BUSINESS 2000: As branding becomes more sophisticated it is not confined to saleable goods - successful brands can create feelings of comfort, stability and even happiness, writes Colm Ward

It used to be simple. Brands were just identifying marks to distinguish one company's products from another's. But in the past two decades, the brand has assumed huge importance, in many cases becoming the company's most valuable asset.

As branding becomes more sophisticated, it is no longer confined to saleable goods. Now, services, places and even people can be branded.

The branding of Ireland as a tourist destination has been in progress for a long time now. The State's image is one which has been evolving constantly, from the old notion of a quaint, rural landscape and people to today's version that encompasses a whole range of images, from sophisticated urban centres to the rugged beauty of the coastal regions. This constantly evolving image means that there can never be one definitive "Brand Ireland".

There are three stages in the development of the brand, says Ms Niamh Fitzpatrick, director of marketing with Tourism Ireland, the body charged with promoting tourism North and South.

The first stage is identifying which markets offer the best prospects for attracting tourists to Ireland. The second involves determining the best message to motivate people to visit. Finally, the most effective method of marketing must be identified. This varies according to what the consumer wants, the level of awareness of Ireland as a tourist destination and the budget available.

Although creating the brand image is a "complex task", its overall aim is to "create awareness and evoke a desire to visit the island of Ireland", says Ms Fitzpatrick. "We focus on the combination of the people, the place and the pace [of life]," she says.

Successful brands create an emotional connection with people and it is this connection that gives them such power. They can create feelings of comfort, stability, even happiness. For this reason, attempts to change them can be fraught with danger.

When the owners of Royal Mail in Britain decided to change the brand name to Consignia at a cost of £1 million sterling earlier this year, they were met with a storm of protest from British consumers and investors, unhappy with the loss of the familiar name. The company was eventually forced into an embarrassing retreat and the name reverted to Royal Mail.

Two companies that did rise successfully to the challenge of rebranding are Vodafone and O2, now among the most recognisable brands in Ireland. They replaced Eircell and Esat Digifone, respectively, and are now competing for dominance in the Irish mobile communications market.

For Vodafone, the decision to replace the Eircell brand was a difficult one that had to be approached carefully. "Eircell would have been a very well- known and well-loved brand and the decision to move to Vodafone was a very long and well-thought out one," says Ms Tara Delaney, Vodafone's director of communications.

The company decided initially to retain the Eircell name as part of the brand so that the transition would be easier for its customers. From October 2001, it operated under the name Eircell Vodafone. This "dual brand" period ended in February of this year when the Eircell part was dropped.

Ms Delaney believes dual branding is not a very effective policy. "In hindsight it is not something we would do again - the actual identity itself was ugly and it presented a lot of marketing problems for us. The name was difficult to read and we were not getting very good cut-through in the marketplace," she says.

The process of promoting the new name and image was a complex and costly one. New retail outlets were opened, staff had to become comfortable with the new brand and an advertising campaign was launched to make people aware that Vodafone was replacing Eircell. This was followed by a campaign to promote the new brand. The total cost of the rebranding exercise was €10 million.

This focus on branding reflects Vodafone's stated aim to become one of the top 10 brands in the world by 2004. The company's global presence, which enables customers to avail of its services throughout the world, is one of its key selling points. "We are positioning ourselves as the world's largest mobile community," says Ms Delaney.

Although a brand's image is primarily aimed at customers and potential customers, one very important audience is the company's own staff.

They are the public face of any brand and both Vodafone and O2 agree that their support was vital for their rebranding to be successful.

"Employees are effectively the human face of the brand. Our perception of Vodafone is coloured by the voice at the end of the phone when you call up with a query or a problem," says Ms Delaney.

Most mobile network operators will admit that the services they offer vary little from their competitors.

So, with little to distinguish them in terms of quality or price, it is the image they convey that is vital in order to compete.

For O2, Vodafone's biggest competitor in the Republic, the brand's image is very much focused on the future and what that offers to its customers.

"It is about enabling people as opposed to telling them what the network is about," says Ms Edel O'Leary, head of communications with O2.

"The brand has to work on a number of different levels," she says. In addition to creating an emotional link with customers, it must also communicate what the company is trying to sell and distinguish itself from other brands.

One of the first steps in establishing the O2 brand in Ireland was to disassociate it from Esat, a company mainly associated with land-based telecommunications. So the Esat name was dropped and the brand became known simply as Digifone.

Then, in May of this year, that was changed again to O2.

"Our existing customers said: 'Don't worry. We are used to companies changing their names. Just do it well and do it quickly and let us know when it happens'," says Ms O'Leary.

The €2 million advertising campaign carried out by O2 as part of the rebranding focused on positioning the brand as the future of mobile communications in Ireland.

What seems certain, as organisations such as Vodafone, O2 and Tourism Ireland have realised, is that branding is going to play an ever-greater role in the future of business in Ireland.