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Brand Activation: By: Paul Morel, Peter Preisler and Anders Nyström
Brand Activation: By: Paul Morel, Peter Preisler and Anders Nyström
Brand activation
By: Paul Morel, Peter Preisler and Anders Nyström
The enlighted individual is the As society moves into post modernism, new companies have evolved
focal point in the postmodern and older ones have reformed their businesses to meet the changing
society. needs of people and companies. These companies have listened to their
customers, and they have learned that, both as companies and as
persons, we perceive ourselves as individuals with specific needs.
The enlightened individual is the focal point in the postmodern society.
As Robert Delamar states in his article “Post-modernism, electronic
consciousness and humanness”: “Humanity is the center of the post-
modern period; indeed it is helpful to characterize this age as the self-
centered era”.
It’s worth to mention here, that these new services are not just meant as a
new source of income, but also serve as a key differentiating feature. The
American airline Southwest Airlines distinguish themselves from other
airlines by having singing flight attendants onboard. “The mission of
Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service
delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and
Company Spirit.”
The brand faces new challenges Companies desire a stronger relationship with their customers, making
in giving meaning to a it harder to exchange the products for other offers, both on a functional
company’s whole relationship and on an emotional level. In this highly competitive and individual
with the customer. world companies are increasingly depending on the brand as a compe-
titive weapon. The brand has become the carrier of the emotional value
proposition towards the customers and a symbol of the specific
competence that builds up a company’s competitive advantage. Thus
the brand faces new challenges in giving meaning to a company’s whole
relationship with the customer.
By demystifying the brand Since branding in most cases is driven from a communication perspective,
companies can make the brand branding and competence about branding is still owned and guarded by
common knowldege among marketing directors and advertising agencies. Today a person meets in
their employees. general 30 000 messages per day, of which 3000 are branded in some
way. Brand strategies have evolved into complex theories predominantly
driven by the communication environment. According to David C.Court,
Mark G. Leiter and Mark A. Loch, brands do “work” for the customers.
In their paper “Brand leverage” they explain why: “they simplify everyday
choices (a shopper who regularly buys Crest doesn’t have to agonize
continually over toothpaste), reduce the risk of complicated buying
decisions (IBM mainframes and Boeing jets are safe choices), provide
emotional benefits (Tiffany), and offer a sense of community (Apple
Computer and Saturn)”. Besides the reasons mentioned by Court et al,
we believe that there are two other reasons why brands work, especially
for the service industry. First of all they work if they create relationship
benefits (the experience of being known by your banker or a car sales-
man). Second, brand works if they create accessibility (when services are
accessible for me 24/7).
An active brand offers products and services that deliver on the brand
position. It meets the customer in a personal manner closely related to
the position. It also has the same appearance independent of interface.
In other words, the customer will perceive the brand as “one coherent
company” whether he or she meets it in digital or analog media, through
a product, face to face or on the telephone. But brand activation is also
communicating the position through advertising.
What to activate
When activating a brand, look for the core features that constitute
the brand. It might be the communicated position or promised customer
benefit, or the company vision or people policy – strategies and tactics
that often are relevant for the whole company. Therefore, effective brand
activation starts with a defined brand.
One example that supports their reasoning is Avis, the car rental company.
Avis admitted that Hertz was the first car rental brand in the world. Acknow-
ledging this Avis explored the opportunities and competitive advantages of
being second. The result was: “Avis, we try harder”. By positioning the
brand as the second brand in the car rental market, Avis gave meaning to
why they had to work harder than its’ worst competitor to please their
customers.
Another example is Apple. Apple was first among the computer manu-
facturers to conquer an obvious position: the position as the different
computer company. “Think different”, gave meaning to the bite in the apple;
to the different operative system and, later on, the different approach to
product design.
In this paper we will simply use the term Brand since constituents may
vary depending on which branding theory and strategy used.
Where to start
Search for solutions where the We see the brand position in Aaker’s model as a tactical asset when
brand can support, guide and communicating especially the core identity. Thus the brand position can
innovate the company. change focus without interfering with the core identity. While Aaker
identifies competitive communication strategies from a perfectly working
identity system, we search for ways to look deeper into the parts that build
up the system. We also look for ways to let the brand make a positive
impact on these areas. Though there are obvious similarities between
Aaker’s Brand Identity System and the four cornerstones; Products and
Services, Employees, Identity and Communication – there are differences.
The four described cornerstones are not defined from a communications
perspective, i.e. we do not try to find values in these areas worth
communicating because they strengthen the identified core identity.
Instead, we search for solutions where the brand can support, guide and
innovate the company in these four areas. The point is to help companies
become a coherent brand whatever situation or customer relation.
Brand activation _ 6
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How can the brand be relevant, When exploring the brand for activation, search for answers to how the
adaptable and profitible? brand can be relevant, adaptable and profitable for the four areas, respec-
tively. There is also an opportunity to add a fourth question; how is this
measurable? Though there are numerous well-developed theories and
methods for measuring the brand, we choose not to explore this question
further in this paper. But we do want to stress that measurement tools and
methods are important indicators of the effects of brand activation efforts.
Employees
Since employees are one of the most important carriers of a brand, you
might ask yourself; how do companies give employees inspiration,
education and tools to perform on the expectations created by marketing
promises?
Southwest Airlines promise that they will entertain everybody during the
flight, because they love what they are doing. So, the flight attendant at
Southwest Airlines grabs the microphone to give the obligatory safety
precautions – but today she is rapping; “Federal regulations says you must
comply/If you don’t you can kiss seatmate goodbye/Chhhh-ch-ch-ch-ch-
Ch-ch-ch-ch…”. Now, what makes her rap? Kathy Pettit, Director of
Customer says; “Make the working place the most fun place to be at”, and
explains, “Skip uniforms and formalities. Have lots of competitions, cele-
brate as often as possible and encourage practical jokes and pranks. Let
prices rain over the employees but never give money – let it be t-shirts or
things as access to the best parking spot for a week”. Pettit continues;
“You will be surprised of how much people (employees and customers) are
willing to give when they feel loved and acknowledged”.
Emotional preferences How do we activate the brand through products and services? And how
differ products with similar do we make sure that products and services live up to advertising
functional attributes. promises? By aligning these questions, emotional preferences can be
attached differing products with similar functional attributes. McKinsey
Quarterly, 2002 nr 1 captures this in their article about “Revving up auto
branding”. GM and Toyota build two more or less identical cars (the Toyota
Corolla and the Chevrolet Prizm), both models designed by Toyota in their
joint venture plant in California. The models have similar functional benefits
and both models score high in consumer reports. Yet, selling the Chevrolet
Prizm requires $750 more in buyer incentives, only one-quarter as many
Prizm are sold, and their trade-in value depreciates much more quickly.
Brand activation _ 9
The Progressive case shows that brand activation efforts can ignite a total
reconstruction of the product offer or reveal new opportunities for specific
products. Naturally, brand activation may also result in less revolutionary
measures, like sale support or development of new products. During the
process, opportunities to expand your category, or to move into closely
related ones, can appear. Gillette expanded the razor category to include
shaving gel and other skin lotion products. Disney is focused to entertain
all living ages, but their offer is diversified into a variety of product categories.
Brand activation _ 10
Summary
Branding is much more than advertising. The time has come for companies
to leverage the brand asset within the entire organization. The postmodern
individual demands that brands live up to their promises in every interaction
whether it is through products and services, employees, identity or
communication. A coherent brand in these four areas will gain trust and
loyalty with its customer enabling profitable relationships between brands
and people.
Brand activation _ 11
Sources
Brand leverage
David C.Court, Mark G. Leiter and Mark A. Loch
McKinsey Quarterly 1999 number 2
No Logo
Naomi Klein
Picador USA; ISBN: 0312271921
Starsky
Starsky
Sibyllegatan 53
114 43 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. +46 (0)8 660 00 52
Fax. +46 (0)8 660 40 53
www.starsky.com
Paul Morel
paul@starsky.com
Peter Preisler
peter@starsky.com
Anders Nyström
anders@starsky.com