Brands Brands by Sveinn Eldon 2009

The Trademark  Branding was orginally an invention needed as mass production and the mass market developed  The role of the trademark was to distinguish a specific product competing products in a very cluttered market space  The focus was on the reassurance funtion

Remember me....  The objective was to get people to remember a specific brand  Mass communication channels were used to hammer in the trademark and its basic promises to the customer  The purpose was to create a trademark the customer was familiar with and could trust  The trademark promised a consistent experience

The Brand  The brand is a more dynamic concept than the trademark. The brand communicates the identity of the company or product  The brand was supposed to stand for some unchanging core values that defined the brand  These core values postioned the product or the company in relation to other companies or products in such a way that they were perceived to be unique in the mind of the target group

Promises, promises...  ”Trademark identifies a product, a service, a corporation. A brand identifies a promise. It is more than a trademark. It is a trustmark of enormous value.” (L. Light)  ”In essence, brands can speed up and simplify consumers choices by acting as a shorthand device enabling rapid recall of information from memory.” (De Chernatony)

The Difference Between Product and Brand...  The product includes characteristics such as: scope, quality/value, uses, and functional benefits  The brand includes these and much more: user imagery, country of origin, organizational associations, symbols, brand/ customer relationships, self- expressive benefits, and emotional benefits (Aaker)

 Consumers may perceive many different types of risks in buying and consuming a product:   Functional risk—The product does not perform up to expectations.   Physical risk—The product poses a threat to the physical well-being or health of the user or others.   Financial risk—The product is not worth the price paid.   Social risk—The product results in embarrassment from others.   Psychological risk—The product affects the mental well-being of the user.   Time risk—The failure of the product results in an opportunity cost of finding another satisfactory product.

Brand Equity... ”...customer based brand equity is defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. A brand is said to have positive customer –based brand equity when customers react more favorably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified as compared to when it is not.” (Keller)

Knowledge that the Product is unique.... *”Specifically, customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand. A brand is said to have positive customer- based brand equity when customers react more favorably to a product and the way it is marketed when that brand is identified as compared to when it is not” (Keller)

Unique Associations....  ”To create diferential response that leads to customer based brand equity, it is important to associate unique, meaningful points of difference to the brand to provide a competitive advantage and a reason why consumers should buy it.” (Keller)  The more positive associations the brand provokes in the minds of the customers, the greater the brand equity.

Global Brand Aspects To build brand equity, it is often necessary to create different marketing programs to address different market segments by: 1. Identify differences in consumer behavior  How they purchase & use products  What they know & feel about brands 2. Adjust branding program  Choice of brand elements  Nature of supporting marketing program  Leverage of secondary associations

What to consider before using brand abroad  How appropriate is the positioning? What is the existing level of awareness? How valuable are the core brand associations, points-of-parity, and points-of-difference?  What changes should we make to the positioning? Do we need to create any new associations? Should we not re-create any existing associations? Should we modify any existing associations?  Can we still use the same marketing activities? What changes should we make? What new marketing activities are necessary?

Ten Commandments of Global Branding  Understand similarities and differences in the global branding landscape  Don’t take short-cuts in brand-building  Establish marketing infrastructure  Embrace integrated marketing communications  Cultivate brand partnerships  Balance standardization and customization  Balance global and local control  Define operable guidelines  Implement a global brand equity measurement system  Establish effective lines of communication

A Personality...  Branding is all about internalisation. The objective is to get the customer to internalise the brand identity  The brand is to be understood as a personality  Integrated marketing communication has become all important  There should be a relationship between the customer and the brand

Express yourself...  ”Brands and products can become symbols of a person’s self concept. A brand can thus provide a way for a person to communicate his or her self image.” (David Aaker)  We aspire to be something and to tell ourselves and others that thats what we are. We buy products that we consider to express the identity we want to have  Ferrari owners often want to prove to themselves and others that they have the means to buy such a car

Convince yourself...  We do not only want to tell others who we are (or want to be), we also use products and brands to tell ourselves.  By thrifty shopping we tell ourselves (and sometimes others) that we know what we are doing when we shop. For instance, by buying good quality, that we recognize good quality.

Fools gold...  If we have been persuated by a salesman to buy a product or a brand we know very little or nothing about, we often feel unsure and even a little embarrased. We do not really know if we bought something worth buying, and that makes us uneasy. We do not like being made fools of (even if no one else finds out).

Extended Brand  The third stage of the branding evolution is the extended brand  A trademark was measured by recognition and a brand by customer preferences  EB is measured by the level of engagement that the customer has towards a specific brand  The customer is no longer an object but a subject, an associate

A Club...  Formerly the customer was ’manipulated’ by advertising and othe promotion activities  EB regards the customer as a partner, as a co- author of what the brand stands and conveys  The customer is now like the member of a club vis-a-vi the brand  The post-purchase phase has become all important, it is then that there is a true basis for a meaningful relationship with the customer. He may for instance need reassurance that he has made the right choice by buying the product

A meaningful realationship...  No meaningful relationship is created over night, it takes time...  The purpose of EB is not to convey the core values of the company or product to the customer, it is about common creation of those values  Every customer has his own subjective understanding of the brand and its core values and his own preferences what he would like it to stand for. The brandbuilding effort should consist in helping the customer to create this understanding, focusing it

Who am I...  Human beings make sense of the world, to a large measure, in terms of how they see themselves  Paradoxically, how they see themselves also depends on how they make sense of the world  Peoples image of themselves is dynamic not static, it evolves  The meaning brand conveys must evolve as well or the customer ”grows out of it”

Listen...  Rather than using heavy advertising and promotion to convey a message to the customer, the direction of communcation is now reversed  The customer is now the party with the message, he has an oppinion  The customer is also the marketer. Word of mouth is more important than ever

What a relationship is all about...  The has to be a reason for any relationship  The reason for a relationship with a brand, should enable the company to serve the customer better with new or modified products and services  Is the core of Pampers the diaper or the wellbeing of babies?

The thought behind the brand...  The thought behind the brand should be clear and communicated in a crisp and clear manner  The thought behind the brand can then give rise to many different ideas of how best to realise that thought  Nokia’s ”connecting people” is a good example  The End