Branding

Some people believe the concept of branding emerged in the American Old West. Cattle owners realized that all cattle look pretty much alike. So how do you tell one owner's cow from another? You put a brand on it.

Flash forward to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1950s. Package goods giant Proctor & Gamble realizes the same thing that those cattle owners did, but from a different point of view. With so many competitive household products that looked or smelled alike, how was the consumer to differentiate one from another? How could they let their customers know that their products were better than their competitors' products?

Their solution was the formation of the brand group, an entire marketing team devoted to single brand. A brand's connection to P&G became secondary to its own identity as a brand. Other than when a brand was new, and then only for six months, its P&G parentage could not be promoted. The only relationship indicator was a small trademark and the manufacturer's name in some inconspicuous place on the package.

Flash forward to the '90s. Branding has become the buzzword of our times. It is being done for cars (Jeep), shoes (Air Jordan), clothes (Polo), soft drinks (Coke) and even lawn tractors ("Nothing runs like a Deere").

Brand success

The fundamental objectives of branding are both to establish awareness of a brand name in a certain competitive set and to associate it with benefits that are important within that set. Many people think branding is concerned only with brand awareness. In fact, brand image is just as important. This is an important distinction. A successful brand must be known for delivering a benefit or combination of benefits that is important to the product or service category's customers.

The basic tools for accomplishing this are a brand's strategy, a brand personality and a brand mark. The brand strategy establishes:

a) what benefit(s) the brand will promise

b) what it is about the brand that makes the promise believable

c) who the promise is important to

d) why the promise is more important or more believable than other promises being made by similar products or services

It also sets forth a plan for communicating this strategic positioning.

When I was involved in the development of this process in the late '60s at Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, we called it a Creative Work Plan. That document also included a "problem definition" section and an "advertising objective" section, but the four issues above were the heart and soul of a brand strategy. It was developed for every product or service the agency handled.

Shortly thereafter, we determined that there was another factor involved in the success of the brands to which customers had developed the greatest loyalty (or brand equity). It was called brand personality. It recognized that competing products and services could make the same promise, yet some will be more believable and more desirable to customers than others. For example, if you wash a car, you can promise to give a customer a clean car using a muscular approach, a twinkle, a sense of humor, a deep sincerity, or several other personalities.

In brands we trust

Some promises seem to fit better with certain personalities than with others. For example, in the burger wars, McDonald's promises a kind of "you can't go wrong with us" acceptability of its fare based on a presumptive personality as the category leader ("Did Somebody Say McDonalds?"). It's not very competitive. It doesn't have to be. It sells the category.

Burger King, on the other hand, goes with a dead-on promise of better taste with a slightly offbeat personality design to appeal to a rebel spirit of its customers ("It Just Tastes Better"). Wendy's gives us an "Aw Shucks. It's just me, Dave," approach to communicate a more wholesome approach to fast food. Taco Bell throws caution to the wind with a talking Chihuahua who promises a different food experience with a personality that is outright fun-loving ("Yo Quiero Taco Bell").

What if Taco Bell adopted a more serious personality? Or Dave became a sophisticate? Or McDonald's became the town rebel? Would their current customer trust the promise? Would they feel comfortable with their choice? Would they even recognize who the advertiser is?

I like to think that ads are like people. If we like them, we are more inclined to trust what they are telling us. I find this a helpful analogy. If someone I know as sophisticated tried to pull a down-home act on me, I become distrustful. If someone I know as fun loving comes on super serious, I want to know what's wrong. Similarly, if an advertiser makes a shift in personality from how I perceive it, there better be a darn good reason. And if the changes happen often, well, I get out of the way -- just as I would with some person with an unstable personality.

The brand mark

The last element in the branding process is the brand mark. It can be a graphic device, a phrase or a combination of the two. With repetition and consistency, it becomes shorthand for the promise. When we see or hear the word Coke, we know what it stands for. Coca-Cola doesn't have to tell the whole soft drink story every time they communicate with us. We also know that Chevy is the Heartbeat of America, in spirit if not in fact. And we know that Nike takes sports and athletes seriously.

For Spiro & Waites' client the Bell Tower Shops, branding has created and sustained an image as the home of upscale fashion leadership. This venerable shopping destination has made the transition from a somewhat down-at-the-heels retailing dowager to a bright, sparkling, refurbished, contemporary place for the latest in stylish apparel, unusual gifts, and enjoyable dining and entertainment. It has become "The Lee Island Coast's Most Fashionable Address." This positioning recognizes that apparel drives shopping decisions for the Tower Shops' primary customers, that the competitive arena is wider than Fort Myers or Lee County and that shopping is one of the major activities of visitors to our area.

Modern Service for Home and Business, another Spiro & Waites client, discovered that a strong brand with a service image is an excellent platform to expand the scope of business. Building on a well-known red, blue and black logotype, the company redesigned the graphics for its fleet of trucks. It created an advertising campaign that communicates the news that it is not just an air conditioning service and installation company. Modern has adopted a positioning statement that reinforces its reputation for dependability, "We Keep Things Running," and has backed it with a dependability guarantee.

Charlotte Regional Medical Center has launched a program to establish its brand as the place that does everything it can to care for patients and to promote healing, especially in cardiac care. The hospital