brand box 1 - know your business - the marketer's ultimate toolkit

BRAND BOX

AuthorsAshton BishopJeffrey Cooper

EditingAndrew DurackAdam LongDeanne Constantine

Art DirectionIvan LanghamMegan Cassarchis

DesignJason Gieng

Copyright Notice & DisclaimerCopyright 2012 © Step Change Marketing ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the authors.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

Credits

[email protected]

+61 (2) 8028 6405

www.stepchangemarketing.com

BRAND BOX

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

ContentsBRAND BOX

The Marketer’s Ultimate Toolkit

123456

Book

Book

Book

Book

Book

Book

Introduction

Know Your Business

Know Your Market

Know Your Consumers

What’s the Big Idea?

How to Say It

When and Where to Say It

Brand ArchitectureBrandingPositioning

CompetitionEnvironmentBinary AnalysisPredatory Thinking

ProfilingSegmentationInsightsPricing

Launch or NPD?InnovationCommunications

Advertising IdeaTone & Message

Media StrategyConnection IdeaChannel Planning

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Introduction

Welcome to Brand Box, the marketer’s ultimate toolkit to driving business growth through successful brand building and innovation.

Whether big or small, your brand has a number of secret weapons ready to be unleashed on the market to drive your business forward.

The power of a brand’s voice is potentially the most undervalued and underutilised weapon of all. We’ll teach you how to use it to its full potential.

In this book we will uncover the power of your brand and give you a set of tools and distinctions to unleash the power of your brand and business, all whilst teaching you how to drive truly deep emotional connections with your audience.

It’s about information that’s consumable in the information age; distilling, compiling, combining and simplifying; making accessible great thinking and taking the mystery out of great marketing strategy.

This book also gives you the tools to facilitate workshops and collaborative sessions to arrive at the answers you will need to drive business growth.

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This book only reaches the heights that it does because it’s standing on the shoulders of industry giants

... a tip of the hat back at you all, Sirs!

Dave Trott Edward de Bono Malcolm Gladwell Bill Bernbach David A. Aaker

CST Advertising Creative Genius The Tipping Point Legendary figure in the history of American

advertising

Globally recognised marketing consultant

and author

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The Authors

ASHTON BISHOP

Ashton Bishop is Australia’s Predatory Marketer – an expert in pinpointing how brands can grow by outsmarting their competitors.

However, his path was a somewhat unusual one. After graduating with a commerce/law degree he turned his hand to street performing, TV presenting, stand-up comedy and film directing, and even literally ran away with the circus.

Fortunately Ashton eventually found his niche in marketing, where he has spent the last 14 years working internationally on some of the world’s biggest brands. He’s a business owner, serial entrepreneur, challenging, sometimes even controversial, but always focused on what gets results.

He’s run million dollar campaigns for billion dollar brands, received film awards, guest lectured at leading universities, won creative and strategic recognition from his peers and, in a world first, brought marketing strategy together with digital technology.

JEFF COOPER

Jeff learnt his most valuable lessons in marketing by spending his own money.

Some marketers might be happy with a career that saw them conceptualise and implement million dollar campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands, including Vodafone, CommSec, Commonwealth Bank, Sony, 3M and The Australian; being crowned as one of the top marketers; entrepreneurs in Australia in B&T and Anthill magazine’s 30-under-30 Awards respectively; pioneering world first marketing technologies; co-authoring a six book series on strategy, guest lecturing at Sydney’s top universities on marketing strategy; and taking the helm as the country’s first Gen Y General Manager of a strategic marketing consultancy.

That’s Jeff’s career to date and, at the ripe old age of 28, he plans on achieving a lot more.

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Who do they work for?

Step Change Marketing Leverage to grow: talkability and sharability

Step Change Marketing takes the most powerful tools and secrets of the world’s largest organisations and makes them available to all.Using a series of interactive and engaging workshops, Step Change Marketing delivers a clear path for your business development, no matter what your specific marketing and communications experience or needs.

The solutions are designed to deliver you actions, based on insights, that will drive your business growth. A foundation of essential theory leads quickly into the population of proprietary marketing models and idea generation sessions, leaving you with a myriad of powerful and actionable ideas to drive your business forward.

Our presenters and authors of this book, Ashton Bishop and Jeff Cooper, have decades of experience working with billion dollar brands around the world, including Nestle, Pizza Hut, KFC, GSK, Time Out, DHL, Sony and Nokia.

Find out more at www.stepchangemarketing.com

Client List

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Theories and Definitions Case Studies Tools

Examples andVerbatim

How to use these books:Each page of these books contains either theory and definitions, case studies, tools or examples and verbatim. Use the logo in the top left hand corner of each page to see what the content relates to.

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Marketer’s Ultimate Toolkit: User’s Guide

At the centre of the Business Growth Opportunity Tool is the word “growth”. This word is the fundamental driver of any successful business.

The model is broken down into two sections – insights and actions. This is because effective marketing can only stem from rich insights that then drive actions. Insights without actions are meaningless and won’t drive growth.

Six chapters clarify the tool:

InsightsKnow Your BusinessBe clear about who you are and what you stand for

Know Your MarketHow should you define your category? Who are your competitors? What forces drive your industry, now and in the future?

Know Your CustomersIf you’re trying to talk to everybody, you’ll probably be relevant to nobody. You need to find out who you need to be talking to, what they’re like and what motivates them.

ActionsWhat’s The Big Idea?Innovation is your business lifeblood. Product, Process, Placement and People are some places you can look for your next breakthrough.

How To Say ItMake sure you’re noticed for the right reasons. Your message needs to stand out and deliver a potent message to your prospects.

Where To Say ItWith over 573 buyable media options (not to mention the free ones), you’ve got to be pretty clear about where’s the right place to put your message.

And remember, growth is generally derived from areas where your business is currently spending the least amount of time and focus. Use the Business Growth Opportunity Tool to determine where that currently is and therefore where your biggest opportunities lie. To drive real success, spend the most time on the segment that currently lacks focus or goals. This tool is designed to tap into each section individually; however, to drive real business growth in all areas it is recommended to complete the entire model.

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GROWTH

Know Your Business

Brand Architecture Branding

Positioning

Know Your Consumers

Profiling Segmentation

Insights Pricing

Know Your Market

Competition Environment

Binary Analysis Predatory Thinking


Launch or NPDInnovation

Communications

How to Say It

Advertising IdeaTone & Messaging

When and Where to Say It


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An ApologyThis toolkit has been assembled from over 20 years worth of practical

experience and literally hundreds of sources around the world.

We have tried to always acknowledge, and edify, the sources of the thinking that inspired our model, however, given the frailty of human memory this might

not have always been correctly attributed.

Therefore, we request that anybody who feels like they’ve been misquoted or missed in being quoted please contact us via [email protected]

and we’ll happily attempt to rectify.

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Getting Started

Marketing is an art masquerading as a science.

Great marketing requires both sides of the brain to be working in harmony, because if either side dominates it’s easy to get “creative wank” or “boring self-focused twaddle”.

The next few exercises are designed to “kick over” your marketing engine (brain) and make sure both sides are humming.

You can use them to warm up a group for brainstorm, or just warm-up yourself – what’s important though is that you put aside what you think you know. Come afresh and look for your next marketing breakthrough with “new” eyes.

Creative wankBoring

self-focused twaddle

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Familiarity Exercise

No matter how much marketing knowledge you have, you need to let things go – things aren’t always as they seem! Art & Science engage both parts of the brain.

So who read the phrases to the left and missed the second “the” in each one?

Paris in the

the Spring

xx

Birdin the

the Hand

xxx

Read the following two boxes aloud, exactly as it’s written:

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INTRODUCTION

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Once we see the word “FLOP” we tend to exclude all other possibilities. Yet if you look at the “O” you can see a white “I”. Now if you read the white outlines of the letters you will see the word “FLIP”.

Flip-flop is the complete message, and seems so obvious you wonder why you didn’t see it in the first place!

Flip Flop

Thinkertoys: A handbook of creative thinking techniques by Michael Michalko 2006

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Raw Creativity


Aoccodrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrdige Uinvrevtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoettnt tihng is the frist and lsat ltteer. It’s a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is besauae ocne we laren how to raed we look for the eenssces of the jmulbed ltteers. The huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but preecsievs the wrod as a wlohe. We do tihs ucnsoniuscoly wuithot tuhoght.

We have a raw natural talent to interpret the essence of things. Raw creative techniques are designed to remove the constraints of logic and free your imagination to be creative again – to once again think like a child.

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Infinity Stairs

If you try to come up with new ideas without having a specific goal it would be like trying to climb these stairs – moving up and up forever without actually going anywhere.

“A problem is nothing more than an opportunity in work clothes. A successful businessperson pays attention to problems, converting the problems into opportunities and deciding which opportunities are worth pursuing. These opportunities become productive challenges.”


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Necker Cube

Try and look at things from a different perspective.

Can you make the ball move from being in front of the cube, to inside the cube and finally behind the cube?

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Are you sure of what you see?

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Are you sure of what you see? cont...

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Are you sure of what you see? cont...

Things aren’t always as they seem!

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

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GROWTH

Know Your Business

Brand Architecture Branding

Positioning

Know Your Consumers

Profiling Segmentation

InsightsPricing

Know Your Market

CompetitionEnvironment

Binary AnalysisPredatory Thinking


Launch or NPDInnovation

Communication

How to Say it

Advertising IdeaTone & Messaging

When and Where To Say It


KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

AC

TIO

NS

from

I

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TS

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KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

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Let’s get Started!

Who are you?

If you don’t blow your own horn it’s unlikely others will bother to do it for you. Some marketers get so caught up in where to put their messages and what their competitors are doing they forget to figure out what they’re really about.

Small businesses sometimes forget to separate the principle from the business; big companies sometimes lose the clarity about why they’re even in business.

What’s important to note is that before you waste any time or effort trying to speak to others, you need to have a long, cold, hard look in the mirror and figure out what you’re really about as a business and as a brand.

A BIT ABOUT BRANDSWhat are they?

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A concise definition...It’s such a common term, yet so few really understand what it is with any clarity. We searched for a thorough definition for so long we got sick of it and just made one up! It isn’t sexy, but it is clear and it starts with what a brand isn’t...

A brand is not:A brand is not merely a synonym for a product or service.

A brand is:A brand is created, and lives, in the mind of a consumer; it is a combination of all communication and experiences, both good and bad, intended and unintended, that are identified with a name or symbol and occur both in the consumption of the product or service and in the course of day-to-day life.

What is a Brand?

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A Brand is more than just the Product

A brand is the identity of a specific product, service or business. It can take many forms, including a name, sign, colour combination or symbol. This then encompasses the personality of a product, company or service.

Product• Scope• Attitudes• Quality• Uses

Brand Personality

Symbols

Brand-CustomerRelationships

OrganisationalAssociations

User Imagery

Brand

Building Strong Brands, David A. Aaker 1996

Country of Origin

Self-Expressive Benefits

Emotional Benefits

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26 A Brand is more than just the ProductWhat does this brand bring to mind?

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Brands are like Clothes Hooks

While the previous definition is accurate, this analogy tends to help people understand brands.

...easy! But most minds are more complicated and messy...

So remember that this is what you’re walking into the next time you think about stepping into your customers’ mind – the messier things get the bolder and clearer you need to be.

“If you’re loud or relevant a consumer will start a clothes

hook in their mind where they store their experiences of

your brand – everything goes on the hook, which means

one damp addition and everything gets wet!”

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• The brand lives in the consumer’s mind

• Every contact with the consumer affects the brand

• Every contact with the brand is a brand building opportunity

• Every contact with the brand is a selling opportunity

• Every contact is an opportunity to create an experience

The following definition is not only accurate, but delicate and beautiful.

“The way people build brands is in their heads. We build an

image as birds build nests – from scraps and straw we chance

upon.”

Jeremy Bullmore, Non-Executive Director of WPPDescribed as “quite possibly the most admired man in advertising” (Campaign Magazine’s A List)

Why Brand Building is so Important

Of course, brand building is more than just marketing!

A philosophy on brand building

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Brand Building

Of course, there’s no point in just building a brand without linking this brand building to sales.

Effective brand building has to have a goal in mind beyond just awareness.

The most sensible sentiment we’ve heard around this is:

“You build the brand by selling the

product in the most appropriate way”.

Dave Trott & Murray Chick, CST (UK Advertising Agency)

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Why bother with all this brand

business anyway?Because if you get it right people will

love you for it!

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Commitment Beyond Belief

Those who master what a brand is and earn the love of their customers benefit from unconditional loyalty. Below is a list of a few who command such respect...

3 to 4 weeksFor a reservation at the Le Caprice restaurant in London

Up to 1 monthFor an underground tour of the Mt Isa mine in Queensland

3 to 12 weeksFor a Padron Millenium cigar

Around 6 monthsFor a reservation at Tetsuya’s in Sydney

6 to 18 monthsFor a Harley-Davidson Softail Deuce

2 yearsTo join the Reebok Sports Club/NY

Up to 2 yearsFor Aston Martin’s V12 Vanquish

2 to 3 yearsTo have your Japanese sword polished in Japan

Around 3 yearsFor Kelly and Birkin bags by Hermès

5 yearsFor a Rolex Daytona watch

Up to 5 yearsTo be one of the towns hosting a Tour de France start or finish

Up to 25 yearsFor an MCG membership

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Lovemark Theory

Saatchi and Saatchi developed this model that demonstrates the strongest connections require elements of love and respect working together.

Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide Saatchi & Saatchi

High respect+

Low love=

BRANDS

High respect+

High love=

LOVEMARKS

Low respect+

Low love=

COMMODITIES

Low respect+

High love=

FADS

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Why do People Need Brands?

People use brands to satisfy a need or desire, whether this need or desire is conscious or subconscious. To break this down:

• People don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of those products e.g. you don’t buy a new vacuum cleaner unless it will save you time and effort

• Money can’t buy happiness, but brands can buy a sense of belonging e.g. look at any clothes brand and ask “Why would people buy it?”

• We think we make decisions rationally but most of our decisions are actually made subconsciously. When we buy a particular brand, we are proving that brand has developed its own meaning in our subconscious e.g. Panadol versus generic paracetamol

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5 Ways Brands can Influence Consumers

There are many ways brands can work; here are the 5 we feel are most important:

• A brand can make identical products seem different e.g. commodities: water, petrol, milk

• A brand can set up positive expectations which are self-fulfilling e.g. Moët and Chandon

• A brand can instigate trust and take away risk e.g. Huggies

• A brand can inspire loyalty and encourage repeat purchase e.g. Apple

• A brand can influence the price consumers are willing to pay e.g. Sirena Tuna

Pay more. Buy again.

Believe the product

is better.

Dave Trott & Murray Chick, CST (UK Advertising Agency)

A brand can make identical products

seem different

A brand can set up positive expectations which are self-fulfilling

A brand can inspire loyalty and encourage

repeat purchase

A brand can influence the price consumers are willing to pay

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Brand Failures, Matt Haig 2007

The Bad News?

90% of new brands fail within the first 5 years

This shocking statistic (we have other less dramatic sources that pitch the figure at about 64%) highlights the fact that most brands get it wrong. If you fail to connect, you’ll fade away.

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Average person is exposed to:• $6.72 billion advertising spend in Aus*• Over 1,000,000 branded messages a

year• 3,000 branded messages each day

BUT• They only notice 80• And only react to 10

AND• 57% are remembered negatively

*Nielsen data 2006**BrainWave Connection, UK, 2004

What are some Brands in your World?

Behind the failure is the immense mess and noise that is the marketplace of today.

You’re never just competing with the businesses in your own category, you’re competing with all the marketing NOISE!

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So how do I Build a Brand?

A Brand Identity Model

Developed from work done in the 1990s, David Aaker’s seminal work demystified a lot of the talk about branding and compiled it into a logical model.

• If you can get your thinking on one page then you’ve got a chance

• If you need more than a page to get the essence of your brand down, then you need to spend a bit more time thinking

• Once you have a brand identity model you’ll have the best chance of creating a brand via consistent communications

• You’ll also have an independent reference to decide what’s on-brand and what’s not

• This is used internally (with all staff) and with external suppliers

• Get it to the point where you’d be happy to put it up on everybody’s wall

If you’re interested in developing your own brand on a page, Step Change Marketing run Business Growth Plan workshops. Visit www.stepchangemarketing.com to find out more!


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Brand Roles

Be clear about the role of a particular brand, especially in the context of a brand portfolio. Brand roles will be informed by looking at the competitive environment.


Brand Roles

Endorser

Driver

Silver Bullets Branded Benefits• Features• Components• Service programs

Strategic Brands

Sub-Brand Roles• Describe offerings• Structure and clarify offerings• Augment/modify brand identity• Exploit market opportunities• Support extensions

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Brand Roles cont...

Strategic BrandsBrands that may have small sales now but will gain important sales and profit in the future

Endorser BrandA brand that adds value or endorses a second brand. Should the endorser brand be rolled back?

Branded BenefitsServices/features/ingredients which are unique to your product. Which of these should be branded? Would branding them add value?

Silver BulletA brand within a portfolio that brings breakthrough benefits to the range. What brands or benefits could play a silver bullet role? Are they being exploited properly?

Range BrandA brand that covers a range of products. Identify the range brands. Should the range be modified for the future?

Co-BrandsWhere two brands partner together to launch a product. Are there opportunities to partner or co-brand? Would a co-brand enhance the identity?

Extension OptionsCan your brand be extended sideways across ranges and categories, or vertically into services before/after? Could there be line extensions with different variants?

Vertical ExtensionsIdentify a brand that should move up or down.Clarifying with sub-brands – Could sub-brands be used to minimise confusion?


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Glossary of Terms

Whatever team you’re working with to develop your brand model, please avoid the bullshit lingo and get a clear set of definitions that you can work from.

The attached set from Aaker is a pretty good start.

Brand EquityA set of assets that are linked to a brand’s name:brand name awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand associations

Brand ImageThe current perception of the brand. This should not become the brand identity

Brand IdentityWhat a brand aspires to be

Core IdentityThe timeless essence of the brand

Consumer Value PropositionThe relationship enhancers and reasons to purchase:functional, emotional & self-expressive benefits

Brand Positioning (Evolving)The strategic territory or “rung” in the consumers’ mind we wish to own (competitive)The parts of the identity and the consumer value proposition to be communicated

StraplineConsumer line that tags all communication, reinforcing positioning


BRAND EXPERIENCE

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What does Brand Experience mean?

These days, for brands to thrive they can’t just offer either a functional or emotional benefit – they need to be able to fuse the two together to create an experience and establish themselves in the minds of consumers. How do they do this?

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Functional Benefits

Functional benefits have direct links to customer decisions and user experience e.g. a usb key provides a functional benefit.

If a brand can dominate a key functional benefit, it can dominate a category

• e.g. who competes with Blu-Tack?!

There are a few problems with functional benefits...

• They can fail to differentiate

• They can be easy to copy

• They can reduce strategic flexibility

• They can inhibit brand extensions


Functional benefits are important to help justify decisions.

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Emotional Benefits

Emotional benefits occur when a customer gains a positive feeling from purchasing or using a particular brand e.g. Louis Vuitton makes the wearer feel premium, Volvo makes the driver feel safe.

Emotional benefits add richness and depth to the experience of using the brand. There can be a few problems with emotional benefits also...

• They often take more work to create and maintain with communications

• They can leave you vulnerable to predatory marketing

• They are dependent on consumers having a high emotional attachment to the category

Emotional benefits are important in helping make decisions.


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Experience: Functional and Emotional

The strongest brand identities have both functional and emotional benefits.

A study showed that 47 TV commercials that included an emotional benefit had a higher score than 121 TV commercials with only a functional benefit.

This just goes to show that money can’t buy you happiness, but brands can buy you a sense of belonging.

ExperienceFusing Functional and Emotional Benefits

Product: What it does

Brand: How it makes you feel

Experience: How it fits into your life

For example, when Cristiano Ronaldo buys another countless Porsche he probably won’t have the same experience as a blue-collar worker who has saved all his life to buy one

Emotion in Advertising: Theoretical and Practical Explorations, Stuart Agres 1990The Idea Generator: Tools for Business Growth, Ken Hudson 2007

Fusing the emotional and functional benefits give the user their experience.

We use products, we buy brands, we live experiences.

POSITIONING AND VALUE PROPOSITIONS

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Man do we know how to “marketise” things! Anybody who’s sat around a boardroom table with a big agency as they roll through the lexicon of terms (that nobody in the room really understands) will know how much can be said without any clarity whatsoever. The definitions in the attached sections might not be dead right – we’re not even sure if there is a right! But what we must do as marketers is be clear. We’re expert communicators, so we need to start internally. The ‘90s was all about having a lexicon for marketing that nobody else understood (helps to justify an inflated salary).

In the digital age it’s time to get real, get grounded and make sure we know what we’re trying to say to our customers, why and how it fits into our marketing plan.

In this section we get clear on how you should start with your features, see what value they present, roll it up into a value proposition, then see what part you should be currently communicating to your customers.

This leaves us with your positioning.

Welcome to Jargon

Land!

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Features, Value Propositions and PositioningAn overview

Positioning

Value Proposition

Features, Benefits and Implications

The strongest and most persuasive thought we wish to be known for in the customers’ mind. Informs our tone, language and focus when discussing features

Emotional and rational value to customers

The part of your value proposition you currently wish to communicate to achieve your comm’s objectives

A summary of all the value you represent to your customers in a statement

Comes from a thorough understanding of your product, service, competitors and market

Importance/Resonance Rational/functional sales tool

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Features, Benefits and Implications

Before you can decide on your positioning you must first gain a very thorough understanding of what makes your product or service so valuable and unique.

Most businesses talk about the same things and forget to mention the things that make them truly different. If you’re competing with a giant in your category and talk about the same things, you’ll lose.

You need to focus on what makes you different.

Use the chart on the next two pages to note down exactly what your features, benefits and implications are.

FOR FEATURES: Make your features as specific as possible. Don’t just say “quality”; you have to mention what makes the quality so good: e.g. the source of ingredients; or that each staff member has four weeks specialist training; or that each product is hand checked on the production line. You don’t necessarily need to communicate all the features you list, but it’s great to have a full list.

FOR BENEFITS: Make sure you’ve thought about it from the customers’ point of view.

FOR IMPLICATIONS: Think about what is now possible in your customers’ lives that wasn’t previously. While product features are important, always remember that customers are not buying your product or service; they are buying the benefits they get from your product or service.

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How do you provide Value?

Your business can add value to a customer in many different ways. Assess the above dimensions (or ones we haven’t listed) and see how you’re helping your customers out.

Speed

Service and delivery

Lots of features

New or unique features

Guarantees

Performance

Customisation

Cost savings

Derived from use

Value for $

Self-experience benefits

Value

Benefits

Look and feel

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Value Proposition

“A brand’s value proposition is a statement of the functional, emotional and self-expressive benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to the customer.”

A good way to explore your value proposition is to fill in the template below.

To people who ... (target audience need-state), (product/service/company) is the (role it plays) that (reason to believe).

In a world where it’s all a bit “too serious”, Coke is the catalyst for the young at heart to cut-free and experience summer, music,

movement, and life.

Coca-Cola Example:

Value proposition: Building Strong Brands, David A. Aaker 1996

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What do you do with Value Propositions?

Positioning through to Strapline (Tagline)

Not all businesses have or need a strapline/endline/tagline, however, all businesses should have a positioning.

Value Proposition:Why consumers buy, a summation of all their reasons

Positioning Line:Internal line that repositions the competition and guides action

Strapline:Consumer expression of positioning line (optional)

Bring out the inner sports star in everyday people, every day

Just do it!

NB: Don’t confuse with a Call To Action (which is a motivating statement designed to prompt a customer to the desired course of action).

Nike are always innovating to be on the cutting edge of sports technology

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57 Impulse gives me the confidence to explore and enjoy the sometimes bumpy journey into womanhood. As I experiment with the emerging me, Impulse surrounds me with an energy field filled with vitality, spontaneity and the courage to be myself.

Value Proposition Example: Impulse

Value Proposition Example: JaguarThe difference between Jaguar and other cars runs deeper than sheet metal and engineering:

It’s about soul, passion and originality A jaguar is a copy of nothing... just like its owners

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Why do you need a positioning?

We’ve seen how cluttered minds are and we’ve seen how the only way to build a brand is to get a rung in your customers’ mind.

Positioning is about defining that single rung in your customers’ minds, in the category (the ladder) that you belong.

It’s about figuring out the single thought or idea – “rung” – you want to own and then focusing on owning it.

It must be true to you, relevant to your audience and must make it difficult for your competition to compete.

PositioningThe Battle for

your Mind

“Positioning is about defining that single rung in your customers’ mind.”

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries & Jack Trout 1981

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Brand Identity and Positioning

Why?

Differentiates versus competition

Brand Identity&

Positioning

Guides Extension Options

Guides BrandStrategy

Improves Brand Memorability

Internal Focus for the Organisation

Adds to the Bottom Line:Provides a Consumer Value

Proposition


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The Battle for the Mind

So it’s as simple as deciding which “rung” you’d like to own and taking it from there, right? No way! Unfortunately there are a few barriers in the way...

• Minds are limited• Minds hate confusion• Minds are insecure• Minds don’t change• Minds can lose focus

Our perceptions are selective. And our memory is highly selective. Harvard psychologist George Miller proposed that only seven “chunks” of information, like seven brands in a category, can easily be held in short-term memory.


• 98% of all American homes have at least 1 television• 96% of all households can receive 4 or more channels

(one-third can receive 10 or more)• The average American family watches television more

than 7 hours a day• One weekday edition of The New York Times contains

more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th century England

• In Sweden, the average consumer receives 3,000 commercial messages a day

• Within 24 hours people forget up to 80% of what they thought they had learned `

• And this was back in 1981; in the present day it’s even more cluttered.

What does the battlefield look like?The mind

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Effective Positioning

A quick quiz...

• Who was Charles Peter Conrad?• What is the second highest mountain in Australia?• Who was the second man to fly solo across the Pacific?

Well...

• Charles Peter Conrad was the third man to walk on the moon• The second highest mountain in Australia is Mount Townsend in NSW• As for this...we’re still not sure even after trawling the Internet!!

The point is...who really remembers number 2 or 3?

The amount of ladders in your mind is very much limited, and the more “rungs” you can command the more interest you will hold.

So, research suggests you can only retain about seven pieces of information in your short-term memory, and historical data shows that first brand to brain, on average, gets twice the long-term market share as #2, and twice again as #3.

So...who was the seventh man to walk on the moon?!

Be a Market Leader in a smaller market!

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Determining a Brand PositionPositioning is about seeing what fits best and what holds your communications needs together.

PositioningPrinciples

How is it done?


BrandPositioning

Brand IdentityHighlights of Customer Value

PropositionConsistent with your Brand Essence

Brand Image vs. Identity

Strategic ImperativesWhat do we need to do/own?

Associations

CategoryDefined clearlyComplementarySupplementary

CompetitionShare or Grow

Predatory PositioningRelative or Absolute

Target AudienceSegmentsInsightsDrivers

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Positioning: USP and ESP

Your positioning works at a brand building level.

It may form the basis of a proposition for a communications brief, however, your communications brief may be purely tactical and have a specific role that’s very immediate, i.e. it might not be ABOUT your positioning.

It all depends on the purpose of the communication.

Therefore, at this point it’s worthwhile cracking a few old chestnuts and looking at the textbook Unique Selling Proposition and the newer Emotional Selling Proposition in the context of Positioning.

USP

Positioning

ESP

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USP: What is it?

SP

UP

USP

Selling PropositionSomething that motivates the behaviour of critical mass but is not unique to the brand.

E.g. News Corp have hard news, gossip, guides, reviews etc., but so do all the competitors

Unique PropositionA proposition that is unique to the brand but not sufficiently motivating to drive consumer behaviour of critical mass.E.g. Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg, but that’s not why you joined

Unique Selling PropositionIs both unique and motivating to consumers. If you have one, this is gold. It’s a single thought that will usually be used to drive your positioning. E.g. Pepsi tastes better than Coke in ¾ blind taste tests

David Trott, CTS Advertising UK

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ESP: What is it?

Examples:Coke = Refreshment (they have no USP other than taste which is extremely subjective. When blind researched, ¾ people consistently prefer Pepsi but buy Coke anyway)

Kleenex = Softness (can anyone truly say that Kleenex are softer, or better, tissues across the range? No, but it’s the leading brand anyway)

BMW = Performance (realistically, for the money the new Audi’s are giving them a run on value and performance, and at the same price point the Mercs are very good. Yet BMW are “sheer driving pleasure”)

It’s the ESP of these products, not a USP, that makes them sell. In some cases they have rational supports for this, but nothing that is motivational enough and unique on its own.

ESP

Emotional Selling PropositionAn Emotional Selling Propositioning captures a relevant emotion that drives consumer behaviour. N.B. A brand can own a single emotion within a category

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USP & ESP working together:Kleenex

David Trott, CTS Advertising UK

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Positioning: How is it done?

The basic positioning approach is not to create something new and different but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind; to retie the connections that already exist.

So how is positioning done? You position a product in the mind of the prospect.

E.g. “Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.”

Sometimes positioning can be confused with simply trying to change people’s minds. The lesson to be learnt here is:

Mind-changing is the road to advertising disaster

“We’re better than our competitors” isn’t repositioning. It’s comparative advertising and generally not very effective.

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Developing a Brand Position

Positioning a brand starts with a simple piece of market research called a “Top-of-Mind” Awareness (TOMA) survey.

The basis of brand positioning begins by discovering:

1. The current position of your brand

2. The position of your competitors’ brand(s)

3. Where you want to be positioned

4. What you need to do to get there

True to the brand

Different from everything else

Relevant & desirable to

target market

The Sweet Spot

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Positioning Principles

Customers act on perceptions, not market factsWhat people believe is very strongly influenced by past experiences and beliefs

Minds are limitedCompanies must only focus on the few important things in customers’ minds

Minds are hard to changeEverything a company does creates an image in the customers’ mind which is very difficult to erase or change

Be first, Be competitive,

Be clear

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Positioning: A work over time

While positioning is the part of your value proposition that you currently wish to communicate, it might change with time.

That said, you’d want a very good reason to change it (i.e. a fundamental change in market conditions).

This is because it’s bloody hard to be known for anything (good that is), and once you’ve spent time and money on a positioning, you want to think long and hard before moving.

The following case study is a great example of the

long-term commitment that positioning entails...

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Back in 1974, BMW sold 15,007 automobiles in the American market, which made the brand the 11th largest-selling European vehicle.

The following year, BMW’s new agency, Ammirati Puris AvRutick, launched an advertising campaign that would make both the agency and the brand famous: “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”

It’s been 31 years since the launch of the ultimate driving machine. So how is BMW doing? Not bad.

Last year BMW was the largest-selling European brand in the American market.

BMW Case StudyThe Ultimate Driving Machine


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BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine cont...

The importance of positioning longevity

One of the most important conceptual ideas in marketing is “owning a word in the mind”. In almost every market, in almost every category, the leading brands are brands that can be identified by a single word or concept. BMW owns “driving”. Mercedes-Benz owns “prestige”. Volvo owns “safety”.

1974 Top 10European cars in US market

1. Volkswagen 334,515 2. Capri 75,260 3. Fiat 72,029 4. Opel 59,279 5. Volvo 53,043 6. Audi 50,432 7. Mercedes-Benz 38,170 8. MG 25,015 9. Porsche 21,022 10. Triumph 18,396 11. BMW 15,007

2005 Top 10 European cars in US market

1. BMW 266,200 2. Mercedes-Benz 224,269 3. Volkswagen 224,195 4. Volvo 123,587 5. Audi 83,066 6. Land Rover 46,175 7. Mini 40,820 8. Porsche 31,933 9. Jaguar 30,424 10. Bentley 3,654

The Ultimate Driving Machine

11th 1st


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Be Relevant

But what does this mean?

• Consumers don’t have NEEDS anymore – these are all being met

• They have many DON’T NEEDS

• And occasionally they have WANTS

You need to be the solution for a need,not a solution looking for a need.

How is this done?Your UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

Being remarkable for remarkable’s sake is flash-in-the-pan rubbish. The fire burns bright for all the wrong reasons and the brand (and the business) tend to disappear very rapidly.

Remarkablilty without relevance is showboating.

If you have both, you have outstanding marketing.

A warning

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Be a challengerThe web is a wonderful thing. It has opened us up to an audience of billions of people, however, it’s also put us into direct competition with trillion pound gorillas like Google!

Therefore, every business should ask themselves what Google will do when it comes time to enter their category... and don’t be so cocky as to think you’re safe. If it’s not Google, it might be Apple, Walmart, Woolworths, Telstra, Harvey Norman or Amazon – the list goes on.

We might think we’re big in our category, but what happens if a true giant enters? How will we compete then?

The solutionThe solution... think like a challenger. No matter where we are in the market we can take on a challenger mindset, make ourselves competitive and defend our patch from whoever walks through the door.

The leader on challenger thinking is Adam Morgan (see his model on next page). Buy his books and sign up to whatever he’s selling, he’s a genius!

Challenger BrandsBuilding a

Challenger Brand

“Take on a challenger mindset, make ourselves competitive and defend our patch.”

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Positioning as a Challenger Brand

A 4-Stage Process

Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Adam MorganYou can download a summary from his website www.eatbigfish.com

STAGE 1: Attitude & Preparation

STAGE 2: Challenger Strategy

STAGE 3: Challenger Behaviour

STAGE 4: Sustaining Challenger Momentum

Break with immediate past

Build a lighthouse identityAssume thought leadership

for the categoryCreate symbols of

re-evaluation

Sacrifice OverCommitment

Use Advertising/PRas a high leverage asset

Become idea centric

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• We believe that being a Challenger is a state of mind – not a

state of market. Challenger thinking is as relevant for a market

leader as for a niche player

• We believe that Intelligent Naivety – intelligently applied

inexperience – has changed the face of most of the categories

around us more profoundly than a lifetime of applied category

experience

• We believe in values and belief based branding. That brands

should have a strong point of view. That this internal compass

helps drive every decision they make

• We believe that Challengers with this clear sense of

themselves act like a Lighthouse. They take a stand, on solid

foundations, and intensely and consistently project their point

of view in everything they do. They encourage the consumer to

“navigate” by them

eatbigfish.com by Adam Morgan

Positioning as a Challenger Brand

Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete Against Brand Leaders, Adam MorganYou can download a summary from his website www.eatbigfish.com

• We believe that if you are not the market leader in the

category, you have to be the Thought Leader

• We believe that you have far more media at your disposal than

you think you do. You are just not recognising them as media

at the moment

• We believe that innovation is embedded in a culture, not a six

sigma innovation funnel

• We believe successful brands are idea centred – not

consumer centred. That momentum is the currency of a

Challenger that sustains its appeal, and ideas are the fuel of

that momentum

• And finally, we believe that the Challenger model is the

strategic business model of the future

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The Positioning Game

You must have vision. There is no sense building a position based on a technology or product that is too narrow.

You have to learn how to separate your efforts from the general movement of the economy.

Today, only the obvious idea will work. The overwhelming volume of communication prevents anything else from succeeding.

The secret to establishing a successful position is to keep two things in balance:

1. A unique position, with

2. An appeal that’s not too narrow

Positioning Traps

“Only the obvious idea will work.”

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Positioning Pitfalls

Marketers generally don’t trust common sense as much as they trust some complex piece of research.

The problem is that you can get niched in the customers mind and limit your future options if you follow them.

Remember, don’t be cute or complex. Tell it like it is.

Example:Volkswagen’s “Think small”Volvo’s “Drive Safely”

Peter Drucker once wrote: “What business am I in? The question can be answered only by looking at the business from the outside, from the point of view of the customer and the market.”

Positioning has to line up with the perceptions in the mind, not go against them.

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Repositioning

Has your company lost focus in the mind of the marketplace? It may be that it’s time for a repositioning.

Have a look at one of the great success stories: Pork: “The Other White Meat”. This refreshed and invigorated a tired old stalwart.

But why go to the effort?

Because if you don’t change you become an easy target.

How can it be done?

• A complementary approach

• Different names

• Different positions

• Different target audiences

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Minds are Hard to Change

Volkswagen found it very difficult to convince people that the company was able to produce cars other than the small, reliable, economical car like the Beetle.

It comes back to what we’re familiar with and what we’re already comfortable with.

The consumer shouldn’t have to take too many mental steps.

Easier said than done

BRAND ARCHETYPES

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Carl Jung distinguished that every society ever created shared knowledge via stories.

In the stories are characters. The interesting thing is the characters in the stories are the SAME!

It didn’t matter if it was a Hollywood movie or an Indonesian pygmy hill-tribe, the same characters kept on popping up.

It’s the way we store as humans we have an innate filing cabinet. A way we store and sort characters and their attributes.

So if a brand’s role is to be remembered, then tapping into this filing system is a massive head start...

There is argument as to whether there are 12 or 16 archetypes. Our model uses 12, although we throw a couple of extras in later.

Brand Archetypes

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Brand Archetypes

Archetypes are historic truths that capture different types of human characteristics.

Archetypes have existed ever since humans started telling stories.

Archetypes are personified symbols that allow the conscious mind to identify with, or access, subconscious desires, meanings and truths.

Brand archetypes go beyond stating product features and benefits to connect with the customer in a deep and profoundly meaningful way.

A stereotype is simply a perceived set of values attached to a person or product.

Brands rooted in cultural-specific norms are simplistic and undefined

Brands rooted in universal and eternal truths are rich and distinctive

StereotypeE.g. SNAGS

1980’s Sensitive New Age Guy(He’s long gone and the metrosexual now reigns)

ArchetypeE.g. Virgin/Domestos

The difference between Stereotypes and Archetypes

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The 12 Archetypes

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The 12 Archetypes cont...

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The 12 Archetypes cont..

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Knowledge

Reassurance

Anti-Establishment

Excitement

Leadership Confidence

Trust Partnership

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Knowledge

Reassurance

Anti-Establishment

Excitement

Leadership Confidence

Trust Partnership

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3-Step Tool to Finding your Archetype

1. Find archetype(s) that you want to project yourself as – you can have up to 3. Think about historic/credibility. Decide on a Core – your essence, and decide on a Future – the influencer that will shape you as you evolve.

Find Iconic Archetype1

Define Nuances and Refine2

Continually Contemporise3

2. Place no more than 4 descriptive words around any one archetype that you would like to project. Make sure the words are not inconsistent with the essence of that archetype.

3. Review at least once a year and look at the language, cues, associations and celebrities that best represent your archetype. You want to be contemporary; as society evolves the expression of our archetype might change, whilst the underlying values and nature probably shouldn’t.

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3-Step Tool to Finding your Archetype

Core Archetype

Clarifier

Clarifier

Clarifier Clarifier

InfluencerArchetype

Influencer

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An Archetype Example: FutureThread

Core

InfluencerInfluencer

We are an expert alliance of business provocateurs (visionaries)

Brand Essence:The vision that business visionaries need

Mission:We are the agent provocateurs that CEOs turn to for the radical shifts required to produce radical profits

Experience:Makes me feel: ballsy, inspired, courageous, edgy and smart. Says I’m: a progressive visionary who is open to ideas and who is ahead of the game

Advertising Line:World’s Next Practice

An Example:

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Additional Archetypes

As discussed earlier, there is an argument as to how many archetypes there actually are. Some additional archetypes that aren’t always included in the first 12 are shown here.

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Additional Archetypes

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What do I do with my Archetype?

Now that you have a better understanding of who you are, use your archetype’s personality traits as a check for every time you create a piece of communication. Ask yourself the question: Is this how my archetype would speak? Is this the kind of language my archetype would use? Is this the kind of place my archetype would be found?

If you find yourself doing anything out of character then you will need to refine the message to ensure it fits in with your archetype’s personality. Remember: consistency is key.

NAMING BRANDSTricks and Traps

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A good name...A good name can pair your business with a need and then set off the positioning process in your customers’ mind. Every time they hear, read or speak your brand they will be reminded of that need, and the association between the need and your brand will grow.

The problem is that sometimes the brand name can become outdated but difficult to change. Sub-branding can be used to lock an old brand to a new product, and way of thinking, without changing the whole name.

Names, Names, Names!

“Every time they hear, read or speak your brand they will be reminded of that need.”


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The Power of the Name

The name is the hook that hangs the brand on the product ladder in the prospect’s mind. In the positioning era, the single most important marketing decision you can make is what to name the product.

The name of the product should never become too close to the product itself as it will become generic – a name for all products of its class rather than a trade name for a specific brand. When this happens, the brand name becomes a surrogate or substitute for the generic name – “Grab the Esky and the Thermos” – and your brand champions the whole category, rather than just itself.

One name can’t stand for two distinctly different products. When one gains in popularity the other invariably must go down.

An experiment using two equally beautiful girls demonstrated that beauty is only name deep. The girls were named Jennifer and Gertrude and a group were asked to vote on which woman was prettier.

The results showed that 158 people said that Jennifer was prettier while Gertrude only received 39 votes. The name “Gertrude” seemed an unpleasant sound that distorted people’s views on things*.

So the lesson is that your headlines should sound good as well as look good. The rhyme or rhythm of the words can be powerful memory devices.

* apologies to all Gertrudes!


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The Ear and the Eye

Don’t forget that a brand’s name is more than just what they see. Your brand will need to be as easily recognisable and memorable when heard as it is when seen. A customer’s relationship with a brand is through the eye and the ear.

Consider this...

• People remember more words if they hear the words than if they see them

• The mind holds spoken words in storage much longer, enabling you to follow the train of thought with greater clarity

• 35% of meaning from a spoken word depends on the tone in which it is said

• You see what you hear, what the sound has led you to expect to see, not what the eye tells you it has seen

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How the Ear Failed...

...the Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption was a terrific movie. To its financial backers, it seemed to have everything going for it: interesting plot written by Stephen King, talented cast – Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins – well produced, beautifully crafted and it received 7 Oscar nominations!

So imagine their disappointment when it bombed at the box office!

But why? Because the name sucked!

“Shawshank Redemption? Huh? What’s that about?” said millions of cinema goers, “Let’s go see Speed instead – the one with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock getting together on a speeding bus!”

The problem is that most names have already been chosen by someone else! In the US there are about 1.6 million registered trademarks, and another 3 million in Europe. Nine out of ten times you’ll find that the name you search for has already been taken!

The problem with good names

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So How do you Choose a Good Name?

The name and the positioning tend to work hand-in-hand. It’s always best to consider both together (see “Positioning” section). Between the names and your positioning line you should be communicating what you stand for to customers. The below helps you explore the dimensions that this opens up.

Credible & Clear

Cut-through& Edgy

Clear Name&

Clear Positioning=

Unremarkable

Cut-through Name&

Cut-through Positioning=

Lack of Credibility

Cut-through NameClear Positioning(Most effective!)

Clear NameCut-through Positioning

(Most effective!)

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Give a dog a good name, and it will answer

..but remember, a good name does not equal a good business. You can still have a great business with a bad name and be successful, and you can have the best name in the world without having a good business.

True success lies when you couple a great name with a great business.

Give a Dog a Good Name!

BRAND PROTECTION AND STRENGTH

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Even if you just skim through some of the brands at the front of this

book you’ll be able to see how much some brands are worth.

In a business sense they can be summarised as the intangible value of a stock beyond its net assets.

Some examples are Nokia worth over $26 billion, Sony over $12 billion and KFC and Pizza Hut (both YUM restaurants) combining to be over $10 billion.

With this sort of money at stake it’s clear why the big brands are happy to pay big agencies the big bucks to make sure they’re getting the best advice on the market.

The following presents the case for why spending time and money on developing your brand through marketing can be the difference between profits and failure.

Protecting your Value

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Real Brand Value

Brand Protection, The Economist

Coke’s Market CapIncluding Brand Value:$120 Billion

Coke’s Market CapNot Including Brand Value:$50 Billion

It’s easy to see why brand is important:

Without the brand, Coca-Cola’s bottle would be half empty!

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Brand Strength

BRAND driven purchases 84%:• Insurance• Luxury Cars• Banks• Perfume

Millward Brown, BrandZ UK 2007, 33 categories, 500+ brands, 6000+ consumers

84%

6%

10% }

}

}Other purchases

59%

6%

10%

25%

}

}

Goods bought on price alone

Goods bought on strength of brand

} Bought for other reasons

} Compromise between brand and price

PRICE driven purchases 10%:• Utilities• Mineral Water• Apparel• Fuel

The below documents the purchasing drivers for a variety of products bought in the UK. It highlights how perception, created by brand, is the most important factor in purchasing decisions.

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Value to Consumers

Value to consumers is not based on price alone

Millward Brown, BrandZ UK 2007, 33 categories, 500+ brands, 6000+ consumers

65%

35% } Price elated

} NOT price related

When you look at the breakdown below, the majority of purchases are not based on price at all – which means that 65% of purchases are related to how strong your brand actually is.

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Short-Term Benefit and Long-Term Risk

The next two pages give us a long-term case study looking at the importance of marketing, particularly during recession. During recession it is tempting to cut the marketing budget in order to “save money”. The below graph shows what happens to overall profits with varying levels of marketing spend...

When you compare this against the table below you can see that cutting the marketing budget doesn’t actually save you any money in the long run – in fact, you can end up taking 5 years just to recover to usual profit levels.

The lesson to be learnt? Brand Building is a long term view.

ROI defined as the increments in revenue generated from advertising per unit of spend

Data2Decisions

Profit when marketing budget is maintained

Profit with zero advertising for 1 year, then back to usual budgetProfit with half advertising for 1 year, then back to usual budget

Profit

Time

Zero Budget (year 1)

Half Budget (year 1)

Budget Saved Sales Foregone Profit Foregone Bottom-line Loss Time to Recover

$1.8m

$0.9m

$8.6m

$4.3m

$3.5m

$1.7m

$1.7m

$0.8m

5 years

3 years

BRAND EXTENSIONSTheories and Explanations

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You may think that you have a strong brand. However, the true strength of a brand only shows up in the face of strong competition. This might be an entrant into a market or technology change.

Think about Nudie (Innocent Smoothies UK) bringing the values of the “Innocent” archetype and completely transforming the category.

Think about Sony Walkman and the introduction of the iPod.

Think about Nokia and the introduction of the iPhone.

As marketers we need to take great care to understand how strong and vulnerable our brands and products REALLY are.

How Strong is

my Brand?

“The true strength of a brand only shows up in the face of strong competition.”

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Leveraging your Brand

The “family tree” of brand extension


Line Extensionsin existing

Product Class

Stretching the Brand Vertically

in existing Product Class

Brand Extensionsin different

Product Class

Co-Branding

Leveragingthe

Brand

StretchingDown

StretchingUp

Ad Hoc Brand Extensions

Creating a Range Brand

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Line ExtensionExtending a brand name to other forms and varieties of the original product that offer the same benefit and usage behaviour e.g. Gillette, Nescafe

Types of Extensions

Brand ExtensionExtending a brand name to other products in other market segments e.g. Virgin, Yamaha

VS.

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Line Extension

The rules to not disrupt your house brand

1. Expected volume Potentially huge brands should not bear the house name so that they can stand on

their own. Small-volume products should.

2. Competition In a vacuum, where the brand doesn’t need to stand out, the brand should not bear the

house name. In a crowded field, it should.

3. Advertising Support Big-budget brands should not bear the house name so their message can stand alone.

Small-budget brands should.

4. Significance Breakthrough products should not bear the household name in order to minimise

disruption. Commodity products such as chemicals should.

5. Off-the-shelf items Should not bear the house name. Items sold by sales reps should.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout 1981

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Brand Extension

When it can work

1. Generally, the more things a brand stands for, the weaker it becomes. For some brands, however, the brand is powerful and versatile enough to enter a completely new category.

2. It’s useful to ask why a brand exists and therefore what it can bring to a new category

3. The factors of production efficiencies, distribution, customer awareness, loyalty and competitive set should all be carefully reviewed before forming an opinion on whether the brand is right for the new category.

4. Virgin’s essence of “David slaying Goliaths wherever they sleep” makes it the king of x-category brand extensions, adding value for staff and customers alike.

5. That said, it’s reputed that over half of Virgin’s new category launches never make it, so this strategy should be treated with caution.

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To Extend or Not to Extend?

Brand extensions can strengthen a business as they provide new revenue streams, new news and new ways to enjoy the brand,

BUT...

A new product will weaken a brand as it now stands for more things – the more things something stands for the less brand strength it has.

As marketers we need to be very strategic in deciding:

whether to launch a new product under an existing brand (leveraging its strength/but risking its dilution of equity)

VS.

the challenges of establishing a new brand (and the low success rates launches have)

Launch a new product under an

existing brand

VS.

Establish a new brand

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New Brands VS. Extensions

When to use which

In a large scale test it was proven that brand extensions did not perform as well as products launched with new brand names.

But what other options do you have?

More brand extensions

LessFocus

LessSales= =

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Compete with Yourself!

Don’t slaughter tomorrow’s opportunity on the altar of yesterday!

Having a competitive streak within your business is always good; sometimes it is good to extend this competition to the marketplace.

Gillette use brands to compete against themselves.

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Life After the 30-Second Spot, Joseph Jaffe 2005

Colgate’s enormous line extension creates confusion and an excess of choice. Conversely, they have a wall of Colgate in a supermarket that’s hard to ignore. This might be due to lack of a very strong competitor.

Example: Colgate

BRAND EXTENSIONS

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119

Overview of Growth through Brand Extension

Single Brand Product Line Extension Category Extension Business Extension

Evian Colgate

Whitening Tartar Control

Dove

Deodorant Hair Care

Virgin

Shower Gel Mobile Phones Credit Cards

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The Problem of Extensions

Minds can lose focus!

Remember our clothes hook example? Well the same can happen within a brand.

For Example:

Budweiser has brought out 15 new products – do you even know which one you have in mind?

Unchecked product line expansion can weaken a brand’s image, disturb trade relations and disguise cost increases.

The more variations you attach to the brand, the more the mind loses focus, the more you lose focus and the more vulnerable you become.

In most cases the specialist or the well-focused competitor is the winner as they can focus on one product, one benefit, one message. The specialist also has the ability to be perceived as the expert or the best.


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Brand Glossary

Parent Brand • Key driver of preference and conviction• Key source of brand equity• Purchase consolidator

Heinz, Cadbury

Driver Brand • Driver brand is purchase driver• Driver brand has its own personality independent

of the parent brand

iPod - part of Apple but stands on its own

Sub-Brand • Sub-brand is a secondary driver• Sub-brand has its own personality, akin to a sibling

of the parent brand• Sub-brand does not have to be descriptive

Arnotts Savoys

Range Descriptor • Range descriptor primarily describes a product range for ease of navigation

• Often not trademark-able due to its descriptive nature

Continental Cup-a-Soup

Product Descriptor • Product descriptor simply describes a product type for ease of selection

Essential Herbs and Spices

Term Definition Example

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This model illustrates that any single purchase decision is a mix of master brand appeal and individual product features

(sub-brands). Understanding what it is and what it should be helps a marketer plan for messaging hierarchy.

Communication and Brand

Relationships

Master BrandSub-Brand/

Individual Product Features

PurchaseDecision

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Brand Relationship Spectrum

A different approach to Brand Management

Branded HouseSingle brand across organisation

IBMVirginNokia

Share HouseEndorsed brands

MicrosoftAppleSonyMcDonald’s

House of Brands Proctor & GambleGSKUnilever

Types of Brand Organisation Brand

WindowsiPodWalkmanBig Mac

PampersNicabateLux

Individual Brand

Brand

Parent

Brand

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Brand Relationship Spectrum

Branded House

Same Identity Different Identity

Sub-Brand

Master Brand as Driver

Co-Driver

DESKJET

Endorsed Brands

Strong Endorsement

Linked Name Token Endorsement

BY

House of Brands

Shadow Endorser

Not Connected

G.D Searle

Star Co-Star Support Role Backstage

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“Master Brand” Casting - An Alternative View

Star: Solo

Driver: master brand,with product descriptor

Heinz as the master brand

Co-Star: The Lead

Heinz as master brand with Organic as descriptor

Co-Star:Equal Billing

Heinz and Alphaghetti together

Support Role:Back-up

Baked beans endorsed by Heinz master brand

Support Role:Minor Cameo

EZ Squirt sub-brand consolidated under Heinz master brand

Driver: master brand,but range descriptor adds something

Driver: master & sub-brandPrimary/Secondary, roughly 50/50

Driver: master as endorser

Driver: Sub-brandmaster brand consolidates

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Brand Life Stage

What are the classifications?

Cash cows are units with high market share in a slow-growing industry. They typically generate cash in excess of the amount needed to maintain the business.

Dogs are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units typically “break even”, generating barely enough cash to maintain the business’s market share.

Question marks are growing rapidly and thus consume large amounts of cash, but because they have low market shares do not generate much cash.

Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. The hope is that stars become the next cash cows.

QuestionMarks

Dogs

Cash Cows

Stars

Business ReturnPositive (+)

Negative (-)

www.wikipedia.org - BCG Growth Matrix

BRAND TRACKERS

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The head of P&G, the world’s largest advertiser, once famously said, “I know half of my advertising is completely wasted, I just don’t know which half.”Just as consumer decision making is very complex, the way marketing works in totality is complex too.

So as well as tracking each individual element, we also need to take a look at the bigger picture and look how they work in combination to build value in our businesses and brands.

Tracking can be a minefield, and difficult to do, so the following are ways to quantify your marketing.

Brand Pulse

“I know half of my advertising is completely wasted, I just don’t know which half.”

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Objectives

What is the aim of your marketing?

• Sales volume

• Margin

• Brand awareness

• Advertising awareness (both spontaneous and prompted)

• Brand image

• Brand predisposition (likelihood to buy)

• Recall of advertising

• Recall of claims made by the advertising

• Recognition of unbranded ads and the degree to which they are attributed to the correct advertiser

Before you try to accurately measure anything, you need to be sure you’re actually looking at the right thing.

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Value Equation

Value(Perceived)

PriceBenefit

=

Price Elasticity - A measure of the change in demand in response to a change in price of a product or service. Low price elasticity indicates little change in demand; high elasticity indicates a relatively large change in demand.

Having a low price elasticity is a wonderful goal to have as a marketer. The ability to put your price up and not lose demand indicates you’ve built significant value in your brand and differentiated from your competitors strongly.

We’ve seen the lows of things like the Pizza Wars where Dominos, Eagle Boys and Pizza Hut all just undercut each other until margin was gone. None of them has sufficient elasticity to protect their bottom lines.

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Brand Differentials

Brand Preference - The measure of brand loyalty in which a consumer will choose a particular brand in the presence of competing brands, but will accept substitutes if that brand is not available.

Brand Preference

Brand Equity

Brand Equity - The added value a brand name identity brings to a product or service beyond the functional benefits provided.

VS.

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Brand Equity - Ten Measures

1. Price Premium

2. Satisfaction/Loyalty

3. Perceived Quality

4. Leadership/Popularity

5. Perceived Value

6. Brand Personality

7. Organisational Associations

8. Brand Awareness

9. Market share

10. Market Price and Distribution Coverage

In his book, David identifies the factors that correlate most highly to brand equity. Not all brand attributes affect equity equally. Leadership, innovation and perceived quality actually correlate the strongest and are stand-out for those trying to build value in their brand.


{Loyalty Measures

{Perceived Quality/Leadership Measures

{

Awareness Measures {

Associations/Differentiation Measures

Market Behaviour Measures {

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Interbrand’s Top Brands

Interbrand is a methodology which uses a set of criteria looking at the business prospects of the brand, brand market, as well as customer perception. The evaluation uses 7 influences:

Leadership - reflects against the leader brand in the market

Stability - the longevity, power and value of the brand

Market - the strength of the market in which the brand resides

International - the global reach that the brand has

Trend - the overall long-term trend of the brand in terms of sales

Support - the consistency of investment and support

Protection - the strength of the brand’s legal trademark

Interbrand uses its brand ratings to determine a multiplier to apply to earnings.


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Recognition of a Brand


Whether or not a customer recalls your brand can be the deciding factor in getting on a shopping list or receiving a chance to bid on a contract.

Niche brands fall below the line because they are not known to a substantial group of consumers, causing low recognition.Dynamics of brands in the upper-middle or upper-right part of the graph can be important predictors of the brand’s future health.

Low

Low High

High

Recall

Benefit Zone

Rec

ogn

itio

n

xNiche Brand

BrandGraveyard

Recognition VS. Recall: The Graveyard Model

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Top of Mind vs. Spontaneous Awareness

Top-of-mind awareness = are you the first brand thought of when someone mentions a particular category?

Spontaneous awareness = the other brands thought of when someone mentions a particular category, which do not require a prompt to be remembered. E.g. When someone mentions toothpaste, what do you think? Probably Colgate. This means Colgate has top-of-mind awareness. You probably next think of Macleans, meaning they have spontaneous awareness, but not top-of-mind awareness (for most people).

Top-of-mind awareness = brand salience and is an important purchase driver, especially in impulse categories e.g: snacks.

Total spontaneous awareness = a brand’s ability for recognition, which is important in establishing trust and removing risk associated, facilitating an easier purchase.

There is a quasi exponential relationship between the two. Bigger brands are generally on the steeper part of the curve, therefore extracting greater benefit. If you can raise your awareness across one of these parameters then you will gain an advantage across both, sending you up the curve and therefore growing your brand. Once you are a leader, increasing either of these parameters will result in almost exponential gain for gain increase.

A couple of things to remember:• Top-of-mind is important especially for impulse brands and snacks.• It’s not linear. The bigger you are in spontaneous awareness the easier it is to shift top-

of-mind measures.

U. van de Sandt/Ammirati Puris Lintas 1999

Spontaneous Awareness

Top

-of-

min

d A

war

enes

s

LowLow

High

High

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Building Strong Brands

Muir and Miller propose an alternative model to identify brand strength and opportunity in their book The Business of Brands.

Affinity - “It’s my kind of brand”

Challenge - ‘A brand that is making waves; challenging existing orthodoxy’

Fame - ‘The most famous brand in the category’

Price - ‘A brand that offers very good value for money’

Difference between weak and strong brands

Affinity

Challenge

Fame

Price

The Business of Brands, Jon Miller & David Muir 2009

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Brand Ranking and Research Tools

An international branding consultancy with 40 offices in 24 countries. Interbrand designed a methodology which put a value on the financial benefit of owning a brand. Interbrand annually release a ranking of the best global brands by value.

Interbrand (www.interbrand.com)

A brand equity database that holds data for over 23,000 brands over 31 countries. The database is used to estimate brand valuations and generate annual lists of top brands.

Australia’s largest independently owned research company with offices in each state. It is considered to be the authoritative source (or “currency”) of information on financial behaviour, readership, voting intention and consumer confidence.

Brand Asset Valuator - a tool created by Young & Rubicam (Y&R) used to measure brand equity across products.

450 global brands and more than 8,000 local brands in 24 countries were measured. The measures were broken into: Differentiation - measures how distinctive the brand is in the marketplace Relevance - measures whether a brand is meaningful to the respondent Esteem - measures whether a brand is highly regarded or the best in its class Knowledge - a measure of understanding as to what a brand stands for

BrandZ (www.brandz.com)

Roy Morgan Research (www.roymorgan.com.au)

BAV(www.brandassetconsulting.com)

Developed by Total Research and based on a simple set of brand equity questions:Salience - the percentage of respondents who have an opinion of the brandPerceived quality - measures quality and usage associated with priceUser satisfaction - the average quality rating a brand receives among consumers who use the brand often

Equitrend (www.equitrend.com)

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7 Online Brand Monitoring Tools

Shows who has mentioned you on Twitter without a bookmark. This will make it simple to get tweets about any link.

Backtweets (Free)(www.backtweets.com)

Shows you all of the conversation from various social media services e.g. WordPress, Blogger, FriendFeed, surrounding a post or article.

Keeps track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company or any keyword you like with hourly updates. You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog.

A more comprehensive brand-monitoring solution for your business with more advanced statistics about your keywords and mentions.

Backtype Connect (Free) (www.backtype.com/connect)

Tweetbeep / Twilert (Free)(www.tweetbeep.com)(www.twilert.com)

Filtrbox (Free Trial Version) / SM2 (Free) / Radian 6 (Paid)(www.filtrbox.com)(www.techrigy.com)(www.radian6.com)

BRAND TOOLS

We encourage you to use these tools in your internal workshop and brainstorming sessions. We just ask that you leave the

source reference on all pages as credit.

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140

Business Model Canvas

Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition

Customer Relationships

Customer Segments

Key Resources Channels

Cost Structures Revenue Streams

Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur 2010and co-created by an amazing crowd of 470 practitioners from 45 countries

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141

Asset SaleThe most widely understood revenue stream derives from selling ownership rights to a physical product

Usage Fee

Ways to generate Revenue Streams

7 Ways to Generate Revenue Streams

This revenue stream is generated by the use of a particular serviceThe more a service is used, the more a customer pays

Subscription FeeThis revenue stream is generated by selling continual access to a service. An example of this would be a gym who offers access to their facilities for a membership fee

Lending, Renting, Leasing

This revenue stream is created by temporarily granting someone the exclusive right to a particular asset for a fixed period in return for a fee

LicensingThis revenue stream is generated by giving customers permission to use protected intellectual property in exchange for licensing fees

Brokerage FeesThis revenue stream derives from intermediation services performed on behalf of two or more parties. An example would be a real estate agent earning commission every time they match a seller and a buyer

Advertising This revenue stream results from fees for advertising a particular product or serviceMedia industries, event organisers and software services rely heavily on advertising revenues

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142

Brand Potential Analysis

Product Share

Leader

Entrant

LargeSmall

Mar

ket

Size

Snapshot

Brand Strength

Loved

Irrelevant

GrowthDecline

Mar

ket

Mom

entu

m

Prediction

Derived from Boston Consulting Group modelling, these two tools help assess a brand’s potential when allocating marketing resources across a portfolio. Used in conjunction, the snapshot gives a point of view on the current status whereas the prediction looks at the potential of a brand.

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143

Business Growth Plan

© Copyright 2010 All rights reserved by Step Change Marketing in perpetuity

Brand Essence:

Mission: Key Messages: Experience: Personality:

Credibility and Symbols: Customer Value Proposition:

Predatory Positioning:

Advertising Line:

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144

Business Growth Plan: Our Example


Brand Essence: To give every growing business the marketing leverage that was once only available to big business

Mission: Experience: Personality: Visual Identity:

Credibility and Symbols: Customer Value Proposition:

Predatory Positioning:

Advertising Line:

Ambitious owner operators who are looking to marketing to help

them make a step change

Sharing the secrets of maximum marketing leverage

We make customers feel like they know the big secrets and

resassure them that they’ve got the very best

ExperiencedChallengersInnovativeStrategic

Trust marks: Over 40 years combined brand experienceTone: Vibrant building blocks

The world’s most powerful marketing toolOver 40 years of proven brand experienceWe actually work on your plan with you

The leverage to grow

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145

Turning Brand Essence Inside-Out


Brand Essence

Internal Culture

Values and Belief Missions and Method

External Culture

Who are the company representatives?How to represent

the company

Customer Experience

Rewarding

Brand Experience

Consistency

Staf

f Im

pac

tC

ust

omer

Im

pac

t

UnifyingCreates focusPrideLoyaltyStaff retentionStaff satisfaction

Expectations are set and met

Guide actionsGuide style and tone

Consistency and Clarity leads to:

Repeat purchase

Customer advocacy

A brand can affect many dimensions of your business beyond just external communications. The below maps out some of these opportunities.

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146

A Mind Mapping Tool

The Brand

Quality

Service

Value

Brands

Products

Prior to undertaking any brand architecture or positioning work it might be useful to lay out and mind map around certain attributes as listed above. This process will help identify gaps (if any).

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147

Mind Mapping Example: McDonald’s


ValuePricingPortion sizePromotions

ServiceConsistentConvenientHassle-freeFastClean

Meals

ProductsBreakfastBurgersFriesDrinks

QualityFreshConsistentGood tastingHot

BrandsBig MacMcMuffin

Social InvolvementCharitiesRonald McDonald House

Kids, Fun, FamilyFriendly/WarmHappy Meal ToysBirthday PartiesPlaygroundRonald McDonald

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148

Ogilvy & Mather

A to Z

A Word Bank

This method involves using word association to articulate suppressed feelings and emotions.It can be used in addition to Brand Audit to enrich vocabulary e.g. BMW (New Zealand).

How it works1. Generate word associations for the brand beginning with the letter A and write them

down, then for the letter B, then for letter C etc., etc. to Z2. Review your Word Bank3. Select one association for each letter4. Write a summary

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A to Z: BMW Example

A Adult Active Arrogant Ambitious Achievement

B Blitzkrieg Bold Ballsy Better

C Cultured Classic Confident Conservative Competitive

D Drivable Dynamic Discerning Drive me

E Envy Energetic Engineered Expensive Elite

F Flat out Fast Fashionable

G Grunt German Glamour Goal

H Handling Harmony High-tech Hot

I Independent Individual Intelligent Integrity Important

J Jumping Jive Jazz

K Kraut King Killer Knowledge

L Look out Lover Luxury Long term Leader

M Modern Muscle Manly Meticulous Me

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BMW Example cont...

N Noticed Notorious Not old Nurtured Nuance

O Overt Overdrive

P Prestigious Passionate Pride Pleasure

QR Revs Refined Red Reliable

S Suave Stylish Sleek Silent

T Trustworthy Thrusting Tailored Throaty Torque

U Unbeatable Unique Understand

V Vamp Vibrant Virile Verve Values

W Wealth Wayward Wish Wanton

X Xcuse me SeXy Xciting Xuberant Xcellence

Y Youth Young Yearn Yes

Z 0-100 Zoom Zealot Zippy

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BMW Example

23

BMW Example cont..BMW Example

We saw a BMW as:• Having power under control• A feeling of superiority achieved by being the tamer of a powerful, passionate beast • A perfect sense of harmony and balance in a car which has pure power and passion under its skin

A to Z:Arrogant, Aspirational, Ballsy, Bold, Comfort, Classy, Confident, Demanding, Discerning, Exclusive, Engineered, Fashion, Glamour, Hot, Individual, Intelligent, Jazz, Killer, Lovers, Manly, Not old, Not slow, Overt, Passionate, Quality, Red, Sleek, (Tailored), Unique, Virile, Wealth, Xciting, Yearning, Zealot

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152

Word Association AuditABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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153

Positioning Matrix

Copyright Thought Leaders LTD

This tool is especially useful for B2B businesses and those that have an element of face2face introductions.

ObsessionWhat lights you up?

UniquenessWhat sets you

apart?

PurposeExplain how what you do helps them get on with what

they do

CategoryPick something they already know about

HistoryEdit out the

irrelevant bits

AnalogyHow is it like

something they understand?

ProblemsSpeak to their inner

thoughts, state a concern they would

identify with

ExamplesUse case studies,

comparisons, and past clients/

experiences

PackagesTalk about some of the ideas you

already haveLow

Med

ium

Hig

h

You It Them

Focus

Ener

gy

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Positioning Matrix: Step Change Example

Copyright Thought Leaders LTD

ObsessionBig Secrets,Big Growth

UniquenessThe secrets of big

business marketing now available for

growing businesses

PurposeThe world’s most

powerful marketing tool for achieving business growth

CategoryThe Robin Hoods of

Marketing

History40+ years cracking

the marketing campaigns for the

world’s best brands in Australia and the UK

AnalogyMarketing map

and compass for business growth

ProblemsShow you HOW to

get maximum return for your marketing

investment

ExamplesPizza Hut,

CommSec, The Australian, Pork,

Nestle, Nokia, Sony

PackagesActually work with

you on your Business Growth Plan and Marketing PlanLo

wM

ediu

mH

igh

You It Them

Focus

Ener

gy

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155

Dimensional Positioning

Current customer frustration and category pain points Negative consumer perceptions

What you do to overcome the above Desired image response that overcomes the above

Category Issue Image Issue

Product Stance Projected Attitude

Positioning?

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The Brand Onion

EssenceThe core,

unchanging essence of the

brand

Personality Tone and manner that guides

all interaction

Source of Authority Credentials of brand

Why consumers should believe

Attributes

Features that make/define the product or service

Focus on attributes that are distinctive and unique

Benefits

Benefits that arise from attributes

Think of benefits that arise from implications of

benefits

How it makes you feel

This is the emotive benefits that occur during the product experience, e.g. a Ferrari makes the owner feel powerful

What does it say about you?

How it changes the perception of you to others

Public image of the product, e.g. a Ferrari owner looks successful and

confident

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Brand Atom

Brand Essence

Strapline

Product Attributes

Personality

Positioning

Associations

Target Market

Consumer facing expression

All physical andfunctional thingsassociated with the brand

The way the brand expresses itself

The slice in the consumer’s mind The triggers

The things associated with the brand

The type of people who use the brand

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158

Portfolio Targeting Matrix

Name Variant Need-State met

Target Audience (Comms)

Usage Occassion

Strategic Role (Silver Bullet)

Positioning & Strapline

Master Brand Positioning:

In defining a relationship between a master brand and several sub-brands, it’s useful to get them on one page and review the above dimensions and nuances.

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The X-Track ToolThis tool is all about shifting brand attributes to reach objectives. In the origin column we identify up to 4 problems or opportunities from the current brand make-up. In the destination column we list 4 desired brand attributes and traits. To move from origin to destination we will need to be certain things (personality) and do certain things (actions). It’s a useful tool for getting a brand back on track.

Origin DestinationBe (Personality):

Do (Actions):

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Authenticity Pillar Audit

In building brand authenticity, have a look to see what stories or brand credibility can be derived from these 6 pillars.

Heritage

Familiarity

Personal Utility

Originality

Declared Beliefs

Momentum

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Linking the emotional to the rational:

1. List emotional values

2. List rational facts and use

3. Use lines to link up the values and elements that match

4. Use the centre of the Venn diagram to create combinations and concepts that link up

EmotionalValue

Rational Element

Emotional and Rational

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Benefit Laddering

The human dimension reinforced by the benefit. E.g. Every moment I save is a moment for me

A benefit to the consumer, usually based on how the product delivers a positive result. E.g. I save time when I serve apple sauce

A benefit to the consumer usually based on a product feature or attribute. E.g. Apple sauce is easy to serve

Aspect of the product, usually based on a product feature or attribute. E.g. Apple sauce spoons smoothly from the jar

Characteristic of the product, usually inherent or natural (intrinsic). E.g. Apple sauce comes in a wide mouth jar

Values

Customer Benefits

Product Benefits

Product Features

Attribute

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Personify the Brand

As the product:

The user:

The usage:

As a car:

As an animal:

As a song:

Brand name:

Image

Brand personified:

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Personify the Brand: Westpac Example

As the product:

The user:

The usage:

As a car:

As an animal:

As a song:

Brand name:

Image

Brand personified:

Banking, finance, mortgages

Westpac

Upper middle Australia. Socially responsible

Predominantly Internet with branch visitations

Honda Hybrid

Elephant

ImagineMale, in his 50s, grey hair, rich, management, formal suit and glasses, with a caring social conscience side

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Brands Big Day Out

Morning/Work-out

Breakfast

Work

Social night

Joins a club

Weekend away

In doing this exercise you may also uncover some tactical media opportunities or ideas.

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Visual Dimensions

Logo

Our Mission

Our Feeling

The Purchase

Our Consumers

Our Creation

Our Essence

The Purchaser

Our Occasion

Capture your brand personality with a series of images that bring to life each of the sections. It’s a brand’s personality mood board and is useful to put on staff walls to drive inspiration and as Agency/Partner inspiration.

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Remarkability - Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a famous writer, speaker and agent of change.He has written 12 bestsellers; one in particular deals with the concept of “remarkability” in his book “The Big Moo”.

Remarkability is the trait of something that captures attention, to the extent that people talk about it. It is remarkable and has remarkability.

Godin is all about encouraging people to rethink the notion of remarkability using this simple test – “Is it worth remarking on?”

As marketers, this test is a great one to hold ourselves and our work up against.

We need to stop just running ads and focus on making remarkable products instead.

Relevant &

Remarkable

“Remarkability is the trait of something that captures attention to the extent that people talk about it.”

The Big Moo - by the group of 33, edited by Seth Godin

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Remarkable?

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REMARKABLE!

The End

Congratulations on completing Book 1: Know Your business

The next book in the Brand Box series is Book 2: Know Your Market

Contact us to get yourself a copy stepchangemarketing.com | +61 2 8028 6405 | [email protected]

The Brand Box series

Know Your Business Know Your Market Know Your Consumers What’s the Big Idea? How To Say It When And Where To Say It