An article on Brand Activation

1. Activating the ‘Brand’
Pritam Saha and Joydeep Paul
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
7/31/13

2. 1
Individualism has been the nurtured child of
present-day culture. This is definitely
beneficial for the economy, as research
literature has shown that
countries with a greater
individualist culture have
enjoyed higher long-run growth
than those with a collectivist
culture1
. But the sheer variety of
preferences of the ‘enlightened’
individual has created a major
challenge for present-day businesses. No
more are superior products or services
enough to retain the loyalty of customers.
This has caused firms to rethink their
marketing and branding exercise, with the
trend showing a shift from a fragmented
product/service-centric model to an
integrated customer experience-centric
model. The objective of the same is to
provide a seamless experience of value
realization from the brand irrespective of the
interface through which the customer
interacts with the brand elements.
1
Individualism, innovation, and long-run growth by
Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Gerard Rolanda.
This realization has led Consulting firm
Accenture to develop a Seamless Retail
Services Offering for clients.
Brand Management till
date has been the prerogative of
the marketing department and
advertising agencies. But the
new order of things require
companies to add a new
dimension to their customer
relationship. In order to retain their
customers, brands must create emotional
engagement in their relationships. This in
turn leads to a higher degree of inertia in case
of brand switching. This can only happen
when what the brand promises through its’
promotional activity tallies with the actual
benefits derived from the usage of the brand
– that is Brands must be made to put more of
what they promise into action.
Trust is the essence of the company-customer
relationship and hence the onus on the same.
But this does not mean Brands are passive
at present, rather they are already working for
us:

3. 2
 By simplifying everyday decision-
making. E.g. Those who prefer
Sensodyne do not have to worry
about the countless other choices
emanating every day in the toothpaste
segment.
 By reducing the risks involved in
decision-making, especially in high-
impact and high-investment
situations. E.g. Companies deciding
to implement an ERP system know
that SAP is a safe option.
 Generating emotional benefit. E.g.
Coke’s innovative “Share a Coke”
campaign.
 Garnering a sense of community.
E.g. Apple Fans have a strong sense
of belonging.
The internet has also ushered in new vistas for brand communication as well as brand
innovation. The onus has been upon creating a holistic digital experience both in-store and
online. According to IBM’s Winning Over the Empowered Consumer: Why Trust Matters
report, over 25% of the people surveyed (in their global study of over 28,000 consumers) said
they are willing to use three or more technologies in the shopping process. The same trend is
highlighted by the following Forrester Research Forecast.
This creates new opportunity for brands to
design seamless experiences as is
exemplified in case of adiVerse by Adidas2:
2
Adventures in Retail: Brand Perfect Report 2012 by
Katrina Dodd
When it comes to demonstrating the
breadth of its product range, Adidas broke
new ground when it launched the adiVerse
Virtual Footwear Wall. The in-store digital

4. 3
experience is designed to showcase over
8,000 styles of shoes, and uses a grid of LCD
touchscreens with the addition of facial
recognition technology to detect whether the
user is a man or a woman. Users swipe, pinch
and pull to browse through the trainers, all of
which are rendered in 3D. The most popular
shoes are backed up by an impressive array
of content, with videos, product
specifications and even social media buzz
pulled in for the customer to pore over. This
is partly about being able to deliver a sense of
an offering that’s much wider than it would
be practical to keep in stock in all store
locations. A range of sample shoes can be
kept in-store for customers to get an accurate
sense of fit, and if they want to buy shoes, an
assistant walks them through that process
using an iPad. What it delivers in spades,
though, is the Wow Factor, a really
impressive visual impact that’s backed up by
a well-thought-out package of layered
content and the ability to purchase right there
and then.
Brand Activation
Since Brands are service promises to
clients, therefore if the underlying value
delivery fails, then the brand loses its’ trust
and fails. Hence all functions within a firm
must get involved in the brand management
process. This makes internal brand awareness
for employees an imperative, as in its’
absence employees are not aware of the brand
value proposition they must align their
activities with. This can be implemented by
aligning the brand value proposition with the
company belief and boundary systems which
are part of the four levers of organizational
control, as proposed in Control in an Age of
Empowerment by Robert Simmons. This
phenomenon where the company looks
inward and realigns itself to comply with its’
external brand identity is known as Brand
Activation.
The concept of Brand Activation
encompasses the four Brand cornerstones:
 Product and Services
 Identity
 Employees and Organization
 Communication
The objective here is not to use
competencies in the first three cornerstones
for use in the communications to enhance
Brand Identity. The actual goal is to use
Communication

5. 4
Brand Identity to shape, nurture, change and
redefine the three inner cornerstones to better
augment Brand Identity. Hence focus is on
creating a completely seamless connect
between projected Brand Identity and actual
internal reality. The finer the alignment the
higher the competitive advantage obtained.
Thus, companies must look inside to innovate
through introspection in terms of their brands
and not only outwards.3
Case Study4
The way an organization functions internally,
determines the value-add to its customers to
a large extent. If the organization i.e. its’
employees believe in what needs to be done
and how that needs to be done, the
organization will be able to meet its promise
to its customers and will emerge as a strong
brand. Let us take the case of UPS.
It is the largest package distribution
company in the world, and a global leader in
supply chain, logistics and information
services. UPS’s USP lies in the fact that it
enables businesses deliver a high level of
service to their customers. UPS believes in
providing a customer experience, not just to
3
Brand activation by Paul Morel, Peter Preisler and
Anders Nyström
4
http://www.ups.managehr.com/
its own customers but even to the second
level customers. UPS enables e-businesses to
integrate shipping and tracking functionality
with the help of UPS Ready providers, which
essentially enables the business to outsource
the logistics functionality to external
vendors, and not have to worry about the
deliveries reaching their proper destinations
in proper time. UPS offers an alternative of
UPS developer’s kit for businesses who
have an IT base. By using UPS, businesses
can offer their customers various delivery
options, of different cost and be assured that
the product will reach in the specified time.
In order to meet its values of
excellence and integrity, UPS operates
through an extensive set of rules and
regulations. The drivers of UPS trucks, who
are the face of its business customers to their
consumers go through a strict training
process which emphasizes on safety and
professionalism. Drivers are taught 340 steps
to deliver a package which contain
instructions on very minor step as
loading/unloading, fastening seat belts,
carrying keys, conducting inspection of the
vehicles before every shift and the like. They

6. 5
follow a strict dress code, with details on
proper grooming of hair and facial hair, no
visible tattoos, no unbuttoned shirts. This
builds trust in the customers that their
products are being delivered by highly
professional individuals and thus generates
repeat businesses. Even in the office space,
away from the field the employees are asked
to start fresh each day, keep their desks clean,
and memos on various rules are circulated by
the hundreds. In spite of all these restrictions,
the UPS employees are satisfied within the
company and retention rate is very high. This
is due to the rewarding mechanism in UPS
which maintains a sense of equality and
fairness among employees. Managers are not
distinguished from their reportees, and many
managers started off as a delivery truck driver
and rose in ranks by continuously
contributing to the UPS values of providing
high customer experience.5
UPS’s tagline ‘We love logistics’ is
manifested in its day to day activities as
everyone within the organization believes in
it and works accordingly to deliver the best
customer experience and goes one level up by
doing the same for the second level customer,
thus building on the brand image. UPS is a
true example of an organization which has
successfully implemented the strategy of
brand activation.
5
Understanding the Theory and Design of
Organizations, Tenth Edition by Richard L. Daft