« December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 »
A number of companies with a presence in India are relying upon an umbrella brand strategy, in part to cut media expenses. Brands such as Electrolux, Onida, Airtel and Asian Paints are each using an umbrella branding strategy for a wide variety of products within their respective portfolios.
An umbrella brand is a high-altitude articulation of difference and benefits with several sub-conversations captured beneath. It unites a series of sub-brands with one voice, leaving room for each sub-brand to engage in conversations relevant to more precisely targeted markets, through different products and communications.
As reported in moneycontrol.com, an India business/finance site, the experience of companies with a market presence in India, and use of umbrella brand strategies, serves as a cautionary tale for companies everywhere.
Attempting to use one brand to drive sales across different product categories is a very tricky business. Unless the umbrella strategy leaves room to speak in a compelling voice from product to product, providing both a connection with the market and separation from competitors, the strategy will prove ineffective whether in India or any world market.
At least one global Swedish brand has a brand reputation greater outside its home country than within.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Swedes are often surprised at the brand reputation of Ikea in the United States:
In the Bay Area, home furnishings megastore Ikea is a retailing phenomenon, with long lines of customers and a popular buzz as a place for inexpensive but fashionable merchandise.
It’s another story in its home country of Sweden….
“In Sweden, you don’t brag about buying things at Ikea,” said Marie Soderqvist, chief executive of United Minds, a Swedish consulting company. “A home only furnished with Ikea products is seen as impersonal, a bit of a bad job.”
…Swedes in the United States are sometimes surprised by the Ikea mystique.
“In Sweden, going to Ikea is like going to the supermarket to buy paper towels in bulk. But in (America), Ikea is a wonder of super design,” said Barbro Osher, the Swedish consul general in San Francisco….
For its part, Ikea acknowledges the differences in perception.
“In Sweden, we are so present and visible that we are seen as an everyday thing…,” said Clive Cashman, Ikea’s chief U.S. spokesman.
Ikea…is a global brand…180 stores in 23 countries, with $15.5 billion in annual sales. Ikea has 22 locations in the United States…and 14 in Sweden…. In the Ikea world, U. S. sales are second, beaten only by German sales. Sweden comes in fifth.
In the United States, Ikea makes the most of its image as an exotic Swedish store. It keeps the Swedish names on all its products and is famous for the Swedish meatballs served in its in-store restaurants.
“They have much more of a Swedish image here than in Sweden,” said Stig Hagstrom, a Swede who lives in the Bay Area.
Keying-in on and understanding cultural differences is key to the success of any global brand. Understanding the emotional motivators behind consumer behavior is critical to an understanding of cultural difference and brand perception, in framing the competitive context by which a brand moves through the world, from culture to culture, through market to market.
IKEA understands this context. It is an understanding that creates a global brand, rather than one viewed narrowly as Sweden’s low-end home furnishings merchandiser.
Advertising executives gathered to discuss the destination branding of Malaysia as reported by the Asia Times. Be warned.
When US-based architect Cesar Pelli was brainstorming his plans for what would become Malaysia’s most recognizable landmark, the towering twin Petronas Towers, [the country’s leadership] required one thing of him: that the building be Malaysian. “What do you mean by Malaysian?” Pelli reportedly asked. “We don’t know,” was the reply.
What resulted, a shimmering polygonal pattern based on Islamic design, hardly captures the essence of multi-ethnic Malaysia. But…what really mattered is that the design wowed the world. Over the past decade…wowing became Malaysia’s raison d’etre, with eye-catching, high-tech-themed megaprojects sprouting almost as fast as banana trees….
Now Malaysia is joining a number of countries, from the United Kingdom to South Korea, New Zealand and Canada, seeking to brand themselves to the world in the name of foreign direct investment and in an effort to increase their lobbying power.
Branding differs from marketing in that marketing is specific to certain areas, such as tourism. “Branding a country must emphasize the collective identity of every component of that society,” said Michael Kor, creative director of Dentsu advertising in Malaysia….
Added David Mitchel, group brand manager of Leo Burnett Advertising, “Successful branding can’t be too far from the truth.” People catch on.
Branding is harder for emerging markets, said Charles Cadell, managing director of Leo Burnett Advertising; unlike most European nations, they often lack a widespread preconceived notion of personality resulting from history and culture. Some say Malaysia has the added burden of being a multicultural society - how to define such a nation? But the United States’ success contradicts this claim. The truth is, even monocultural societies find it hard to get everyone to fix on one facet and stand behind it, and that’s the key, said Cadell, who recently presented a paper to the Malaysian government on branding.
“It’s a huge task. You need a consistent, dedicated group working on a 10-year plan,” he said….
Let’s address each of these claims.
Developing an effective brand strategy for a destination brand does NOT emphasize every component of a society or culture. As with any effective brand re-imaging, the solution is in keying on the one best difference, relevant and compelling to your audience.
Great branding must be authentic, and must stray no distance from the truth or authenticity of a place or product.
Actually, branding is EASIER for an emerging market, as it may represent a blank slate in world perception. As an unknown, fewer widespread negative perceptions need be overcome. Stepping further, a country with an absence of identifiable stereotypes among Western Europeans may be viewed in an opposite manner, as overloaded with mental images in the eyes of Southeast Asians. Dialing into the emotions of nations and cultures you wish to reach is critical to branding success.
We find that large groups working on 10-year plans result in the banal, and are often the disease rather than the cure. To move from the banal to the breakthrough requires a bit of courage, and ultimately leadership. Breakthrough branding is often counterintuitive, and not a task in which a committee with 30 members is typically effective. As proof, quickly name five of the fifty United States with breakthrough destination branding. Four? Time’s up.
As a way to support governmental decision-makers in moving beyond a need for large committees to gain political support, and to instead assist in demonstrating political support, it is helpful is to show the resistors brand solutions that work (and those that do not) by use of existing competitive examples.
Reliance upon advisors whose core business is advertising rather than branding — to provide the thinking and process discipline necessary for effective destination branding — is comparable to jamming ice into the fuel tank of an automobile.
The result is predictable. Every time.
Nedcor Limited, is a bank holding company operating the fourth largest banking group by assets in South Africa. Nedcor is engaged in a brand reposition, as reported by AllAfrica Global Media:
Banking group Nedcor has come full circle over the past 12 years, opting for a multibrand strategy…. As it reverts to a single-brand strategy, the corporate Nedcor brand may be about to disappear.
Nedcor Limited came into existence in the early 1990s to house the banks and support divisions in the group….
But the Nedcor brand may be about to be replaced, with Nedbank emerging as the group’s unifying brand. Many of the other brands have already been phased out, or are being phased out.
Nedbank is currently appointing a new advertising agency….
One marketing analyst, who asked not to be named…says the group will have to define its new brand very clearly before its new advertising agency [comes] on board.
“You only advertise when you know what it is you want to advertise,” he says.
This anonymous analyst is so very correct. We trust Nedcor will develop their brand strategy before advertising begins. Otherwise, dollars spent on advertising will largely be wasted.
An effective brand strategy will focus on identifying a single key competitive difference and emotional benefits to elevate the market discussion about Nedcor. In this way Nedcor may own the conversation in South Africa banking.
Whether your market is South Africa, a world city such as Johannesburg, or global, framing the market conversation to a basis you can win competitively is the essence of great branding.
The latest In Advertising newsletter from the New York Times (available by opt-in email) discusses the new brand positioning of Hormel Chili:
Hormel Foods, which has been making Hormel Chili since 1935, is running a television, radio, print and online campaign for the brand that is the biggest in several years. The multimillion-dollar campaign … presents Hormel Chili not as a main dish but as an accompaniment to other dishes like eggs, hamburgers, nachos, potatoes and salads, as well as a dip.
To underline the concept, the ads portray Hormel Chili in unconventional fashion as a condiment like ketchup, mustard, pepper or salt, which is reinforced by the campaign’s theme, “Goes on everything.”
The campaign is appearing as two other powerhouses in food marketing, Bush Brothers Company and the Campbell Soup Company, have entered the chili category with, respectively, Bush’s Homestyle Chili and Campbell’s Chunky Chili…. [T]he Bush brand is [positioned] as “a ready-to-eat chili that looks and tastes like homemade” and the Campbell product … is [positioned as] “Hardcore chili for hardcore fans.”
[Paul C. Krapf, senior product manager for Hormel Chili says] the Bush and Campbell products “are geared toward in-the-bowl eating occasions instead of out-of-the-bowl eating occasions.”
“It’s not, ‘Next time you want a bowl of chili, buy our product,’” Mr. Krapf says. “It’s, ‘Next time you want to make chili nachos, chili fries, the only chili to use is Hormel.’”
… [T]he concept of likening chili to condiments was “a pretty big idea, which became a fresh angle for the category,” he adds. “That’s where we rounded the corner.”
We agree.
This repositioning of Hormel Chili creates new mental real estate, developing a new Chili niche, at a time when two competitors choose to rely on advertising strategies for their new products, each shouting how much better they are, rather than demonstrating how different they are.
What Hormel Chili accomplishes with their new brand identity provides a textbook example of good brand strategy.
As the first to stake out the unique mental position of chili as condiment, Hormel Chili reframes the market conversation to a basis it can win against all competitors. The new brand position demonstrates competitive difference. Demonstrating a relevant and compelling difference ALWAYS drives the sales needle.
Pass the chips.
Marketers view cellphones as the personalized multimedia-advertising machine of the future, according to the New York Times. We call it owning the conversation through the ultimate direct marketing device.
Marketers, agencies and technology companies are already working on ways to use the latest cellphone technology to … beam their messages to consumers on their cellphone screens, sometimes called the “third screen,” after television and computer screens….
[C]ompanies are having conversations with consumers through wireless text messages, said Jack Philbin, president at Vibes Media in Evanston, Illinois. When a consumer contacts a marketer using a text-message code found on a coupon or package, for example, the marketer can send responses preprogrammed by Vibes, he said. If the consumer responds to the marketer, the dialogue continues. The format can be used for things like trivia contests and delivering electronic coupons….
“Our philosophy is to get people to initiate a conversation with a brand and continue it as long as they want,” Mr. Philbin said. “That instant interaction is really dictated by the individual consumer; you have this mass marketing ability but it is an individual experience.”
Through a cellphone messaging delivery channel, the consumer initiates and controls their conversation with a brand. For marketers, this channel provides a mass marketing opportunity with an individualized experience, from electronic coupons to live-streaming video.
While all of this sounds good to us early adopters, ultimately the consumer experience will be dependent upon the relevance and compelling nature of delivered content. The cellphone is simply another brand communications channel, albeit one of great promise, rather than the message itself.
Korea is a nation in search of a new image. As reported in the Korea Herald, Korea senses the need to stand out in the global marketplace:
While Japan is known for its sushi, Sony Walkman and Tokyo’s Ginza district and China is famous for Kung Fu and the Great Wall, Korea is recognized for - well, it’s hard to say.
…[N]uclear tension with communist North Korea and fist-fighting politicians are just a few of the first things that spring to mind among many foreigners with some level of interest in the country….
With a lack of any significant brand image, added to a succession of negative representations dominating news from the country, the Korea that prides itself on its high technology and beautiful traditions is starting belatedly to recognize an urgent need to give itself a massive makeover.
Past efforts failed to make any prominent headway. Those included the ambitious project … to make Korea “the hub” of Northeast Asia which soon lost momentum and the “Dynamic Korea” slogan that failed to catch on globally like “Malaysia, truly Asia,” or “Amazing Thailand”….
“To the eyes of foreigners, Korea seems very little different from how they perceive Japan or China,” Kim explained.
When we think of Korea, top Korean Chaebols such as Samsung and Hyundai come to mind. Beyond companies of such global stature, the Korea brand image as understood today is, well, undifferentiated.
Branding uncovers the best key point of difference of a product or place. Finding that one key difference, that one thing, is difficult work. Unless the new brand image points to a difference no other nation may logically own, what you see is advertising rather than branding.
In a global culture saturated with messages screamed from every direction employing superlatives like “best”, “biggest” “number one”, “amazing”, “leading”, “favorite”, “World’s favorite”, “dynamic”, and so on, it’s no wonder that people have evolved highly sensitive and effective filters to tune-out such noise.
Think about the person who explains, “I’m the most dynamic person you will ever meet.” What effect does such a pronouncement have on you? Or, if someone tells you “I am amazing,” what credibility do you bestow upon such a claim?
It is the job of the brand strategy professional to ensure that the first frame of reference communicated about Korea as a destination brand is the best, most compelling, most relevant difference, so that it prompts the prospect — whether the tourist or the business executive with capital to invest — to stop what they are otherwise doing, pay attention, and learn more about you.
The key to any effective branding effort is to change and take ownership of the competitive conversation within your business market. To own the conversation, Whisper decodes the emotions behind purchase and investment decision-making, revealing the emotional drivers that enable clients to reframe the market conversation to their competitive advantage.
For any destination brand the task is to avoid reliance upon an advertising strategy. An advertising strategy is what we encounter with attempts such as Amazing Thailand, Dynamic Korea, and Malaysia, truly Asia. Each are variations on the same theme. Due to a lack of difference, these slogans become part of the global white noise, and thus quickly become ineffective economic growth tools.
A new brand image, effectively developed, by itself becomes a significant economic driver for Korea.
In any new branding effort, fully realizing the promise of this economic growth opportunity is what is at stake.
The Major League Baseball team in the United States most recently known as the Anaheim Angels announced today they will now be known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
What’s up with this redundant mouthful? The Los Angeles Times provides the answer to this shift in brand identity:
The franchise today announced that it has switched to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, a name that downplays the Orange County city where the team’s home games are played….
The move is expected to lead the city to file a lawsuit against the team and its owner, Arte Moreno, by the end of the day….
Moreno’s marketing plans include expanding the fan base beyond Orange County to compete more vigorously with the Los Angeles Dodgers and to generate more revenues from broadcasting rights. After taking the team over, he generated loads of goodwill by lowering beer prices and assembling a winning team.
Moreno has said that naming the team after Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest media market, instead of a city with a population of 340,000, would convince more sponsors that they can tap a broader audience….
The franchise said the name change will allow the team to broaden its appeal throughout Southern California and elsewhere. Moreno has said he has plans to turn the team “into a large market team.” [Emphasis ours.]
Legal considerations aside, the owner of the Angels is acting as an astute brand manager. By changing the name of the team to lead with Los Angeles, Mr. Moreno taps into equity associated with a destination brand of far greater public recognition and value than the City of Anaheim can offer.
The Angels are changing the business conversation to their advantage. They prefer not to explain who they are when, for example, negotiating cable television rights. Rather ownership wants to demonstrate who they are with the brand name Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
As a point of interest, landlocked Anaheim engages in the same brand equity double play as do the Angels, tapping into the brand equity of Orange County, California, and communities within by name and through photography of the Pacific Coast on their convention bureau website.
Our resident attorney points out the inclusion of Anaheim in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim name is a legal bone thrown to the City of Anaheim to strengthen the Angels’ position in the event of litigation.
No doubt Anaheim’s city leadership would not want to hear it, but in brand identity they just looked at a called third strike.
« December 2004 | Home | February 2005 »
