A “brand,” as we commonly know, includes a name, design, logo and sound that differentiates one corporation from another.

To take McDonald’s as an example, they have their name, a cutely arched M-shaped logo, the red-haired Ronald McDonald and the famous jingle featured on television commercials. These qualities allow customers to differentiate McDonald’s from other fast food stores.

But interpreting a brand as merely a name and an image is not enough.

Logic

If a customer entered a McDonald’s store simply after seeing its logo, it is also because of the strong brand equity that lies behind the logo.

In order to amass a strong brand equity by its name and logo alone, corporations should first analyze their customers in their entirety.

Corporations usually polish what customers can see in order to draw their attention, but before that there must be a logic behind the brand, analyzing the potential customers’ wants and needs and satisfying them.

Going back to McDonald’s, their brand image received much negativity around the early 2000s in Korea due to a strong push to boycott U.S. brands, the release of the film “Supersize Me” and the rising trend of eating healthy.

However, McDonald’s analyzed its Korean customers and found that they preferred low prices and speed over variety in their menus. So it brought McCafe to Korea and promoted low prices and speedy service, resulting in rapid growth in Korea, with over 400 outlets.

Google

In addition to the “logic” of market analysis, “magic” is what makes the brand come to life. To do so, corporations must ensure their brands tell a powerful story.

Google is especially good at answering this question. Google Photos, one of its newest features, is said to have opened up the stage for unlimited photo storage.

As smartphones became the primary mode of taking pictures, there has been insufficient space to save all the photos. Computer backups could crash, and online cloud services were either difficult or too expensive for the average consumer.

Google Photos answered to people’s needs by presenting a free, infinite photo storage system last May and shook up the IT market.

In 2002, Google also presented a powerful narrative with Google Earth by providing access to all parts of the globe as long as one was connected to the Internet, and in 2007 created a smartphone with Android iOS and caught up to Apple’s monopoly on smartphones, becoming one of the most powerful IT brands in the world.

Magic

What corporations can learn from Google is that they must findan “issue” that draws attention.

Costco, the second-largest retail chain, is ranked as the most desired workplace, has one of the best employee welfare systems and a satisfaction rate that rivals that of Google.

Costco does not expand its chains too readily, nor do it bring in outside talent. It pays 40 percent higher salaries to employees compared to Wal-Mart, and the CEO also receives one-quarter of the pay compared to his Wal-Mart counterpart.

Costco’s policy of lowering prices and accepting unconditional returns has been the underlying logic of its popularity.

But Costco’s “story” ― of cofounder James Sinegal spending his childhood in an orphanage, working at cargo stops during college, setting up a business at an old age of 47 ― has deeply affected people, and became the “magic” that made it a strong brand.

I read an interesting article on the Internet a few years ago about a former London Stansted Airport employee who quit his job to set up a bakery.

He wrote a letter of resignation explaining his desire to open a bakery and presented it in the form of a cake. The cake went viral over the Internet and was spread across the world.

Regardless of whether the man expected this to happen, he presented his new brand to the world with an alluring story without much cost.

It showed that in the smart technology era, one does not need to pay much money to let their brand become known to the world. With a bit of magic added with logic, anyone can turn their brand into a living asset.

By Park Heung-soo, Professor of Yonsei University School of Business