When entrepreneur Stuart Kirby decided to reinvent the pooper-scooper, he thought it would fly off pet shop shelves. He wanted to find a better way to clean up after dogs, designing a product that would do for man’s best friend what the flush toilet did for humans more than 100 years ago. Kirby soon discovered, however, that branding a product that was more functional than fashionable was an uphill struggle.

The dooup not only grabs the mess from the garden floor and stores it in a container, but also simultaneously sprays the affected area with a sanitising fluid. While it sounds like a brilliant solution for hygiene conscious dog owners, Kirby admits the nature of the product has made it difficult to brand.

While the full name of the product –The dooup Pet Waste Clearer – goes some way to explaining the functionality of the product, he says it has a long way to go before it becomes a household name. Getting the logo right has been particularly tricky.

“It was purposely designed to discreetly refer to the word ‘poo’ with the word ‘up’ further explaining its purpose,” Kirby explains. “A seemingly obvious choice, though we have spent much of our three years of trading correcting people who instead seem to read it as doop or do-up and despite our efforts to keep dooup from being capitalised, it is often referred as Dooup, thus diluting the subliminal message that is within the logo.”

The business has spent the majority of its limited marketing budget on ensuring their brand’s corporate colours remain clear and consistent across the website, where it also uses video content to communicate the benefits of the product, as well as how to use it.

The biggest challenge for the small business, however, has been to identify their target audience. While they initially marketed the product for the pet industry, they discovered that dog owners simply weren’t willing to pay £50 for a hi-tech pooper scooper. The company has now had to rebrand itself to target the garden sector.

Kirby says the lesson he learned from the experience is that it is essential to really analyse who your customers are first. He says: “Be careful how you select your target audience and research them very carefully before you build a branding strategy. Don’t build a branding strategy based on your own feelings and understandings of the world.”

John Illsley, valuation director at brand valuation consultant Intangible Business, agrees and advises business owners to take a more targeted approach when branding. Don’t just think about who the customer is, also consider where they are most likely to come into contact with your product or service, he advises. If you are selling pharmaceuticals, for instance, your customer might be more easily reached in a doctor’s waiting room rather than during a prime time TV ad break.

Also be realistic about your PR strategy, says Illsley. If your product is likely to cause offence or embarrassment to many people, it can be a waste of time to try and promote it in the mass media.

“No matter what you are selling, there is always scope to sell it and it is about having that understanding of where you are placed and who your consumer is,” Illsey advises.

“It’s only a hard sell if the customer doesn’t want your product, so know your customer, know your market and know how your brand fits into communicating your message to that consumer.”

Illsley reminds us that despite being undeniably dull, it was mundane traditional household products such as cleaning fluids and washing up powders that originally drove the advertising industry. Unilever and Procter & Gamble successfully branded basic functional products as items that would transform people’s lifestyles.

The latter’s iconic Fairy washing-up liquid brand, for example, was not only sold on the claim that it lasted longer than rival products but that it made hands that do dishes as soft as your face. Similarly Unilever’s Persil laundry detergent was not just about getting your whites sparkling, its advertising suggested using the brand was the sign of being a good mother.

Illsley says: “You may have a product that is not particularly interesting but you promote that product through the lifestyle benefits it creates. If you look at tampons and sanitary towels, the advertising around them is partly about their function but also about how great it makes you feel and all the opportunities the woman has by having that kind of protection.

“It is basically about pushing out the values and perhaps not some parts of the product that might be seen as inappropriate to communicate.”

Branding a “boring” product is all about being innovative, he adds. It involves a combination of understanding what the consumer needs from the product and expressing how the brand meets the requirement. He explains that humour and catchy slogans are all ways of making the brands more attractive, by creating an emotional attachment to mundane products.

Examples include Esso’s “Put a tiger in your tank”, “Bazooka that verruca” and “Juan sheet does Plenty”.

“Without imaginative branding these products would struggle to differentiate themselves and become mere commodities competing for market share primarily on price,” Illsley adds.

Understanding changing cultural memes can re-invigorate previously mundane or negative characteristics of your product, claims branding expert Simon Rucker, founder of Grit. For example, he claims the word natural has gone from connoting poor quality to “consumer shorthand for better quality, better for you, better for the planet, despite this not always being true”.

Good design can also improve the perception of a product or service. It can help an otherwise unexciting household item standout, for example. Philippe Starck’s Excalibur toilet brush. It does exactly what it says on the tin but its sleek, modern design makes it an attractive feature rather than an unsightly bathroom accessory.

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