the perception of the brand is. Brand awareness must be assessed, this tells us how much the brand is present in the minds of users. The authors Konečnik Ruzzier and Ruzzier propose companies to ask users for their perception of the brand and to help them with reflective associations. The authors underline the importance of the perception of quality and suggest that the company during the validation phase adapted to the situation and according to the desired specifications decides which methods and tools will be used for the validation and evaluation of the brand from the users' point of view . The validation process can never be completed, even after the brand has been placed on the market. At the same time, we also try to evaluate the brand. Validation and evaluation should be understood as complementary processes, together they help to understand the information obtained by consumers.

 The use of the SBFunnel framework is an innovative approach to brand development. With its dynamism, a two-dimensional vision and an infinite cycle mean a step forward compared to the static models of brand development.

TACTICS (Transnational Alliance of Clusters Towards Cooperation Support) is an international federation that connects seven national leaders / regional clusters, namely VINNOVA (SE), TMG Upper Austria (AT), Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom), inland navigation Agency for Flanders (BE), Veneto Innovazione (IT) and PARP (PL). Guide tactics is that clustering contributes to the success of a favorable environment for innovation, for the renewal of European industry, to integrate SMEs into the various research programs and programs that encourage innovation, clusters play an important role in strategies of smart specialization, in particular the easiest cluster to achieve competitiveness in internationalization processes. Due to their size, clusters are more evident and attractive (Tactis, 2012).

In Europe, the new form of new cluster, which means that clsutri also compete in the global market, so should seek to strive for excellence and uniqueness. In such a competitive and dynamic environment, clusters have to differentiate themselves, which is why they started to focus on marketing, marketing strategies and brand development.

To become competitive internationally, the cluster should be interesting for external stakeholders, both for individuals with appropriate skills and competences and for investors. At the same time, clusters should be interesting for internal stakeholders in order to also want to stay connected in the cluster. Marketing and branding have therefore become key factors in the competitiveness and growth of the cluster. Brand development strategies must be uniform across all cluster partners. 

This certainly increases opportunities and visibility. Strong brands provide a more robust and fruitful collaboration, visibility outside the cluster, the market more efficiently reach, reduced technology transfer time, faster and more consistent access to research results, reduce some costs, l 'greater access faster loyalty partner to economic resources, employment the best talent, lower communication costs. Successful clusters and their effective marketing strategies bring benefits to regions and countries as they contribute to the image of an area. Regions and countries have a strong interest in the existence of effective brands of such successful clusters as they are of great benefit to the whole region and the country. They represent a real magnet for talented individuals, companies and investors and have a multiplier effect on opportunities and resources. 

The starting point in the brand development process is the definition of identity (key attributes and unique value for the customer) clustra. Using the brand, you will position the cluster between target groups and stakeholders. A brand indicates a group of services within the cluster by members and services outside the cluster by customers, businesses and other stakeholders. Therefore, all these groups should be included in the brand development process. The involvement of all members of the cluster is essential, as they will only feel that their needs and desires are listened to and integrated into the identity and values ​​of the brand. This is important for two reasons. Firstly, the brand has been designed in accordance with all members, and secondly, the only way by all members to take their own, which will lead to consistency and cooperation of all members in the brand consolidation process.  

After deciding on the identity of the brand in the cluster, they need to add a personality and define its message. Since clusters are usually incorporated into a certain environment and for them there is no support for this environment, we need to be in the process of developing a brand marketing strategy to take into consideration and developed the territory of the mark. , where the cluster is located. All of these brands should be harmonized, as this can prevent confusion between the messages of individual brands.

Figure 1: Brand levels

Source: Tactics 2012, p 22

The concepts we help with in the brand cluster development process are usually the same as the branding development of individual companies, but only in a few elements are they adapted to clusters. This adjustment is sometimes not as easy as it seems. While it amounts to developing a brand for a particular product or service managed by one company, we need to develop and then branded Cluster Management we include views on a large number of players, where each of them may prefer a different marketing strategy. On the one hand, faced with the same problem of multinationals, which must decide a strategy that will support the entire corporate brand, at the same time maintaining the identity and consolidating the brand value of all their lines and products. If the strength of the cluster members is already high on the market, it is best to form a cluster brand so that all the brands of the individual members are highlighted. However, when clusters are mostly small and medium-sized businesses, it is best to develop a new cluster brand. Sometimes it is even more effective to take the middle ground. 

Once the brand concept (including the identity and key values ​​it communicates) is designed and adopted among its members, it is necessary to decide how to use this brand now. A marketing plan is necessary, objectives, target groups, communication channels and promotional activities must be defined. The marketing plan also acts as a tool for managing the funds allocated to these activities, as well as for monitoring the terms. Target groups are represented by existing members and potential new group members, investors, owners, policy makers, the media, potential new staff and partners. Normally, different activities and communication channels should be determined for each target group. 

We probably agree that it is better to compete with global competition if we are connected in any network or cluster. And clusters have to fight in this game. In addition, clusters need to focus on the cultural dimension of globalization in their marketing strategies. Clusters need to be aware that they need new concepts that address global trends using local specifications. They must take into account the following guidelines: 

• intelligent and effective allocation of resources for marketing and branding
• Enhance the territorial marks
• ensure the participation of all interested parties in the brand development process
• promote the use of a new generation of communication tools.

Meeting customer needs is a process that takes place continuously in all phases of the company's life cycle. To this end, different approaches have been developed to allow entrepreneurs to successfully identify the needs of the target segments and formulate an offer that best meets these needs. Kanvas offers value, the authors of Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernard, Smith and Papadakos (2014), is one of these tools and is presented in greater detail below.

Kanvas Value Offering is a tool developed to support entrepreneurs in the development and improvement of the value of the company value and therefore in maximizing the needs of the target segments. The approach offered by Kanvas offers appropriate value for beginner entrepreneurs who are starting a new project, as well as for project managers of a company created within an existing organization. 

The tool has two parts. The first part represents the profile of the buyer in which the company presents its understanding and vision of the customer. In the second part, called the map of values, the company describes how it will create value for the customer. A value offer can be defined as a series of advantages that the buyer can expect from the product or service of the selected company. On one side of Kanvas we have a supply that we are designed to acquire customers and, on the other side, the characteristics of the buyer, which we have developed by hypothesizing, observing and validating the market. When the value offer is consistent with the buyer's profile, compliance ("fit") is achieved between the two parts of Kanvas. At that time, the company's products and services created ways to relieve the pain and benefits that are consistent with the activities, pains and benefits that are important to the buyer. 

Customer profile 

 The customer profile (segment) in a structured way shows the specific target segment in the company's business model. The presentation of the buyer profile includes three elements: 1) tasks, 2) pain and 3) benefits (Figure 1). The goal of creating a customer profile is to view the individual elements relevant to the target segment. The result of this activity is to show the buyer profile on one side.

Figure 1: Customer profile

 Source: Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, Smith and Papadakos, 2014

The client's activities include the activities that the buyer wishes to perform during an office or in his spare time. It can be the tasks he wants to accomplish or finish, the problems he wants to solve or the needs he wants to satisfy. In analyzing the tasks, it is always necessary to proceed from the point of view of the buyer and his priorities. The activities can be classified into functional, social, personal / emotional and support activities: 

• We talk about functional tasks in cases where customers want to perform a specific task, solve a certain problem (eat healthy, write a report, etc.).
• We talk about social affairs when our customers want to look beautiful or gain strength and status. The tasks belonging to this group describe how our client wants his environment to be perceived (e.g. Trends as a buyer, expertise as an expert, etc.).
• When a client looks for a specific emotional state (e.g. well-being, safety - reconciliation with an investment decision, job security), we are talking about personal or emotional tasks.
• During the search for the buyer of the value he also carries out support activities deriving from his three roles: 1) value for the customer (the buyer to buy, compare the different offers, among which he acts, waiting in line to make a purchase, acquisition of goods, etc.), 2) value co-creator (activities related to the creation of value with the company - comments / reviews on products and services, participation in product design, etc.), 3 ) the transmission of values ​​(tasks related to the completion of the life cycle offers a value - unsubscribe, discarding the product, resale, donation, etc.). 

Customer orders usually vary according to the context in which they are created (the visit to the cinema is different depending on what we go to the cinema - with the children or with the partner). It should also be noted that all activities are not equally important for all customers. For some, some tasks will be irrelevant, others will work in relation to work more important than those in private life, etc. It is essential to identify the relevant activities for our target segment. 

The buyer's grief illustrates everything that disturbs the buyer before performing, during or after performing a given job, simply by preventing him from doing the job. Pain carries the risk that the result of our work is bad or bad. the work cannot be completed.

Pain can be classified into three classes: 

1) Results, unwanted problems and characteristics Pain can be functional (the solution does not work, does not work well, has negative side effects, etc.), emotional (feeling bad about doing something), auxiliary (disagreement related to visiting a shop for purchase the product). This also includes unwanted properties (such as bad design).

2) Obstacles. This includes anything that prevents the customer from doing the job or the job. slows down (e.g. lack of time, too expensive solution, etc.).

3) Risks or risks. unwanted results. Here we ask ourselves what can be wrong or not. which can have negative consequences (e.g. loss of credibility when using a particular solution, etc.).

Likewise, the importance of individual activities varies from customer to customer, so the degree of pain varies among customers. This can only be extreme or moderate.

 Customer benefits include the results and benefits the customer wants to receive. Benefits include functional utility, social benefits, positive feelings or money savings. They can be classified into four groups:

1) Benefits required. These are the advantages without which the solution would not work. For example, the smartphone must be able to make calls.

2) Expected benefits. These are relatively basic benefits that we expect from the solution, although they are not necessary. For example, Since Apple designed the iPhone, we expect the phone to have a nice design and a nice appearance.

3) The desired benefits. These are benefits that go far beyond our expectations, but we are happy if we can receive them. For example, we want our smartphone to be connected to other devices.

4) Unexpected advantages. These are benefits that go beyond our expectations and desires. For example, touch screen - before launching the touch screen on Apple, nobody thought about it as an integral part of the smartphone.

Just as the pain rate is different from that of the buyer to the buyer, so too are the benefits of different importance for buyers: they can be crucial or simply "nice to have" ("essential" or "nice to have").

When creating a customer profile, you need to follow these steps:

1) Select a customer segment. Select the customer segment you wish to profile.

2) Define the client's activities. Ask what type of business / business your buyer wants. Write each job on a post-it note.

3) Determines the buyer's pain. What kind of pain do your customers have? Indicates as much pain as possible, including obstacles and risks.

4) Define the customer benefits. What are the results and advantages that the buyer wishes to obtain? Provide all possible benefits.

5) Sort tasks, aches and benefits based on importance according to the customer. Sort tasks, pains and benefits in the columns, with the most important tasks at the top of the column, the most extreme pain and the best key benefits. In the lower part of the column there should be less important tasks, moderate pain, "nice to have" benefits. 

The most common mistakes in creating a buyer profile are as follows:

• integration of multiple customer segments into a single profile,
• replacement of activities with results,
• focusing exclusively on functional tasks and neglect of social and emotional tasks,
• determine tasks, pain and benefits from the point of view of the company's value,
• identify the insufficient number of tasks, pains and benefits.
• Too general description of pain and benefits.
  
  

Below is a map of values.

Figure 2: Map of values

 Source: Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, Smith and Papadakos, 2014

 Products and services represent the company's offer. It is a list of all the products and services on which value is based. This set of products and services helps the customer to perform functional, social or emotional tasks, helping them to meet basic needs. Products and services are not yet creating value. Value is created when products and services resolve the desired activities, pain and benefits of a specific target segment. The list of products and benefits may also include company support activities, which support the customer in carrying out various applications (customer role - offer comparison, co-creator role - product design, laptop role - removal of the product).

 The value offer is made up of four groups of products and services:

1) Physical / tangible (e.g. Artifacts)

2) Unacceptable (e.g. copyrights, after sales activities)

3) Digital (e.g. music downloads, online tips)

4) Financial (e.g. investment funds, insurance)

It is important to remember that not all products and services have the same meaning for the customer. Some products and services are fundamental to offer value, others are "beautiful to have" and "beautiful to have".

Painkillers show how the company's products and services relieve customers' specific pain. They indicate how the company intends to remove or reduce the selected concerns that weigh on the buyer between before, during and after the execution of a particular job, prevent him from doing the job. The best value offers focus only on the pain of the most important (extreme) customer. Instead of facing all the pains of the client, they prefer to focus on the most important and eliminate yourself in the best way.

Similarly, when ordering pain from a more important to a less important one, the company can classify analgesics as to their importance to the buyer ("essential" or "nice to have").

Benefit creators show how products and services generate customer benefits. They are an overview of how the company intends to model the solutions and benefits that customers demand, expect or want. The latter refers to functional utility, social benefits, positive feelings and money savings. With the creators, the company does not need to face all the benefits identified by the buyer profile, but only the most important ones for the buyer, where products and services can be differentiated from others ("essential" vs. "nice to have" ).

Following are the steps of the sequence for creating a map of values:

1. Provide a list of products and services. List all products and services within your existing offer.
2. Identify ways to relieve pain. Write down how your products and services currently lie to customers to relieve pain by removing unwanted results, obstacles or risks. Use a post-it ticket for each mode.
3. Identify the benefits of the creators. Explain how your products and services currently deliver the expected or desired results and customer benefits. Use a post-it ticket for each creator to benefit.
4. Sort by relevance. Order products, services, ways to relieve pain and benefit makers based on their importance to the buyer.

The most common errors in map mapping are as follows:

• listing all the company's products and services, rather than just those that are connected to a specific customer segment,
• the positioning of products and services between pain operators and beneficiaries,
• determine pain and benefit buffers that are not related to the pain and benefits of the target segment,
• (unrealistic) try to get the company to face all the customer's problems and benefits.

The canvas offers value

Consistency between the map and the value of the buyer profile (Figure 3) is obtained when the customers enthusiastic about the company's offer, which occurs when a value offering company addresses the important tasks alleviates extreme pain and the creation of key benefits which are important to the customer. Achieving a balance between the two parts of Kanvas is an extremely demanding task and is the basis for creating a value offer in a company.

 Figure 3: Value preposition canvas

 Source: Osterwalder, Pigneur, Bernarda, Smith and Papadakos, 2014

 The goal of determining consistency between the value offer and the buyer's profile is to verify that the company is indeed dealing with important issues for the buyer. The results of this process are the association of the company's products and services with the buyer's business, pains and benefits.

In determining compliance, all identified pain experts and beneficiaries should be analyzed (one by one) and checked if they match the buyer's previously identified tasks, pains and benefits. Each item that matches the buyer's profile is appropriately marked. If the correspondence between the element and the profile is not found, it means that the selected element does not bring value to the customer.

 There are three types of compliance: 

1. Corresponding problems and solutions. The latter is achieved when we establish (and demonstrate) what tasks, pains and benefits are important to the buyer. When a company forms an offer that addresses exactly these elements, the problem and solution are consistent.
2. Matching the solution and the market. The latter result is achieved when our products / services, our pain specialists and creators benefit from benefits for our customers and open the way to the market.

3. Match the business model. Once you have confirmation that the value of the offer can become part of a profitable business model.

The approach to a more lively brand development (Busche, 2014) is based on the recognition that the brand is similar to that of the products, that is to say that they are never definitive. They must constantly change and adapt based on changes in the market.

 Brands are not just a set of specific characteristics, but they represent much more. Brands are dynamic and must be able to respond quickly and adapt to changing customer needs and requirements. Lean brand development strives to create the so-called. chameleon brands. The characteristics of the chameleon brands are as follows:

•     Verification and customization of hypotheses,
•     lean innovation-oriented activity,
•     agile action,
•     camouflage for survival. 

As the consumer's perception of himself changes (his ideals, desires, needs, fears, aspirations, etc.), the brand must also be changed. The mission of the brand is to help the customer get closer to the person he wants to become. 

 Companies usually do not launch on the finished product market, but develop and gradually complete it based on the feedback received from customers. The products are constantly adapted to the changed desires and needs of the target segments. The same goes for brands, which must also strive for constant adaptation and development. Because of the latter, in the development of brands, we are talking about a continuous iteration between the three activities: 1) developing (doing), 2) measuring (measured) and 3) learning (cognition) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Lean Branding

Source: Busche, 2014.

 The Lean Brand Development Tool shows 25 brand component elements. The process begins with developing a brand. As soon as possible, the first version of the brand should be developed, marketed and the guidelines for its further development identified.

 The first step in the brand development process is to create a story. Brands are a means of allowing consumers to get closer to what they want to become in the future. For this reason, history is essential in the brand design process. The elements of the story are as follows:

1.      Name (what's your name?)
2.     Positioning (how can you use me?)
3.     Promise (what do you promise you will do for me?)
4.     People (what do I want / want from you?)
5.     User experience (what do I get next to the product?)
6.     Personality (who are you?)
7.     Pricing strategy (how much will it cost me?)
   
   

   The key question the company has to answer is: "Why should the buyer decide for me?". By positioning, the company identifies the place it wishes to occupy with consumers and must be faster than the competition. When designing a placement, the company can help with the following questions: 

   • Who are our target segments?
   • What consumer preferences will be addressed to the brand?
   • What factors will force consumers to buy from us?
   • Who is our main competitor?
   • What makes us different from our competitor?

    

    The company has a strong market position ahead of its competitors. Positioning should be communicated to consumers with a single sentence (i.e., promises), with which we will capture the essence of our value. This is the reason why consumers come back to us (eg Subway - "Eat fresh"). Every story needs people with real problems. To this end, companies have invented people with real needs and desires, who contribute to the development of everything that the brand presents, creates and communicates. By building stories around these people, consumers are more easily identified with the brand. The brand must express the personality of the company, as it is the only way in which the consumer identifies with the brand. 

   The second step in developing a story is the creation of symbols that combines the following elements: 

   • Logo
   • Color palette
   • typography
   • Images
   • Business card
   • Presentation of the brand on one side
   • Presentation of transparencies

    

   If a company wants to effectively influence the perception of the brand by the consumer, it must be able to strategically apply these elements. For example, choosing a color palette is essential because it can encourage or discourage the consumer from buying. Likewise, the logo, the business card and the selection of characters, which co-create the first impression of the consumer.

   The third step in creating a successful brand is to create a communication strategy. History and symbols are intended to be communicated to their consumers through various channels. The components of the communication strategy are the following: 

   1. Social network marketing
   2. Landing pages
   3. Site optimization
   4. Content marketing
   5. Paid advertising
   6. Email marketing
   7. Video
   8. Evaluation system
   9. Public relations
   10. Optimization of the purchasing process
   11. Branding partnership

     

   The above mentioned components of a communication strategy are the ways in which a company can communicate

The Kaput brand development approach (2014) in the Breaktrhough Branding book is intended for all entrepreneurs and internal entrepreneurs who want to start a small business and gradually lead to companies with a well-known brand. The approach covers the steps from developing an entrepreneurial idea to successful market positioning, creating verbal and visual identities and marketing a brand for the transition to a larger company. 

 The brand development process can be summarized in the following steps (B.R.A.N.D.): 

• Brand idea: the best brands are born from simple ideas. The idea must be simple, targeted and at the same time differentiate from those existing on the market. This is a promise that the company offers to end users and can be written on the back of a business card (eg "Eat fresh.", "Save money."). 

An entrepreneur must recognize a simple story in the product and present it to consumers in an articulated, convincing and intelligent way. The most difficult and at the same time most important part of setting up the company is the beginning. An entrepreneur must find an idea that will be unique, different and relevant to others. Great ideas are always simple, targeted and specific, which allow the company to occupy a specific place on the market (i.e. the market niche) and dominates in this area. The articulation of the idea must cover the answers to the following questions: what does the company do, to whom it is destined, why it is necessary and why it will be successful. The latter must be summarized with a single sentence. 

 The next step is to develop a business positioning strategy that must clearly identify the benefits that a company provides to the target segments and how these benefits are passed on to consumers. The ways in which consumers benefit from a company's offer must be different from the competition. By positioning, the company will achieve visibility and visibility on the market. A successful positioning strategy must present the brand as exceptional, different, authentic / genuine and unforgettable. 

• Rapresent the brand: Since setting up a company is a very personal matter, a personal brand should also be developed in brand development. The separation between the entrepreneur and the company is very subtle. The brand must express a strong verbal and visual identity and personality that communicates the idea of ​​the consumer to the consumer. The latter represents the DNA of the brand. 

The brand must come to life creatively through verbal and visual identity and personality. The first step is to create a verbal identity that includes a brand name, description and slogan. The next step is to display the brand. The latter covers the choice of the logo, the shape, the color palette and the design. At this stage, the entrepreneur must also consider the packaging, the company website, the user experience in the shop, digital communication and all the advertising approaches that will be used. 

• Analyze your customers: no brand is for everyone and no brand solves all the problems. A "typical" customer, who represents a person with real needs and desires ("brand person"), must be defined. 

• eNgage your customres: In the digital age, customers want to be involved in brand development. They want information and interaction with the company, which influence their brand experience. New forms of interactive communication have transformed the role of the consumer from a passive recipient of information into a co-creator of information and online content. Consumers can access information and co-create it anytime, anywhere. The author calls this process, which takes place in the digital world, "cyberbranding". Everyone can tell and share their opinions with the rest of the world through social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Cyberbranding allows the creation of communities in which an extremely rapid transfer of information takes place, whose company is more difficult to control than traditional advertising methods. 

• Digital touchpoints: a company must be able to take advantage of all the approaches and tools offered by the digital age and use the latter to communicate the brand and connect to the target segments. All activities must be consistent and consistent with the brand idea. The contact points where consumers come into contact with the company's brand are brand meeting points.

New forms of advertising are based on networking and sharing, where everyone has the power to arbitrarily disseminate information forward. Top-down advertising is no longer effective today. Consumer integration and community building are an inevitable part of brand communication. The company must therefore be able to successfully connect all types of advertising, both traditional and modern from the digital world. 

 In developing an entrepreneurial idea, an entrepreneur is constantly confronted with numerous challenges and obstacles. The steps described above in entrepreneur brand development successfully lead between the challenges of developing a personal brand and a company brand in the digital age and its support while entering the international market. The brand must emerge from the knowledge of the needs and desires of end users, since nothing can replace a strong link between the company and consumers. The emotional bond between consumers and the company (the solution) will ensure consumer affiliation and the positive effects of "word of mouth" advertising. The latter has always been a fundamental resource for every entrepreneur, but in the digital age it has an even greater significance.

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