Criteria for Selecting Brand Elements

Memorable

Meaningful

Brand elements must be inherently

memorable, therefore enabling recall
or recognition. An example is Absolut
vodka. The company believes that
the choice of vodka is quite often a
recognition or memory choice. The bottle
is designed to attract the attention of
consumers browsing the vodka aisle
or sitting at a bar looking at the vodka
bottles on the shelf, trying to decide
what to buy. Absolut developed a brand
around the Absolut bottle for recognition
and memorability, but not necessarily
meaningfulness. There is nothing about
an Absolut bottle that's meaningful to the
taste of vodka, but there is something
about the Absolut bottle and the way they
built their brand around the bottle shape
that is very memorable.
Strong brands have some inherent
meaning that enhances the brand
associations. Meaningful brands provide
both general information about the nature
of the product category and specific
information about particular attributes
and benefits of the brand. For example,
the BMW slogan"the ultimate driving
machine"is not the most memorable
slogan, but it is meaningful. The tagline is
simple, descriptive, to the point, and most
important of all, it is identifiable with the
brand. It differentiates the attributes and
the associations that BMW builds around
their brand. It resonates with customers
ready to reflect their financial success
and drive a fun, prestigious car.
The third criterion is transferability of
the brand within and across product
categories and across geographic
boundaries. In other words, brand
elements should be able to reach various
product categories and stay the same
across geographic and cultural regions.
An example is Campbell's. The company
name is based on one of the founder's
names, but the name itself has no
inherent meaning binding it to a specific

Copyright 2001-2012

Transferable

Adaptable

Protectable

type of food product. Therefore, it is

appropriate for a large variety of products
within the food category in the United
States and other countries.
Consumer values and opinions change
over time, so brands must be adaptable.
The more adaptable and flexible the
brand elements, the easier it is to update.
Betty Crocker received eight makeovers
through the years, and although she is 75
years old, she does not look a day over
35. Pepsi-Cola has also adapted over
time. They have changed their logo and
slogan numerous times over the years
to adapt to their customers and cultural
trends.
Brand elements need to be protectable
both in a legal and competitive
sense. A brand must be protected by
trademark, copyright, or other type of
legally defensible registration. To be
competitively protectable, competitors
should not be able to easily imitate the
name, package, or other attributes. If this
occurs, much of the brand's uniqueness
may disappear. An example is Intel's
microprocessor. Originally the company
produced chips called 286, 386, and 486,
but these numbers are not protectable.
A company cannot trademark 286,
386, or 486. When Intel was ready to
produce the next generation of chip, they
changed the name to Pentium instead
of labeling the chip 586, which would
have been the natural, more meaningful,
and easily memorable label. Intel used
the name Pentium not only because it
was so unique but also because it was
protectable.

Copyright 2001-2012