Warming up to brands

7th August 2007

 Let’s identify the brands
associated with these visuals
and slogans
 Slogans
 Justdo it!
 Kuch meetha ho jaye
 Impossible is nothing
 Connecting people
 Lagey raho
 Express yourself
 Keep walking!
 There are some things money can’t buy. For
everything else there is …..
 Slogans
 It’s
hot!
 The world’s local bank
 The Citi never sleeps
 The power of knowledge
 The best a man can get
 God’s own country
 The taste of India
 Do you have it in you?
 Think different
Brands….The beginning
 Roots
 Uniformity is the mother of branding
 Identity is lost due to homogeneity as there
is no differentiation
 Origin of the word ‘brand’ lies in the Norse
word ‘brandr’ which means ‘to burn’
 In early times, farmers used to identify their
livestock with a burn mark or a symbol
 Distillers branded their casks
 Roots
 Theproducers’ names identified the
products - Smirnoff, Ford, Mercedes, Levi
Strauss
 Today….
 Brands are an integral part of our life -
products; services; people; places; football
clubs; fictional characters; virtual worlds….
 They are intangible assets that need to be
exploited
 Savour this
 Indian firms eye Jaguar, Land Rover
- Tata
- Mahindra & Mahindra
 World’s top 100 brands worth more than
India’s total m-cap
- $ 1.15 trillion
- More than combined market value of over
4000 listed cos. in India
We work not for ourselves,
not for the company,
not even for our clients.
We work for Brands
Brand Stewardship (Ogilvy)
 To be most valued
by those who most value
brands
Brand Stewardship (Ogilvy)
 Brand
A Brand is
a product which has earned a place in the
consumer’s life
through perception, experience, beliefs, feelings
....... until a relationship is built

It is the sum of how consumers feel about a product

Brand Stewardship (Ogilvy)
 Brand
“A brand is nothing more or less than the
sum of all the mental connections people
have around the product. Memories from
childhood, something your mum said ... and
in the case of newer brands, memories from
ads. The trick is to arrange things so that the
mental connections around the brand are
enhancing”

Michael Perry
Former Chairman & CEO, Unilever
 Brand

“Consumers build brands the way birds build nests...

from scraps and straws they chance upon”

Jeremy Bullmore
Former Chairman JWT
 The ‘classic’ definition
 Keller: “A brand is a set of mental
associations, held by the consumer, which
add to the perceived value of a product or
service”
 Mental associations
 Unique (Exclusivity)
 Strong (Saliency)
 Positive (Desirable)
 Mental associations
 What is the brand territory (perceived
competence; typical products or services;
specific know-how)?
- Gillette
- Apple
- Virgin
- Nokia
- Dettol
- Karim’s?
 Mental associations
 What is its level of quality (low; medium;
premium; luxury)?
 What are its qualities?
 What is its most discriminating quality or
benefit (also called perceived positioning)?
- Burnol is for burns
- Marlboro is not just a cigarette; it’s about
fierce independence; about being macho
- Hummer: Like nothing else
 Mental associations
 What typical buyer does the brand evoke?
- Harley Davidson
- Goa
- Rolex
 What is the brand personality and brand
imagery?
 Beyond mental
associations….
 The power of a name is also due to the
specific nature of the emotional
relationships it develops
 Patents and rights are of course a key asset.
They provide competitive advantage over a
period of time
Brand anatomy
 Brand Gestalt

Brand
Personality

Visual Physical Logo

Appearance Product
Attributes
Brand
Country of Quality Customer
Origin Uses Relationship

User Emotional
Tangible
Imagery Benefits
Benefits

Source: Soni Simpson, Stuart

Graduate School of Business
 Brand
A synthesis of all elements, physical,
aesthetic, rational AND emotional
 End result =
– appropriate

– differentiated

– relevant
 Brand
The Coca-Cola Brand Is…

 1800s Heritage The Real Thing

 Americana Battles with Pepsi
 Sold Everywhere Logo
 Brand
The McDonald’s Brand Is…

 The Big Mac Happy Meals

 French Fries Red and White
Restaurants
 Fun For Children Ronald McDonald
 Golden Arches Value for Money
How do brands provide value?
Providing Value to Customers
 Short cut for interpreting, processing and
storing information
 Gives confidence in the purchasing decision
- reduces risk
 Enhances use satisfaction
 Providing Value to the Firm
 Enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of
marketing programs - one of the rewards for
risk- taking
 Decrease brand switching
 Higher prices and margins (Brand-involved
consumers bargain less)
 Trade leverage
 Competitive advantage
The Product and the brand
 Product
 Kotler: “A product is anything that can be
offered to a market to satisfy a want or
need”
 What is a Product?
All the augmentations and
 Kotler’s Potential Product
transformations that a product
might ultimately undergo in the

Five future

Additional product attributes,

levels to a Augmented Product benefits, or related services that
distinguish the product from

product: competitors

Attributes and Characteristics that

Expected Product buyers normally expect and agree
to when they purchase a product

Basic Version of the product

Generic Product containing only those elements
absolutely necessary to function.
No distinguishing features.

The Fundamental Need or Want

CORE BENEFIT that consumers satisfy by
consuming the product or service
 Product and brand
Product = Commodity
A product is a produced item always
possessing these characteristics:
• Tangibility
• Attributes and Features

Brand = “Mind Set”

The sum of all communications and experiences received
by the consumer and customer resulting in a distinctive
image in their “mind set” based on perceived emotional
and functional benefits

Source: Soni Simpson

 Product and brand
 Products come to life, live and disappear,
but brands endure e.g. Zen, Honda City,
Bajaj
 A brand is the memory of the products
 A brand is less elastic than its product.
Once created, like fast-setting concrete it is
hard to change
 Are leading brands the best
products?
 Not necessary
 To be the ‘best’ means to compete in the
premium tier which is rarely a large
segment
 The brand with the best quality/price ratio is
market leader
 Are leading brands the best
products?
 Most brands are born out of a product or
service innovation (ipod; Sony walkman
and discman)
 Later, as the product name evolves into a
brand, customers’ reason for purchase may
still be the brand’s “superior performance”
image
 Are leading brands the best
products?
 Itseems that brands alternate in their focus.
They capitalise on their image, then
innovate to recreate or nurture the belief of
product superiority, then recapitalise on
their image, and so on e.g. Gillette, Sony
Branding
 Branding

 Transforming a commodity like product

into customer satisfying value added
propositions is the essence of branding
 Branding

Brand Imposing One’s Will

OLD
On
SCHOOL
THINKING
The Consumer
DIPLOMA
 Branding
“ Pretty much everything today can be seen in
relation to a love-respect axis. You can plot any
relationship – with a person, with a brand – by
whether it’s based on love or based on respect. It
used to be that a high respect rating would win.
But these days, a high love rating wins. If I don’t
love what you’re offering me, I’m not even
interested.”
Kevin Roberts, Saatchi and Saatchi
 Branding
“ Pretty much everything today can be seen in
relation to a love-respect axis. You can plot any
relationship – with a person, with a brand – by
whether it’s based on love or based on respect. It
used to be that a high respect rating would win.
But these days, a high love rating wins. If I don’t
love what you’re offering me, I’m not even
interested.”
Kevin Roberts, Saatchi and Saatchi
 Branding
Love *
Mark
TradeMark

Trust-Mark
 POWER BRANDS

Those Brands
•Attached which are
to Consumers
•Deep respect
particularly well adapted
for the way products to
the environment
fit into Consumersand
lives which
= “Core” of Success
thus, survive and flourish.
 4 components of branding
 Building the brand: Brand Identity is the
first step; Brand positioning etc.
 Leveraging the brand: Line extensions;
Brand extensions; Co-branding
 Identifying and measuring brand equity:
consumer relationships; brand financial
value etc.
 Protecting: Dilution; Legal aspects
 Suggested reading

 Visit brandchannel.com and read the

Interbrand 2007 report on global brands
 Case study
 “Branding for President”
 “The New Strategic Brand Management”
by J.N.Kapferer. Chapter 1 & 2
 Suggested reading

 “Brand Management: Text & Cases” by

Harsh Verma. Chapter 1
 Strategic Brand Management by Kevin
Lane Keller