Branding a Winning

Brand awareness is the buzz phrase of the 21st century’s marketing philosophy. A few decades ago we didn’t talk brand we talked ‘make’. What ‘make’ is your new television… what ‘make’ is your new car… we’d eagerly ask – in an era where brand recognition was not such a fundamental part of our lives as it is today.

But brand – a word which, funnily enough, is derived from the Old Norse ‘brandr’, meaning ‘to burn’, is defined today as a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers’, according to the American Marketing Association. In actual fact the legal term for brand is trademark.

Conversely, in the auto industry, brands were originally called ‘marques’, a word which is still used in reference to motor vehicles. Creating a brand and then making people aware of it to the point that they immediately identify its logo, advertising jingle or such like because of associations in the memory, is what every brand guru sets out to achieve from day one.

Brand gurus are a special breed of people: they have generally created and then grown a ‘make’ until it has become a household name and is respected – even coveted – in the market. Real brand gurus are few and far between – there are probably over 100,000 brand managers for just one ‘guru’ in today’s market and their specialist knowledge, their determination to rise above all others is not the result of training, it’s the product of instinct.

One such man with this special instinct is Dany Bahar, Group Lotus’s CEO, whose career this writer has followed for some years. Regarded by some in the industry as an enigma, Bahar is nonetheless one of the finest brand gurus around today. Why has he been called ‘an enigma’? It’s probably because he has, through much of his recent career, managed to keep his background and private life quiet while at the same time, promoting some of the world’s most recognisable brands.

But these brands were born out of his enthusiasm and nurtured until they became phenomenal global successes. Already a seasoned marketing professional in the field of sports marketing before he was headhunted for Red Bull by Dietrich Mateschitz in 2005, Bahar has nonetheless become known as the man who took Red Bull by the horns and made it a global brand. One of his first moves on joining the company was to negotiate a deal for Red Bull Racing to use Ferrari engines.

During the two years he spent with Red Bull, he had built up such an enviable reputation for – and a global awareness of – the brand, that it remains today hugely successful.

He moved from Red Bull to Ferrari in 2007 where, as Senior VP for the Commercial and Brand Department, he set up a new division within the company, which managed and developed the Ferrari brand around the world. He headed sales and service on the production side as well as marketing, licensing and merchandising for the F1 team. Bahar shaped and tweaked in his inimitable way and the name Ferrari today trips off the tongues of enthusiasts the world over who, if they can’t afford the real thing, have at least some item in their home or wardrobe branded with the famous prancing horse logo.

And now he is at Group Lotus where he is working to a five year plan designed to rejuvenate the company and put the Lotus image, brand and reputation as a world-class sports car and engineering outfit back where it belongs – on a winning streak.

I once asked Bahar to explain his philosophy on branding. “I believe that the brand should influence the people working for it, not the other way around,” he told me. “I also don’t take the traditional approach to brand awareness. With Lotus we don’t do traditional advertising with the exception of one or two special markets. Instead, we focus on brand experience activities – our motorsport engagement is the perfect example of this,” he explained.

And then almost as a throw-away comment, he added: “People should feel our brand and want to become part of it.”

There, in a nutshell, ‘become part of it’ epitomises this guru’s brand philosophy. He has helped to build dreams for people – the carefree and fun image of Red Bull which he created, the aspirations of consumers to want to own a prancing horse, and now the desire to re-ignite enthusiasm for the famous Lotus roar.

Already he’s on track with his plans for the whole brand – just a year into the five year plan, he’s been able to achieve results so far, despite the challenges which faced him when he took over as CEO at Group Lotus just 21 months ago. And just so people get the message that Bahar the brand guru means business, the company’s motorsport side announced in July that it had formed Lotus Sport USA.

In fact, Bahar’s keeping the Lotus brand well in the forefront of motoring circles at the moment for there has been serious talk this week that it will unveil a new LMP2 racer at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show with the aim of competing at Le Mans next year, starting with ALMS, the American Le Mans.

On top of this, Group Lotus has also just confirmed it will be entering the Lotus Evora GTE in a full North American and International schedule for 2012, with a testing programme starting later this year.

There’s a certain ring around things at the moment Chez Group Lotus – there’s a positiveness at Hethel which, to a seasoned motorsports’ writer like me, tells me that Bahar, the brand guru, is definitely in business – and it’s been a good news week for him as he ploughs through his five year plan, 21 months down and just 39 to go till that final goal is achieved!

There are various things that come to mind when people start and grow their own business. They think of financing, location, and even legal fees associated with their dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur. What they often overlook or don’t consider is the need for business insurance, especially small business insurance for many, when embarking on the challenges of a starting entrepreneur. Incorporating your needs for insurance is a vital component of the start-up process.

It’s never too early to think about small business insurance when starting your business. In fact, it probably wouldn’t hurt to include it as part of your business plan. Depending on the kind of business you’re in, and the types of risks and insurance obligations associated with what you do, the cost of insurance can be a vital component of how your start-up is financed.

General business liability insurance: Ever hear of it? If you haven’t, then it’s just another reason why incorporating small business insurance early into your business plans is vital.

General business liability insurance is one of the most available means of insuring a business from liability. Liability comes in all forms and a specific policy to cover you specific business is necessary.

In essence, since doing business involves some degree of contact with the public, you expose yourself to the possibility of causing injury or damage to a member of that public. It’s not like the kind of insurance you get for your home, where most of the people who come by are family or friends. The likelihood of getting sued because somebody slipped and fell on the driveway you forgot to shovel is low.

However, the likelihood of getting sued because someone who had some contact with your business feels you’re responsible for harm to them is much greater. That’s where general business liability insurance comes in and should form an integral part of your small business insurance plan.

Given the extent to which having insurance is a vital aspect of doing business, it just follows that incorporating it into your business plans as early as possible is just doing good business.

Every single business has its own unique needs when it comes to receiving adequate coverage, which is why planning for it early becomes wise. Small business insurance can cover anything from the risk of having a tornado hit your office to the chance that someone is going to sue you for the bad carburetor you installed in their minivan that caught on fire. Having a plan in place early on to cover you particular risks will allow you to adequately assess your risks and finance your business.

It’s a common mistake to assume that small business insurance is something you get after you’ve taken care of everything else. Although this is a better attitude than believing that business insurance is unnecessary or too costly. Purchasing business insurance late in the process can mean that you’ll encounter costs you simply did not expect or, maybe even worse, which you’ll have to settle for insurance that won’t adequately meet your needs.

Is it ever too late to get business insurance? Of course not. But the point to keep in mind is that it’s never too early to get business insurance either. Most successful businesses do one thing very well. As much as humanly possible, they try to manage the future. What does that mean? Well, it can mean a lot of things. Yet, generally speaking, it means that the smart business operator will always try to think two or three steps ahead instead of being complacent or looking back.

One of the most important aspects of looking forward for any business is the extent to which they manage risk. That’s where small business insurance and general business liability insurance come in. An entrepreneur who incorporates these into their assessment of risk as early on as possible is more likely to confront the future than one who doesn’t.

Since risk is extremely large when starting a business, it only makes sense that it be dealt with in all its forms almost from the beginning. The more that an entrepreneur does this early, the more they’re doing to confront the risks associated with all startups.

The beauty of small business insurance and general business liability insurance is that it takes one part of your assessment of risk and essentially out-sources it to someone else — your insurance provider. If only all risk could be dealt with in the same manner. It’s why getting an insurance provider you can trust early on is so important. An insurance provider who gets you covered with a plan just right for you, and does it early on, will help you deal with one of the many challenges facing a starting small business.

The need for small business insurance is vital for any new business. Without it, you’re exposing your business to risks that could ruin all your other hard work and planning. It’s why insurance should form an integral part of that planning and be incorporated in something as early as a business plan. Things like general business liability insurance are necessary for entrepreneurs who expose themselves to the risk of doing business with a public you might not even see or come into contact with. That’s why a good package early on is the only way of doing business smartly.