Branding your 'SINGLEHOOD'

Are you shy? Do you have a problem dating the opposite sex? Don't know smart pick up lines? Or is the problem the other way round. You are a smart ass but always keep picking up engaged guy and gals. All that courage to break the ice at the bar becomes such a waste of time and energy [ reading the body language ] when find out she's waiting for somebody. You say where's my love guru ? Dr. Hitch help me please.

Branding may become your Dr. Hitch. Here comes the worlds best dating tool. SHI symbol. I am just amazed with the ways in which marketers brand and they keep finding new ways of branding. Marketers in Australia & UK have found a unique way of branding your relationship status. Whether you are single or not?

The Meet Your Match SHI Symbol concept was developed by Trevor Byng who thought that meeting and dating could be so much easier if Singles could recognize each other in everyday life. Many married people chose to wear a wedding band, so why couldn’t Single people, interested in meeting others show their status? Friend Christine Ezekiel, designed a symbol to do just that by linking the Male (Mars) and Female (Venus) gender symbols into a fashionable piece of jewellery to signify you are ‘Single, Happy and Interested’ in meeting others.

The holy grail of 'Brand' - as old as it can get

The oldest etymological association of the word 'Brand' can be found in the epic poem Beowulf meaning 'destruction by fire'. The meaning of the word Brand has changed through the ages. It was used to describe criminalized people, as a disgrace or stigma in the 16th century.

Advertisement for sale of negro slaves

The idea of marking things, people, or animals by burning identifying marks onto them is clearly an ancient one. This was done to identify the ownership of things, people(slaves) [ a close cousin of people branding could be tattooing ] or animals. During the 19th century in primarily the United States, hot irons used for marking livestock and cauterizing wounds were called brands, and later cattle and other livestock were also referred to as brands. Originally the word brand meant anything hot or burning, such as a fire-brand, a burning stick; by the European Middle Ages it commonly identified the process of burning a mark into a stock animal with a thick hide, such as a cow, so as to identify ownership under animus revertendi. In the American West, a branding iron consisted of an iron rod with a seal-like mark which ranchers heated in a fire. A brand blotter was a thief who stole, and removed marks of ownership from, cattle.

The origin of branding livestock dates from 2700 B.C. Paintings in Egyptian tombs document branding oxen with hieroglyphics. Ancient Greeks and Romans marked livestock and slaves with a hot iron. Hernando Cortez introduced branding from Spain to the New World in 1541. He brought cattle stamped with his mark of three crosses. There has never been anything to take the place of a visible brand as a permanent definitive mark of ownership and deterrent to theft. Livestock people say "a brand's something that won't come off in the wash."

- http://www.cowboyshowcase.com/brands.htm

Pears soap was the world first registered Brand in he 19th century. Around 1900, James Walter Thompson taught the first lessons in branding to the world, in an early commercial description of what now is known as 'branding'.

Malboro Friday

April 2, 1993 - this day has historic importance for branders. It was called the death day of brands. It was on this day Philip Morris announced a 20% price cut to their Marlboro cigarettes to fight back against the bargain brand competitors who were increasingly eating into their market share. As a result, Philip Morris's stock took a major dive, along with the share value of other household brands including Heinz, Coca-Cola, and RJR Nabisco. Fortune magazine deemed it "the day the Marlboro Man fell off his horse"

Investors interpreted the price slash as an admission of defeat from the Marlboro brand, that Philip Morris could no longer justify its higher price tag and now had to compete with generic brands. Since the Marlboro man was an image that stood since 1954, it was considered one of the biggest marketing icons, investors reasoned that to see the Marlboro icon give into a price war, the marketing itself must be ineffective. As a result of plummeting stock value in major American brands, 1993 marked a slight decrease in U.S. ad expenditures. Companies began investing in promotions rather than advertising. In 1983 in the U.S, the average expenditure on marketing was 70% advertising and 20% on promotions, by 1993 it had made a complete turn around, to 70% on promotions and 20% on advertising.

It was the only decrease to occur since 1970. At the time, this event was regarded as signifying "the death of a brand" and the advent of a "value-minded" consumer generation who pay more attention to the real value of products and not the brand names. This view soon proved to be incorrect, with the rest of the decade's economy being dominated by brands and driven by high-budget marketing campaigns.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlboro_Friday

Apart from all the examples I have given above can there still be an instance of branding that is still older than 16th century. Something that older than the concept of products and yet binds people emotionally. Can you guess it? I am talking about territories, empires, nations, and countries. This is something man started marking the day he was born. Its an animal instinct, every animal does it. If the def of brand is

"A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes products and services from competitive offerings", as defined by the American Marketing Association.

Humans have been marking their territories through ages. 'Logos' and 'Designs' have been in the name of Flags. 'Symbols' have been as War markings. Doesn't a country's name bind its people emotionally as a brand does? So shouldn't a country be a brand? And all that its culture creates be its brand portfolio? I think this is the oldest instance of branding and yet there is no mention of this in any book of branding, which I have read. This is what lead me to write this post. And yes marketers have started recognizing countries as brands click here to find more.

Brand Rush

Last week I was watching a movie in a multiplex. In the interval I saw a commercial of Croc brand of shoes. Yeah, the famous or infamous brand of shoes known for its uniqueness, vibrant colors and unusual size and styling. In recent months Indian consumer has been flooded with plethora of brands. We can already see Vodafone all over the place. Budweiser has entered the beer market. In car market we know of Porsche, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, and May batch coming to India. Audi has arrived. Chrysler is rolling in with Bajaj auto. Coming to retail Vijay Mallya has roped in brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Mont Blanc, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zegna, Rolex and Omega. Mallya's newest creation is "UB City - the Collection" - a shopping mall in bangalore with exclusive and only luxury retail brands. Mallya yet again does it with panache. Being a wine lover I can't forget to mention Mallya is bringing in Four Seasons brand of wines. It's truely raining brands in here...

Mallya's UB City at Vittal Mallya Road Bangalore

Change is the name of the game

I do have a habit of connecting the dots. These dots are the events that happen around me. The figure that emerges from these dots generally gives direction to my life. I am back at the game and let’s see what the dots are this time. Last couple of days I noticed euphoria around me. People seem to be celebrating their lives and there is an urge to change. People and products seem to be reinventing themselves. Products follow what people do. Let’s start from people first. First thing I noticed is everybody seems to be changing their hairstyles. Dhoni got rid of his streaks. Maybe he was following suit to Jhon Abraham, his style icon. So did Hrithik too. I thought maybe short and clean is back in fashion. But I guess I was wrong. The ultimate icon of the young India is growing his hair and brawns. Yeah… Shahrukh and his six packs. I'm bored of it. Shahrukh always pisses me off; maybe his being out of fashion bugs me. I guess that’s what gals love him for “being retro”, nice way to say u r old fashioned. Its just not with the hunks even the ladies r changing. All the oldies like Rani, Preity, and Ash are making way for fresh faces like Deepika Pudukone, Sonam Kapoor, etc, etc.

When people change so do brands, products and some more people. So if you still guessing what's changed. Have a look around….. Hutch has become Vodafone, Rin has become Surf, UTI has become Axis, Birla plus changes to UltraTech, Saas bahu is replaced by reality TV, Wine replaces Whisky, Ambani replaces Gates, Health drinks replace Colas, Pasta replaces Paratha, Big cars replace small ones, Small cars replace motorcycles, motorcycles replace scooters, Dhoni replaces Dravid, T20 replaces ODI, Pratibha replaces APJ, HLL becomes HUL, Maruti Udyog become Maruti Suzuki, even the way people paint their houses are being changed, even the climate is changing so fast!!! That’s what Al Gore bothered about; and many many more...
Brand rejuvenation, repositioning, M&As, JVs, reinvention, its all happening and its happening too fast. At the same time its confusing lots of people. Even I am confused. I have decided to give my confusion an outlet. I'm going for a haircut!!!

"Change is inevitable" - Matrix


Happy Diwali.

THE RIGHT NAME IS A GOOD WAY TO START -- THE BRAND

ARTICLE FROM:
NIVEDITA SINGH
IBS Hyd (Marketing)

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

William Shakespeare – Romeo & Juliet (1595)

“With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.”

Lewis Carroll – Through the looking glass (1872)

How much extra would a customer pay for a leading sports team insignia or for a leather jacket bearing Harley Davidson logo? The NBC shop (gift and merchandise shops which the TV network operates in several major US cities) found that T-shirts bearing the logo of the network were selling more rapidly than the ones without them.

What could be the possible reason? --- EMOTIONS

People always want to associate themselves with the images of the things or celebrities that they like – and they are willing to pay extra for it. Also another major reason for that extra sum is that people have a preconditioned belief that brands like Nike, Mercedes Benz, Tanishq etc identifies them as being of a particular and vary distinct class.

The essence of marketing is twofold:

1) Finding something about your company or its products that is distinct and advantageous over your competitors;

2) Exploiting those advantages through various media and communications.

Branding is one such distinct advantage any company can have and it is one of the best ways to communicate the subtle yet powerful messages to customers about their company. A company’s brand is influential in a customer’s purchasing decision. While many of us like to think we carefully research our purchases and make logical choices with our vendors, the truth is that purchasing decisions—from cars to chewing gum—are often made because we, the consumers, believe in the brand promise the company is making to us.

This brand promise is part of an emotional dialogue between companies and their customers, so it’s important to establish an emotional connect between the firm and its customers.

A long-term commitment to branding provides a shortcut between customers and companies when customers intuitively understand the company’s brand. In today’s economy where purchasing decisions of all kinds are made quickly, branding provides a direct line to the customer’s emotions behind the purchase. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book Blink, “When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.” The level of awareness that the customers have about any brand allows them to make that purchasing judgment in this short period. In this respect, brands serve as a synapse that allows messages to flow freely to the consumer and encourages and reassures them about their choice.

BMA.Survey

Branding experts estimate that a company’s brand is equivalent to 35 to 40 percent of its market capitalization. Yet the care and feeding of a brand, especially on the brand compliance front, is not given the appropriate priority which it merits. After all which company can afford to lose 35 percent of its overall value rather would it ever want to do so??? The answer here is obviously NO; but the problem here is creating this awareness for the companies themselves as they sometimes do not realize the internal strengths upon which they can leverage and capture more of the market that too by creation of loyalty.

With such significance of branding background in mind, Business Marketing Association (BMA) developed a survey with the support of General Binding Corporation to determine the state of branding among the member companies of BMA. The survey was sent to 687 marketing professionals via email in October and November of 2005 and included responses from 204 corporate marketing professionals. The survey has a 5.9 margin of error based on 95 percent confidence level.

The main aim of the survey was to find the significance of brand compliance in an overall brand plan of a company. To clarify things the definition of brand compliance here was given as:

“the time, effort and money a company spends to ensure its employees, satellites and franchises adhere to the branding strategy and initiative throughout the entire organization.”

The survey found that almost 90 percent of companies were in the process of a branding or re-branding campaign, but that many companies believe brand compliance is a problem that may undercut their branding efforts. The survey also found that:

• 70 percent of the respondents believe brand compliance is important or very important to their organization
• 73 percent of companies have a business unit responsible for implementing brand campaigns
• On average, respondents said their branding budgets had increased 12.3 percent over the last two years
• 60 percent of the respondents reported that they have a brand standards manual for their employees to follow when producing marketing materials

While much of the survey revealed that most BMA members have given appropriate thought to branding and have set aside the adequate resources to execute a disciplined and effective brand campaign, there are still many companies who may be putting their branding campaigns in jeopardy.

An analysis of the more prominent survey findings suggested one potentially troubling issue which highlighted that while a significant number of companies were undertaking branding or re-branding campaigns, only 60 percent of those surveyed said they have a brand standards manual, and 73 percent said they have a business unit responsible for implementing the branding campaign. The implications of brand compliance could be dire for marketing departments. If brand compliance falls under their responsibility and the department is already strapped for time and resources, brand compliance is not going to be enforced with the kind of vigor necessary to ensure a consistent brand campaign is conducted.

Moreover owing to the great significance that a brand holds, it becomes really necessary for firms to incorporate a distinct functional department for the branding activites given proper resources, responsibilities and authority.

Conclusively it is imperative for any functioning organization to realize that brands are living, breathing entities that influence the heart and soul of their company. It is thus very essential for them to establish clear brand standards manual and process it till the time of establishing an admirable brand compliance, the benefit of which could be tremendous. This action not only helps in protecting the financial stake of any company but more important is the emotional stake that the company gets in the customers’ minds.

Lack of Switch Effect in Advertising

Switch Effect is not new phenomena in advertising but with competition between products intensifying and more brands fighting for the same target market share, it has became more important than ever.

David Ogilvy saw it coming long ago and called it ‘Changing Brand Preference’. It is an element which is necessary if the product advertised has established substitutes. Switch Effect is called for when purpose is to make consumer switch from buying a product over other, specially buying a new product over established one.

According to Advertising legend Alyque Padamsee“‘switch factor is the name of the advertising game today. We are in a highly competitive market, not a virgin one”.

The 'switch factor' is absolutely lacking in today's ads. When agencies have prepared the pitch for a television commercial, they must sit with their client and find out do our ads have the essential element to make people switch from some other brand to his. If it does not, then we must waste no time in tearing the commercial up and preparing a new one.

In advertising, we are like an athlete, always running against our competitors.

Most of the ad agencies I visited do not believe in the theory of Switch effect to drive sales. One V.P of a leading Multinational agency argued-“to drive sales, the product should have the switch effect and the purpose of advertising is only to let the product talk to consumer”. He might be right to an extent but at the end of day if the sales figure is not shooting up for a year or two the agency will be sacked.

Lowe Lintas was the agency which created the Liril Girl campaign and the campaign ran for a full 25 yrs but in spite of being extremely creative, the agency lost the contract as Hindustan Lever, dissatisfied with the soap's sales figures moved the product out of the agency.

A lot of Ad agencies brand themselves as creative hot shop but in my definition, advertising is only about creativity for selling purposes. We are not competing with M F Husain or other top painters or poets. The job is to sell the clients' products. However creative we may be, if we fail to sell our clients' products, then it is not a good ad. Some agencies have blended creativity and saleability nicely.

To me, a great ad is an ad that generates great sales. A lot of advertising today is certainly noticeable as ad agencies try to break through the 'clutter' but unfortunately often at the end of the commercial, you don't know what on earth they are selling, though you remember the ad which was great fun. The ad has no Switch Effect at all. Sometimes, even if you remember the brand, you don't find any reason, apart from humor, to choose that brand. It's good to have funny ads but we must remember that we are no R K Laxman. We create comic, serious or dramatic ads only to sell some products.

One of the best examples for understanding Switch Effect is ‘Fair and Handsome Cream’. The ad certainly has created a need for men to switch the earlier cosmetics they were using to the new brand which was specially formulated for their skin. Today it is one of the fastest growing FMCG products in recent history -- it has achieved sales of Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) in 9 to 10 months, but its an old story ...I need a fresh example.....

Rituraj Srivastva

Creating Gods

The theory below tries to explain the following:

1. How do we create a Brand?

2. Is the brand around us?

3. Can we see a brand?

If the literature below can’t explain any of these even vaguely may Brands..oops God send the writer to hell…read Retail.

Brand Manifestation:

They are among us, they are mighty, and they rule our world. Ladies and Gentleman lets vow for them for they are no ordinary human they are Gods ….they are BRANDS. A Mercedes elevates you and a Rado makes time so much more important for us (didn't our parents told us its Precious). Even if some of us shun writing, Mont Blanc is a sure pleasure to have, use and..... Show off.

Lets think it over. What make makes people pay a whooping $137,000.00-$137,000.00 for a Mercedes Benz CL- Class. Is it only the luxury or is it the feeling of success and luxury associated with it. The more intangible you will make your brand the more differentiated it will be from commodity and the more premium you would be able to charge. If Marketer can associate the felling of success and luxury with Maruti 800, consumer will pay a premium for that……may be I am stretching it a bit too far.

The more tangible your brand is the lesser will be its equity. Remember Brands are God. We can’t see them, we can’t touch them. We can only feel, imagine and at the best experience them. The catch words in the sentence is feel, imagine and experience. The brand has to catch the imagination of Consumers and make them fantasize.

Let me explain the whole concept with the metaphoric example of Culture:

1. Is Culture around us?

2. Can we see it?

3. Can you touch it?

The answer to first is yes and the answer to other two are Invariable NO. Because Culture is so intangible that we can never see it, all we see is manifestation of Culture in the cloth people wear, the food people eat, the way they dress etc. Even in organization the organizational culture has its manifestation in its employees’ attitude and behaviour (But wouldn’t that be a separate debate). The point which I want to drive is the Stronger the manifestation stronger will be the culture. Likewise for Brands – The Product, Logo, Colour. Ads are all manifestation of Brand. The Stronger the Brand Manifestation the stronger the brand will be. My point is brand is not only about product, in fact its not about the product…it’s about the aura surrounding the product. And the Photons of this aura include organizational behaviour, suppliers, management (culture by the way drips down from the top management). Believe me to achieve God needs great devotion but to create one needs lot of courage, conviction and devotion indeed.

This article with all my heart is in honour of my friend Manvendra Pratap Singh, who encouraged me to join this band wagon (herd of Band Wagon Effect in Consumer Psychology).

Rituraj Srivastva