Farmers have normally sold their products as commodities. This means there is no appreciable difference between the corn raised by Farmer Jones and the corn raised by Farmer Smith. One bushel of corn will directly substitute for any other bushel of corn.

However, value-added agriculture allows farmers to differential their products from the products of others. Product differentiation means that your product is somehow different or better than the neighbors. The way to bring this difference to the attention of your customer is by branding your product. Branding allows you to clearly identify and personalize the superior nature of your product relative to those of your competitors. If your brand succeeds in convincing your customer that you have a superior product, it follows that the customer will be willing to pay more for your product relative to the products of your competitors.

Building your Brand will help you understand what branding is, why it is important and the necessary steps to brand your product. Flanker Brands, Brand Line Extensions and Brand Leveraging are three ways of using your current branded product to move another branded product into the marketplace. Brand Loyalty focuses on why it is importance to your company and outlines the steps necessary to convert to and maintain brand loyalty.

For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.

Understanding Branding

• How Consumers Value Global Brands – HBS Working Knowledge -- What do consumers expect of global brands? Does it hurt to be an American brand? The three characteristics consumers look for to make purchase decisions.
  
• Peeling Back the Global Brand – HBS Working Knowledge -- The global brand is a hard nut to crack. In a session devoted to these seemingly all-powerful brands, professors and practitioners exposed the fault lines.
  
• The Problem with Viral Branding – HBS Working Knowledge -- Want to build a long-lasting brand? A viral strategy is too short-lived to get the job done.
  
• Will American Brands Be a Casualty of War? – HBS Working Knowledge -- Does your U.S. brand play well overseas? A swelling anti-American tide could wash away the international popularity of U.S. brands.
  
• Brand Yourself and Win More Business – SalesVantage.com -- A number of the very successful sales reps that I coach have a strategy for winning that is worth considering. They do what entertainers, sports figures and politicians do--they brand themselves.
  
• Naming that THING – Again – SalesVantage.com -- Without a name, there is no calling-device. No customer will ever refer to it or even talk about it. Basically, no name, no story. No story, no ad-campaign. No ad-marketing, no business.
  
• Updating your Logo – SalesVantage.com -- When it comes to logos, many of us want to rush to make changes and tweaks to current corporate identity. Before you jump into an overhaul, carefully consider the reasons you want to make a change. If there is no compelling business reason to change, it is generally advisable to stay the course with your current logo.

Building a Brand

• More Than A Name: The Role of Brands in People's Lives – HBS Working Knowledge -- A new typology of 15 types of consumer-brand relationships—from the "secret affair" to the "marriage of convenience"—offers new insights and perspectives for academics and executives alike.
• Bringing Brand Values Inside – HBS Working Knowledge -- One of the biggest marketing puzzles, surprisingly, is articulating your brand essence inside your own company.
  
• Building 'Brandtopias'—How Top Brands Tap in To Society – HBS Working Knowledge -- What are "identity brands" and why are they so powerful? Some top brands—including soft drink Mountain Dew—deliver imaginative stories that are perfectly attuned to society's deep desires.
  
• eBrands: Building a Brand on the Web – HBS Working Knowledge -- The "if you build it, they will come" days of the Web are behind us. The companies that make it from Web wannabe to the ranks of the online elite will be those that make brand-building a strategic priority.
  
• Building the Global Brand – HBS Working Knowledge -- The key to building a global brand is not the brand itself but the leadership that makes it happen.
  
• Second Acts for Old Brands – HBS Working Knowledge -- Ovaltine. Prell. Comet. Specialists in reviving once-famous but now faded consumer brands discuss their secrets of success.
  
• The Right Way to Kill a Bad Brand – HBS Working Knowledge -- Even bad brands have good customers. Can you get rid of the former without alienating the latter? Sure, but it’s not easy.
  
• Building a Powerful Prestige Brand – HBS Working Knowledge -- Leveraging ambition, customer input, intuition and a keen commercial imagination, a daughter of immigrant shopkeepers created a leader in the global prestige cosmetics market.
  
• Global Brands - HBS Working Knowledge -- Connecting with Consumers across Boundaries.
  
• Align Your Brand with a Social Cause – HBS Working Knowledge -- Enhancing a brand in the name of a social cause can be tricky, but the reward goes beyond the bottom line. First step: Select a cause aligned with your company’s goals.
  
• Product & Brand Failures: A Marketing Perspective – Mplans.com -- Product and brand failures occur on an ongoing basis to varying degrees within most product-based organizations.
  
• Expressing your Brand through E-Mail – SalesVantage.com -- Keeping in mind that every customer contact has an effect on your brand, it's time to pay close attention to the way most of us reach out and touch our customers--e-mail.

Private Labels / Co-Packing

• The New Appeal of Private Labels – HBS Working Knowledge -- No longer just cheap imitations that undermine margins and weaken product categories, private labels now offer a range of opportunities for savvy manufacturers.
• How to Choose a Co-Packer -- Fiery Foods -- This provides guidelines on selecting a co-packing company.

Brand Examples

• Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part One - HBS Working Knowledge -- What can we learn from the lives of six successful entrepreneurs from 1759 through the present day?
• Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two - HBS Working Knowledge -- How do you make the jump from leading a small team in the proverbial garage to heading a multibillion-dollar business?
  
• Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century – HBS Working Knowledge -- H.J. Heinz founder Henry Heinz developed sophisticated brand-building strategies without the advantages of modern economic analytic technique, data and theory.
  
• How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life – HBS Working Knowledge -- Some brands just want to have fun, and from birth Snapple was one of them. The odyssey of the fun-loving beverage contains smart lessons for managers on branding and company culture.
  
• Brand Death: Three Brands that Died and Why – SalesVantage.com -- The question for business strategists is "what happened?" How did such a dominant leading car brand get sick and die?