60 Minute Brand Strategist

“Like human beings,
all brands are born equal.

The trick is to prove
one isn’t. Branding is the
art and science of
identifying and fulilling
human physical
and emotional needs by
capturing attention,
imagination and emotion
long enough to make
money from it.”
– Idris Mootee
1 2
Copyright © 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009
Idris Mootee
All rights reserved. Published by

Idea Couture Inc. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, scanning, or otherwise, except as
permitted under Section 107, 108 of the
1976 United States Copyright Act, without
either the prior written permission of
the Publisher. Request to the Publisher
for permission should be addressed
to the Permission Department at
permission@ideacouture.com.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty:
While the publisher and author have
used their best efforts in preparing this
book, they make no representations
or warranties with respect to the accuracy
or completeness of the contents of this
book and speciically disclaim any implied
warranties of merchantability or itness
for a particular purpose. The advice and
strategies contained herein may not
be suitable for your situation. You should
consult with a professional where
appropriate. Neither the publisher nor
author shall be liable for any loss of
proit or any commercial damages, including
but not limited to special, incidental,
consequential, or other damages.
A number of brand names and trademarks
are mentioned and used in this book
are protected under copyright laws and
international treaty provisions. All
trademarks, services marks, trade names,
logos and icons are proprietary to their
respective owner. Their inclusion in this
book is for the purpose of criticism
and illustration only.
60-Minute Brand Strategist –

Limited Edition
Book and cover design:

Sali Tabacchi
3 1
Contents:
Introduction 4
All About Brands 7
Branding in a Postmodern Culture 39
Strategic Perspectives of Branding 49
Managing Brand Meaning 79
Brand Leadership 119
Luxury Brand Marketing 133
2 3
INTRODUCTION
This book is about only one thing: brands,
branding and the only sustainable form of
leadership in an economy ruled by ideas –
brand innovation and leadership.
Its been 8 years since 60-minute Brand
Strategist was irst published as a book.
Adapted from slides I used in my Advanced
Branding Seminar, the irst edition was
translated and published in several languages,
including Japanese, Chinese and German.
Dr. Morgan Gerard collaborates with me to
develop this limited edition, updated
and abridged version by popular demand.
We decided to select a few of the book’s
chapters that deliver the essence of the
concepts. These concepts and techniques
are used by the world’s most successful
and valuable brands. But you’ll rarely, if ever,
read much about these concepts in
business magazines. Why? Simply put,
they’re trade secrets. Well-wielded
branding tools and techniques are powerful,
competitive weapons used to win the
hearts and minds of customers. Time and
again, they help defeat the competition.
Consider what follows a battle plan designed
to inspire, act as a reminder, function as
a tool kit and be drawn upon as a reference
that should sit on every marketing and
brand executive’s desk.
Idris Mootee, CEO

Idea Couture Inc.
4 5
ALL ABOUT
BRANDS
6 7
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU
WHAT IS A BRAND?
I I I I I I I I I I I I
In a world where brands rule, products YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU
are no longer bundles of functional
characteristics but rather means to provide
and enhance customer experiences.
Thanks to the internet and wireless tech- I I I I I I I I I I I I
nologies, information is so abundant LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
that consumers are overloaded. They have
more information than they can digest,
use, need or even want.
Product proliferation creates so many
choices that it diminishes our ability to LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
differentiate or choose what we truly value. YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU
Brands help us choose. They are invaluable
tools that help us break through clutter to
make choices based on our experience of
and satisfaction with products or services. I I I I I I I I I I I I
8 9
OVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I YOU I I I I
YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU ME YOU YOU YOU YOU
10 11
OVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
I
OVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
I
LOVE
“
There will be a
time using a
“In technocratic and colorless logo will be the
worst thing
I YOU times, brands bring warmth, I I I I I I I I
OVE LOVE ME, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
familiarity and trust.”
YOU TOO YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU
– Peter Brabeck, Nestle
in the world.”
– Bill Bernbach,
YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU Founder DDB
We’re a long long way from that day.

I I I I I I I I I I I I The truth is that people like brands. They
OVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE not only simplify choices and guarantee
quality, but they also add fun and interest,
provide aspirations and dreams. Some
people love them like children, which might
explain why I personally know of a 4-year
OVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE old boy named Nike, an 8-year old named
YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU YOU Ferrari and a 12-year old girl named Hermès.
LOGO
12 13
A BRAND IS NOT… A BRAND IS…
A TRADE MARk POINT OF VIEW
(These are legal properties.) Branding is a strategic point of view, not
a select set of marketing activities.
A MISSION STATEMENT
(This is a reminder.) CUSTOMER VALUE
Branding is central to creating customer
A LOGO OR SLOGAN value, not just sound bites and images.
(These are your signatures.)
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
A PRODUCT OR SERVICE Branding is a key tool for creating and
(These are just the tangibles.) sustaining competitive advantages.
ADVERTISING ENGINEERED
(They deliver your messages.) Brand strategies must be “engineered” into
the strategic planning process.
ALIVE
Brands get their identity from meanings.
Products and services are the blood
of a brand. Your organizational culture and
standards for action are the heartbeat.
LOGIC AND EMOTION

Branding is part science and part art.
ITEM WORkING ITEM WORkING

IN ISOLATION IN ISOLATION
A BRAND
IS MORE THAN
THE SUM
OF ITS PARTS.
ITEM WORkING ITEM WORkING

IN ISOLATION IN ISOLATION
14 15
BRANDS
HAVE ALMOST
BECOME
IDEOLOGIES.
16 17
“The art of marketing
is the art of brand
building. If you are not
a brand, you are a
commodity. Then price
is everything and
the low-cost producer
is the only winner.”
– Philip kotler,
kellogg
18 19
WHAT IS A BRAND?
To plan for one year,
“A brand is the ‘personiication of a product,
service, or even entire company.’ grow sales.
Like any person, a brand has a physical
To plan for three years,

‘body’: in P&G’s case, the products and/or
services it provides. Also, like a person, a
brand has a name, a personality, character
and a reputation.
Like a person, you can respect, like
grow channel.
and even love a brand. You can think of it
as a deep personal friend, or merely an
acquaintance. You can view it as dependable
To plan for decades,
or undependable; principled or
opportunistic; caring or capricious. Just as grow a brand.
you like to be around certain people and
not others, so also do you like to be with
certain brands and not others.
Also, like a person, a brand must mature
and change its product over time. But
its character, and core beliefs shouldn’t
change. Neither should its fundamental
personality and outlook on life.
People have character…so do brands.
A person's character lows from his/her
integrity: the ability to deliver under pressure,
the willingness to do what is right rather
than what is expedient. You judge a person’s
character by his/her past performance
and the way he/she thinks and acts in both
good times, and especially bad.
The same are true of brands.”
– Robert Blanchard,
former P&G executive
BRAND
CHANNEL
SALES
VALUE
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
YEARS
20 21
1. 2. THE CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
What is the What is our core TREADMILL
deep need that competence? Daniel kahneman of Princeton describes

the Customer Satisfaction Treadmill.
we satisfy? What are we

The more we make, the more we spend,
the more we want. The faster we get it,
the faster we want it. The more convenient
What is our really good at? it becomes, the more we realize just
how convenient it could be. The more
raison d’être? our unreasonable demands are met,
the more unreasonable they become.
METAPHYSICAL NEEDS
EXPERIENTAL NEEDS
SYMBOLIC NEEDS
FUNCTIONAL NEEDS
22 23
BRAND In a world predisposed to sameness, there
TAXONOMIES are few things in life more satisfying than
building brands that disrupt predisposition.
Brands move market share. Brands move
advertising award judges. Brands move
culture. Some do all.
Brand has meaning beyond functionality
that exists in people's minds. Part art,
part science, brand is the difference between
a bottle of soda and a bottle of Coke, a
computer and an iMac, a cup of coffee and
a cup of Starbucks, a car and a Mercedes,
a designer’s hand bag and a Hermès Birkin.
Brand is the intangible yet visceral impact
of a person's subjective experience with the
product, the personal memories and cultural
associations that orbit around it. Brands
are also about messages – strong, exciting,
distinct, authentic messages that tell
people who you are, what you think and
why you do what you do.
BRANDS THAT
FOCUS ON THEIR MEANINGS
AND VALUES
RATHER THAN FUNCTIONS.
BRANDS THAT BRANDS THAT

ARE TIGHTLY IDENTIFIED HAVE ALMOST BECOME
WITH THE PRODUCT PRODUCT- PRODUCT
OR RANGE OF PRODUCTS INDEPENDENT
BRANDS THAT FOCUS

LARGELY ON
THEIR CORE FUNCTIONS
AND PURPOSES
24 25
TOO MUCH THE MOST COMMON
ADVERTISING WITH TOO ISSUES WITH BRANDING
LITTLE MEANING?
Cannot justify
the cost for brand
re-positioning.
Where’s the ROI? Management does
CUSTOMER VALUE not understand
why we need to have
BRAND MEANING a brand strategy.
BRAND ADVERTISING
CUSTOMER VALUE
BRAND MEANING
BRAND ADVERTISING
Management thinks
branding is just
another logo with a Sales and marketing
new tag line. aren’t reading the
same book, let alone
the same page.
Brand vision and

company reality do
not match.
26 27
WHY BRANDS ARE IN WHAT IS A BRAND?
TROUBLE?
Don’t make the mistake of letting
brand image take over and become brand
identity. It’s only part of the equation,
not the answer.
BRANDS ARE BEING BRANDS STRUGGLE

MASS-PRODUCED TO FIND THEIR
IN BRAND FACTORIES OWN IDENTITIES
There’s a movement of Too many me-too
conservatism in brands and too
brand investment. Many much me-too advertising.
have gone from inspirational Many brands
and daring to cautionary have lost their souls.
and risk averse. CORPORATE INTERNAL
STRATEGY BRANDING
Everyone is looking for
a save formula.
BRAND STRATEGY
BRAND
IMAGE BRAND CUSTOMER
IDENTITY ENGAGEMENT
BRANDS HAVE LOST BRANDS ARE WORN
THEIR MYSTIqUE FROM OVERUSE
Consumers understand As brand manuals gets
how marketing works thicker and heavier,
and they are brand savvy. you know you’re in trouble.
BRAND
Be careful not to Instructional menus ATTRIBUTES
over-market a brand. replace imagination.
BRAND
ASSOCIATIONS
28 29
WHAT IS A BRAND? WHAT IS A BRAND?
A brand is an intangible asset that resides in Today you may have a name and a The trust-based, value-producing
people’s hearts and minds. It’s deined by trademark, but it will take time (and much relationship called a brand is proof that the
the expectations people have about tangible more) before you have a brand. Brand company is organizationally aligned to
and intangible beneits that are developed building is the creation and management of repeat the process and sustain the values.
over time by communications and, more inward cash low with brand equity as the Find and establish your niche. Clarify your
importantly, by actions! To build a successful savings account. Managing brand is about distinct ability to make an impact.
brand means doing the following four things: how marketers and consumers collaborate Determine the desired relationship
to create meanings. Brand building is not an between your customers/prospects and
1. MAkING A PROMISE option. ROI is only relevant when considering your product.
2. COMMUNICATING YOUR PROMISE Create intangible, emotional bonds
alternative marketing programs. Brand
3. kEEPING YOUR PROMISE
4. STRENGTHENING YOUR PROMISE equity is a big elephant: looking at inancial through every customer interaction.
returns alone is unacceptable. You must Like people, brand requires a name, a
The tangible aspect of your brand is a understand the whole beast. personality, a character and a reputation.
promise. What do you do best? What’s the Brand management is a crucial element
payoff? What can your consumer count of corporate strategy rather than solely
on? This promise becomes an intrinsic part a marketing function. It helps a company
of your marketing message. In order break away from the pack in creating
for you to own it, you must communicate shareholder value. Brand strategy is the
strategically and creatively across a viable expression of business strategy.
broad media mix. Both your internal and
external audiences must be true believers
of the promise. And the only way to
make them truly believe is to be true about
the promise.
1. MAkING A PROMISE
2. COMMUNICATING YOUR PROMISE
BRAND STRATEGY CORPORATE STRATEGY

3. kEEPING YOUR PROMISE
4. STRENGTHENING YOUR PROMISE
30 31
MIND OVER MATTER Advantages built on emotional values and
brand meanings (e.g. Levis, Nike, Starbucks,
Psychological differences may seem Coca-Cola, Harley-Davison, Apple, Sony)
insubstantial, but in terms of sustainability, are often the most durable.
they are often more resilient than
functional differences.
Intangible emotional associations are
dificult to copy:
Once an emotional territory

is occupied by a well known
brand, it is more dificult
to displace than a brand with
a functional claim.
PERSONALITY TRUST
TIMELESS UNIqUE
32 33
PRODUCTS VS.
BRANDS
A product is built
in a factory. A brand is built of trust
and relationships
A product is an object.
A brand is a personality.
A product is sold by
a merchant. A brand is bought by
a customer.
A product is easily copied
by a competitor. A brand is unique.
A product is quickly A great brand is timeless.

outdated.
34 35
MIND OVER MATTER BUILDING STRONG
BRANDS
Without the brand, Apple would have
been dead. The power of the brand kept Branding is often confused with an
them alive during the mid-1990s when advertising campaign or a corporate identity.
their products were lackluster. The brand Companies are still turning to branding
bought them time until they came out as a panacea. Equally problematic are the
with the next runaway hit – the iMac. self-proclaimed branding experts happy
For Apple, the brand is always bigger than to sell you pricey snake oil. In novice hands,
the product. It is an ideology, a value set. branding becomes a way to obfuscate
Apple is about imagination, innovation and relative sameness or make promises that
individualism. can’t be fulilled, instead of communicating
It’s not just about advertising or visual relevant uniqueness and building trust
identity. Brands must be built 360 degrees. and credibility.
Branding means that collateral information,
meaning, association and value has been
spiced into the very DNA of the brand. This
has two core components: label and fable.
Label refers to all visual elements, packaging
and taglines. Fables are the extrinsic aspect
of branding attached from the outside
and most often from customer experiences,
advertising, corporate trust and customer
relationships. The brand is the totality of what
the customer experiences: the look and
feel of your ofice, your community reputation,
your awning and signage, your sales and
customer service people, the way you handle
business conlicts and customer complaints.
INNOVATION
Three key requirements for

building strong brands:
IMAGINATION
1. Trust between brand and

consumer
2. Common identity between
brand and consumer
3. Point of difference between
brands in a set
INDIVIDUALISM
36 37
BRANDING
IN A
POSTMODERN
CULTURE
38 39
BRANDING IN THE AGE TRANSFORMATION
OF BRAND IS A PROCESS,
TRANSFORMATION A PERFORMANCE
Brands are transforming themselves. As content is increasingly delivered via To make the story of a brand complete
Beyond mere ads and products, they are personalized and self-scheduled social webs, and meaningful, it requires that all of
inding new ways to get inside your viewers – not broadcasters – will decide the actors – customers and companies alike
home and be a part of your life as branded when, how, why and what is consumed. – successfully complete transitions from
content, branded entertainment, branded And they will dictate who they share that scene to scene and stage to stage. In today’s
utilities and branded space. L’Equipe, the consumption with. script, those transitions read like this:
Parisian based daily sports newspaper, The question is, What role should brand
invented the Tour de France for one simple play in this age of transformation?
reason: to sell more newspapers, branded
content with a pinch of engagement.
But customers are transforming brands,
too. New cultural modes of performance
are emerging from new network-based social
behaviors and conversations. With over
50 million people able to share ideas, opinions
and experiences in a single online space
– and generate billions of web page
impressions every month – these behaviors
and conversations are creating a seismic Interruption is the stage Intrusion is the stage Engagement is the curtain call of this
shift in the traditional balance of power that where old scripts get between what was and what performance. A celebration of the
once existed between customers and shredded, rules get tossed will be. A wild zone of new new reality and the ideas and rituals
companies. out the window and the ideas and new rituals, it is alive that brought it to life, brands that
paradigms we lived by with uncertainty, excitement will occupy centre stage are those
are revealed as obsolete. and expectation. This gestative that contribute the new ideas, help
The Internet is our Inter- space where customers and facilitate the new rituals, meet the new
ruption. It has forever companies create and explore needs and, ultimately, tell the best
ruptured the old system brand futures is where we stories. Those who ignore this new
of brand control and are right now. reality do so at their own peril.
communication.
INTERRUPTION INTRUSION ENGAGEMENT
40 41
DISTRIBUTION IS NOTHING CONTENT IS EVERYTHING
When distribution is trivial, unlimited and Great content – the kind that truly engages
available to all, marketing to a captive – helps customers tell a story, perform
audience sitting on a couch in front of a box a part of their life, communicate meaning to
is a thing of the past. In fact, this kind of others and be all that they can be. It is,
old-world marketing has become adversarial quite simply, cultural.
to customers. Having adapted to the In the past, the clearest demonstration of
media-fragmented and always-on new content (and brands) as cultural was in
reality, they seek value by searching, the subculture. Punks, mods, ravers, skaters,
discovering and sharing their very personal church-goers, artists, bikers and others
brand caches with peers – not waiting made commodities come to life through
for you to interrupt them with unwanted performances like no other consumers
messaging. on earth. Today, because of the scope and
Broadcasting is in trouble, and user- reach of social media, we are in an age of
generated videos are just the beginning. the post-subcultural. The Hipster, a mash-up
The social-casting of YouTube will of subcultural traditions, has become the
evolve and, in the process, so too will emblem of insider-ness made accessible to
consumer behavior. Instead of passivity, all with the Internet.
the experience low of tomorrow will Just as subculturalists were the creative
be characterized by immediacy, lexibility, class of brand dissemination, modiication,
portability, permeability, luidity, alteration and transformation, so now are
interactivity, mashability and ownerability. the millions of people around the world who,
With the emergence and convergence through social media, have access to insider
of the mobile phone, the Internet and knowledges, practices, experiences,
location-based-systems, consumers also performances and collaborative communities.
have immediate access to co-workers, This occurs through YouTube, Flickr,
friends and family members. Between Twitter, Facebook and the thousands of online
CONTENT
getting used to and being born into advice, support, co-creation and retail
a connected age, they are naturally and portals. The relentless virtualization of social
increasingly drawing on participation life, the marketing of niche-interactions,
in various networks for information, the sharing of experiences and the out-
assistance, support and recommendations. sourcing of work means that less and less of
Creating great products, services and our daily lives are produced and consumed
content is paramount. Content? Yes, at home. Rather, we are performing
content. An integral part of any product or ourselves more in public, more collabor-
service and their related experiences, atively and more than every through
customers will consume only what’s relevant the kinds of very social networks that once
to them, what best serves them, and what existed solely in subcultures.
truly entertains them – not what is marketed
to them by you through repetition. Engaging
them will require branded experiences
rich in content that strengthen contextual
involvement and consumer connection.
Within such experiences, the density and
intensity of polysemic, multi-origin,
co-created and fragmented communication
will make Baudrillard’s hyper-reality seem
as antiquated as TV.
42 43
THE PERSONAL BRAND WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
“We spent eight

In the age of the Personal Brand, “We hired a brand consultant Many companies are simply not ready to
commoditization is permeating every aspect and developed a great deal with or anticipate identity obsolescence
of daily life. Style, taste, identity and brand strategy. Our ad like they anticipate the obsolescence of
individuality have become central to what
we expect from our experiences in
months and a agency went on to create
and produce an ad
products or business models. Despite the
best efforts of management teams, many
health care, learning, dating, news, clothing,
food, travel, home furnishings, com-
lot of money on campaign that far exceeded
our capability to deliver
can’t adapt to shifts in the competitive
environment because the required brand-
munication, sports, entertainment, sexuality,
spirituality, birth, marriage, babies and
a brand strategy the brand promise. We
ended up with disappointed
driven adaptive response is inconsistent
with the company’s core identity. Any brand
burials. Twenty years ago, in the social
mainstream, this wasn’t the case. Sub- and all that’s customers, internal
conlicts and brand credibility
exercise will only widen the gap between
the brand and the corporate core identity.
culturalists were particularly picky about
their purchases, but the average changed is the erosion.”
– CEO, Telco
logo and tagline.”

consumer had a less reined sense of
assembling their self through products
and services.
Today, instant communication has
– CEO, Financial Services Company
blown the doors clear off of the old-world
media and advertising industry. Taste
gurus, micro-brands, blogs, chatters,
Friends, Tweeters, citizen journalists and
the searchability of style have forever
changed the how, what, where, when
and why of consumption. In the new
free-for-all of ideas, opinions, reviews and
experiences, individuals with greater
access to information strive to deine and
display their Personal Brand, niche is
the norm, cool is hyper-commoditized and
branding becomes as much a bottom-up
phenomenon for customers as a top-down
priority for companies
One result is that we have become
desperate to socialize the profane. Distracted Brands
by the pace of change, unfulilled in our
personal lives and feeling disempowered by
our work, many of us turn to celebrities,
rock stars, designers and brands to cultivate
more meaning in life. But when work is
empowering and life is meaningful, interest
and engagement in high-consumption
lifestyles will wane. De-marketing will happen.
Until then, a brand’s role is to help to
create meanings in everyday life through “I want to be cool.”
commodities.
Consumers
44 45
SAVING YOUR Many B-school case studies have chronicled CAN SOCIAL MEDIA
ZOMBIE BRANDS brands brought back from the dead. But SAVE THE
for every success, there are hundreds of
ZOMBIE BRANDS?
Zombie Brands, Dinosaurs Brands, Ghost failures: companies that tried to revitalize
Brands or Graveyard Brands are what old brands by hiring new agencies and
The Social Media Generation has
people used to call brands that customers throwing endless amounts of money into
phenomenal inluence over the fate of
have either completely abandoned or advertising in hopes of rebuilding, even
brands. Active, mobile and vocal,
that are simply hanging on by a thread, when there wasn't a relevant product, service
they share the joys, angers and frustrations
usually at a Dollar Store or at Costco or sound strategy behind the initial move.
of their daily experiences with anybody
in a totally unrelated product category. How bad is your situation? Here are the three
and everybody. In doing so, their digital
Some have gone through unsuccessful most common scenarios:
connectivity becomes the web that weaves
revitalization efforts, others exist only in Brand Communities. Separated by
emerging markets, a few have simply their geography but bound by their love
lost relevance in their core market place
(Xerox, Oldsmobile) to be used casually
My brand is sick. of a particular brand, citizens of these
communities can be identiied by four
on products totally outside their product Market changes direction and the brand core markers:
category (Teac, RCA, Polaroid etc.). become irrelevant. Everyone (advertising,
•฀Shared฀intereStS
product design, promotions) used to •฀Shared฀valueS
If you happen to own a Zombie Brand, understand what the brand means and they •฀Shared฀ritualS
what can you do? all stick to it, believing it connects to •฀Shared฀purpoSeS฀
something larger and more enduring. But
1. INVEST AND ATTEMPT TO REVITALIZE IT
2. MILk IT one day they woke up and realized there The commercial, mass mediated ethos in
3. POSITION IT FOR THE EMERGING MARkET was a big disconnect. Your brand is stuck in which Brand Communities are situated
4. SELL IT FOR WHATEVER IT’S WORTH the past. YOUR BRAND IS IRREVELANT. affects their character and structure and
5. DUMP IT gives rise to their particularities. From a
brand and marketing perspective, this is the
Consumers with special relationships to
Zombie Brands often have sentimental My brand is most disruptive trend. It means that
Social Media, not advertising, has become
reasons for continuing to make purchases
or for giving them a second chance. But
the cost and risk of bringing a brand back
dying. the conduit for communication and that
customers are the collective source of truth
for brands. Given the right new content,
to life is enormous. If this is your choice, The brand is becoming boring. It doesn’t the Brand Community is a possible cure for
make sure the decision to do so is based create excitement for customers or even the Zombie Brand.
on sound logic. If you run a large portfolio, employees anymore. Younger consumers
the questions will be: Which brands are think of it as their parents’ brand. This
worth the revitalization effort? And Why? is common with brands that have been
successful and achieved market leadership.
In fact, it’s often the result of being too
successful. Your successful past has made
you lazy. YOUR BRAND LACkS CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT.
My Brand Has
No Vital Signs.
You’ve ignore your brand for too long
or simply let it ride to expiry. Every drop of
energy and goodwill has been squeezed
out. It has lost its power to capture your
customers' (or even your own) imagination.
Your brand is a shell of existence.
IT HAS BEEN REDUCED TO NOTHING MORE
THAN A LOGO.
46 47
STRATEGIC
PERSPECTIVES
OF
BRANDING
48 49
“We have a surplus “We also have a surplus The average consumer is exposed to as
many as 30,000 messages per day, of
which more than 3,000 are branded. Many
of similar companies, of similar brands, studies indicate that less than 10%
of prime time ads have clear positioning.
employing similar having similar attributes, Between 1999 and 2000, the number
of new packaged goods introduced
people, with similar with similar marketing increased by more than 20%, the largest
increase in a decade. Most of these
educational back- messages and were “me-too” products destined to

be lost in the crowd and to reduce some
grounds, working slogans, coming up brands to a near-commodity status.

In a world where brands abound,
in similar jobs, coming with similar brand

competition is increasingly intense and the
speed of competitive responses is ever
shorter. The race is on to rise above the
up with similar ideas, claims, with similar throng of brands and secure customer
loyalty. But all too often, companies fall into
producing similar quality, selling at similar the trap of thinking short-term, being
overly ambitious or lacking a brand strategy.
things, with similar prices. Welcome to

prices and similar the Surplus Economy!”
quality.” – Idris Mootee
– kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,

Funky Business
BEST
PRACTICES
+ STRATEGIC
OUTSOURCING
+ ENTERPRISE
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
=?
NOT ONLY ARE BRANDS SIMILAR, EVEN THE COMPANIES ARE
NOW MORE OR LESS THE SAME OR NEARLY IDENTICAL
50 51
BRANDING AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION
McDONALDIZATION
In the Surplus Economy, the marketing
McDonaldization is everywhere. Individualism technology is often oriented towards battle is a battle of the brands – a
and diversity are replaced by eficiency greater control and more consistent quality. competition for brand dominance.
and social control. It is the process by which The great source of uncertainty and Companies will recognize that brands are
the principles of the fast food restaurant unpredictability in a rationalizing system is a company’s most valuable assets
dominate more and more sectors of our people — either the people who work and recognize that it is more important
society throughout the world. within those systems or the people who are to own markets than factories.
McDonald’s has 30,000 restaurants in served. Branding advertising is used to The only way to own markets is to own
121 countries, 60% of which are outside the put the human elements back. The warm market-dominant brands. The brand
USA. Shopping centers are everywhere and smiling faces in TV commercials battleields expand beyond advertising
and the shops and merchandize are mostly are intended to convince customers about media and be fought on many grounds.
the same. This trend is visible in many “calculability” over “individuality”.
other businesses from toys, auto-repair,
“(calculability) involves an emphasis on things that can
convenient stores, consumer electronics to be calculated, counted, quantiied. quantiication refers to
books and general merchandize. The a tendency to emphasize quantity rather than quality.
This leads to a sense that quality is equal to a certain, usually
“control” and “system” components are key. (but not always) large quantity of things.”
Replacement of human by non-human
The Battle of Brands
SURPLUS
ECONOMY
INFORMATION
ECONOMY
SERVICE
ECONOMY
INDUSTRIAL
ECONOMY
AGRICULTURAL
ECONOMY
VALUE
TIME
52 53
CUSTOMER FOURNIER’S CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS APPROACH: RELATIONSHIPS
Most businesses have a relationship with their customers Meet with consumers (hundreds of people over several Managing Customer Relationships has
that is based solely on price. That is why so many years) to listen to their life stories, discover their interests become Managing Software Vendor
companies are having dificulties maintaining their margins. and goals, and hear about the ups & downs of their Relationships. So, what went wrong?
The challenge is to igure out how to extend those daily lives. Then ask each person to describe his/her Shouldn’t companies be putting their money
transaction-based relationships to emotional-based “brand portfolio” and to explain why they choose the back into developing the “R” of “CRM”?
relationships. Professor Susan Fournier at Harvard products they do. Marketers and “CRM” vendors set
Business School has classiied the relationships consumers Fournier drew out seven essential attributes of good unrealistically high expectations when they
have with their brands into ifteen types ranging across brand relationship quality: talk about “relationships”. Should
the whole spectrum. They include: they be using a different word instead?
“Traditionally, tactical marketing decisions –

COMMITTED PARTNERSHIP ENSLAVEMENT INTERDEPENDENCE LOVE AND PASSION regarding packaging and advertising, for
Usually long-term and Involuntary relationship Brand is inextricably Consumers feel affection/ instance – are made by different people or
voluntary relationship: a governed exclusively by the woven into consumers’ passion for the products departments. A holistic understanding
man is so involved with partner’s wishes or desires: daily life and routine. and may experience of the relationship that consumers have with
his brand of bicycle that he a consumer is unhappy with separation anxiety if it’s a brand can give direction to a company’s
becomes an advocate the local cable provider but not available. marketing activities and result in a stronger
of it, singing its praises to has no alternative source for bond between consumer and brand”
his friends. the service. – Susan Fournier
Harvard Business School
COMMITMENT SELF-CONCEPT CONNECTION

“A good relationship is an asset. We can
Consumers stick with Using the brand helps
invest in relationships, and we can borrow
the product through good consumers address a
from them. We all do it but almost never
or bad times either in life issue, such as a need
manage it. Yet a company’s most precious
his or her life style or in the to belong or a fear of
asset is its relationship with customers.”
product’s life cycle. growing old.
– Theodore Levitt
Harvard Business School
INTIMACY PARTNER qUALITY

Consumers describe a Consumers seek certain
sense of deep familiarity positive traits in the brand
with the product and such as dependability,
an understanding of its trust, worthiness, and
attributes. accountability – the same
qualities as one would
look for in a best friend.
NOSTALGIC ATTACHMENT
brand brings back
memories either because
it was used at an earlier
time in life or because it was
associated with loved ones
54 55
RISE AND RISE
OF THE BRAND
The very technologies that make it faster,
easier and cheaper to innovate also
help us to imitate. The game switched from
innovation to imitation. The increasing
dificulty in differentiating between products,
services and the speed with which
competitors take up innovations will only
assist in the rise and rise of the brand.
Many of our dreams and desires for a better
world are no longer articulated by John
kennedys or Martin Luther kings, nor
generated through personal epiphanies –
they are now the intellectual currency of
brands. When brands connect to inspiration
and epiphany – personal, collective or
conjured by leaders – they enter into a realm
immune to imitation.
56 57
DECISION MAP FOR DECISION MAP FOR
BRAND CHOICES BRAND LEVERAGING
Does the brand
currently serve
strategically (size and
proitability)
important or attractive
segments?
Brand Leveraging
Strategies
YES NO
Does the Are there

brand qualify as any other strategic
a Leadership reasons to retain
Brand? the brand?
YES YES
NO NO Line Brand
Extensions Extensions
Does the
brand have the Does it add
Can the brand
potential value to other
be leveraged in
to become a existing brands or
new markets?
Leadership businesses?
Brand?
YES NO
NO
YES
Is there Horizontal Vertical Another Product Brand

Are we willing Does it add Co-Branding
a reason to keep Extension Extension Class Licensing
or can we afford value to other
or further develop
to invest in existing brands or
a brand in this
the brand? businesses?
category?
NO NO
YES YES
NO
YES
Can the brand

be extended as a
product line?
YES NO
YES Up from Down from
Core Brand Core Brand
NO
DEVELOP
BRAND kEEP
LEADERSHIP INTO SPIN-OFF
PRODUCT- ROLL-UP AS NICHE
BRAND LEADERSHIP OR DIVEST
LINE BRAND
BRAND
58 59
BRANDING CHALLENGES WHY INVEST BRANDING RATIONALE STRATEGIC
IN BRANDS CONSIDERATIONS
The challenge for brand management The traditional thinking around branding
is inding ways of connecting with was to endow a product or service with If consumers are not prepared to pay for
customers that provide value, substance,
signiicance, meaning and usefulness
Companies unique characteristics through the creative
use of name, slogan, packaging and
differentiating activity by way of perceiving
or appreciating any unique qualities
beyond their current product and service
deinition and those offered competitively.
investing in brand advertising. In a world where there is a
muddle of images and messages,
between brands there would be no economic
justiication for branding exercises. In any
This requires deep understanding of
people’s lives. It means being smarter at building basically however, it is increasingly dificult for a
brand to rise above the noise to be
product category, if differences are not valued
buyers tend to discriminate between brands
developing real relationships. It also
must be a dynamic process in keeping up have three simple noticed and remembered. A more sophist-
icated and strategic concept of branding
on the sole basis of price and availability.
reasons for doing

with changes in ever changing customer is needed. The rationale behind branding is The question is:
wants and needs. One of the real keys to all about creating differentiation.
long term brand success is investing so
customers like us, trust us, value us, keep so: to drive
Differentiation leads to positive discrim-
ination, and large or at least proitable brand
Does it really
coming back to us, are willing to pay a
premium for us, and choose to take us into customer loyalty,
share. Brand marketers must deliver
tangibles and/or intangibles that differentiate
make sense to
their lives.
For the most part, however, today’s
to maintain
a brand. This differentiation not only
needs to be perceived but also valued. invest in building
organizations work against this type of
brand success. The designs of most
price premium, or
It is logical to assume that the main
objective of branding is to create high invol- brands in
low involvement
business organization are disaggregated. vement situations. If the branding exercise
Customers don’t think or act in organ-
izational silos, but organizations do. This to increase fails to deliver a relevant and valued
differentiation to its targeted involvement
often blocks true understanding. How
can we ever hope to understand customers revenue growth.
segments, then are its efforts are
unsuccessful?
markets?
when we only concern ourselves with
The real challenge
Or, is it even possible to generate
a small part of their lives, attitudes and high brand involvement in the face of low
behaviors (that are deined by our category involvement?
organizational role and responsibilities)?
Brands are greater than the sum of
is not just building
their parts – and so too are customers.
great brands
that drive revenue
growth and
loyalty, but building
them at a lower
cost and faster
than your
competition!
60 61
CATEGORIES
TRANSFORMATION
A good branding strategist is capable of
completely transforming categories to
create new categories or sub-categories.
Personal diaries were probably not
considered “expressive” until the advent of
the Filofax brand. Similarly, owning a TV
might be considered low in self-expression,
but an iPhone makes a statement. Other
examples include Apple’s iMac, Herman
Miller’s Aeron chair, a Burberry raincoat,
Louis Vuitton bag or an Aston Martin. While
credit cards and ine writing instruments
were once status symbols, “expressive”
items are now replaced by personal electronic
gadgets like iPhone and Blackberries.
SAYS NOTHING ABOUT ME SAYS A LOT ABOUT ME NOW SAYS A LOT ABOUT ME SAYS LESS ABOUT ME NOW
A CHAIR A PEN
A TELEVISION A CREDIT CARD
A CELL PHONE A LAPTOP
62 63
BRAND AND CONSUMER THE INVOLVEMENT GRID
PERSONALITY
Brand personalities help irms differentiate
their products from the competition and
build brand equity (value).
“Stand for something or you’ll fall for
anything!”
Consumers don’t buy products, they buy
the personalities associated with those
products. Big k cola and Coke are equal in
taste tests … but not in market share.
Consumers don’t buy on taste alone. Brand
personalities help consumers deine their
own self concepts and express their identities
to others. People ind meaning only
through those brands with personalities,
not from products.
HIGH INVOLVEMENT
SUV Designer Hand Bag

Mini Van
Personal Computer Plasma TV

Cigars
INFORMATIVE AFFECTIVE
Digital Camera
Skateboard
Perfume
Spaghetti Sneakers
DVD Player
THINk FEEL
Air Conditioner Tea Bags
Toaster
HABITUAL SATISFACTION
Milk Diapers
Detergent
Paint
Pencil Bottled Water
Salt
LOW INVOLVEMENT
64 65
ADVERTISING AND WHAT MORE CAN
BRANDING BE BRANDED?
Brand management has been taking Companies have been successful in
place for years without a uniied theory. branding bricks, paper, chickens, diamonds,
Common sense branding is widely milk, salt, sugar, oranges, bananas,
practiced. There are fundamental questions microprocessors and even air, water and
about its underlying principles. Many sand. Universities, cities, charities and
equate great creative ideas and advertising celebrities have been successful in branding
campaigns to successful brand building. their cultures, causes, streets and styles.
The romanticized view of advertising is And while the no-brand or anti-brand
that it can change what people think about movement has successfully made it’s point,
your brand. Advertising does not change we all know that no logo is still some brand.
what people think about your brand (which So how much is too much? Is there a
is always dificult). It only has them think saturation point where we’re sopping wet
about your brand. from too much branding, a tipping point
Despite a recent boom in articles and where we fall into the abyss of advertising
books on the subject, branding remains an and product identiication.
art. There are unrealistic expectations Maybe. Probably not. Actually, only if
that methodologies or approaches are out and when the best brands cease to engage
there that can consistently, repetitively or consumers on levels of symbolic and
systematically create great brands. We have social interaction.
solved only one third of the brand puzzle.
WHAT WE kNOW WHAT WE DON’T kNOW
66
THE BRAND AS A SIGN BRAND CUSTOMER
INTERACTIONS
Social and symbolic interaction begins
at the level of the sign. Like a sign, a brand
This is the business case for brands.
It’s both limited and limiting. It suggests “The brand AND RELATIONSHIPS
MATRIX
doesn’t exist within the global system that brands exist in a closed system
of brands except by opposition to and
difference from other brands: you need
inhabited only by products, their creators
and managers. For an anthropologist,
is a set
your own signiier (Swoosh) and signiied
(victory) to make your brand (Nike) part
the brand is a set of relations between
people in time and space. Like the
of relations
of the consumer lexicon. Without differen-
tiation, you’re not communicating anything
sign, it is a communicative tool that helps
people choreograph consumption,
between
of substance to consumers. Without
substance, they won’t have any reason
facilitate the low of social relations and
identify the value and appropriateness products in
to care about you, anything to say
about you and, most importantly, any
of our relationships with each other.
time.”
reason to make your brand come to
life between themselves. – Celia Lury,
Brands: The Logos of
the Global Economy
FREqUENT
BRAND CUSTOMER
COMPETITION INTERACTION
ATHLETICISM
Brand maintenance Brand building consists mainly
VICTORY
efforts are required to sustain of mass media advertising,
the overall brand presence. point-of-sale and packaging.
Event-driven interactions occur Customer seldom needs
only during a short and to have contact with brand
intense period of time. owner. Channel partners
Examples: Real Estate Agents, control most of the customer
Car Dealers, Funeral Homes, experience. Most fast
Private Bankers, moving consumer products
Cosmetic Surgeons etc. belong to this quadrant.
CLOSE DISTANT
BRAND-CUSTOMER BRAND-CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP RELATIONSHIP
Brand building is mostly driven

Brand building impact is vastly
by customer experience.
inluenced by the frequent
Internal branding is vital and
interactions with customers by
operationalization of the
PERFORMANCE front line employees.
brand will need to be allocated
A lot of marketing automation is
with considerable resource.
done through call center
The resulting impact can
and the internet due to
be sustaining and build strong
economic reasons. Examples:
competitive barriers.
Credit Cards, Utilities,
Examples: Hotels, Airlines,
Mail Order Merchants,
Retail Banking, Retailing,
NIkE Cable TV etc.
STREET STYLE Restaurants etc.
INFREqUENT
BRAND CUSTOMER
INTERACTION
68 69
IS THERE A THEORY?
Why do we need a theory for strategic
brand management? Because theory is
eminently practical. Managers are
the world’s most voracious consumer of
theories. Every time a brand marketing
decision is made, it is usually based on
Branding by Branding by
some implicit understanding of what
causes what and why. The real problem is Planning Customer Experience
that they often use a one-size-its-all
Procter & Gamble Starbucks

theory. There are many ways to build great
brands. Here are the four basic
approaches:
1. PLANNING
2. IMAGERY
Coca Cola Bodyshop
3. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
4. SELF-EXPRESSION
Nestle Southwest Airline
Intel Hertz
Gillette Disney
kodak Marriott
GM Google
Branding by Branding by
Imagery Self-Expression
Abercrombie & Fitch Louis Vuitton
Calvin klein Gap
American Apperal Prada
BMW Swatch
Absolut Apple
Milk VW Beetle
Tag Heuer Allsteel
70 71
BRANDING BY BRANDING BY
PLANNING IMAGERY
Here branding is approached as part of Here branding is approached in a more
a formal strategic planning process. Most of functional manner. Usually advertising
the time this occurs in the context of agencies take a leading role and advertising
strategic marketing planning. The typical is linked to branding. The levers of brand
approach uses portfolio and product life building consist mainly of TV commercials,
cycle concepts together with overall market posters and print advertisements.
overviews and competitive intelligence. In some cases, a irst showing of a
The information is distilled and analyzed 60-second TV spot during the Super Bowl is
through each individual brand’s performance a milestone of the brand building effort.
in terms of market share and margin Visually stunning posters and magazines in
contribution. The heart of the exercise is national magazines such as Vogue or
positioning to ensure that products cover Vanity Fair are also used. Marketers and
all necessary proitable or emerging agencies closely link the brand to creative
segments and use brand to achieve these advertising execution.
objectives. Usually, multi-brand organ- Sometimes the burden is given to a
izations and category managers assume the celebrated photographer. The Calvin klein
ownership role of the brand portfolio and success is hugely indebted to Bruce Weber
manage the brand architecture. The key is and Benetton to Oliver Toscani. These
to articulate the overall brand strategy photographers gave those brands meaning.
and approach (e.g., a master brand approach The risk here is that advertising failure
using targeted sub-brands). This entails means brand failure. But a great campaign
far more than just organizing the brands as produces a very desirable brand and many
individual performers. To truly optimize products and advertising agencies came to
their value requires a dynamic framework fame with just one highly memorable
that makes the most of their inter-rela- campaign. The marketer continues to enjoy
tionships under a system of brands working the beneits for years.
together to drive clarity in the marketplace
and increase synergy and leverage within the
company’s portfolio.
72 73
BRANDING BY BRANDING BY
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SELF-EXPRESSION
Companies see customers taking functional Here companies put the role of brand
beneits, product quality and a positive building partially into the hands of
brand image as a given. What they want customers. This has long been practiced
is products, services and marketing by the luxury and sporting goods
communications that dazzle their senses, industries as well as the fashion industry,
touch their hearts and stimulate their where there’s never enough time to
minds. Here the customer becomes the build a relevant and meaningful brand
most important part of the brand. Over that keeps pace with fast-changing
the years many brands have transformed customer needs. Consumers in these
themselves into experience brands by categories do not want to use the
creating a compelling customer experience. brand to endorse or relect his or her
Starbucks and Body Shop did not use personality; rather it contributes to
mass advertising to build brands. Instead, building a personal or individual brand.
they put their resources into designing In other words, strong brand identities
and delivering unique experiences. The deter customers because they dominate.
Tiffany & Co. experience consists not The consumer uses the brand as a tool
only of the purchase experience, but also or status symbol, then adds in his or her
the whole experience of giving and receiving own hallmark to express who they are,
something special. The Tiffany & Co. who they want others to think they are and
trademark is inseparably linked to the ageless how they see the world and things. The
elegance and quality that deine the brand. brand only requires some associated
The blue box serves as an identiier and meaning so customers can pick, mix and
sensory reminder of this, as does the Hermès match with other values or uses he or
orange box and ribbons. Yahoo and she identiies with as part of building his
Amazon.com set the standard for online or her “Me” brand. Consumers actively
experience by relentlessly improving participate in creating meanings for brands.
user experiences.
74 75
Sometimes, they do more than actively Brand success is a case of More Than Of these, Desirability is where branding
participate. By transforming basic products Meets The Eye. That Pabst Blue Ribbon has usually enters the picture. But in the case
into complex signiiers of identity, perfor- enjoyed increasing sales in a dwindling of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Nike’s Air Force 1
mance and social membership, consumers beer market since 2002, Nike’s Air Force and Levi’s jeans, branding didn’t enter the
often oversee some of the iner details of 1 has been re-mastered and sold out picture until well into the success curve
how a brand is ‘managed’ in the real world. in more design manifestations than any of these brands. One day, maybe after
With help from Marlon Brando to Dee Dee product maybe ever and, although the fumbling through sales reports, someone in
Ramone to the kids they stood for, work last few years haven’t been kind, Levi’s 501s an ofice woke up to the fact that kids on
wear irst sewn up in 19th Century San have been a fashion staple for over the street made these brands hot, not Brand
Francisco and then ripped around the world 50 years is testament to what it is that Managers or media buys.
became the global signiier of youth culture. transforms products into brands:
Thanks to early B-boys in Baltimore,
Philadelphia and New York City, a 1982
basketball sneaker with no advertising
USABILITY
Does it work for me, work well and it Does that
mean I can’t
or marketing budget became an enduring into my life?
icon of global hip hop culture.
CONSUMABILITY
architect
And with Portland bike messengers latching
on to its underdog status and bar discounts, Does it taste good? Look good? Feel good?
a down-and-out beer became a celebration
of American low-brow culture.
PERFORMATIVITY
Does it help do/say/be/show something consumer
important?
DESIRABILITY
attraction
Is there a social, cultural or personal need
it fulills?
to my brand?
No. What it means is that consumer cultures
and communities are often best left to
their own devices to build themselves from
the ground up with their own rules and
regulations. With a little ield exploration to
determine the boundaries that these cultures
and communities wish to keep, permeate
or dissolve between you and them – and with
a healthy respect for those boundaries
should you want to maintain your most loyal
consumer base - you might collaborate,
nurture or simply help perpetuate the
conditions under which they will continue
to thrive.
76 77
MANAGING
BRAND
MEANING
78 79
MOST COMMON WHERE TO START?
CONFUSIONS
If a company wants to be regarded in a
People often confuse a new name or logo People often confuse corporate Identity certain way (brand identity), everything must
with branding. Many companies have with corporate branding. The “corporate support that desired identity.
been led to believe that if they get a new identity” approach is preferred by design Does the corporate/business strategy and
brand name, logo and marketing materials, irms in the business of logo and brand name the company’s execution against it support
they’ve solved the branding problem. This development, letterhead design, stationery that desired identity? If so, then the desired
is the number one mistake most companies and business forms, uniforms, shop interiors, brand identity may be appropriate (obviously,
make when it comes to branding. This etc. However, brand name and logo are there are a lot of other considerations).
is a costly proposition, and the end result not the most important part of corporate If not, the brand identity will not be attainable
may not produce meaningful changes branding. What really matters is what the until alignment is achieved.
to the bottom line. brand name and logo stand for, the trust they Alternately, it’s appropriate to use the
have earned (and will earn) with customers. desired brand identity as an “end state” for
We should all aspire to build trusted brands company management and employees
because they retain loyal customers for to visualize, to drive change and support the
years – or even a lifetime. corporate strategy. Establish a strategic
According to Wharton Professor process to allow your company to realize that
J. Reibstein, the actual name of a company vision over time. The company strategy
doesn’t make much of a difference. and brand strategy grow together towards a
What companies end up doing is a signiicant common direction.
amount of advertising and creating an
image around the name.
Start with Brand Strategy

or Business Strategy?
START WITH
BRAND IDENTITY
Everything a company does
should come from this
BRAND IDENTITY AS
A FINAL GOAL
Everything a company does
should work towards this
80 81
MANAGING BRAND Brands with lower brand meaning simply
MEANING cannot support many extensions. For brand
extensions, answer these questions:
If a brand does not have vital consumer (based on past performance), Nestlé’s 1988 companies aggressively expand their Is the extension consistent with your longer
meaning, then it is not worthwhile investing acquisition of Rowntree was about the product range targeting different segments. term brand vision?
inancially and organizationally in its future advantages that could be conjured Mercedes owns the word engineering,
leadership. It is not worth the time and from the latent essences and meanings BMW performance, and Volvo safety. Does the extension actually add value to
resources to push it or to make it a of its brands. Yet when Mercedes launched the C-series your brand?
rallying point for the skills of the company’s Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote that “owning to appeal to younger segments, BMW Are you able to deliver on the branded
people; nor is it worthwhile living the a word in the prospect’s mind” is the launched the 7 series for those who customer experience?
value relationships that emerge from the most powerful concept. This occurs when appreciate state-of-the-art engineering and
branding process. the association is so strong that any word Volvo revamped its product range with Is the beneit consistent with your
Conversely, if a brand does have vital is immediately linked to a brand. They a sportier look to suggest speed, those positioning?
(and self-perpetuating) consumer meaning, insisted that “no matter how complicated associations quickly became meaningless. If this extension fails, is it a major or minor
companies discover that there are more the product, no matter how complicated setback for your brand?
signiicant similarities than differences among the needs of the market, it’s always better to
consumers in their sphere of business focus on one word or beneit rather two
as they market a brand’s essence around or three.”
the world. This is often true of any single product
Rowntree failed to recognize that an or category brand, but today’s brands have
impulse-grabbing concept like “have a break, become very sophisticated. Owning
have a kit kat” could capture consumer category words and beneit-related words
imagination and establish a global and local are not enough. Competitors will try to
‘time-out’ place in consumer lives. Nestlé undermine this association. Instead, own
didn’t. Appreciating that Rowntree’s leading values beyond the narrow focus of
brands had enough meaning invested in functional beneits. Beneit-related word
them to be worthwhile, they purchased the association is less powerful when quality,
company. More than just a US$4.5 value service and design are at par and
HIGH
MOST MEANINGFUL AND MOST
DIFFICULT TO IMITATE, BUT
HARDEST TO CREATE, DELIVER
AND SUSTAIN
BELIEFS
AND
VALUES
LEVEL OF BRAND MEANING

BENEFITS
Bottled
Water
Regular
Jeans
ATTRIBUTES
EASIEST TO DELIVER,
BUT LEAST MEANINGFUL AND
VERY EASILY IMITATED
Regular
Coffee
LOW
LOW HIGH
DEGREE OF PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION
82 83
BRAND
BRANDS AND CUSTOMER
VALUE
What is the difference between a Value’s elusive meaning
AWARENESS
Brand Promise and a Mission Statement?
Value is a simple word with a complex
The basic difference is one of perspective. meaning. Value is deined in the mind of
A mission statement generally articulates the customer. Yet, value is neither a
IS NOT
an organization’s internal perspective constant nor even a consistent impression.
regarding direction and objectives. On the Value depends both on situation and
other hand, the Brand Promise is written context. A customer’s perception of value
primarily from the customers’ perspective, can and usually does change with time
THE SAME AS
articulating the essence of the brand’s and circumstances, often unpredictably.
beneits (functional and emotional) Certain attributes of a product or service
experienced through a brand’s products may be valued while others are not –
and services. some features may be valued negatively.
BRAND
Alternatives affect value perceptions,
and choices are constantly expanding.
Changing needs affect value perceptions,
but those needs constantly change too.
DIFFERENTIATION
In spite of the volatility of value’s meaning,
most of the time people form relatively
stable perceptions of a brand’s image,
reputation and value promise. Brand
marketing’s role is to bring the two together.
BRAND PROMISE MISSION STATEMENT
FROM A CLIENT’S FROM THE

EXTERNAL ORGANIZATION’S
PERSPECTIVE INTERNAL
PERSPECTIVE
84 85
WHEN TO INVEST IN IS IT PRICE
BRANDS OR IS IT BRANDS?
Despite the lip service paid to developing
brand strategies and investing in branding
efforts, many brands are sill moving towards
commoditization. They are becoming much
more well-known and yet less differentiated
in the minds of consumers. You must ask
yourself these questions before you invest
heavily in building your brand:
1. What is the level of achievable brand
differentiation in your category or industry?
2. Do you have a sound growth plan as well
Price is More
as a growth mind-set in place to
capitalize on your brand equity as a result
Important than Brand
of your brand investment?
3. How will your existing customers respond
to your increased commoditization?
Online Bookstore
Rental Car
Ofice Supply Store Brand is More
Important than Price
Bookstore
Beer
Bottled water
Liquor
Gas Station
Automobile
Long Distance
= ?
Telephone Provider Cola
Cellular Phone Personal Computer
Provider
Brokerage
Major Household
Appliance
Motor Oil
Source: Market Facts – Copernicus 2000
86
RETHINKING LOYALTY BRAND METRICS
Many consumers tell researchers that they Metrics provide direction, not control.
are perfectly happy with the brands they They monitor progress to success
are using, yet jump at the next opportunity to prevent irms from driving blindfold.
to switch brands. Brand awareness and
satisfaction are poor predictors of human
behavior and we should not be putting
too much emphasis on them.
Loyalty has two different meanings:
Loyalty due to a lack of choice or
pure convenience vs. loyalty as a result
of commitment
Metric Measured by
Relative Consumer preference or

Satisfaction satisfaction as % average for
market or competitors
Salience Relative market awareness
Commitment Index of switchability (or

similar measure of retention,
loyalty, purchase intent
or relationship bonding)
Relative Perceived Perceived quality satisfaction

quality as average % of market or
against competitors
Relative Price Market share (value) or

I am with you I am with you Market share (volume)
because I really because you are
love you. convenient. Availability Distribution (e.g. weighted
(YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE) (THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE) % of retail outlets carrying
the brand)
88
THE BRAND LOYALTY WHO’S WINNING?
MYTH: DOES MARKET
LEADERSHIP =
LOYALTY LEADERSHIP?
If not, then you need to decide which one
is your Prime Branding Objective.
In a recent worldwide survey, Young &
Rubicam surveyed 30,000 consumers and
6,000 brands and found that the way to
build brand equity was to focus on differen-
tiation, not awareness. Their research
found that the traditional F.R.E.D. (familiarity,
relevance, esteem, and differentiation)
approach to marketing was not as effective
as a strategy that emphasized developing
product differentiation over awareness.
MARkET LEADER CONSUMER
CONSUMER
Market Leader = Loyalty Leader?
PRODUCT MARkET LEADER’S BRAND LOYALTY

CATEGORY LOYALTY RATE LEADER RATE
LOYALTY LEADER CONSUMER
High Loyalty Rates
Cigarettes Marlboro (42) Tareyton (74)
Cold Remedies Contac (38) Bayer DCT (50)
Source: Don Johnson ‘A Re-examination of the Process of Branding’ Harvard Business School
Headache Remedies Bayer (33) Tylenol (45)
Medium Loyalty Rates

Toothpaste Crest (38) Ultrabrite (39)
Cooking Oil Crisco (36) Mazola (39)
Cola Coca Cola (29) Tab (43)
Low Loyalty Rates CONSUMER

Facial Tissues kleenex (18) Puffs (28)
Paper Towels Bounty (17) Brawny (22)
Aluminum Reynolds (17) No-name (17)
90
“You can’t survive loating
on the tide, assessing the
competition, conducting
surveys to ind out what your
customers want right now.
What do you want? What do
you want to tell the world
in the future? What does your
believe in your
company have that will
enrich the world? You must
believe in that ‘it’ strongly
enough to become unique at
‘it’
what you do.”
– Jesper kunde,
A Unique Moment
92 93
PRODUCTS VS.
MARKETS
As product spaces become modularized,
componentized and compartmentalized to
address the individual, customized targeted
needs of markets, the correspondent
market space and the value chains in them
become more integrated.
In a sense, products disintegrate while
markets become integrated. This is forced
onto ever more expansive value chains.
Individual Products Integrated Markets
94 95
The colonization of physical space
is now extending to the mental
space and happening at an even
faster pace.
Companies used to be
product producers
Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.

Now they must become
meaning brokers
96 97
EARLESS UNEXPECTED BOLD RADICA
EAMER RESOLUTE POETIC UNDAUNT
ASSY DARING ADVENTUROUS GENT“WHO ARE YOU
[these days] ?”
and WHAT can you
URISTIC INDIVIDUAL POWER UNWAVE

do for me?
– Tom Peters,
Management Guru
VOCATIVE IDYLLIC VISIONARY WILD S

NDAUNTED SOULFUL CARING DYNAM
THENTIC BRAVE UNORTHODOX DARI
TFUL kIND INNOVATIVE CURIOUS HU
GUING ACTIVE UNCOMMON IRREVER
OOL ABSOLUTE PASSIONATE JOYFU
USUAL TECHNOLOGICAL FUN SENSIB
98 99
THE REAL INNOVATORS’
DILEMMA “The idea that business
Innovation alone does not create value. is just a numbers affair has
It simply offers design and engineering
feats, not things that excite real people. The always struck me as
preposterous. For one thing,
true innovator’s dilemma is how to build
brands that create barriers for competition
as innovative products or technologies
become commoditized. Innovation alone is
not the answer.
I’ve never been particularly
You must get beyond innovation.
You must make the connection between
good at numbers, but I think
innovation and customer value. The
connection is made through the brand. I’ve done a reasonable
job with feelings. And I’m
convinced that it is feelings
– and feelings alone – that
account for the success of
the Virgin brand in all of
its myriad forms.”
– Sir Richard Branson,
Virgin Group
BRAND
COMPETITION INNOVATION CUSTOMER VALUE
THE BRAND THE BRAND

AS A AS A
BARRIER TO CONNECTION
COMPETITION TO CUSTOMER
VALUE
100 101
If you want to build a company “As chairman and CEO, my job is to provide
a corporate structure and culture that
enables our cast members to perpetuate
that sustains growth and the values and traditions that fuel the
Disney magic … I am, in effect, the chief
shareholder value, would you brand manager.”
“I take my responsibility as a steward of
rather your CEO was a the brand very seriously: to protect it,
enhance it and try to ensure that it is even
Chief Emotions Oficer or a more valuable and beloved in the 21st

century than it was in the 20th. It’s a
Chief Numbers Oficer? responsibility I share with all 120,000 Disney

cast members around the world. We
all know that the Disney brand is our most
valuable asset.”
– Michael Eisner,
Disney
VALUE
–
+
=
102 103
COMPANIES
WILL
THRIVE
“We are in the twilight of a society based
on data. As information and intelligence
become the domain of computers,
society will place more value on the one
human ability that cannot be automated:
emotion. Imagination, myth, ritual –
the rich language of emotion – will affect
ON
everything from our purchasing decisions
to how we work with others. Companies
will thrive on the basis of their stories
and myths. Companies will need to
understand that their products are less
important than their stories.”
THE
– Rolf Jensen,
Copenhagen Institute for
Future Studies
BASIS
OF
THEIR
STORIES
AND
MYTHS
TRUE
LOYALTY
IS
“Most people can’t understand what
would drive someone to profess his or
her loyalty for our brand by tattooing
our logo onto his or her body – or heart.
My fellow employees and I understand
completely. We also understand very
clearly that this indescribable passion is
ABOUT
a big part of what has driven and will
continue to drive our growth.”
– Richard Teerlink,
Harley-Davison
COMMITMENT
EMOTIONAL BRANDING
“A great brand taps into emotions. Emotions
drive most, if not all, of our decisions. A
brand reaches out with a powerful connecting
experience. It’s an emotional connecting
point that transcends the product.”
– Scott Bedbury
Nike, Starbucks
1. MEANING 3. CONNECTIVITY
2. AUTHENTICITY 4. RELEVANCY
108 109
“A great brand is a story that’s never
completely told. A brand is a metaphorical
story that connects with something
very deep – a fundamental appreciation of
mythology. Stories create the emotional
context people need to locate themselves
in a larger experience.”
– Scott Bedbury
Nike, Starbucks
Once upon a time…

VERY IMPORTANT:
THE STORY
NEVER ENDS
110 111
“Most executives have no
idea how to add value to
a market in the metaphysical
world. But that is what
the market will cry out for
in the future. There is no
lack of ‘physical’ products to
choose between.”
– Jesper kunde,
A Unique Moment [on the excellence
of Nokia, Nike, Lego, Virgin et al.]
PRODUCTS IN
THE METAPHYSICAL WORLD
PRODUCTS IN
THE PHYSICAL WORLD
112 113
MARKETER AS HEALER WHAT’S YOUR
HEALING BENEFIT?
What more can you do to today’s
consumers’ already battered brain? More The new reality for marketers is that only
new products, more new services, those offerings that go beyond the need for
more out-bound direct marketing phone superior product quality, competitive
calls during dinner time and more stress? pricing and emotional driven image-building
If others are selling stress, then the communications to deliver some healing
market is need of products that heal. beneit beyond the functional purpose of the
product itself will have enough consumer
How about the marketer appeal to break through the defense. This
will be a new competitive dimension.
as Meta-Physician and
From recycled to sustainable to CSR and
beyond, doing good unto ourselves,
our consumers and others will differentiate
the Brand as Prescription? the past from the new present, the leaders
from the followers.
IO R q U ALI T Y
SUPER
PETITIVE PRICING
COM
AL C O M M U N IC A
O TI O N TI O
EM N
G BENEF
ALIN IIT
HE
CUSTOMER
APPEAL
114 115
THE CHALLENGE THE SOLUTION
How can you address and fulill the In the space between brands and consumers
consumer’s deepest needs and wants – exists a complex web of personal, social
particularly if you’re not in the pharma, and cultural relationships, perceptions,
cosmetics or entertainment industry? meanings, actions, reactions and interactions.
It involves the deepest understanding of Understanding that web and, more
what the consumer cares most about importantly, appreciating and celebrating it
and what state of mind they’re in and after. for its complexity – and for how every
At the heart of an effective brand strategy little vibration across it could signal impending
philosophy is the belief that nothing is so doom for your brand – is absolutely key
powerful as an insight into human nature, to cultivating the kinds of authentic, dynamic
what compulsions drive consumers, what relationships with consumers. So how
instincts their actions and how they do you do that? By nurturing a brand culture
perform – even though language so often that is intensely critical, introspective
camoulages what real motivations. and research centric. Here are ive ways to
get that culture started.
1. IF YOUR THINkING IS LOCkED IN A DATABASE,

BREAk OUT OF IT!
Numbers can be a prison. They reveal patterns,
not people. Instead, develop a culture with
an insatiable appetite for qualitative research.
2. TURN YOUR FOCUS GROUPS INTO FIELDWORk.

No amount of coffee, donuts and cash-on-completion
to taste chocolate bars or describe shopping patterns
will mine the kind of critical, deep insights you need.
Stop creating and controlling the context in which you
learn about your consumer.
3. PRIORITIZE WHAT PEOPLE DO OVER

WHAT THEY SAY.
Interviews are good, but the most valuable answers are
BRANDS CONSUMERS BRANDS CONSUMERS
in the consumer’s actions. How they relect, refute or
reveal layers of articulated and unarticulated need and
desire lead to the deepest insights.
4. MASH UP YOUR STAFF.

Send Brand Managers out into the ield with Consumer
Insights, Designers with Usability and Strategists
with Marketing. When a culture of collaborative research
is part of every job description, every job will
contribute to furthering that culture.
5. STOP BELIEVING YOUR OWN HYPE.

No amount of ofice mythology or self-congratulations
can disguise what you ARE NOT. If consumers
are saying it, it’s probably true. Now is the time to start
engaging them on their terms and in their language
to discover the path forward.
116 117
BRAND
LEADERSHIP
118 119
BRAND MANAGEMENT VS. THE FIVE BRAND
BRAND LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP
BENCHMARKS
There are basically two different orientations Brand management is tactical, visual and
towards brand: as images and as promises. reactive. It’s preoccupied with the 3 Ls of As you look at these ive brand stages,
It’s not surprising that there are two funda- branding: look, letterhead and logo. Brand note how they are tiered. You need to irmly
mentally different approaches to brand leadership is visionary and promise-driven. establish one before you can move on to
development as well. These two approaches, It concentrates on building brand value that the next.
brand management and brand leadership, translates into loyalty and market power.
are codiied by David Aaker and differ in a Metrics are in place to measure progress. The
variety of ways. goal is brand equity.
Brand management focuses on the short- Brand management and brand leadership
term. Its primary tool is promotion. Brand represent two ends of a vast continuum.
managers never have enough money and For many marketers, brand leadership might
seldom have true control over the dollars initially be out of reach and exists only on
they do have. Brand leadership is about the the company’s annual report. Their quickest
long-term. Brand leaders understand gains might actually be generated by a
that building brand equity takes time, money, consistent brand management strategy. To
and talent. They know that a successful build a brand promise that consumers
brand is not built in one budget year or one will value and, in doing so, help build brand
product launch. Brand leadership is based equity, it is essential for everyone in that
on the premise that brand building not only continuum to understand the progression of
creates brand equity, but is also necessary branding from management to leadership.
for institutional success. With brand leader-
ship, the institution’s most senior leaders
recognize that building the brand results in a
competitive advantage that pays inancially.
5. BEHAVIOR
4. EXPERIENCES
Your brand is
successful if the
perceptions you create
motivate positive
3. VISION
customer behavior.
Your brand is working In other words,
if these experiences do people
CATEGORY BRAND BRAND
create the desired follow through?
MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP
perceptions in the minds
2. CONSISTENCY and hearts of your
You manage your customers. Remember,
Focus Limited Broad
brand to ensure that the brand perceptions
these experiences and relationships
Product-market scope Single Products-Markets Multiple products and markets
conform to your brand you want to own are
1. TOUCH-POINTS vision and brand those of relevance.
Brand structures Simple Complex brand architectures
Your brand is promise. At this level,
consistent and you branding is strategic,
Number of brands Focus on Single brands Category focus-multiple brands
ensure that the not tactical.
experiences all
Country scope Single country Global or national perspective
communicate the
Your brand is the sum same thing to
Communication focus External customer only Internal as well as external of the experiences your customers and
that your customers have prospects.
whenever they are
exposed to your product,
service or message.
It is this breadth across
all touch-points and
functions that gives
a brand depth
and endurance.
120 121
UNDERSTANDING BRAND Brand architecture is the logical, strategic
ARCHITECTURE and relational structure for all of the brands
in the organization’s brand portfolio. The
objective is to maximize clarity, synergy and
Creating a clear brand architecture to help
leverage to maximize customer value and
structure position for today and tomorrow
internal eficiencies.
helps build that brand by ensuring everyone
within an organization works to a common
and clearly understood goal.
GM has 33 brand names, P&G has
hundreds, BMW has three, IBM has 2 and
Starbucks has one. Between mergers and
acquisitions, aggressive brand extensions,
the increasingly complexities of sub-brands,
endorsed brands and co-brands, it gets
more and more complicated. Often the task
includes a periodic regrouping of multiple
product groups and brand families, reposi-
tioning them to relect their role in the market
and to create a structure for immediate
success. Establishing a clear and coherent
brand architecture creates structure within MASTER
which vital day-to-day tactical decisions can BRAND
be made. Without this brand architecture
in place, these tactical decisions become
strategic and long-winded in nature.
STAND- STAND- STAND-

SUB- SUB- SUB- SUB- SUB-
ALONE ALONE ALONE
BRAND BRAND BRAND BRAND BRAND
BRAND BRAND BRAND
PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT PRODUCT






122 123
UNDERSTANDING BRAND ARCHITECTURE AND
ARCHITECTURE POSITIONING
Advantages of developing a brand P&G’s brand architecture effectively
architecture: manages the relationships between product,
brands and market segments. Head &
1. It helps everyone in the organization
Shoulders dominates the dandruff control
see and understand all the connections
shampoo category and Pert Plus targets
between corporate brands, sub-brands
the market for combined shampoo and
and master brands.
conditioner. Pantene is positioned as a brand
2. It simpliies decision making when it with a technological heritage and the
comes to allocating and sharing marketing power to enhance hair vitality. The three
resources such as advertising and brands optimize their brand coverage
promotions. by not being merchandised under a P&G
product brand name. The lesson? Avoid
3. It protects brands from becoming
a brand association that is incompatible
over-leveraged and diluted by over-
with another offering and may adversely
extending communications messages
affect its performance.
and graphic design options.
VISIBLE
CONNECTIONS
BETWEEN
BRANDS
SIMPLIFIED kEEPS
DECISION- BRANDS
MAkING PURE
124 125
UNDERSTANDING BRAND CASE STUDY:
ARCHITECTURE BRANDED HOUSE VS.
HOUSE OF BRANDS
It is very dificult to offer a generalization on The needs usually consist of one or more
how to put a vast number of brands in of the following:
categories and wed sets of them and their
1. Create and own a different set of
relationships into a composite brand
associations
architecture. Each industry and category
context is different, as are corporate 2. Develop a totally new product offering
views. The tendency is towards having a or a category
master brand. Only when there is a
3. Avoid conlict in brand association
compelling need (and a budget) should a
and identities
separate brand be considered. The big
question is: can the business support a 4. Avoid channel conlict
new brand?
5. Create a price-driven label for
competitive reasons
6. Fulill needs for new geographies or
unique customer segments
BRANDED HOUSE HOUSE OF BRANDS GENERAL ELECTRIC: PROCTOR & GAMBLE:

BRANDED HOUSE A HOUSE OF BRANDS
126 127
BRAND SEPARATION
SPECTRUM
Branded House of Endorsed House House

House Sub-Brands of Brands of Brands
= /
SAME IDENTITY DIFFERENT UMBRELLA CO-DRIVERS STRONG LINkED TOkEN SHADOW NOT
IDENTITY AS DRIVER ENDORSEMENT NAME ENDORSEMENT ENDORSER CONNECTED
BMW Gillette Sensor
GE Capital Buick LeSabre Courtyard DkNY Grape-Nuts Tide Thomson
Sony GE Appliance Sony Trinitron by Marriott from Post (P&G) (GE)
HP DeskJet McMufin
Virgin Club Med DuPont Stainmaster Obsession Sony Lexus Saturn
Singles vs. Couples VW Beetle byCalvin klein Nestea PlayStation (Toyota) (GM)
Levi – Europe Friends & Family Docker’s Touchtone NutraSweet

Levi – U.S.A. by MCI LS&Co. (Disney) (G.D.Searle)
CASE STUDY:
SONY BRAND
ARCHITECTURE
Sony chooses a single-minded, powerful
and yet lexible architecture and
leverages their corporate brand in many
different ways.
CORPORATE UMBRELLA AS DRIVER ENDORSER BRAND INGREDIENT BRAND SHADOW ENDORSER CO-BRAND
LUXURY
BRAND
MARKETING
132 133
WHAT IS A LUXURY Luxury used to belong to a few privileged few.
BRAND? Not any more. It’s no longer about simply
fashion goods, wine, jewelry, handbags and
accessories. Luxury is transforming scores
What qualiies a brand as a luxury brand?
of markets. It comes in many forms, at many
In economic terms, luxury products are
price levels and through a variety of channels,
those whose price/quality/service relationship
no longer conined to a few upscale shops
is the highest on the market or a product
on Rodeo Drive, Fifth Avenue or Bond Street.
that can consistently command and justify a
Almost every marketer needs to consider
higher price than those with comparable THE LUXURY BRAND whether or not they have a luxury brand
functions and similar quality. There is always
Pure Artist, Creator and strategy in place.
an argument for why some brands qualify
as luxury and others are simply well known. Unique Creation.
Not Scalable Business The question is:
Mckinsey deines luxury brands as those
which “have constantly been able to justify
a high price, i.e. signiicantly higher than the Who will be
price of products with comparable tangible
functions”. This strict economic explanation the irst one to
does not help explain how well-known
brands are differentiated from luxury brands.
A Jaguar is considered less expensive
effectively
than a Porsche, but in terms of comparable
tangible functions it has a much stronger
THE LEADING BRAND capture this
luxury brand image than Porsche. For some
reason, Porsche is fast and expensive, just
Pure Artist, Creator and
Unique Creation. segment in your
not luxury. A Breitling watch is generally more
expensive than a watch from Tiffany,
Not Scalable Business
category?
Hermès or Gucci, yet it is often perceived
as prestigious, not luxurious. Luxury hasn’t changed. What’s changing is
its deinition. Once closely associated
with high price, prestige and ostentation,
MASSIFICATION OF LUXURY BRAND

as large segments of consumers move
upscale and luxury goods move downscale,
we’re seeing an explosive growth in
THE qUALITY BRAND
what is being called the “massiication of
Exclusive, luxury goods”.
VALUE
Prestige Image, The massiication of luxury has been the
Highest quality single most important marketing phenom-
and Service enon of modern times. It goes beyond what
we see today: marketers connecting luxury
to products that were never in that league.
Advertising and packaging common
products with words such as gourmet,
premium, classic, gold and platinum means
that all consumers, whether they can
afford true luxury or not, get a taste of the
THE BETTER BRAND tantalizing. And thanks to eBay, more
Mass Produced, Good and more people have access to the iner,
Overall Price/Value/Image once out-of-reach things in life at an
Equation affordable price.
If anyone can afford it does it cease to be
luxury? The answer is, Deinitely Not.
It only makes such items that much more
desirable. Social philosophers like Pierre
Bourdieu have shown the relationship
between consumption, class and identity.
THE HERMèS BIRkIN HANDBAG THE COACH BAG
IS LUXURIOUS IS NOT
In creating one’s identity and place in
THE BRAND
the world, few things in life proclaim status
Constantly Under and superiority than purchasing, owning
Cost Pressures, Unable to and displaying luxury goods.
Build Brand Equity,
Usually Outside of the
Top Three in Market
Share Leadership
134 135
THE OLD LUXURY THE NEW LUXURY
SLAVES TO
BRANDS
WANTS qUALITY BUYS THEM THROUGH

AND SERVICE MULTIPLE CHANNELS,
AT ALL PRICE POINTS AT MULTIPLE PRICE POINTS
A VERY SMALL ONLY FOR THE

SEGMENT VERY RICH
LESS ABOUT CONSPICUOUS

FIERCELY LOCAL,
SUPERB CRAFTSMANSHIP, ONLY AVAILABLE CONSUMPTION AND
ALWAYS LOOk
HIGH qUALITY IN SELECTIVE MORE ABOUT SELF-RESPECT
FOR A BRAND’S
AND HIGH SERVICE UP-SCALE SHOPS AND FULFILLING PERSONAL
HERITAGE
EMOTIONAL NEEDS
136 137
THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW
OF MARKETING LIVING
Marketing is the ultimate social practice of IS
MORE
postmodern consumer culture. It plays
a key role in giving meaning to life through
consumption.
So is marketing too important to be left to
marketers alone?
OF
A
qUESTION
OF
WHAT
ONE
SPENDS
THAN
WHAT
ONE
MAkES.
– Marcel Duchamp
MANOLO BL AHNIk
138 139
FIT IN. BE COOL.
THE NEW VALUE ADD
The standard of judgment becomes the OF ADVERTISING
ability to interact effectively with others, to
win their affection and admiration – to As a brand marketer, your job is to
merge with others of the same lifestyle. construct, maintain and communicate
What is important: Can you consume the identity and social meanings to others.
right brands?
FIT IN
BE COOL
FIT IN
BE COOL
FIT IN BE COOL FIT IN BE COOL VERY HIP BE COOL FIT IN BE COOL FIT IN
BE COOL
FIT IN
BE COOL
FIT IN
140
In the old culture, the limited production What you buy is now more important
capacity of the economy sharply reduced than what you make. Luxury is not a goal
aspirations to material comfort. Today, anymore, for many it is a necessity.
much greater material satisfaction lies within It starts with a need and an anxiety to
the reach of even those of modest means. resolve it. The experience ends, if successful,
with a feeling of relaxation or satisfaction.
Thus a producer culture

If it does not satisfy the need, the process is
repeated. We judge the act by the experience.
We have gone from product to process,
becomes a from problem resolution to emotion seeking,
from object to experience.
consumer culture.
PRODUCER CULTURE LUXURY ITEMS CONSUMER CULTURE PRODUCER CULTURE CONSUMER CULTURE
Only a few could consume Many can consume

luxury brands luxury brands
WHAT YOU BUY

WHAT YOU MAkE WHAT YOU BUY
PROCESS
PRODUCT PROCESS
EMOTION
SEEkING
PROBLEM RESOLUTION EMOTION SEEkING
EXPERIENCE
OBJECT EXPERIENCE
142 143
“Any kind of possession WE NOW LIVE
IN CONSUMPTION
really functions, in a sense, COMMUNITIES
as an extension of our We are no longer divided by wealth, birth or

political eminence but by consumption.
personal power. It serves to

For marketers, brands and products need to
be positioned to be bought, not made.
make us feel stronger…

When you watch a small
child cling to a piece of cloth
or a doll with all its power
you may begin to understand
the power of ownership.”
– Ernest Dichter,
The Soul of Things
CONSUMER
144 145
THE
MASSIFICATION
AND
DEMOCRATIZATION
OF
LUXURY
HAS
BEEN
THE
SINGLE
MOST
IMPORTANT
MARkETING
PHENOMENON
OF
MODERN
TIME.
146 147
THE REAL VS. Luxury shoppers are led by rational desire Ask this important question:
to purchase items of high value and
THE IMAGINARY
craftsmanship. Eight of the 10 top purchase
motivators are emotionally driven. Marketers
What are
Consumption sometimes operates at a level
of the imaginary, but it can also have
must tap into consumers’ desires for
well-being, self-concept and indulgence.
your key target
“real” effects in facilitating the construction
of self-identity.
The consumption of symbolic meaning,
reinforced through advertising, provides the
segments’
individual with the opportunity to construct,
maintain and communicate identity and wildest
social meanings. Victoria’s Secret is a great
example of using the unobtainable, imaginations?
imaginary dreams of its consumers to drive
sales. When beautiful and perfectly
proportioned models strut down the runway
and grace glossy catalog pages, they say
that the company’s products can enhance
or even instill such glamour. If Victoria’s
Secret products are worn by the beautiful,
does the inverse also hold true? Will
wearing them make one beautiful?
8 OF THE TOP 10
PURCHASE
MOTIVATORS ARE
EMOTIONALLY
DRIVEN
148 149
THE MATERIAL VS.
THE SYMBOLIC
Just as a product fulills its ability to satisfy
a mere physical need it must satisfy a
symbolic need to create our meanings of our
selves. We become consumers of illusions.
De Beers’ slogan, “A diamond is forever,”
has been so successful in creating the
illusion of eternal love that a diamond is that
illusion’s material symbol. Now marketers
are trying to do the same with platinum.
We become consumers
Ask this important question:
What illusions does your product help
of illusions.
consumers to create or maintain?
= XXX

24hrs
BRAND
= ILLUSION
=
= $$$
= 
150 151
THE SOCIAL VS.
THE SELF
The symbolic meanings of products operate
in two directions: outward in constructing
the social world, and inward towards con-
structing our self-identity. Products help us
to become our Possible Selves.
Most SUVs and sports brand images are
built on the very powerful concept of
becoming ourselves, just better. SUVs speak
to ‘sporty’, ‘powerful’, ‘tough’ and ‘rugged’.
They appeal to men (and some women) who
may not travel anywhere more treacherous
than the local supermarket. The Hummer
sold to civilians is radically different from the
one used by the military, yet the brand’s
image, as an enduring, robust all-terrain
vehicle remains intact. Expensive and ‘cool’,
SUVs hold a carpool full of kids and their
hockey equipment without saddling their
upscale owners with a minivan.
What are your target luxury segments’ ideal
possible selves?
PRODUCTS
HELP US
TO BECOME
OUR
POSSIBLE
SELVES.
DESIRE VS.
SATISFACTION
Advertising often provides gratiication and
recodes a commodity as a desirable
psycho-ideological ideal. In fact, it feeds
the desire to achieve the often unobtainable
unity of the self, using destabilized
meanings and images that separate products
from their original intended use and
offer the opportunity to reconstruct a self by
purchasing meanings in a do-it-yourself
fashion. Desire exists in the gap between
visual languages and the unconscious.
Desire does not want satisfaction. To the
contrary, desire desires desire. Images
are often so appealing that things cannot
satisfy. Some people desire desirelessness
with such a passion that it actually
increases their ability to desire. What we
do we become stronger in, and these
UNOBTAINABLE
people yearn so much and so often to have COMMODITY
no more yearning that their ability to AS A DESIRABLE
CONSUMER PSYCHO-
yearn becomes astronomical. Postmodern
IDEOLOGICAL
consumption is inextricably linked with SIGN
DESIRE
aspects of sexuality, both conscious and DOES NOT
subconscious. Desires are constructed WANT
through linkages between consumption and SATISFACTION
the human body. Visuals continue to be
the most powerful tool because they never
satisfy. Calvin klein, Gucci and Abercrombie
and Fitch built and maintain their brands
based entirely on this concept. Meaning is
created through a continuous search for
links between identity (social) and the self.
What are the unobtainable that your brands
are based on?
CONSUMER
DESIRE
DESIRES
DESIRE
154 155
RATIONALITY VS.
IRRATIONALITY
The expansion of “wants” reduces our
choice to “want not” and sometimes
makes the very idea of rational choice
become meaningless. We’re in the
era of the “empty-self” in which alienation
can be solved by the “lifestyle” solution
in which we construct a “self” by
purchasing even of limited rationality.
156
MATERIALISM VS.
SPIRITUALISM
We use all kinds of tools everyday.
We are tool users and tools are not
the end but the means. So materialism
does not crowd out spiritualism;
spiritualism is more likely a substitute
when objects are scarce. When we
have fewer things, we make the next
world luxurious. When we have
plenty, we enchant those objects
around us.
158 159
QUOTES FROM PARTICIPANTS OF
IDRIS MOOTEE’S ADVANCED
BRANDING MASTERCLASS 2008
If this is the case, then the current weak

version of experience co-creation (which is “Luxury comes from
still more like mass coniguration at this
point, despite its own protestations to the
contrary) may give way to what I have
exclusivity Individualism
been calling “deep co-creation,” in which
customers not only co-create the
equals exclusivity.
experience and some of the value, but
the business itself (and, by extension
So by deinition, every
the brand). And they will of course do this
as a large, interconnected community. time a brand gives
So in this changed world, a big part of
people’s meaning might come from room to consumers to
express their indi-
co-creating a business and seeing it thrive.
– Christian Briggs
vidualism, it becomes
an exclusive, luxurious
“‘What constitutes good. This will
luxury becomes a lead to a future of
wholly individual and consumers using
emotional decision.’ their self-expression
Clearly the rules to get the luxury
of luxury are not set into pretty much any
exclusively by a brand in their
few educated minds brandsphere.”
anymore. Experience – Bart Suichies
is luxury. Silence
is luxury. To some, As “Jacques Lacan pointed out, human-
beings need to learn how and what to
not mentioning the desire. ‘Desire is the Desire of the Other.’
It is on the basis of this fundamental
word luxury is luxury. understanding of identity that Lacan

maintained throughout his career that desire
Very human. Not is the desire of the Other. What is meant

by him in this formulation is not the triviality
so engineer-friendly.”
that humans desire others, when they
sexually desire (an observation which is
not universally true).
– Flavio Azeved – André Galhardo
160 161
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Idris Mootee
CEO, Idea Couture
Idris is an authority and expert in business
and brand strategy and operates
at the intersection of business strategy,
experience design and emerging
technologies. Idris provides C-level
executive and board-level strategic
counsel, innovation and strategic guidance
for multiple industries that often involve
leading growth initiatives and innovation
management. Prior to co-founding
Idea Couture, Idris was Senior VP, Chief
Strategist with Blast Radius, where
he was responsible globally for strategic
outputs including clients such as Nike,
Nintendo, Intrawest, BMW and AOL and
prior to that he was global head of
strategy with Organic with clients such
as HP, Bell, Macy’s and Daimler Chrysler.
His other experiences included and
President, Chief Strategy Oficer with
Live Lowe and Partners with clients
such as HSBC and MasterCard.
He is the author of four books, dozens
of published articles and has been quoted
in national media including the New York
Times and Wall Street Journal. He
received his business education from the
London Business School, Harvard
Business School and London Brunel
Graduate School. An accomplished
speaker and thought leader, Idris often
speaks at international conferences
and has a gift for astute observations
and a lively, humorous style that
engages a broad range of audiences.
www.ideacouture.com
blog: http://mootee.typepad.com
162 163

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“Like human beings,

all brands are born equal.

All rights reserved. Published by

60-Minute Brand Strategist –

Book and cover design:

Idris Mootee, CEO

We’re a long long way from that day.

LOGIC AND EMOTION

ITEM WORkING ITEM WORkING

ITEM WORkING ITEM WORkING

To plan for three years,

deep need that competence? Daniel kahneman of Princeton describes

we satisfy? What are we

BRANDS THAT BRANDS THAT

BRANDS THAT FOCUS

Brand vision and

BRANDS ARE BEING BRANDS STRUGGLE

2. COMMUNICATING YOUR PROMISE

BRAND STRATEGY CORPORATE STRATEGY

4. STRENGTHENING YOUR PROMISE

Once an emotional territory

A product is quickly A great brand is timeless.

Three key requirements for

1. Trust between brand and

INTERRUPTION INTRUSION ENGAGEMENT

“We spent eight

logo and tagline.”

educational back- messages and were “me-too” products destined to

grounds, working slogans, coming up brands to a near-commodity status.

in similar jobs, coming with similar brand

things, with similar prices. Welcome to

– kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,

The Battle of Brands

“Traditionally, tactical marketing decisions –

COMMITMENT SELF-CONCEPT CONNECTION

INTIMACY PARTNER qUALITY

Does the Are there

Is there Horizontal Vertical Another Product Brand

Can the brand

reasons for doing

A TELEVISION A CREDIT CARD

A CELL PHONE A LAPTOP

SUV Designer Hand Bag

Personal Computer Plasma TV

Air Conditioner Tea Bags

WHAT WE kNOW WHAT WE DON’T kNOW

Brand building is mostly driven

Procter & Gamble Starbucks

Start with Brand Strategy

LEVEL OF BRAND MEANING

DEGREE OF PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION

BRAND PROMISE MISSION STATEMENT

FROM A CLIENT’S FROM THE

Relative Consumer preference or

Salience Relative market awareness

Commitment Index of switchability (or

Relative Perceived Perceived quality satisfaction

Relative Price Market share (value) or

MARkET LEADER CONSUMER

Market Leader = Loyalty Leader?

PRODUCT MARkET LEADER’S BRAND LOYALTY

Medium Loyalty Rates

Low Loyalty Rates CONSUMER