Quicksand, moonbeams and the brand game
January 7th 2009 23:23
Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922, once said, "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” It is a comment custom-made for today's marketing experts, who can introduce themselves by saying, "If only he had access to today's research tools."
Marketing, marketing research, branding, advertising, public relations - promoting one's business and products can sound like a heady cocktail when the consultant is pitching for your account, and it can feel like pea soup when trying to get a grip on it yourself.
Let us start with some simple definitions. “Marketing” is the overall category or genre. Branding, advertising and market research are all subsets of marketing.
There are many not-so-simple definitions for marketing. According to a dictionary published by Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), it is, "The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals." US insurance group Woodmen of the World uses simpler language to define marketing as, "The way a business organization identifies its customers, defines and develops the products or services that its customers want, and sells and distributes those products or services to customers.
Branding is harder to define because a "brand" is an intangible. Advertising industry heavyweight David Ogilvy famously defined a brand as, "The intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised."
Perhaps putting it best is Glen Pearsall, managing director of Australia's Channel Marketing Decisions, who says, "Your brand is your public face."
Brand marketing is the art/science of making the right impression on prospects and reinforcing the firm’s value proposition to current customers. It’s the active process of discovering, developing and bringing the right image or identity of your company to the marketplace.
According to online IT encyclopedia whatis.com, a brand is a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names.
Brands are usually protected from use by others by securing a trademark or service mark from an authorised agency, usually a government agency. Brands are often expressed in the form of logos, graphic representations of the brand. A company's brands, and the public's awareness of them, are often used as a factor in evaluating a company. Corporations hire market reseach firms to study public recognition of brand names as well as attitudes toward the brands.
Branding is the growth sector of the wider marketing industry. And where it's working, it is working very well indeed. The golden arches of McDonald's, Nike's swoosh and the Intel Inside sticker campaign are all highly visible examples of successful branding campaigns. Another illustrative case is the slogan for Intralot, a new entrant in the lottery industry in Victoria Australia. The company uses the slogan "The Luck Factory", a positive positioning of the company's "product" of good luck. The slogan is a clever branding initiative because the customer benefit is clearly outlined.
In their book Romancing the Customer: maximizing brand value through powerful relationship management (Wiley, 2001), Paul Temporal and Martin Trott relate many cases of successful brand building programs.
One case study is that of the Mercedes Benz launch of its M Class off-road vehicle in the United States. The head of Mercedes in America knew that it would be entering a crowded market, and that the mere fact that it was a Mercedes would not guarantee sales. They had to try something different.
In the US it is still possible to obtain free access to data and they obtained details of all current owners of off-road vehicles and Mercedes cars. Mercedes then undertook a series of mail-outs to the names on the database.
It began with a personally addressed letter from the head of Mercedes USA. It said something like, "We at Mercedes are in the process of designing a brand new off-road car and I would like to know if you would be prepared to help us ..."
Americans probably receive more direct mail than any other country, but it is not every day that the head of Mercedes writes and asks for your help. There was a significant, positive response. Those people who responded received a series of questionnaires that asked for guidance on design issues such as whether the spare wheel should be outside or inside the vehicle, desired engine sizes, exterior colours and interior designs.
Not surprisingly, along with the questionnaires, Mercedes began to receive advance orders. Mercedes pre-sold its first year sales target of 35,000 vehicles. It was expecting to spend some $70 million US marketing the car, but by using direct approach strategy, it only needed to spend $48 million.
Another interesting insight was offered in a web forum post by commentator Chao Phraya. Writing in 2002 and discussing the then more prevalent perception that Asian products were cheap products, Chao asserted, "Global brands can come from anywhere".
He cited the example of Samsung. In 1997 Samsung products were appreciated as good in pricing and quality but short in brand differentiation. The strategy (of being good in price and quality) is not sustainable as you have to be a low-cost producer for ever. To achieve brand repositioning, Samsung embraced changes in all aspects including production designs and distribution. It pulled its handsets out of discount stores like Walmart.
At the same time, said Chao, US companies were branding products like Thai Jasmine rice with great success in the US, while the population of Thailand thought of the product merely as a commodity.
It was time for Asian brands to build on the natural differentiation of Asian products in a global market. While "Asian branding" had little to do with the Samsung success, the success of Korea and Taiwan in particular in reversing the perception that Asian products as cheap and of poor quality effectively removed one of their main competitive disadvantages in global markets. It was time to brand effectively with Asian characteristics as a differentiating and positive factor.
It is a development which the huge Chinese and Indian manufacturering sectors are grateful for today, with the attraction of westerners to things Asian gathering speed
As Chao Phraya concluded, "Asian" IS "Global", and the innovative Asian marketer can ensure that is the case by aggressively labelling his brands so.
So much for positive branding results. When the opposite is happening - when a company's perceived ethics or workplace relations record or environmental stance or some other obstacle along the tricky path of market and public perception has created a negative attitude - then the solution is increased branding effort.
In early July 2008, The Australian newspaper described Australia's national airline, Qantas, as "on the nose". It was a succinct summary of a two-year fall from grace. Qantas, for so long promoted as The Flying Kangaroo and known affectionately as such by Australians, has developed a reputation for unreliable flights, for unfriendly service at customer service points and for a stone-hearted approach to employee relations.
According to The Australian, "Every regular business traveller can tell tales of woe about cancelled flights, long delays, unhelpful or snappy Qantas staff and an airline that has become arrogant and complacent. The stories might be exaggerated, but the effect they have on the Qantas brand is real."
In 2006, research company Synovate and marketing firm Principals compiled a list of Australia's most "authentic" brands. The list was based on research among consumers, who were asked about more than 100 indigenous brands in terms of heritage, familiarity, personal utility, originality, momentum, sincerity and declared beliefs. In other words, the philosophy behind the brands. Qantas emerged as the most authentic brand in Australia. But when Synovate and Principals repeated the research in early 2008, Qantas had crashed to 14th place.
The slide started with a lot of negative press for two issues which could not have been more unrelated. The first was an A$11 billion private equity buyout bid in late 2006. The bid descended into chaos and confusion, ultimately failed, cost the job of chair Margaret Jackson, and left a deep impression that Qantas management could have done better.
The second incident was the sacking of stewardess Lisa Robertson after she and actor Ralph Fiennes got up-close and personal in a first-class toilet on a flight from Darwin to Mumbai. The story made international headlines, all of it suggesting Qantas had no sense of humour and no sense of adventure, and leaving the airline looking very unsexy indeed.
"Many Australians have lost that special feeling towards the flying kangaroo," Principals' planning director Wayde Bull said after the release of the 2008 branding report. "Qantas has work to do in rebuilding that emotional bond and sense of shared ownership with all Australians."
As a first step, Qantas in early July announced a major overhaul of its frequent flyer scheme. The airline, which lost not a few friends some time ago when it introduced a hefty frequent flyer scheme joining fee, hopes the initiative can help it re-engage with its customers and help rebuild the Qantas image.
According to the The Australian article, it is a "forlorn hope" but that is harshly judgmental - perhaps better to say that it is a long road back, and this can be only the first step. Offering Lisa Robertson her job back might be an interesting second step.
Branding is often described as "nebulous". Branding success is as easy to grab as quicksand and moonbeams. Mark Thomson, writing for brandchannel.com, explained it in an interesting way. His first question, he says, to CEOs and start-up entrepreneurs alike, is, “What’s your story?
"What strikes me is not how different, nor how similar, the answers are; but how hard it is for nearly everyone to answer the question in the first place ... Pause for a moment and ask yourself the question ... not so easy, is it?"
Thomson's point is that, in the age of the soundbite, it is difficult to describe in 60 seconds what it is we do, what our brand provides to those we serve, and why it matters.
The nebulous quality of branding is recognised in a British brand. The company calls itself Intangible Business, and it is in the business of - branding. Indeed, it claims to be the world's leading independent brand valuation consultancy.
It is perhaps appropriate to finish on a high note, with drink in hand. We will therefore conclude with a look at one of the most successful of all branding stories, that of Absolut Vodka.
The story began in the small town of Ahus, Sweden, and might have ended there too if not for a brilliant and creative campaign that took Absolut from obscurity to become one of the world's top selling spirits and one of the most recognisable brands of the 20th century.
The success stems from a unique and alluring image created by a unique and brilliant promotion campaign. Absolut advertisements are stunning. They have been torn from magazines, hung on walls and traded like baseball player cards. In just 20 years Absolut has captured global imagination and become an international icon - all without the benefit of television advertising.
Absolut ads have evolved since the early days of the campaign, with the trademark Absolut bottle now to be seen fashioned out of anything from Christmas lights or masquerading as a 19th hole of a golf course. In the US, every state has its own Absolut ad, as do most major cities. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Al Hirschfeld have designed ads featuring the bottle.
Absolut Perfection.
| 56 |
| Vote |
Comments (4)
Add Comments
