Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

Research Paper

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Submitted to:

INDIA BRAND SUMMIT

KARTIK MODY
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

FOREWORD

This research paper aims to look at brands from a different perspective and also understanding
how brands when carefully managed can turn into Icons.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

The paper discusses the progression of brands into Icons.

The scope of the report;

1. Brands – A Perspective
2. Why companies build brands?
3. The Difference between Brands & Icons
4. The Brand Icon Model (TBIM)
5. Conclusion
6. References

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

BRANDS – A Perspective.

The Traditional definition:

“A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, that is intended to identify
the goods and services of one business or group of businesses and to differentiate them from
those of competitors”.

“A mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolized in a trademark, which, if properly

managed, creates influence and generates value”.

And perhaps, I should add a thought,

“The Brand is an anchor for the customer in the sea of products”

However, with all these definitions in place, the most common question that pops up today is,
“what denotes a brand?” In this fast paced world, does a brand still denote the age old
definition of “a name, term, sign symbol…..”?

Companies like Revlon say, “In factories we make products, in the store the customer buys
hope!”

Is the brand in 21st century holding a different meaning altogether?

The answer is… maybe yes….

A Brand stands for trust. Trust in terms of a commitment from companies to continuously offer
the best to its customers. Customers, who believe in the brand, customers who blindfolded buy
products from these companies because they know that they will be provided the best that was
and will ever be there.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

Keeping this in mind, we can state,

BRANDS= PRODUCT+IMAGES

The brand is a connotation of a product associated with Imagery. So, when a customer purchases
a brand, he buys some images as well. A Marlboro cigarette personifies a cigarette as a product
and the American cowboy as the image. For Raymond, the product is the fabric and the image is
complete man.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

WHY COMPANIES BUILD BRANDS?

Companies outsource their manufacturing processes, finances, their human resource & logistics.
Why not their brands? Because the brand is an ASSET for the company.

Companies build their brands in order;

1. To create distinct brand identity & to be an ultimate Differentiator: A brand like Virgin
has been stretched from music and entertainment to transport (airlines and trains,) drink
(vodka and cola,) personal finance, cosmetics, and mobile telephones. They’re all held
together by Richard Branson’s ‘unstuffy, irreverent, us-against-them’ attitude.

2. To deliver more profits for the company. A brand commands a premium price over a
commodity. E.g.: De Beers has successfully made diamonds into a brand from
commodities.

3. Successful brands can lead to brand extensions. Extended brands deliver more value for
the company. E.g.; Christian Dior launched a label he named after himself, the first
stylist to do so and with garments that spelt energy and excitement for French women in
a war ravaged Paris in 1947. Today DIOR sells hats, perfumes and is a fashion brand
globally.

4. Brands build goodwill and reputation for the company. E.g.: Today people buy a Sony
product because it has icon status Sony has forayed into music, FILMS, ENTERTAINMENT
CHANNELS apart from its strong foothold in entertainment electronics.

5. Successful brands can also push the sales of failed brands. E.g.: FIAT re-launched the
SIENNA after it failed with the success of Fiat PALIO in the Indian Markets.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRANDS AND ICON BRANDS

Consider a new product that a company has just introduced. Although the product has a name, a
trademarked logo, unique packaging, and perhaps other unique design features—all aspects that
we intuitively think of as the brand—the brand does not yet truly exist. Names, logos, and
designs are the material markers of the brand. Because the product does not yet have a history,
however, these markers are empty. They are devoid of meaning. Now, think of famous brands.
They have markers, also: a name (McDonald’s, IBM), a logo (the Nike swoosh, the Travelers
umbrella), a distinctive product design feature (Harley’s engine sound), or any other design
element that is uniquely associated with the product. The difference is that these markers have
been filled with customer experiences. Advertisements, films, and sporting events use the brand
as a prop. Magazines and newspaper articles evaluate the brand, and people talk about the
brand in conversation. Over time, ideas about the product accumulate and fill the brand markers
with meaning. A brand is formed.

A brand emerges as various “authors” tell stories that involve the brand. Four primary types of
authors are involved: companies, the culture industries, intermediaries (such as critics and retail
salespeople), and customers (particularly when they form communities). The relative influence
of these authors varies considerably across product categories.

Brand stories have plots and characters, and they rely heavily on metaphor to communicate and
to spur our imaginations. As these stories collide in everyday social life, conventions eventually
form. Sometimes a single common story emerges as a consensus view. Most often, though,
several different stories circulate widely in society. A brand emerges when these collective
understandings become firmly established.

Marketers often like to think of brands as a psychological phenomenon which stems from the
perceptions of individual consumers. But what makes a brand powerful and finally an ICON is the
collective nature of these perceptions; the stories have become conventional and so are
continually reinforced because they are treated as truths in everyday interactions.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

THE BRAND ICON MODEL (TBIM)

Successful brands will remain as Icons to the customer. In order, to- understand the TBIM, we
first have to understand DAVID AAKER’S LOYALTY PYRAMID MODEL.

THE LOYALTY PYRAMID

Consumers buy a brand not only for what it does, but also for who it is. I.e., Consumers are
influenced not only by the functional values and the performance of the brand, but also by
what it stands for – its character, so to speak; its psychological and symbolic values. They
look at the brand as a person! Do consumers think in this fashion? When we talk of brand
personality, we are breathing like into an inanimate object, describing it in humanoid terms.
Wendy Gordon, one of the authors of “Understanding brands: By 10 people who do” explains
“The terms brand personality is a metaphor for the emotional relationship that exists

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

between a consumer and a brand. It is a short hand way of describing the nature and the
quality of the consumer response to a brand.”
According to David Aaker, loyalty starts all the way from switches, the deal-
prone buyers whose loyalty is, at best, fickle, to the top of the pyramid, where consumers
regard their brands as Icons .E.g.: Harley Davidson or Nike.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

THE BRAND ICON MODEL (TBIM)

The Making of the Icon Brand

P.s.: This model is an inspiration from Subroto Sen Gupta’s Brand Quality Model (Visiting
faculty IIM-C)

Icon Brand

LONG TERM IMPACT – AN

ICON BRAND IS BORN
(Brand EMOTION/MEMORY)

GRADUALLY, THE BRANDS BUILDS A CONTINUOUS

CUSTOMER CONNECTION
(BRAND EXPERIENCE)

THE BRAND BECOMES EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED

(Brand INDIVIDUALITY)

PERSVASIVE TO THE TARGET GROUP –THE BRAND

CREATES A UNIQUE BRAND PERSONALITY
(Brand IMAGE)

THE BRAND COMMUNICATES EFFECTIVELY TO BUILD

UP ON IT’S FUNCTIONAL QUALITIES
(Brand EFFORT)

BRANDS EMPHASIZE ON THEIR FUNCTIONAL

PERFORMANCE
(Brand UTILITY)

Brand
HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS
Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

BRANDS EMPHASIZE ON THEIR FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE

(Brand UTILITY)

The first step in TBIM is to construct on the brand’s functional performance which must inspire
feelings of trust and confidence. Every successful brand has managed to communicate its
company’s core beliefs and attitudes—what the company stands for—to its target customers.

In fact, Market research has long illustrated that customers buy the products and services that
best meet their needs. For example, a Rexona deodorant needs to “stop sweat” and “eliminate
odour,” just as a Clinic All Clear shampoo needs to “make lots of lather” and “leave hair shiny.”
These are “functional” needs that, in many ways, define both the product category itself and
the “must- have features” of any successful product offering within that category.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

Functionally, Brands allow you to clearly define and communicate what you stand for, whether
you’re the “lowest-cost provider,” the “most innovative,” the “best total solution,” the
“preferred choice” and so on.

THE BRAND COMMUNICATES EFFECTIVELY TO BUILD UP ON ITS FUNCTIONAL

QUALITIES
(Brand EFFORT)

The Second step in the model emphasizes on the use of an integrated Marketing Communications
(IMC), to build on the functional qualities. The marketing game has changed. Now, customers
expect more. Marketers today have to make use of various tools to promote their products,
create awareness and image. Functional qualities, if well supported with the right kind of media
tools make a delightful difference in the way a brand is perceived by the customer. The brand
marketer has to develop an action plan and drive all the IMC tools including advertising, public
relations, etc. towards success.

An example, Richard Branson is the face behind the VIRGIN GROUP. Being CEO, he draws a lot of
attention by doing whacky things. Ultimately, VIRGIN has today achieved iconic status, satisfying
a spectrum of customers.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

PERSVASIVE TO THE TARGET GROUP –THE BRAND CREATES A UNIQUE

BRAND IMAGE

The Brand personality must be persuasive to the target group. The psychological stratification a
customer derives out of the brand has to be emphasized.
If the brand were indeed human, what sort of person would it be - jovial, serious, sporty,
aristocratic, and cunning?
Some brands have real personalities attached to them, e.g. Richard Branson of Virgin, and Anita
Roddick of The Body shop. Some of these personalities could be dead, or long off the scene (e.g.
Bill and Dave of H-P; Jack Welch of GE).

Others do it by endorsement and association, such as Accenture with Tiger Woods and golf.
Yet others just seem to have personality emerge from their essence, such as Apple, Post-it Notes
and Louis Vuitton.

Nokia, the Finland based manufacturer made it brand number one in many countries. Its
personality is based in the heart of the brand. Positioned as a trusted friend, who connects
people with ease, the brand has created a personality which has very well kept up to the
expectations of its target group.
Similarly, BMW, MONT BLANC, TAG HEUER or the MERCEDES have achieved icon status by making
their customers special, truly special.

THE BRAND BECOMES EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED

(Brand INDIVIDUALITY)

The personality the brand creates for itself reflects on the brands attachment and gradually the
starts getting emotionally attached to it. At this stage, branding is about meeting emotional
needs, delivering on a relevant promise and reducing the buyer’s risk. Here, Branding is usually
far removed from product features and the transaction and is all about the relationship between
two parties.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

Think about a brand you would personally like and buy. What value does it deliver for you?
That’s the “value fix” and driving factor in your buying process. The same system works for your
buyers.
Some brand personalities can be described:
Harley Davidson
The Harley brand is not about a means of transportation or sturdy shock absorbers. It’s about an
attitude of fullblown freedom, unleashing the rebel inside, and living your wild side.
Victoria’s Secret
Undergarments are a basic fashion commodity. Add some value/desire and personality
(adventure, recognition, self-expression, and fun) to drive your advertising and you’ve got an
international brand sensation. Both men and women were drawn in with these emotional
magnets. Remember a commercial brand is an emotional relationship between the buying
market and a marketed product or service—a bond of loyalty, a connection of relevance and
earned trust. The better you know your customers, the more impact can be planned into your
brand—and pocketbook.

GRADUALLY, THE BRANDS BUILDS A CONTINUOUS CUSTOMER CONNECTION

(BRAND EXPERIENCE)

For great Brands, Customers are never a one time customers. Every time the customer
experiences your brand, value is created, captured or destroyed.

It is extremely important for a brand to capture value for clients by defining, designing and
aligning customer brand experiences across all touch points. It is always a pleasure to travel by
airlines which provide a traveling experience each time a customer arrives. Jet Airways, for
instance has been a benchmark for the experience it provides to its customers right from the
boarding to the landing, and that too repeatedly. What makes a difference is that the brand
improvises and innovates continuously to increase customer expectations and lives up to it each
and every single time. A Nike shoe makes you feel the price that it is worth for a long time and
that’s what brings you back to back a Nike again.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

LONG TERM IMPACT – A ICON BRAND IS BORN

(Brand EMOTION/MEMORY)

Finally, With skillful crafting & patience, a company can successfully build Icon Brands. Oprah
Winfrey & Amitabh Bachchan are icons admired by their fans.

Worldwide. Honda, Philips, Marlboro Motorola, Fosters, Champagne are all icons built by
companies par over the years.

Once an Icon, the brand becomes the ultimate yardstick. An Icon makes the difference between
brand evolution and extinction.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

Case: HERO HONDA

For a large majority of the Indian population, personal ‘auto-mobility’ is a huge status symbol,
and the two-wheeler typically remains the first automobile acquisition. In the quintessential
Indian way, the two-wheeler marks the various joyous stages in the lives of people: the coming
of age of a young man, a statement of independence, an increase in income, the favourite gift
for a wedding, or a family on the move. As India’s two-wheeler market leader, Hero Honda is
undeniably intrinsic to all these emotions and experiences of upwardly mobile Indians. Moreover,
this is one of the few product categories where the national leader is the world leader as well.

This is the case of a product which has become an ICON in sorts. The part to follow will show
the transition of Hero Honda into an ICON from a brand.

As its company name indicates, Hero Honda came into being as a tie-up between the Hero Group
of India and Honda Motors of Japan. Four Munjal brothers, led by Brijmohan Lall, founded the
Ludhiana-based Hero Group.

In the early 1980s, the potential and size of the automobile market in India attracted the
Japanese automobile major, Honda. Looking around for a likely partner amongst Indian
manufacturers, Honda noticed that Hero Cycles was the most suitable match for a marriage.
Hero’s commitment to quality was another great inducement for Honda. The success of this
liaison is best exemplified by the fact that Hero Honda is, today, the largest joint venture of
Honda worldwide.

Initially, the company with the strength of hero’s distribution strategy and Hondas technological
advancements, rolled out product which helped the company to market their product on their

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

functional performance. This alone, actually, made the space for a potential big player in the
Indian two-wheeler industry.

Following this, the company made use of a lot of promotions in the years to come in order to
build up on its functional performance. Various tools like advertising, PR, and other means of
communication were used to create a positive and a lasting image in the minds of its customers.

The company’s first advertising campaign was launched in 1984, with the truly memorable
promise: ‘Fill it. Shut it. Forget it’. This capitalized on the fuel efficiency of CD 100. This punch
line became a buzzword across India. In 2001, Passion was launched, with the headline: ‘Born in
a Studio. Not in a Factory’ and a by line ‘When Style Matters’. This platform immediately
positioned the bike as the best in looks and style. Within four months of its launch, Passion had
created marketing history. It had become the second-largest selling motorcycle model in India.
CD Dawn was launched as ‘Public ka Naya Transport’ showing people ready to move from public
transport to private transport. It clocked sales of 100,000 bikes within just 100 days of its
launch.

Apart from consistent

media presence, Hero
Honda was in the
forefront of cricket
sponsorship,
culminating in the
sponsorship of the
2003 Cricket World
Cup.

The company has also been a major sponsor of a premier golf tournament – the PGA Asia Tour.
Hero Honda is also the ‘Title Sponsor’ of the annual Indian Television Academy Awards.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

The brand personality, in a way depicts on the core values

of Confidence and trust. These values define the bond that
Hero Honda establishes with customers cutting across
geographic locations, income levels and market segments.
The reliability and durability of this relationship has resulted
in positive word-of-mouth from satisfied customers, working
to the brand’s advantage.

The success of the Passport Programme among users of Hero

Honda motorcycles confirms an emotional association with
the company. In a market that has many brands competing
for the customers’ choice and loyalty, this is a rare occurrence. Its emergence as a world-leader
has also added lustre to Hero Honda’s image. Millions of satisfied Hero Honda customers take
pride in belonging to this two-wheeler ‘family’. The brand has become an ICON to reckon
with. Today, it stands as one of the most prestigious brands that the nation has ever
produced.

CONCULSION: - Finally, for ICON BRANDS, where the consumer would rather fight than switch
and where we are dealing virtually with tribal feelings it is the brands touch that plays a
dominant role in the consumer brand relationship. Harley Davidson is an off – quoted example. It
is by no means a match for the technologically superior Japanese Motorcycles, but try saying
that to a member of Harley Davidson Club.

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS

Kartik Mody Great Lakes Institute of Management

REFERENCES:
1. Brand positioning - Subroto Sengupta
2. Branding – Debashis Pati
3. FCB Ulka on Advertising. – MG Parmeswaran
4. Strategic Brand Management. – Noel Kapferer
5. Special Issues – Business Today & Brand Reporter
6. Website: Agencyfaqs.com, Marketingprofs.com, superbrandsindia.com

HOW BRANDS BECOME ICONS