CORPORATE BRANDING BEARING & THE PROCESS OF ROUTE~TAG REPOSITIONING

This consultancy process works differently for three different groups; developed brands, developing brands and new brands. It’s consisted of three phases; preliminary measurement (taking a bearing), reporting (presentation) and analysis (planning) and it lasts approximately 60 ~ 90 days.

The main goal is to determine where the brand they’re representing is standing and to create a profitable, corporate branding-oriented marketing plan as well as sales, promotion and advertising campaigns accordingly.

How to take the bearing of a brand? Originally a naval navigation term; it’s applied to the world of marketing by Kunter Dogrusoz to express determining where the corporate brand exactly is.

In a positive light, it can be described as ‘knowing your place’, accepting and acknowledging the current circumstances and making your next move accordingly. During the time period when technology wasn’t as advanced, taking a bearing was at utmost importance for an experienced captain in order to survive and avoid drifting with the current.

It is used in all kinds of activities (seamanship, sports, military) that require sailing to remain on the correct route. In order to make sure you’re on your previously settled route, you need to check where you are regularly, and that is what taking a bearing means.

Today this ground direction finding can be done quite easily with the help of satellites through ‘GPS’ technology, but it used to be much more complicated. It was impossible to sail without learning how to do that. Because the wind and the waves can easily drag us out of our route.

Bearing is the angle between the base direction and another object, and there are two kinds of bearings; true bearing and relative bearing. The base direction can be the direction one’s face is turned to, the direction of a boat or simply the north. It’s called true bearing when the base is the north.

Any device used for angle measurement can be used for bearing measurement. True bearing is usually measured by a compass. This technique of taking a bearing is called ‘heading’ in aviation. Why do we need at least three points to take a bearing? One point is pointillism. Line extends in two points, and plane extends in three. If we can find at least two prominent points within our eyeshot, we can take a bearing even if it’s not too accurate. But the most efficient way to do it is to measure it with three points.

The promontory belonging to a piece of land which we can see on our map with its coordinates, a defined lighthouse on the other side, and an island crosswise… Even in the ancient times, this situation would be like rolling the dice and getting a six on each. If only one of these conditions are present, the captain’s experience stands out even more.

Now let’s imagine that our ship is our brand (its storage is filled with our products and its deck is a transparent company), the flag above is our logo, its pennant is the flag signifying the countries associated with our products, the treasure on the island at the end of our route is our customers and our route is the strategic marketing plans aiming corporate branding (marketing, sales and advertising programs).
The most important aspect of strategic brand management is regular inspections. During each step of our journey, we need to check if our brand is where our customers, our trading channels and their subconscious see us is the same place as where we want to be.

Bearing points with the ‘Turquoise Compass’:

1- Blue; Active Hot Sales Value:
Perception measurement of where the institution and the brand reside through the eyes of the customers

2- Green; Efficient Advertising Product Value:
Perception measurement of where the institution and the brand reside through the eyes of all the rivals in the industry and the supplies

3- Red; Bridge System Value:
Perception measurement of where the institution and the brand reside through the eyes of the company workers, rival company works, sales managers and human resources managers.

While the rivals are trying to get the treasure before we do, the pirates are busy attacking us. They can’t provide reliable data since they’re still on the move to take a bearing. Thus, while positioning (in fact while determining a price strategy), they can’t provide clear and reliable predictions for their bearings in comparison to their rivals, also known as benchmarking.

In this case, the best point we can rely on when the weather is clear (when things are going well) is the sun. This yellow-colored value is received through the activities in the field of PR, also known as public relations. The yellow value, which means the ‘PR’ activities can also help us with the bearing resultant measurement when things are going well.

The essential point of the Turquoise Marketing approach is to improve and develop the marketing plans and the sales, promotion and advertising programs in accordance with at least three solid points.