Brands in Strategic Marketing guest lecture

Lifecycle branding How different branding models work at different stages of a brand’s lifecycle

Who’s that guy?

Henri Weijo

2002-08 HSE grad

Worked in advertising before coming back to HSE (more in next slide)

Planning to start my PhD next fall

Interests: brands, meaning management, consumer and media evolution

Why is he speaking to us?

Master’s thesis on the 4 branding models you’re currently studying

Title: A CONCEPT ANALYSIS ON MODERN BRANDING - Defining Key Concepts in Mind-Share, Emotional, Viral, and Cultural Branding

In short, the thesis is about how the different models talk to each other (or don’t talk)

Some other interesting findings as well

And of course, I’ve developed my findings a bit further since my graduation

Why do such analysis?

Branding and brand management as disciplines are changing really fast

It’s important to stop every now and then and do sort of a reality check

Talking about different things with the same concepts can’t be good for strategic planning

“ When you say ‘brand’ you mean…”

5 book, 100+ articles

Mind-share branding: David Aaker: Building Strong Brands (1996), Free Press Publishing

Emotional branding: Marc Gobé: Emotional Branding (2001), Alworth Press

Viral branding: Andy Sernovitz: Word Of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking (2006), Kaplan Publishing and Ben McConnel & Jackie Huba: Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message (2006), Kaplan Publishing

Cultural branding: Douglas Holt: How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding (2004), Harvard Business School Publishing

Five key concepts under analysis

Brand

Branding*

Brand management*

Consumer

Competitive environment

Branding != Brand management

So how do you do that?

Word

Extension Intension Conceptual Triangle

What was the starting point?

Brand : a distinguishable entity that provides value for both companies and consumers

Branding : the pursuit to differentiate one producer’s products from another

Brand management: the choices related to an organization’s attempts to influence brands under its influence

Consumer: single actor who can be considered to be in the sphere of influence of a brand and a potential customer

Competitive environment : any other instances outside the company’s control

This lecture and the next

The plan is to go through brand, branding, brand management, and competitive environment in this lecture

In two weeks we’ll talk at length about consumers and changes in media

Also in this lecture, the idea is to talk about synergies or limitations the models might have

Findings (short version)

Brand

The common ground for all models:

something that provides value for both the company and consumers

a brand helps a company differentiate its products from other products

The biggest differences come from what kind of “value” brands provide to consumers

Note: I did NOT evaluate product categories with brands, I took Holt’s definition as given

Brand (cont.)

Mind-share : value is consumers' awareness and the presence in their minds

For companies, the value is the so-called "product+" notion of brand equity

“ How much can we charge on top of a similar generic product?”

Emotional : mind-share notion of equity + the "story" of the brand and its emotiveness

The “emotional brand” is not tied to (abstract) associations, but more complex emotions and desires

Brand (cont.)

Viral branding : brand equity = the discussion around the brand + the devotion of its consumers

Consumers are, in essence, the brand’s equity!

EXAMPLE: consumers rejecting Snapple or Airwalk?

Cultural branding : brand equity = the brand's cultural heritage + the brand's current cultural position + the populist world’s cultural value +/- the other cultural products fighting for space in the same cultural market

Brand (conclusions)

Mind-share: T he equity of a brand is its associations and their strength!

Emotional : Yes, but instead of associations, let’s say emotions, because emotions are deeper!

Viral : You can’t have emotions without people, so equity is really about what people feel about the brand and how they act on these emotions!

Cultural : Yes, but it’s culture that shapes our social interactions, so it’s really the brand’s and its consumers’ cultural standing that define equity!

Branding

The biggest differences relate to the notion of control

Mind-share sees branding as a very controllable function, and managers should never "let go" of the reins (to retailers, subsidiaries etc.)

Just make sure the visuals, tone of voice etc. are consistent, and you’re OK!

Emotional is mind-share + slight acknowledgement that consumers have power (+ how to work around it)

Pepper everything with the brand’s story! And I do mean everything.

Branding (cont.)

Viral : brands are out of control, so let’s embrace it!

Viral is about making sure that consumers have something to talk about + have the channels to do so

Cultural : control is based on initiative and understanding "what” the brand is

The brand's cultural heritage and its constituencies give you little room to operate, but if you have shown literacy and fidelity towards what the brand stands for, the consumers will let you lead (for now)

EXAMPLE: Apple

Branding (cont.)

Viral & emotional both stress small details and consumer touch points where they can experience the brand

For viral , it’s about creating topics of discussion (don’t be afraid to be original, even weird!)

For emotional, it’s about having more entry points to feature the brand

Storytelling: emotional tells you how a story should be told at different touch points (design), cultural tells you what kind of story should be told and to whom, viral tells you how the story spreads (channels)

Brand management

My focus was on how strategic brand management (and branding) were seen and how it relates to the organization

Is it just tactics or strategic thinking?

Mind-share : brand management is a top level function, heavily coordinated

Emotional : brand management is managing the details, the whole organization must embody the "story"

Brand management (cont.)

Viral : "viral is an addition to the toolbox”

But then again the model calls for building products that will create buzz, so which is it?

Also, viral calls for transparency and an overhaul in employee training and rewarding

Viral branding's problem: it hasn't been collected into a single discipline yet, it's very scattered at the moment. Lack of academic writing hurts.

Cultural : brand management is a consumer management and communications issue

Faarquah (1994) “Branding is more than communcation!)

Brand management (concl.)

Holt (2004) : Iconic brands are strong brands if you measure them with mind-share, emotional and viral standards  “ante to the market”

So if the basis for all models is mind-share, and mind-share is strategic, aren’t they all strategic?

Not necessarily. E.g. proponents of Total Marketing call for all sections of the company to be considered marketing. “Strategic” is thus a question of degree.

Emotional , viral & cultural all call for making the brand seem scarce and limiting short term sales to not hurt the long term. That’s strategic!

Competitive Environment

Competitive advantages are quickly copied

Only branding can provide competitive advantage anymore (take this with a grain of salt, though)

Emotional : (visual) branding is now even more important because of globalization  images and experiences work better in different markets

Emotional : quality and logistics have been commoditized (Pine & Gilmore 1999)

Emotional & viral: Market information is nearing perfect, people can sniff out the best deals

Competitive Environment

Christopher (1996): "Consumer sophistication and advertising's declining impact are two of the biggest changes that have impacted the marketplace”

Arms race advertising: once one medium has been saturated and clogged, advertisers look for the next, e.g. Holt (2002) "Why do brands cause trouble?”

Viral was born as a result of traditional advertising losing its efficiency. Much of this is overstated, though

Cultural : your competitors are not only in the same product category, but also different fields altogether! (movies, books, films, politicians)

Brand building process (1/3)

1. Mind-share : put in place the brand organization, the thinking, the initial core promise, and the tangible brand elements. Emphasis strategic nature of brand building in organization.

2. Emotional : add more layers to the brand and take a heavy emphasis in sensorial elements of the brand and the brand’s experiential elements especially in retail environments. Make the brand “smashable”, so that the brand can be identified even from the tiniest bit (Lindstrom 2003)

3. Viral : consumers should be able to pick up the brand they’ve just smashed and give new meaning to it. Crucial in online environments, where all brand elements need to be interactive and shareable. The brand’s communications need to become two-way channels for dialogue.

4. Cultural: work hard to get the right kind of consumers to give the brand meaning and be proactive in shaping the brand to become culturally relevant in the hands of storytellers as well. Monitor changes in brand meaning and try to guide this evolution to the right direction.

Next lecture 6.4.2009

We’ll recap how the four branding models saw consumers

For the most part the lecture is going to be about my new research and how the changing media field and consumers’ ever growing media literacy affect branding

Q&A now!

Brand concepts 1/4

Mind-share:

“ a visually distinguishable and manageable entity that provides strategically leverageable and measurable asset and price premium value to companies, helps differentiate and establish a strong positioning in regards to other products in the category that is hard to copy, offers identity, self-expressive and quality information value to consumers, and has a clear core promise along with a broad, multifaceted and human identity that is aspirational and extremely consistent in all areas.”

Brand concepts 2/4

Emotional:

“ a visually distinguishable and sensually accessible story-like entity that helps differentiate and establish a strong positioning in regards to other products in the category, is dynamic, and open to consumer interpretation, a building block for identity construction and an embodiment of lifestyle and a representation of culture, and is a cue for quality and a source for price premium due to its experiential and relationship value.”

Brand concepts 3/4

Viral:

“ a collection of different interpretations and discussions around a given company’s products, which consumers see as a cause worth advancing and defending, and has identity building value to them, and whose brand strength is dependent on the consumers’ enthusiasm and the nature of their discussions.”

Brand concepts 4/4

Cultural:

“ a historical and cultural entity shaped by multiple authors and whose importance varies over time, which offers self-expressive benefits and communal belonging to consumers, is a source of leverageable equity and price premium for companies, and whose strength is the cultural relevance and credibility of the brand’s myth as a soother of anxieties, combined with its stature within the populist world it draws from and the stature of its insiders and the amount of feeders the insiders attract.”

Branding concepts 1/5

Mind-share branding:

“ a company-controlled pursuit to differentiate one producer’s products from another through managing the utmost consistency in all of the company’s functions that contribute to the creation of a strong brand. “

Mind-share brand management:

“ a slow-moving top-level management and strategic function, where the company uses its considerable control on the brand to manage the brand’s timeless and consistent identity in different media, solidifies brand hierarchy, creates synergies and builds equity, and tries to avoid letting consumers dictate brand identities.”

Emotional branding:

“ a consumer-company-based dialogical pursuit to differentiate one producer’s products from another via creating emotional, culturally relevant, sensual, tailored, and positive experiences around products, so that make people want to join the conversation and forge an emotional relationship with the brand.”

Emotional brand management:

a dynamic and somewhat strategic but mostly tactical function, in which the company attempts to use its influence to manage its clientele’s emotions via managing the exposure of its brands between prominent and overexposure and by engaging the consumers through finding new sensorial touchpoints to stimulate the consumers and to entice them to participate in defining the brand.”

Viral branding:

“ a pursuit to differentiate a company’s products by engaging consumers in an active and mutually beneficial dialogue via different channels in an honest and transparent way, in hopes that it leads to consumers’ ownership of the brand and them engaging other people in a similar dialogue, by making every brand touch point worthy of dialogue or a source for consumer-made amateur content and constantly introducing new topics for dialogue. “

Viral brand management:

“ an extremely adaptive, responsive and mostly strategic function, where the company aims to surrender most of the brand’s control to enthusiastic consumers, via consumer recognition and monitoring changes in the consumer community while trying to affect the brand in a transparent way so the brand seems authentic, consumer driven and not too prominent.”

Brand concepts 5/5

Cultural branding:

“ a pursuit to differentiate a company’s products by forging a credible connection to culture via creating a distinguished voice for a brand that speaks for the non-commercial ethos of a given constituency that is culturally resonant, and by creating ways for consumers to experience the connection via the brand’s storytelling.”

Cultural brand management:

“ a mostly strategic function where the company, along with other cultural authors, aims to define the brand’s story by managing the brand’s perceived popularity, historical relevance and the dynamics of the brand’s consumer constituencies, by actively resisting broad-based appeal, short term financial success, and leveraging the brand’s cultural equity by assuming cultural leadership.”

Comp. Env. concepts 1/4

Mind-share:

“ a fast-moving, increasingly scattered and saturated market environment of decreasing price margins driven by strong retailers and sensitive consumers, where any advantage other than brand is copied instantly and brands push the limits of consumer tolerance.”

Emotional:

“ a fast-moving, thoroughly scattered and saturated market environment that is completely consumer-driven because of choice and information available, and where brands compete against each other fiercely and continuously causing diminishing returns on marketing.”

Viral:

“ a fast-moving, thoroughly scattered and saturated market environment that forces transparency and honesty from all actors involved, is completely consumer-driven due to choice and information available, and where brands compete against each other fiercely and copy each other’s successful ideas and thus continuously causing diminishing returns on traditional advertising.”

Cultural:

“ a scattered and saturated market environment where brands compete for culture share along with other cultural products, and where advertising has become saturated but can still offer results.”