Branding In a Troubled Economy

Branding in a Troubled Economy presented to: Texas Public Relations Association February 28, 2009

“The most negative brand in America.” + Representative George Miller (D) California

Guilt by association “ Part of the problem is that the law, which comes up for reauthorization every five years, became closely associated with President George W. Bush, and as his popularity slid, the law, and its name, came under attack and ridicule.”

Rebrand!

Candidates + Mental Asset Recovery Program (MARP) + Resourcing Educational and Development Outcomes (REDO) + All American Children Are Above Average (AACAAA) + Not Even We Think This Will Work Act + Act to Help Children Read Gooder

the morals of the story + branding can’t cure everything + branding has become part of our social currency + branding is not as simple as it looks

Disposable? Single Use Camera

Disposable? SUC

Disposable? One-Time Use Camera

What is a brand?

1. Marketing 2. Advertising 3. Public Relations 4. Branding Source: The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

a brief history of branding

from a mark to a meaning (and billions) $4.1 billion (in cash)

More than one way to build brand equity equity perceived quality price functionality associations

“There is a new strain in marketing theory that holds that even the lowliest natural resources can develop brand identities” + Naomi Klein No Logo

Southwest Recruiting Ad

The brand platform

Putting the platform to work Simplify Amplify Experience Web Communications Identity system Culture Interactive Transactions Print Environment Identity elements Products Advertising Logo(s) Point-of-purchase Product Strategies Imagery Vehicles Naming Color Retail Brand Typography Signage architecture BRAND Graphic motif Uniforms PLATFORM Messaging Format Environments Simplification Sound Identity Technology management +Amplifire™ +Namequest™

Deconstructing the Apple brand cause tools for the creative mind reason for action promise technology that is artful, elegant and radically easy to use declaration of intent

The compelling truth an advanced technology company that produces artful, elegant, radically easy to use products

Brand as storyteller + Brands are becoming more than differentiating marks and corporate missions. Some tell stories that are deeply connected to the ego and personal community.

narrative identity stored In consumer subconscious beats story beat exposed to consumers consumer matches beat to the narrative stored in identity centers of the subconscious brain Narrative priming + The source narrative already exists in the consumer’s head + Brand touchpoints prime the brain to recall the story + Through repeated experiences, the brand is linked to the narrative in long term memory and validates the world view

Brand as narrative device narrative theme characters plot aesthetics cause stakeholders products touchpoints + visual system + voice promise

CASE STUDY Putting brands to work

CASE STUDY

Branding in a down economy + Should we spend at all? + Should we shift our brand spending plans? + Which brand investments will generate the most ROI?

FALSE PERCEPTION “a rich man’s game”

Game for the industrious + In the last recession, most companies that invested in their brands outperformed peers when economic growth returned.

America, the optimistic

THE RIGHT METAPHOR the brand is a blast furnace

the nervous consumer + US Consumer confidence indexed at 25 + Many consumers link self concept to objects and brands + TMT research reveals that in times of adversity, favored brands provide comfort + Your brand asset may be more comforting to the consumer than a discount Source: The Safety of Objects: Materialism, Existential Insecurity, and Brand Connection, Journal of Consumer Research, 2009

Brands and identity formation a brief history of identity formation in the u.s.a. early americans modern era identity linked to old- identity linked to consumption world customs and and feedback from generational norms environment and “others” tradition inner other transcendentalists identity linked to lessons learned in childhood and readings from the “inner compass”

Psychological underpinnings

A shift from brand to discount might discount your future “Making attribute information salient to consumers may switch the locus of equity from brands to attributes. Any equity that the attribute draws from the brand reduces brand equity.” Consumer brand perceptions are “sticky” and tend to be influenced by the most recent brand exposure, which frames the next. Locus of Equity A Discount The Brand Attribute

Beware the misguided brand investment

“It’s just a faster-looking steed” + George Saridakis Design Manager, 2010 Mustang

Before After Source: brandnew.com

“ We wanted to give the Mustang pony a more realistic feel. We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance.” + Douglas Gaffika Chief Designer, 2010 Mustang

Source: brandnew.com

Three guidelines for branding in bad times + Simplify your architecture + Tap brain power + Align your messaging

Simplify your architecture

Brand architecture models Branded House House of Brands Hybrid Associated products Situational/Combination Master brand

Our house Pros: Branded House  Offers clear, logical paths to new brands and extensions  Value of master brand preserved and transfered easily Master brand Cons:  Dependent upon the health of the master brand  Sometimes makes it harder to micro-segment

One house, many brands Pros: House of Brands  Insulates and “protects” individual brands  Communicates breadth Associated products  Allows for competing brands within the same category Cons:  Expensive to promote and maintain

Something in-between Hybrid Pros: Hybrid  Flexible–provides option to use master brand, or not  Allows for segmentation through endorsement Situational/Combination Cons:  Difficult to manage  Rife with “slippery slopes”

When in doubt, default to the branded house

CASE STUDY “MOTOization” created complexity for Motorola Extending to business platforms Proliferation of names And consumer products

CASE STUDY Motorola’s new brand architecture Masterbrand Welcome to the brand HELLO MOTO Experience of the brand MOTOME Strategic sub-brands MOTO + 1 to 4 easy-to-pronounce characters or short word Products, services, technologies Trademark names Motorola + Suggestive name Descriptive names Motorola + Generic name or Alphanumerics

CASE STUDY Architecture decision tree Create a version Extend an existing Create a descriptive name Create a trademark name Create a strategic name sub-brand Innovation Unique value The Motorola Naming Game Powerful Substantial proposition brand resources changing marketing revenue Is this a new Is the offer so Is Motorola + Is there time, Is this a game Will there be Will the offer product, and unique that it descriptor budget and changing offer, significant generate not a cannot live under insufficient? resources to create, upon which the marketing significant manage, market and success of support over the revenue? modification of the umbrella of an existing an existing name? extend a trademark Motorola long-term? product? name? depends?

Brand architecture drivers + Does your portfolio reflect and reinforce your brand and business strategy? Alignment + Is there a clear relationship between your brands? The optimization of individual brands with the corporate strategy + Do your brands invite the customer relationships you want? + Are your branding practices cost-efficient? + How well do customers understand what you sell? Loyalty + How loyal are customers to your brands? How the marketplace feels about the current brands and how they + What are the risks and rewards of change? are likely to react to change + Can you learn from competitors or peers? + Are you getting your money’s worth from current brand investments? Financial + Can you afford to move to an ideal scenario? How much change will cost and what return should be expected + What return should you expect from different models? + Will brand change create unacceptable cultural disharmony? Obstacles + Do legal or regulatory obstacles stand in the way of change? The human and operational barriers to change + Are your current operations and technology able to accommodate brand integration?

don’t be afraid to simplify from the middle

Prototype theory superordinate animals furniture Apple basic level bird chair iPhone subordinate sparrow Stickley 3G

tap brain power

frosh frish frish frosh frish frosh frish frosh frosh frish frish frosh frish frosh frosh frosh frish frish frosh frosh frish

“...back vowels such as the [u] sound in dull or ugh are very often found in words expressing disgust or dislike (e.g., blunder, bung, bungle, clumsy, muck), and words beginning with sl also tend to have a negative connotation (slouch, slut, slime, sloven). Words beginning with fl often express movement (flutter, flap, flicker). Across languages and cultures, similarities have also been noted.” + Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name Preference Journal of Consumer Research, 2007

0100011001100011111100101101110011010001 + Apples are delicious 1001011010000001001101001100111110000001 1000011010011111010100001101110000110101 0011011000100100100111100101001100100010 + Apples are good for you 0010001000100000010110101101101101000001 0011010101101100110100110011110010111111 0010000101000100101010000100010010000001 + Apples are natural 0011011111110100101010010010110000001000 0101111001100010001000001001101001011000 1000000111001100110110111011011111000100 1101001110001100010011101011111010111010 0010110011111101101110101010111011001010 1001001000000010110011011000011111101011 1101011101010001001101000011100011010011 0101100110100111001000011001110001110000 0100011001010001110111110101000011101110 0101101101001001100001111110111011000011 1111110000010010010100011101100000011001 0001110111001000100111110100100011101010 1000011111010101111100001000101101000110 0100101101100111111110100100110110110010 1111001110100000100011000001110010010101 0011100111110001101101100101100110000110 0110111010101000111100100011000100011000 0000110100111111100011111100011011000101

The Power of Experience + Engaging “The engaging aspects of product experience can lead to illusions + “Learning from experience is of control ... improved consumer memory when information more seductive than learning learned through experience was organized around a goal.” from education.” Stephen J. Hoch + Non-Partisan “Consumers are skeptical of advertising claims, especially those that can only be verified through experience ... product experience is credible because it is basic, with no obvious staging by a self- interested outside party.” + Pseudodiagnostic “Experience is selective, and since it does not come along with a control group, interpretation is required ... people learn brand associations that later block the learning of new attribute associations.” + Endogenous (affected by changes in tastes) “Beggen (1992) found that people evaluated a brand more favorably merely because they owned it ... Consumers engage in creative, motivated reasoning when faced with justifying a choice.”

align your messaging

Connecting messages to brand Characteristics of Good Messages Brand Messages + Reasonably consistent Voice over time + Connected to a distinctive Promise manner, tone and style + Sometimes subtextual + Tailored to audiences while retaining a familiar character

+ Voice attributes + Messages + Narrative architecture Content in voice siegel+gale | REAGAN MESSAGING FRAMEWORK | 26 August, 2008

CASE STUDY Framework deconstructed The voice attributes derive from the brand platform. They guide the tone and manner of verbal Voice attributes communications. Clever | Determined | Dignified | Optimistic Tonal characteristics of Reagan Library verbal identity signature The messages are high level assertions to be communicated at targeted audience segments. These messages rest at the corporate / brand level, and are intended to remain in tact for several consecutive years. Messages Visit one of Southern California’s “must see” destinations. Illustrative message targeted at tourists The narrative architecture provides a few storytelling constructs that can be used to compose and edit copy so that it naturally Narrative connects with the Reagan Library voice attributes and conveys a architecture sense of the brand promise. Anecdotal Bookends Like the oratorial style of Reagan himself, this construct delivers a message within the context of a personal anecdote about real life experience. It often works well when used with lighter, more optimistic subjects. Architectural construct for framing a a message with voice attributes

CASE STUDY Reagan Library copy illustration Voice influence – the language choices conjure a determined, optimistic and dignified tone – implies “you can act and change anything” After Before He stood at the podium on the terrace of the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, a break with tradition that provided a sweeping view of the Artifacts from President Reagan’s childhood great mall which now teemed with thousands of spectators. It was and professional career provide physical unusually warm that January afternoon, as a nation gathered in to evidence of his extraordinary life. Step through listen to the vision of its 40th president. a model of the Dixon Arch in Illinois to experience Reagan’s youth, while his Eureka “We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow,” he told them. College letter sweater recalls his student years. “And let there be no misunderstanding–we are going to begin to act, A recreated studio booth highlights his early beginning today.” radio broadcasting career, which led to an acting contract with Warner Bros. Film clips. In a leadership career that spanned more than five decades, Ronald Original costumes and movie posters trace his Reagan inspired Americans to act and achieve more than they days in the movies, the Screen Actors Guild, imagined. His legacy thrives at The Reagan Library, one of Southern and on television, as host of GE Theater and California’s most beautiful destinations where an ongoing stream of Death Valley Days. Glimpse into Ronald and interactive events and exhibits rediscovers Reagan’s values, actions Nancy Reagan’s devoted marriage, a love story and spirit of determination. Experience the studio days that shaped straight out of a Hollywood script. Learn about his future role as the “great communicator.” Glimpse at fragments of Reagan’s growing involvement in politics. the Berlin Wall, torn down from his bold leadership against the cold Witness his presidency, from reviving the war. Step aboard Air Force One to learn how Reagan changed the economy, reducing the size of the federal face of global diplomacy. government, and ending the threat of nuclear war. See a piece of the Berlin Wall, immerse But The Library is more than a record of the past. It celebrates and yourself in Camp David and Rancho del Cielo. Use of continues the mission of one of America’s most vibrant visionaries, And, in 2005, walk through the Air Force One anecdotal echoing the hopeful sentiment he shared that January day on the that President Reagan used throughout his bookends to threshold of his presidency, when he recalled the words of a soldier eight years in office. frame the on the western front: message of the copy “I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggled depended upon me alone.” Embedded message – visit a “must see” destination

CASE STUDY Extending messaging Empower Organizations need to have the structures and tools in place to Inform empower employees to deliver brand-centered results, so that Employees know what the the promises being made by the brand promise is and why it brand are kept by every is right for the organization. employee. Inspire Employees must be inspired to believe in the brand and the role they have to play to support it. Inspiration results from creating compelling and emotional dramatizations of the brand.

Three guidelines for branding in bad times + Simplify your architecture + Tap brain power + Align your messaging

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What we do Research Visual Identity Design Brand Strategy Environmental Branding Brand Architecture Digital Strategy + Design Naming Experience Simplification Content Development Brand Alignment 78

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Gratuitous plug... + Explores how the best brands tell their stories through unconventional media + Describes a unique cycle that transforms ordinary brands into cultural phenomena + Explains how brands play a role in identity development and cultural norms

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Branding In a Troubled Economy

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Branding In a Troubled Economy — Presentation Transcript