Branding Strategy

BRANDING STRATEGY
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At The Blake Project our sole focus is helping organizations create brands that build and
sustain trust. Branding Strategy Insider is an extension of our efforts to help marketing
oriented leaders and professionals build strong brands.
Posted by Derrick Daye in Brand Education | Permalink
August 16, 2009
The Anti-laws of Luxury Marketing #3
3. Don’t pander to your customers’ wishes

One of the most respected brands in the world is BMW. This ever-growing brand has
been successful in creating a cult, a body of owners that are extremely faithful, devoted
and committed to their brand. It is in fact, according to the Luxury Institute, one of the
‘the most admired car companies in the world’. What are the factors behind BMW’s
success?
• A clear brand identity, observed to the letter since 1962, summarized in a slogan
never challenged since then, translated into every language – ‘Sheer driving pleasure’.
• A stable, family shareholding. Since 1959 the brand has been owned by the Quandt
family. It believes in letting things take their time and accepts that it may lose clients in
the short term to increase the value.
• A very German enterprise culture, characterized by its engineering and its product
cult. Moreover, being descended from pioneers of aviation, there is a tremendous pride in
this company.
BMW sells unequalled driving pleasure to people who know how to appreciate it. It has
never built cars that were boring to drive. BMW has become an icon of standing and
performance; in the 1990s it was the ‘official’ car of every yuppie or successful young
executive eager to show off their success. What is less well known, however, is that
despite its success, the brand has remained true to itself thanks to its willingness to resist
client demands when these did not correspond to the company’s very precise vision as to
what made for a true BMW. This does not mean the luxury brand should not care about
its clients nor listen to them. However, it should do nothing that threatens its identity.
Continue reading "The Anti-laws of Luxury Marketing #3" »
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Posted by Derrick Daye in Derrick Daye, Luxury Branding | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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Technorati Tags: Jaguar, JN Kapferer, Kogan Page, Luxury Branding. BMW, Luxury
Institute, P&G, Procter & Gamble, Quandt Family, V. Bastien
August 15, 2009
Influencing Brand Perceptions Via Biased Research
The French philosopher Henri Poincaré once observed that science is built from facts just
as a house is built of stones - but he went on to note that an accumulation of facts is no
more science than a heap of stones is a house.
British consumers are currently faced with several towering heaps of stones, and they
might do well to look at who is doing the piling. We have the Natural Hydration Council
(NHC), for example, which is very clear on the benefits of drinking water. It especially
stresses the benefits of consuming 2.9l (men) or 2.2l of fluid (women) a day and is keen
to point out the ‘undisputed' health benefits of water over other beverages.
This advice also fits beautifully into the long-term strategies of bottled-water companies,
who are keen to maintain both the heavy consumption of water and its perception as a
superior drink to juice-based competitors. It is handy, as the NHC's research is funded by
bottled-water brand owners Danone, Nestlé and Highland Spring.
Continue reading "Influencing Brand Perceptions Via Biased Research " »
Posted by Mark Ritson in ?Branding Bag?, Mark Ritson | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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Technorati Tags: Bob Ferrand, Branding, Danone, Guild for Fine Food, Henri Poincaré,
Highland Spring, Natural Hydration Council, Nestlé, Rex Humphries, Tim Smith
August 14, 2009
Building Brand Awareness
Today, another question from the BSI Emailbag. Gard, a marketer from Oslo, Norway
asks:
“Brad, I am working (and studying) within the field of marketing and am an avid reader
of Branding Strategy Insider. I have not seen you discuss brand awareness. What insight
can you share? Can you recommend literature on the topic?”
Gard, thanks for asking. As you point out, it is time that we write something about brand
awareness. Awareness is generally viewed to be one of the two most important drivers of
strong brands (the other being relevant differentiation). Past research has shown brand
awareness to have a high correlation with purchase intent, market share and other
important brand equity and business metrics. I have found top-of-mind unaided brand
awareness for the product/service category in question to be the awareness measure most
correlated with other relevant metrics and behaviors.
If your company has created a superior product offered at a price that delivers an
outstanding value and supports the product by unparalleled service, but no one has ever
heard of your company or its products, how many of those products are you likely to sell?
Zero. That’s why awareness is so important. It is the cornerstone of strong brands.
Research indicates that the primary impact advertising has on brands is to build
awareness for those brands.
What, in addition to advertising, can one do to build strong brand awareness? – (a) any
form of repeated exposure to the brand and (b) a strong brand identity consistently
presented. Any of the following can lead to repeated exposure:
Continue reading "Building Brand Awareness" »
Posted by Brad VanAuken in Brad VanAuken, Branding: Just Ask... | Permalink |
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Technorati Tags: Brand Awareness, Branding, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal
of Brand Management, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Product & Brand
Management
August 13, 2009
Brand Building and the Love Strategy
"Love" has become a key ingredient in many marketing programs. Some recent rallying
cries:
• "Get consumers to fall in love with our brand."
• "Reach their hearts as well as their minds."
• "Create intimate, emotional connections. Smother them with attention and affection."
Does "love" work in marketing? Sure. As a matter of fact, falling in love is a good
analogy for the branding process.
A young person falls in love and gets married. Now suppose the next year that same
person meets someone who is better looking, wealthier and more fun to be with. Bingo,
he or she changes spousal brands.
Not likely. The surprising thing is not that half of all marriages end in divorce. The
surprising thing is that half of all marriages don't end in divorce. Even Ike and Tina
Turner stayed together for almost two decades.
Falling in love with a person is an emotion that has consequences that can last for years.
Furthermore, people don't usually fall in love a second time without falling out of love
first.
Falling in love with a brand has similar consequences. Just because you run across a
"better" brand doesn't necessarily mean you will switch. Pepsi might taste better than
Coke, but most Coke drinkers have fallen in love with the brand and won't switch.
All across America people are falling in love with their brands.
Continue reading "Brand Building and the Love Strategy" »
Posted by Al Ries in Brand Management | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Alta Vista, Amazon, Baidu, Bayer, Branding, Burger King, Campbell's,
Coke, Disney, Duracell, Gatorade, Google, Heinz, Hellman's, Hertz, iPod, Johnson &
Johnson, kellogg's, Kleenex, McDonald's, Mikimoto, Movado, Newcastle Brown Ale,
Nintendo, Oscar Mayer, Overture, Pepsi, Red Bull, Second Life, Tabasco, Tide,
Tropicana, Twitter, Tylenol, Volkswagen, Yandex
August 12, 2009
Indirect Influencers and Purchase Decisions
A company has multiple constituencies when it offers the same product to different
market segments. Why is this an important discipline in Marketing? Often times, your
direct buyer is not the most important influencer. Children, doctors, relatives and social
referential leaders often assume major positions in the purchasing decision.
As a result, it is important to understand these indirect customers and influencers and
integrate this understanding into marketing strategy. Multiple Constituency Marketing
applies to a wide number of industries including the Pharmaceutical, Hospitality,
Consumer Goods, Toys and Entertainment sectors.
Multiple constituencies = Actual buyer + Influencers (doctors, accrediting agencies,
children, relatives, referential leaders in society)
One example of Multiple Constituency Marketing is in the Pharmaceutical sector. Take
for example Viagra as a drug. Pharmaceutical firms target not only the doctor who is the
gate-keeper in the prescription purchasing decision. Pfizer targets customers directly to
inquire from their doctors about getting the drug, appealing to their psychological needs
of potency and "scoring" (indicated by its communications). Beyond this, it also targets
wives via television communications, appealing to their needs of intimacy. It also appeals
to referential leaders like Bob Dole.
Companies that manufacture foods also consider how to appeal to not only the adult that
will purchase the product, but also the children and significant other that heavily
influence purchasing.
Continue reading "Indirect Influencers and Purchase Decisions" »
Posted by Derrick Daye in Derrick Daye, Market Research | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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Technorati Tags: Bob Dole, Branding, Pfizer
August 11, 2009
What Is Necessary For A Branding Exercise?
Today, another question from the BSI Emailbag. Mark, a marketer from San Diego,
California writes:
“Can you share the essentials of a branding exercise? Specifically, what workshops,
surveys, etc. do you use to give the corporation a better idea of how their current brand is
perceived and how the corporation goes about changing the brand over time?”
Mark, thanks for asking. First, I would try to understand how the brand in question is
perceived by its most important audiences. I would survey its primary and secondary
target customers on the following dimensions of brand equity:
* Unaided top-of-mind brand awareness within the appropriate product/service
categories
* Brand differentiation (open ended question -- "What makes this brand unique and
compelling compared to competitive options?" -and- closed ended scaled question:
importance versus brand delivery for the most important category-related customer
benefits)
* Brand value perceptions
* Brand convenience/accessibility perceptions
* Emotional connection to the brand
* Brand loyalty -- behavioral and attitudinal
* Perceived brand vitality
* Brand personality perceptions
* Other brand associations
I would measure the same for the top competitive brands and compare the results to that
of the brand in question.
Continue reading "What Is Necessary For A Branding Exercise?" »
Technorati Tags: Brand Positioning, Brand Strategy, Branding, Customer Touchpoint
Design, Gerard Gibbons
August 10, 2009
Building a Brand vs. Building a Business
Are you building a business? Or are you building a brand? Silly questions, you might be
thinking. Naturally, you are trying to do both.
But that might be a mistake.
What's good for the business is not necessarily good for the brand. And vice versa.
What's a brand anyway? It's a word that stands for something in the mind of prospects.
That definition, by the way, is at odds with conventional thinking.
Most managers equate a brand with its celebrity index. The more famous the brand, the
more powerful it is. "Making our brand name well-known" seems to be the conventional
approach to brand building.
Chevrolet is one of the world's best-known automobile brands, but how valuable is the
Chevrolet brand? Not very.
Chevrolet doesn't make Interbrand's list of the 100 most-valuable global brands.
Chevrolet, like many other exceptionally well-known names, isn't worth much because it
doesn't stand for anything.
It's not just Chevrolet. The U.S. automobile industry markets 14 vehicle brands: Buick,
Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Hummer, Jeep, Lincoln, Mercury,
Pontiac, Saab and Saturn.
I would guess that every one of these brands (with the exception of GMC) is
exceptionally well-known with a recognition score in excess of 90%.
Except for a house, an automobile is the most expensive product a person might buy in
his or her lifetime. In addition, an automobile has enormous street visibility. These
factors combine to give automotive brands a huge advantage in the battle for the
consumer's mind.
It's not surprising that 11 automobile brands made Interbrand's most valuable list. But just
one of those 11 brands was an American brand. (Ford at No. 49.) The other 10 were
European and Asian brands. Why? The European and Asian brands stood for something.
Continue reading "Building a Brand vs. Building a Business " »
Posted by Al Ries in Branding Basics | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Adidas, Branding, Budweiser, Campbell's, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell,
Gatorade, Google, Intel, iPod, Kleenex, McDonald's, Michael Dell, Motorola, Nike,
Nokia, Pepsi-Cola, Starbucks, Tabasco, Taco Bell, TurboTax
August 09, 2009
2. Does your product have enough flaws?

This is a provocative statement. For most people, luxury is the last word in hand-crafted
or craftsman-built products. It is true that in surveys into the perception of luxury,
consumers from all over the world were interviewed and the consensus was that ‘product
excellence’ is the primary prerequisite of luxury. It would suffice to imagine a bisecting
line between two axes – price and functional quality: at the very top right would be
luxury. Now, in our view, nothing could be further from reality.
The aim of an upper-premium brand is to deliver a perfect product, to relentlessly pursue
perfection. But it would take a touch of madness for it to be counted a luxury.
Functionally, a Seiko watch is superior to many luxury watches – it is more accurate
(because it’s a quartz watch) and shows the time directly and in a perfectly legible
manner (because it is displayed on a digital face). If you were to buy some of the famous
brands of a luxury watch, you would probably be warned that it loses two minutes every
year. The flaw is not only known, it is assumed – one could say that that is both its charm
and its guarantee of authenticity. It is the specific and singular nature of their movement
that is responsible for that. For luxury watchmakers like adding complications, indeed
seek them out in their endless quest of art for art’s sake. This is the ‘madness’ touch that
goes beyond perfection and makes people collect them.
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Technorati Tags: Ferrari, Hermes, JN Kapferer, Kogan Page, Luxury Branding, Seiko, V.
Bastien
August 08, 2009
Brand Failure From The Vine
In 1996 the Australian government's wine authority set an ambitious 30-year sales target.
Imagine its delight when that goal was reached a full two decades ahead of schedule.
Between 1996 and 2007 Australian wine forced its way into markets in a way rarely
witnessed in any export industry. Nowhere was this more evident than in the UK, the
biggest single market for Australian wine.
However, trouble is now brewing. Australian wine production is three times the level of
15 years ago, but global demand for it is tanking. In the UK, it dropped by 18% last year,
in the US by 26%. According to Aussie wine critic Jeremy Oliver: 'The industry is in
crisis - anything less than that is avoiding reality. It is interesting that nobody really saw
this coming.'
Not quite true, Mr Oliver. Your humble BSI blogger predicted these problems in an
article I wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007. In it I stated that Australian
winemakers were 'on the verge of an almighty strategic blunder'. Next year is shaping up
to be disastrous for Australian wine and it's not too soon to learn some lessons.
First, don't rely exclusively on sales data to plan your strategy. Booming sales of huge
fruity Shirazs and oaky Chardonnays were the prime drivers of Australian success. Many
wineries looked at the figures, extrapolated their growth and made more of the same.
Unfortunately, sales data is a poor predictor of future consumer tastes. There is no
replacement for recurrent qualitative and quantitative research, and without these
insights, Australian winemakers have found themselves producing wine that many
consumers simply do not want.
Continue reading "Brand Failure From The Vine" »
Posted by Mark Ritson in Brand Watch, Mark Ritson | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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Technorati Tags: Branding, Dan Murphy's, Foster's, Jancis Robinson, Jeremy Oliver,
Lindemans, Penfolds, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Wine
Advocate , Tim Kirk
August 07, 2009
Variable Pricing and Brand Destruction
A former New York Times editor recently wrote a full-page article for Forbes magazine
advocating “variable pricing” for art museums.
“Art institution directors should start thinking like airline yield managers,” was the
subhead of the article.
That’s strange. You might think the yield-management gurus would have the airlines
rolling in dough. But that hasn’t happened.
Take the five largest U.S. airlines. United went bankrupt. Delta went bankrupt. Northwest
went bankrupt. US Airways went bankrupt. And American Airlines is losing money. In
the last 10 years, American has had revenues of $199.8 billion and managed to lose $6.7
billion. Not exactly an industry to emulate.
Why do otherwise intelligent people borrow ideas and concepts from failing industries
and think they will succeed in a different setting?
The unfortunate answer to that question is that in today’s world, ideas and concepts don’t
seem to matter. What matters is “execution.”
If you can execute well, goes the thinking, you are going to win. Which in itself is true.
What is not true is that execution is unrelated to the power of the ideas and concepts
driving the business.
Variable pricing is one of those ideas. No matter how well you execute a variable pricing
strategy, you wind up undermining the brand.
Continue reading "Variable Pricing and Brand Destruction" »
Posted by Al Ries in Brand Value & Pricing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: American Airlines, American Customer Satisfaction Index, Branding,
Chrysler, Coke, Delta, General Electric, Lenovo, Neiman Marcus, New York Times,
Nordstrom, Northwest, Pepsi, Porche, Rolex, Southwest Airlines, US Air, Variable
Pricing, Walmart
August 06, 2009
Brand Naming Analysis
Naming may be one of the most difficult tasks in branding. From my perspective, it is
about as difficult as successfully positioning a brand in an overcrowded market or
developing the brand architecture for a brand that has grown through multiple mergers
and acquisitions over the years.
Why is naming so difficult? Read on.
• Everyone seems to have an opinion on the name and many people are likely to be
strongly attached to their opinions on this
• It has become very difficult to find an available .com or .org URL for any given name
• Names need to work with taglines, which adds another layer of complexity
• Related to this, it generally seems redundant if the name and the tagline include one or
more of the same words
• Parent brand names should be developed with sub-brand, endorsed brand and
product/service names in mind
• Different words mean different things to different people
• If the brand is global, one must consider the meaning of the name in every language and
culture in which it will be used (For instance, Nova (no va) means “it doesn’t go” in
Spanish)
• Sometimes a name’s acronym spells out something undesirable (For instance, Aspiring
Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs = AMBLE)
• Sometimes the words in a name result in an unintended phrase when strung together in
a URL (For instance, AIDS Care becomes www.aidscare.com)
• In many industries, the most meaningful or powerful words and phrases are already
used in competitors’ names (such as “senior” or “living” for eldercare communities)
Continue reading "Brand Naming Analysis" »
Posted by Brad VanAuken in Brad VanAuken, Naming | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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Technorati Tags: Brand Naming, Branding
August 05, 2009
Don't Underestimate Chinese Marketers
Greetings from the wonderful, if rather wet, city of Shanghai. About seven years ago I
signed on with a big multi-national to train its marketing teams here in China. To be
honest, when I started running the programme I had little idea what to expect. Now,
however, many years later, China exerts a strong pull over me.
Each year I fly out here and review the plans of the small army of marketers that I have
trained up over the years, as well as running new recruits through the programme. Seven
years is a long time in China and I have watched the city of Shanghai evolve and improve
at a mind-boggling rate. Each July when I arrive I find bridges where last year there was
just river, amazing restaurants that have sprung up and established themselves and
formerly drab streets that have become wide boulevards.
Even more impressive is the evolution in the marketing skills of my executives. Before
my eyes they have transformed from anxious graduate students with no practical
experience into the best marketers I have ever seen.
I have been a marketing professor for 12 years and taught all over the world, but it is only
in China were I have seen my instruction executed to perfection in the field.
Continue reading "Don't Underestimate Chinese Marketers" »
Posted by Mark Ritson in Mark Ritson, Marketing and China | Permalink | Comments (0)
| TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, Branding, Walmart, Warren Buffett, Wumart,
Zhao Danyang
August 04, 2009
1. Forget about ‘positioning’, luxury is not comparative

In consumer marketing, at the heart of every brand strategy you will find the concept of
positioning, of the ‘unique selling proposition’ (USP), and ‘unique and convincing
competitive advantage’ (UCCA). Every classic brand has to specify its positioning, and
then convey it through its products, its services, its price, its distribution and its
communication. Positioning is the difference that creates the preference for a given brand
over the one that it has decided to target as a source of new business and whose clients it
is going to try to win over. In the war that brought it into conflict with Pepsi Cola in the
United States, Coca-Cola was ‘The real thing’ (its essential distinguishing feature),
whereas Pepsi-Cola, introduced in the 1930s, plugged its image as a young people’s drink
(‘The choice of the new generation’), thereby succeeding in boxing Coca-Cola into an
image as a product that only parents drank. As we see, the classic brand always seeks to
define itself by a key facet, depending on the market context, the main competitor, and
the expectations of the target consumers it is aiming to reach.
Nothing is more foreign to this approach than luxury. When it comes to luxury, being
unique is what counts, not any comparison with a competitor. Luxury is the expression of
a taste, of a creative identity, of the intrinsic passion of a creator; luxury makes the bald
statement ‘this is what I am’, not ‘that depends’ – which is what positioning implies.
What made the Christian Lacroix brand is its image of bright sunshine, full of this
designer’s bright, vivid colours, suffused with the culture of the Mediterranean; it
certainly is not concerned with its positioning with respect to this or that established
designer.
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Technorati Tags: Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Coca-Cola, JN Kapferer, Kogan Page,
Luxury Branding, Pepsi Cola, V. Bastien
August 03, 2009
How Do I Get My Marketing Clients To Focus?
Today we’re taking another question from the BSI Emailbag. Laura, a marketing
executive from Atlanta, Georgia asks…
“Brad, I find some clients don't want to hear me when I advise them to focus. To find a
relevant message to a specific target group and FOCUS. They seem to insist, "but why
would we narrow when we might miss an opportunity? All of our competitors will be
there if we aren't.
Of course they don't have the budget to be everywhere, so instead we end up with a broad
message to a broad audience and hoping that our bulleted copy points then attract the
right person to do the right thing. HELP. I have tried to convince them this is a waste and
to own a smaller group is a better strategy when funds are limited. But I don't seem to be
getting through. Any case studies, charts or graphs you can share? I already forwarded
one of you recent posts about narrowing....
And if they just refuse to listen, how do you keep working with them knowing you are
not being as successful and wasting money? I'm paralyzed and principled. HELP.”
Laura, thanks for asking. In pouring through years of advertising research summaries to
write my book, Brand Aid, I discovered that while talking about more benefits increases
the appeal of a given brand, once more than two benefits are communicated, people begin
to lose the ability to associate the brand with any specific benefit. That is, nothing in
particular is linked with the brand in their minds. So, I am a strong advocate of focusing
on one or two unique and compelling benefits -- period. The trick is to find the ones that
lead to relevant differentiation and brand insistence. Regarding target markets, branding
has always been about focus. The most successful brands pick a market segment or two
that is/are appealing for any combination of the following reasons -- the market is large, it
is growing rapidly, it is highly profitable, the brand has or can obtain a large share of that
market, it is difficult for other brands to enter the market, it is easy for brands to exit the
market, their brand is uniquely qualified to meet that market's needs, their brand's
promise is highly compelling to that market. There will always be sales spillover from the
target market to other markets, but a brand should never try to be "all things to all
people."
Continue reading "How Do I Get My Marketing Clients To Focus?" »
Technorati Tags: Brand Aid, Branding
August 02, 2009
The Advertising Genius of Bill Bernbach
“Nobody’s Perfect” is the title of Doris Willens’ new book on Bill Bernbach and the
golden age of advertising.
And just to make sure you get the point of the title, the book explores every imperfection
she could find in the career of perhaps the most famous person in the history of
advertising.
Fair enough. Nobody’s perfect. But I think she failed to stress the essence of Bernbach’s
genius which, in my opinion, was his incredible ability to recognize a good idea.
(Willens’ book was particularly interesting since I knew many of the people she writes
about. Our agency at the time shared the Uniroyal account with Doyle Dane Bernbach,
although we had by far the smaller share.)
In spite of Doris Willens' many negative comments about Bill Bernbach, I think he was a
true advertising genius.
One example from Willens’ book: “From Helmut Krone’s wastepaper basket, Bernbach
fished wads of crumpled papers and beamed upon spreading open a sheet with the words,
“We’re only Number Two. So we try harder.”
(That was the genesis of the Avis campaign, No. 10 on Ad Age’s list of the top 100
advertising campaigns of the 20th century.)
Another example: Future Hall of Fame art director Bill Taubin and copywriter David
Reider discovered that Israeli airline El Al made all its flights at night. So they took the
idea, “The only fly-by-night airline,” to Bill Bernbach for his approval.
“Are you kidding?” End of meeting.
Continue reading "The Advertising Genius of Bill Bernbach" »
Posted by Al Ries in Ad Industry Icons | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Doris Willens, Ad Age, Advertising, Avis, Bill Bernbach, Bill Taubin,
Buick, Cadilac, Cannes, Chevrolet, David Oglivy, David Reider, Doyle Dane Bernbach,
El Al, Hal Riney, Helmut Krone, Oldsmobile, Shirley Polykoff, Uniroyal, Volkswagen
August 01, 2009
The Marketing and Branding of Nations
Just as a product with brand vitality will better compete and succeed, so too will a nation
with a strong brand. Perceptions about an entire nation will be vast. In evaluating
stakeholders' perceptions of a country, marketers should look for and evaluate the
following characteristics when surveying stakeholders impacting the perceptions of a
country:
Strongly Branded Nations generally:
* Deliver the benefits and promises that stakeholders desire and hold credible
* Stay relevant—functional attributes coupled with “intangibles” (described below)
* Provide value for the resources required to invest / visit in that country
* Have a salient market position in the minds of stakeholders
* Make very clear promises that are kept over time
* Have unique brand equity involving strong thoughts and feelings
* Are dependable and deliver consistently against expectations
* Have loyal stakeholders
* Have favorite perceptions about the country that match the nation’s communications
* Have an ability to be identified under different conditions
* Are less vulnerable to competitive neighboring markets
* Command Larger Margins; Price Premiums; Less vulnerability to price sensitivity
* Engage in better trade cooperation
* Leverage vast opportunities from capital and labor endowments
Continue reading "The Marketing and Branding of Nations" »
Posted by Derrick Daye in Place Branding | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Destination Marketing, Nations Branding, Place Branding, Ruth Stanat,
SIS International Research
July 31, 2009
Does White Space Increase Advertising Effectiveness?
Regular readers of Branding Strategy Insider know we welcome and answer marketing
questions of all types. Today, Qaid, a marketer from London, Ontario, Canada asks…
“Brad, I read your blog post regarding the increased effectiveness of ads and headlines
with greater white space. Are there any statistics, surveys, or resources I could look at to
support this? I'm not questioning what it says, I'd just like to get all the facts before using
that sort of information. Thanks."
Qaid, I'm happy to help. My evidence is based upon intuition (less is more -- the less
clutter, the more powerfully a message breaks through) and years of personal experience.
As one example, when I led brand management at Hallmark in the mid-1990s we ran
"brand insistence" advertising that encouraged people to flip greeting cards over to see
what brands they were. The ads implied that the card recipients were likely to flip the
cards over to make sure they were Hallmark branded cards. The Hallmark logo is roughly
centered on the back of each Hallmark branded greeting card with lots of white space
surrounding it. Print was an important component of the campaign. For the print portion
of the campaign, the ad was a full page back cover ad. The creative consisted of a black
and white Hallmark logo placed on an all-white background similar to the way it would
appear on the back of a greeting card with a statement in very small print at the bottom of
the ad linking the Hallmark brand insistence message to the specific publication on which
it was placed in a clever way. This had been one of the least cluttered full page magazine
ads used by any advertiser to that time. The print component of the campaign was highly
successful, resulting in many magazines contacting us requesting that we advertise with
them in this way.
Another way that we tested the "white space" concept was to place the same advertising
in two different outdoor advertising contexts: one in which there was little to no other
outdoor advertising surrounding it and one in which the outdoor advertising environment
was highly cluttered. Adjusting for other factors, the ads placed in the less cluttered
contexts had a higher recall rate in general.
While this is not quantitative, I hope it helps.
Have a question related to branding? Just Ask…
Sponsored By: +2 Marketing Consultants

Technorati Tags: Branding, Hallmark
July 30, 2009
Short-Term Gains and Brand Damage
Marketing is a long-term proposition. A company can get in trouble if it changes its

marketing strategy to cope with a short-term problem.
Years ago, Packard was the premier luxury car, not Cadillac. The 1915 introduction of
the Twin-Six Packard, one of the first 12-cylinder automobiles, created a crescendo of
favorable publicity. In its time, Packard was known as "the American Rolls-Royce."
For many years, Packard outsold Cadillac by a wide margin. From 1925 to 1934, for
example, Packard sold 243,748 cars versus just 134,341 for Cadillac.
Of course, 1934 was near the bottom of the depression. Even though Packard outsold
Cadillac that year, the company was concerned because its 1934 sales (6,552) were only a
fraction of the 44,634 cars Packard sold in the boom year of 1929.
What should Packard do? Hey, things are bad. We need to come out with a cheaper
version of our product. (How often have you heard that said in the boardroom?)
So in 1935 Packard introduced the 120 (pictured above), its first middle-market vehicle.
Sales took off. That year Packard sold 37,653 cars, more than five times as many vehicles
as it sold the year before. Obviously the new strategy was working.
And it continued to work for more than a decade. From 1935 to 1941, Packard sold three
times as many cars as Cadillac, 456,503 versus 135,628.
But the brand was getting tarnished. More and more car buyers perceived Packard to be
just another mid-priced vehicle and Cadillac to be the only luxury car. In 1941, for
example, the cheapest Cadillac sold for $1,445. The cheapest Packard was just $927.
(You can't build a premium perception on a middle-of-the-road price.)
Continue reading "Short-Term Gains and Brand Damage " »
Posted by Al Ries in Recession Marketing | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: American Express, BMW, Branding, Cadillac, Dunkin' Donuts, General
Motors, GM, Hummer, Lexus, Mark McNabb, MasterCard, McDonald's, Mercedes Benz,
Packard, Recession Marketing, Rolls Royce, Saab, Sears, Starbucks, The Wall Street
Journal, Visa, Walmart
July 29, 2009
Net Promoter Score Defined
If you are a good marketer you've heard of the Net Promoter Score (NPS). If you are a
very good one, you know what your NPS is. If you have no idea what I am talking about,
read the definition at the bottom, and then meet me at paragraph two.
NPS is a rather bold little calculation. Its inventor, Fred Reichheld (pictured above),
argues that a single question and its resulting score is the only metric you need to
measure satisfaction. He also claims a correlation between a high NPS and future revenue
growth.
And the metric has taken off. Online forums have sprung up, full of managers keen to
discuss it. High-profile chief executives have publicly praised NPS and added it to their
management systems. Even finance people have taken note, with several institutional
investors asking for the score as part of their due diligence. But two audiences are
genuinely unhappy with NPS.
Continue reading "Net Promoter Score Defined" »
Posted by Mark Ritson in Customer Insight, Mark Ritson | Permalink | Comments (9) |
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Technorati Tags: Fred Reichheld, Millward Brown, Net Promoter Score, Nigel Hollis,
NPS, The Journal of Marketing
July 28, 2009
How Stakeholders Perceive Benefits
When dealing with perception, it is often helpful for clients of research firms to
understand not only what the perceptions are, but what are they based on. Building on
this idea, it is further helpful to understand how perceptions are diffused within a group
of stakeholders. Depending on the culture, perceptions are derived from the following
forms of knowledge:
* Influence from respected source
* Personal Experience
* Intuition
* Empirical Evidence
Whereas for example Germans and Americans culturally regard empirical knowledge as
the most important form of insight, Brazilians will likely attribute more credibility to a
“referential leader” such as a respected person. Applying this insight to a market
research study, it could mean crafting a flexible research design that can elicit core
insights on how perceptions are diffused within each country. Thus for example in
Mexico, a market research firm can focus on how stakeholders build perceptions, be it
through intuition, personal experience, influencers or empirical information. Research
firms can incorporate into their data gathering approach how the 4 forms of knowledge
contribute to the diffusion of perceptions.
Contributed by: Ruth Stanat, President of SIS International Research and research
partner of The Blake Project.
Posted by Derrick Daye in Derrick Daye, Market Research | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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Technorati Tags: Brand Research, Ruth Stanat, SIS International Market Research
July 27, 2009
Luxury Brands Stand Their Ground
Some brands are cutting prices in the face of decline, but those with real style are raising
the stakes.
After a decade of unprecedented global demand for luxury, the storm clouds of recession
now provide a fascinating backdrop to luxury brand strategy.
Conservative estimates, such as that issued by global management consultant Bain & Co,
forecast a drop of 7% in sales of luxury goods in 2009, but others predict much steeper
declines before years end.
In the face of this decline, several luxury houses have reduced their prices. Discounting is
especially prevalent in the US, where demand has declined the most and a strong dollar
has enabled luxury brands to offer significant discounts to consumers while increasing
their margins.
Chanel, traditionally a leading force in luxury, sparked the trend in October by cutting its
US prices by 7%-10%. 'The dollar's strength has allowed us to pass on greater value to
our customers,' said John Galantic, the company's US president. Brands such as Versace
and Chloe have followed suit. 'Never before have we done this,' said Ralph Toledano,
chief executive of Chloe, which also recently cut wholesale prices by 10% on many items
being shipped to the US. 'This is an unusual time. You have to be creative.'
However, Chloe's 'creativity' is seen by others in luxury as a move that could undermine
the brand's cachet and hurt sales, as Jean-Marie Laborde, chief executive of luxury drinks
group Remy Cointreau has argued. Despite expecting a slowdown to hit his brands in
2009, he remained committed to global price increases. 'We have no intention of giving
up price increases, even if we have to suffer in terms of sales or profits,' said Laborde.
'We are targeting for the long-term and our dream is to see our brands at the top end of
the pricing category.'
Continue reading "Luxury Brands Stand Their Ground" »
Posted by Mark Ritson in Luxury Branding, Mark Ritson | Permalink | Comments (3) |
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Technorati Tags: Bain & Co, Branding, Chanel, Chloe, Jean-Marie Laborde, Jean-Remy
Moet, John Galantic, Marc Jacobs, Moet & Chandon, Ralph Toledano, Remy Cointreau,
Sally Warmington, Sarah Jessica Parker, Swarovski, Versace
July 26, 2009
Marketing and Reality
The failure to understand the simple truth that marketing is a battle of perceptions trips up
thousands of would-be entrepreneurs every year.
Marketing people are preoccupied with doing research and 'getting the facts.' They
analyze the situation to make sure the truth is on their side. Then they sail confidently
into the marketing arena, secure in the knowledge that they have the best product and that
ultimately the best product will win.
It's an illusion. There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best
products. All that exists in the world of marketing are the perceptions in the minds of the
consumers or prospects. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.
Period.
Posted by Jack Trout in Jack Trout, Marketing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
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Technorati Tags: Marketing
July 25, 2009
2009 Superbrands Rankings Shock
Imagine a
world where the Ordnance Survey is a bigger brand than Disney. Not crazy enough for
you? OK, how about the idea that the Royal Albert Hall's brand is twice as powerful as
VW in the UK? Or how would you react if I told you that Mercedes Trucks' brand is
twice as good as Tiffany? Still not convinced? Would you believe me that Royal Doulton
is a more powerful brand in Britain than Tesco?
These are all part of the latest results from Superbrands UK, which released its annual
Top 500 brands last week. To my mind they are utterly baffling. Can you guess the hot
new brand that did not even make it into the Top 500 last year but entered it this year in
10th place? You guessed it - Encyclopedia Britannica. Obviously, it's been a good year
for encyclopedias in the UK, because Superbrands rates it as twice as powerful as
YouTube.
In my view, there are so many things wrong with the Superbrands rating that it is hard to
know where to begin. A drunken bingo caller with a personality disorder might have
come up with a more logical ranking. Perhaps this is not surprising, given the
methodology that Superbrands uses to come up with its rankings.
First, a list of leading brands is compiled from secondary material and a shortlist of 1400
brands created. Then, an expert panel of marketers meets and ranks each brand on a score
from one to 10 based on a definition of a 'superbrand given to them by Superbrands'. The
highest-scoring 900 brands are then 'voted on' by 2100 British consumers and the 500
most popular are published as Superbrands' 'definitive' list of Britain's top brands.
Continue reading "2009 Superbrands Rankings Shock" »
Posted by Mark Ritson in Industry Issues, Mark Ritson | Permalink | Comments (3) |
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Technorati Tags: Branding, Stephen Cheliotis, Superbrands UK
July 24, 2009
A Brand Consulting Offer For GM
It’s a new day at General Motors. Fresh out of bankruptcy the company is moving to
restore its leadership role with the spirit that fostered pride and ingenuity for more than a
century. The Blake Project, the brand consultancy behind Branding Strategy Insider
wants to help this American Icon strengthen its brands for the road ahead. So to Fritz
Henderson, Bob Lutz and other respected GM executives here is our sincere offer:
A day together to share insights, ideas and expertise free of charge outside of economy
travel expenses. (A 100k value) We will structure the day based on your needs and will
share specific recommendations. I’m proud to say my team is ready, well respected and
well suited to assist you in building a future of success.
Jack Trout - World Class Brand Consultant, originator of the Positioning concept.
Brad VanAuken - World Class Brand Consultant, led Hallmark to emotional branding
success.
Mark Ritson - World Class Brand Consultant, Educator at MIT, London Business School
and other respected institutions.
Please see their full bio’s below. This offer can be accepted confidentially at my address
or openly here on Branding Strategy Insider.
Here’s to reinvention for a stronger GM.
Derrick Daye
Managing Partner
The Blake Project Team:
Continue reading "A Brand Consulting Offer For GM" »
Posted by Derrick Daye in ?Branding Bag?, Derrick Daye | Permalink | Comments (6) |
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Technorati Tags: Bob Lutz, Brad VanAuken, Brand Consulting, Fritz Henderson,
General Motors, GM, Jack Trout, Mark Ritson
July 23, 2009
New Brand Strategies For GM
Much, and I mean much, has been written about the General Motors crisis. Some claim
it’s hopeless. Others say there’s a chance that things will work out in time. No one writes
about the fact that success or failure will not revolve around the GM brand. (No one
walks into a car dealership and asks for a GM car.) Their future depends on how well
their remaining brands are positioned and how well each strategy is executed. In some
ways it is a replay of Alfred Sloan’s eliminating a number of GM brands, and building a
gigantic business around five brands that became a “car for every purse and purpose”.
But that was then. What’s available in today’s highly saturated and wildly competitive
automobile market?
First, what drives today’s most successful brands? In a word, it’s a word. The most
powerful brands stand for a word or a concept. Toyota is about reliability. BMW is about
drivability. Mercedes is about engineering. Volvo built a brand around safety. The
problem with the GM brands was each lacked that simple differentiating idea. This was
the result of each brand trying to be everything for everybody. What’s a Chevrolet? It’s
big, small, expensive, cheap, truck, van or sports car.
So the task for the post bankrupt GM is to carefully figure out what their four remaining
brands should be about. What is the differentiating strategy to pursue?
Interestingly, there are some obvious ideas on the table that they can move to preempt.
Continue reading "New Brand Strategies For GM" »
Posted by Jack Trout in Brand Watch, Jack Trout | Permalink | Comments (7) |
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Technorati Tags: Alfred Sloan, BMW, Branding, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Frederick
Henderson, General Motors, GM, GMC, Mercedes, Robert Lutz, Volvo
July 22, 2009
Transforming Digital Chaos To Brand Equity
The marketing landscape is increasingly chaotic and getting more so. The old world of
command and control marketing messaging is dead. And marketers are woefully
unprepared to deal with this new reality. In a recent Heidrick & Struggles survey of
CMO’s, over 70% said they feel ill-equipped to manage their brands in this new digital
environment.
Explosion of Media Channels
Media channels -- paid and otherwise -- are increasing exponentially. YouTube,
Facebook, Twitter, webinars, forums, reviews, blogs, etc. are only the beginning. Every
day brings new options. Who had ever heard of Stumble Upon a year ago? Consumers
ability to access these new channels, engage with other consumers, and talk back to
companies has radically changed how Marketing organizations need to behave. And it's
going to get worse before it gets better.
The explosion in new media channels, and the increasing ease with which consumers can
react to, create content about, and generally discuss brands is challenging even the best
marketers. How do you manage your brand in such a chaotic consumer empowered
world? How do you ensure that consumers understand your brand equity and that you
drive a single minded understanding of your brand promise?
Here are 6 steps you can take to ensure your brand effectively engages consumers with
your brand promise in this increasingly complex and chaotic environment:
1. Be Different, Special and Better -- Let's start with a basic truth. Your brand equity is
what consumers think it is--not what you think it is. Unfortunately, too many brands have
brand equities that are identical to competitors. So, the starting point is to have a brand
promise, and delivery of it, that is truly differentiated--a basic truth too often ignored in
today's frenzied world of media and digital innovation.
Continue reading "Transforming Digital Chaos To Brand Equity" »
Posted by Derrick Daye in Branding and Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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Technorati Tags: American Express, Branding, Facebook, Heidrick & Struggles, Procter
& Gamble, Randall Beard, Social Media, Stumble Upon, Twitter, UBS Wealth
Management, YouTube
July 21, 2009
Customer Experience Defining Value In Retail
A friend in the restaurant business confided over a bottle of wine that he could always tell
when a restaurant was in trouble. Deftly peeling back the linen of the breadbasket, he
pointed out that the rustic bread had gone missing, replaced by a de rigueur white rolls.
Such little things lead like breadcrumbs to the same old story: a retailer fighting for its
life not by dialing up a customer's pleasure, but by diminishing it, ingredient by
ingredient, value by value, service by service.
There is a lesson there for retail brands as they find their way to the new consumer in the
new marketplace. No one would even begin to call it easy out there as stores struggle to
stay afloat with tighter credit, excess inventory, and often more salespeople on the floor
than customers, accompanied by a distinct lack of service and deliveries that are late,
misaddressed, or forgotten.
But the reaction to cut back on what pleases the customer, and think it goes unregistered,
is so misguided an approach it deserves comment -- especially because Brand Keys' data
shows that every year it is the shopping experience that continues to drive what value in
retail is really all about.
Price (or even paying a bit more) is not the central issue. It never was. It isn't now. If
price were all that mattered, we would all be driving Hyundai Accents. Value is what
matters -- it now matters more than ever as a new consumer consciousness, born of this
year's hard lessons, takes the helm.
Continue reading "Customer Experience Defining Value In Retail" »
Posted by Derrick Daye in Brand Value & Pricing | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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Technorati Tags: Brand Keys, Branding, Customer Loyalty, Dillard's, Hyundai Accent,
JCPenney, Kohl's, Macy's, Marshall's, Peter Drucker, Robert Passikoff, Sears
July 20, 2009
Benefits of the Corporate Brand
There are several benefits from employing a corporate branding strategy which a
corporation can exploit. First of all, a strong brand including a corporate brand is no less
or more than the face of the business strategy hence portraying what the corporation aims
at doing and what it wants to be known for in the market place. The corporate brand is
the overall umbrella for the corporations' activities and encapsulates its vision, values,
personality, positioning and image among many other dimensions. Think of global
banker HSBC which has successfully implemented a stringent corporate branding
strategy. They employ the same common expression throughout the globe with a simple
advertising strategy based on the slogan "The world's local bank". This creative platform
enables the corporation to bridge between many cultural differences, and to portray many
faces of the same strategy.
A corporate branding strategy creates simplicity as it always will stand on top of the
brand portfolio as the ultimate identifier of the corporation. P&G has notoriously been
known for a multi-brand strategy (partial brand portfolio pictured above) and yet again,
the corporate brand P&G is still what encapsulates all activities by the company.
Depending on the business strategy and the potential need for more than a one-brand
architecture in the case of P&G, which markets many different brands under their
umbrella, a corporate brand can very often assist the corporation and the management to
focus in on the core vision and values. Once this overall platform has been established
and implemented, it serves as a great stepping stone for revisiting any other brands in the
corporations' portfolio and to have a new approach and look at their various brand
identities. This ultimately will lead to the final brand architecture of the corporation and
set the strategy for how branding and brands will play an important role to achieve the
corporate objectives.
Continue reading "Benefits of the Corporate Brand" »
Posted by Martin Roll in Corporate Branding | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Akio Morita, Corporate Branding, HSBC, P&G, SONY
July 19, 2009
Corporate Branding Strategy Defined
The competition in the global business environment is tough and achieving a unique
position and competitive advantage is becoming more and more difficult and expensive.
The high level of investment necessary to maintain production capabilities and rising cost
of R&D for product differentiation, makes strong marketing capabilities and unique
brands pre-requisites for modern companies to cover these heavy investments. How can
companies and management teams catch up?
Corporations around the world are increasingly becoming aware of the enhanced value
which corporate branding strategies can provide for an organisation. Branding in the
classic sense is all about creating unique identities and positions for products and services
hence distinguishing the offerings from competitors. Corporate branding employs the
same methodology and toolbox used in product branding, but it also elevates the
approach a step further into the board room, where additional issues around stakeholder
relations (shareholders, media, competitors, governments and many others) can help the
corporation benefit from a strong and well-managed corporate branding strategy. Not
surprisingly, a strong and comprehensive corporate branding strategy requires a high
level of personal attention and commitment from the CEO and the senior management to
become fully effective and meet the objectives.
Corporate branding is often, but wrongly, referred to as an exercise where the company
logo, the design style and color scheme are changed. Naturally, these are important
elements to evaluate and potentially change at a later stage once the strategy has been
decided upon. It is often accompanied with a new corporate slogan, and then everyone
expects results to occur during the project. Corporate branding is a serious undertaking
which entails more skills and activities than just an updated glossy marketing facade with
empty jargon.
Continue reading "Corporate Branding Strategy Defined" »
Posted by Martin Roll in Corporate Branding | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Apple, Citibank, CNN, Corporate Branding Strategy, Disney, Google,
HSBC, Intel, Mercedes, Singapore Airlines
July 18, 2009
Brand Naming Influencing Appetites
Give a vegetable a catchy name – such as X-Ray Vision Carrots or Dinosaur Broccoli
Trees or Tomato Bursts – and kids will eat nearly twice as much of it.
That’s the finding from a Cornell University study of 186 preschoolers. And the results
were lasting. Even on lunch days when special names weren’t assigned, the kids continue
to eat about 50% more of that same veggie.
“Cool names can make for cool foods,” said the study’s lead author. “Giving a food a fun
name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat.”
Marketers know a similar approach works with adults: Spark their imagination, and it
will spark their appetites.
* “Belgian Black Forest Chocolate Cake” outperforms basic “Chocolate Cake” as a
menu item.
* “Succulent Italian Seafood Filet” outperformed plain “Seafood Filet” in a restaurant
study. (Sales increased by 28% and taste ratings by 12%.)
The same foods, but with different expectations because of the name – and thus a
different experience.
Now, that’s food for thought.
Posted by Steve Rivkin in Naming, Steve Rivkin | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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Technorati Tags: Brand Naming, Branding, Cornell University
July 17, 2009
Brand Naming Search Simplified On Your iPhone
We normally leave software reviews to the techies. But this new “app” is remarkable in
its usefulness and simplicity.
Nomina is a new application for the iPhone. Plug in a name you’re considering, and in
seconds, the software will search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database to give
you a preliminary look at trademarks. Then it will do a common law search for the name
using Dun & Bradstreet, Google, Reuters News and a Yellow Pages database.
Want more screening? You’ll also get domain name searches, starting with the obvious
.com, .net and .org, and drilling down to the “second level” and international domains
such as .tv and co.uk.
And since this is an Apple app, the program offers you a summary report of all the
information that you can e-mail to colleagues. Download the software for $14.99. For
more information, click here.
Our lawyer friends caution us that Nomina is no substitute for a formal name screening.
True. But it’s a terrific first step to answer the question, “Do we think this name might be
available?”

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BRANDING STRATEGY

Why a Branding Strategy Blog?

3. Don’t pander to your customers’ wishes

• "Get consumers to fall in love with our brand."

• "Reach their hearts as well as their minds."

But that might be a mistake.

2. Does your product have enough flaws?

1. Forget about ‘positioning’, luxury is not comparative

Sponsored By: +2 Marketing Consultants

Marketing is a long-term proposition. A company can get in trouble if it changes its

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