A Critical Analysis of “What is Branding and how does it apply to Brands.”

Saturday, February 28, 2009
A Critical Analysis of “What is Branding and how does it apply to Brands.”

A Critical Analysis of “What is Branding and how does it apply to Brands.”

By: Daryl J. Orris, Ph.D.

Brand leaders’ position, are threatened during economic downturns because of consumers trading down.

Excerpt from the American Advertising Academy, December 2008 Newsletter:

“Today Branding is More Critical than Ever”
“People today can touch it, feel it, sense it, hear it and live it. It’s theirs as long as you continue to support them with the promise that the brand provides. One wrong attempt to mislead, lie, or over-promise will lose thousands of loyal consumers in the blink of an eye. A loyal customer’s ability to share their unhappiness can be accomplished in just a few minutes. And this is as true for B2B as it is for B2C. That’s the beauty of our new marketing paradigm. Everything has become retail. Marketers can gain data and insight from consumers in real time. The question is: are agencies providing this window into their consumer engagement?”

CRM is: Customer Relationship Management. Here the above author has confused CRM with Branding. The author has misperceived every aspect of Branding with CRM. The author’s start point is in error, and as such, everything he has to offer becomes misinformation and ineffectual. What follows is a point-by-point critique of these Branding misperceptions and the correct view of Branding, be it Business to Business or Business to Consumer:

“People today can touch it, feel it, sense it, hear it and live it. It’s theirs as long as you continue to support them with the promise that the brand provides. One wrong attempt to mislead, lie, or over-promise will lose thousands of loyal consumers in the blink of an eye. A loyal customer’s ability to share their unhappiness can be accomplished in just a few minutes.”

Branding today is as critical as it has always been and this statement is obvious in its nature, but loses touch with what Branding is. It addresses Brand Promise. The brand promise is really ‘what the brand’s promotional efforts are saying to the consumer,’ as adjusted by CRM, and, along with the brand’s category positioning, as communicated to the consumer – where and how the brand is positioned within its category. A Brand is no more, and no less, than what the Consumer says it is. Obviously, CRM assists the Marketer, Advertiser, and Advertising Agency, by giving them information on how the brand is perceived by the consumer. With this information CRM assists in that by now adjusting the Brand within the category, to build Brand Preference; to defend the brand from category competitors, and to develop or maintain brand position within the category and to retain loyal consumers. With this information Brand Preference can be achieved.

Brands that have become household word, a part of the American Lexicon, are dynamic, not static. Brands are continually evolving, as are the consumer’s perceptions of brands. And it is the function of the Marketer and the Agency to keep the Brand viable to the consumer, be it wholesale buyer or consumer. A Brand is nothing more than what the consumer or customer says it is. Meaning, Brands need to be continually tended to and modified to maintain its perceived (or preferred brand position) brand position and make or keep the brand relevant to the target consumer. Misrepresenting the brand is a prescription for disaster, and saying that: “consumers can be lost in the blink of an eye,” is an obvious statement. And it calls out the need for CRM and the understanding that all brands are dynamic. Knowing how the consumers perceives the brand at all times is important for all Marketers. But what is important is that a brand can be affected by consumer perception driven by promotion. Meaning, marketers and advertising agencies can alter and influence consumer perception. Advertising Agencies are more than relevant in the 21st century, but in reality, a requirement for brand promotion.

Today’s challenge (early 2009) is fending off category competitors from eroding the Brand’s value in the consumer’s mind. Most established brands have several category threats: traditional brand category competition, private label, and discount brands. When consumers begin to make value associations that involves making the most of their limited resources, perceived or real, there is a natural tendency for consumers to trade down: either to discount brands, or to private and generic brands, or to brands on deal. Brand leaders position is threatened during economic downturns. Consumers simply trade down if they cannot find the brand’s value or inherent personal commitment to the brand, and supreme, ownership of the brand – as if a lifestyle statement, like Nike and other supreme brands.

So the challenge for Marketers is to keep brand loyal consumers from trading down.

Here is where the differentiation between CRM and Branding come into play. CRM tells the Marketer how the brand is perceived by the consumer, then with the help of Advertising Agencies strategies they can be developed to compete in the category to maintain position, or to strategically adjust brand perception within the category to move up using methods and techniques to promote value and to convince consumers that the value proposition and inherent benefits and features of the brand makes this brand the best value within the category. This is promotion.

“That’s the beauty of our new marketing paradigm. Everything has become retail.” This is either the dumbest statement ever conceived or the smartest. B2B and B2C are separate and distinct separations. The author in this case, I hope, is referring to the branding distinction. Meaning that: wholesale buyers are consumers too. ‘That they have their customers in mind, and when they buy.’ The Marketing Paradigm referred to is one of all media, traditional and New Media.” Everything has become retail, in that everything is merchandised and then purchased. That is the smartest. The stupidest, the author is clueless as to what ‘paradigm’ means or represents. Media is of course, not static; it is as it has always been, dynamic. Therefore, media is ever changing and today’s media is in a period of transition. As it was always was media is dynamic in nature and ever changing. But promotion is not. Promotion is the art of manipulating media for brand promotion. Brand promotion is static, not dynamic. Brand promotion is to simply maintain or to elevate the brand within its category. Dullards continue to ascribe new meaning to the static. But the simple reality is that brand promotion remains ‘a struggle between brands within their respective categories.’ Call it what you might, it is none-the-less, A COMPETITIVE BATTEL WITHIN THE CATEGORY BETWEEN LIKE BRANDS.
I am amused by the stupidity thereafter. Like the premise for this discussion: “The question is: are agencies providing this window into their consumer engagement?” Advertising Agency’s function is to differentiate and promote the brand. “Differentiate is hallmark in the reality of ‘Promotion.’ It is the agency’s responsibility to differentiate the brand and then to promote. It is that simple. All else is window-dressing or stupidity as was the basis for this discussion.

Finally, “The question is: are agencies providing this window into their consumer engagement?” Needs to be addressed.

If an Advertising Agency is not privy to the Marketers CRM, then the answer to this question is a decided no. All Marketers see Customer Relation Management as in integral part of their marketing mission. Marketers must share CRM and marketing data with their agencies. Not just current CRM/category data, but also historic information as well. It amazes many advertising agencies how their clients are fearful of releases historic marketing data to its agencies.

With strategic marketing data, and historic CRM and category data, the Advertising Agency can effectively develop a strategic creative strategy to either maintain or increase category position. Back to our question: “The question is: are agencies providing this window into their consumer engagement?” If the Marketer is sharing brand and market information with the advertising agency the answer is yes. If the advertising agency is perceived as an outsider it cannot possibly develop a strategic creative initiative to maintain or increase category position.
A good example of this is this author’s experience in advancing a brand during an economic downturn. The author’s experience in the Frozen Vegetable Category with his agency representing Green Giant as it’s agency of record during the recession of the eighties. Green Giant was a category follower behind Birdseye until Viking Creative Concepts, Inc. developed a strategic strategy to overtake Birdseye by touting Green Giants features and benefits over the category leader Birdseye.

A strategic campaign was developed to tout Green Giant’s consumer advantages over Birdseye. Green Giant had developed over time a line of gourmet vegetables developed for their outstanding taste profiles over all category contenders. Much of the strategic differences went beyond Birdseye original advantage that was ‘Flash Freezing.’ But over time, equipment manufactures took the advantage away from Birdseye and made the technology available to all category participants. Green Giant’s advantages were twofold: Gourmet Vegetables, developed in Green Giant’s test fields and the ability to pick vegetables at “The Peak of Perfection.” ‘The Peak of Perfection’ was in fact the ability of determining a field’s optimum harvesting. Coupled with that was ‘Flash Freezing’ meaning that: “Green Giant Vegetables are picked at the peak of perfection and then Flash-Frozen to retain all of the vegetable’s nutritional benefits especially when compared to fresh picked. Fresh picked lose nutrients form the time of picking, transportation, to market display, to preparation and consumption. Frozen vegetables retain these lost nutrients compared to fresh.

Above that, Green Giant was: Quality (gourmet quality hybrid vegetables), Consistency (always perfection, ready when you are), Convenience (frozen vegetables are ready when you are) stored in the freezer, Green Giant vegetables keep their nutritional value and freshness especially when compared to fresh, that must be used immediately after purchase to retain their flavor characteristics.

So, within the category of vegetables, Green Giant Frozen Vegetables were superior to other category contenders because of the gourmet varieties it alone had developed, then because the vegetables were picked at “The Peak of Perfection” where taste and nutritional value were at their highest. These benefits were used to develop ”The Giant Difference,” – is: quality, or, convenience, or value. This strategic difference moved Green Giant, number two, over the then category leader Birdseye. During Viking Creative Concepts, Inc. representation of Green Giant it maintain it’s number one selling vegetable in the world category position. When Viking resigned the account, due to a conflict of interest between Viking’s owner, Daryl Orris, and The Pillsbury Company’s Haagen Dazs Brand. Orris had invented Liquor Ice Cream, which was thought to be a conflict between Blend’s ‘Original Liquor Ice Cream,” and Haagen Daz ice cream, as both were in the Superpremium ice cream category. Even though, Blend’s® was determined by AFT (now TTB) and FDA to have lost its ice cream identity because while frozen solid and 80% superpremium ice cream, its 20% distilled spirits flavoring system renders the end-product intoxicating, and therefore it was classified as “Distilled Spirits.”

When Viking stopped its representation of Green Giant, it lost 33 percent of its sales in year one, and 17 percent loss compounded in year two. The result was that the then owner, Grand Metropolitan, sold off Green Giant’s seed lots and research fields in Le Sueur, Minnesota, and all of the plants. The brand promise was lost.

Green Giant vegetables, owned by General Mills, are now co-packed by JR Simplot, and have none of the advantages it once had, that had made the brand the world’s number one vegetables.

So to our original branding question: “The question is: are agencies providing this window into their consumer engagement?” Brands must be transparent to consumers, but they must also be transparent between the Marketer and the Advertising Agency. The agency needs to know strategic information to develop its strategic creative plan for the brand.

Branding is what the consumer says it is, but it is the Marketers responsibility to determine strategic differences, that they share with the Advertising Agency to develop a Strategic Creative Strategy to develop the ‘brand promise’ and to develop the category strategy to find its strategic place within the category. Not all brands need to be number one. Being number two or three with reduced marketing costs can be more profitable than being number one. And if the category cannot distinguish between brands, price will always win out. It is up to Marketers to be able to distinguish their brand within the category.

But the upshot of this article was to establish “Consumer Value Perceptions” so that consumers will pass on price and instead choose ‘brand value.’ Brand Value is when the product or service can supplant price. In the case of Green Giant as illustrated, it once had superior features and benefits over other category contenders to catapulted it to the number one category position. Many times, in weak categories, where features and benefits are not distinguishable, price alone wins out. The brand promise coupled with the value-proposition, wins consumer franchises and a distinct category position – be it value, price, or quality. Value, is a not clearly understood concept and worth research. Because value, transcends price. For example, a high quality knife lasts longer than cheaper competitors and therefore transcends price. Finding the value proposition for a brand is intrinsic to success. As is having all of the strategic information of the brand, shared with the Marketer. Only when a Marketer and an Advertising Agency share all strategic information, can a “Brand’ strategically win within its category.

Posted by Daryl Orris at 12:45 PM