Additional Information

http://www.davidairey.com/car-brand-etymology/ - The following link is directing to descriptive explanation of the reasoning behind car brand names. After observing them it is noted that most of the names have been constructed historically rather than using creative approach.

http://www.davidairey.com/what-are-the-top-aspects-of-successful-branding/ - Under this link the aspects of successful branding are provided. The distinct leader is the Consistency factor which has a big difference in scores form the second coming one - Understanding the Customer. 

PROJECT A

Ideas:

After the trip on Baker Street and Marylebone High Street, our group picked up three brands:

• Baskin Robins
• Sherlock Holmes Hotel
• Pedigree

At the beginning we supported the idea of taking one product brand and one service brand as it would be more challenging to try working for different areas and see the differences and implications of each.

We started from developing the mind map for the Sherlock Holmes Hotel. At the beginning we saw a room for opportunities in the outside hotel facade, it's reception area, and even the restaurant which is located at the entrance to the hotel.

However, once we made a more detailed research and developed a mind map for the current situation for this hotel, we realised that the hotel is very profitable and successful and there is not much room for improvement. The improvement that can be made would still be within the same branding direction. Therefore it wouldn't be a fully rebranding process for us. 

That is why decided to find a much lower class hotel in the same are and concentrate on rebranding it into upper-end hotel. A small hotel with a deceptive name The Four Seasons Hotel on Gloucester Place was selected. This hotel was just one of dozens other hotels on the same street. As they all appear the same from the outside look, and their websites indicate similar price range, we wanted to make it very different. We would change the interior and exterior design in conjunction with new booklets, website, and the whole image of it. Yet, after realisation of the expenses on such a rebranding, our group came to a conclusion that it may be too costly and complex. And the idea of rebranding the lower class hotel into a luxury hotel may not be vital, taking into consideration the non suitable location of it.

As we abandoned our second option, we developed the situational analysis for the other two brands...

Pedigree is a very appealing brand however all of us agreed that they haven't done any changes to the brand that would be noted by the wider customer segment. That may be very dangerous to any brand, even to the market leader, due to very fast trade competition increase in the last decades. Therefore, there is definitely a room for us to fill in with our innovative rebranding ideas.

Our other choice is Baskin Robins, a very popular ice-ceam brand. It has a very strong brand image and positioning in the minds of consumers. Nonetheless, the message it is communicating is not clear enough, it creates hesitation regarding how successful the company is at the moment, what are their strength and competitor advantages. 

All members of our group, as well as some external students, agreed that the company hasn't been innovative during last couple of years. Their competitors however, such as Ben&Jerry for instance, have a much clear strategy and standardised stores throughout the covered geographical markets.

Charismatic Brand

A Charismatic Brand is any product, service or organisation for which people believe there's no substitute (Neumeier 2006)

Being a compelling brand can save a huge amount of money as the company management don't need to invest into attracting customers because they are already attracted by the brand charisma. Charismatic brands also generate trust and loyalty as a positive reaction on their appeal. The question is how to achieve and develop charismatic brand and how much money should be spend on it?

• Sometimes it may refer to the founder's personality which is transmitted to the brand itself
• Most charismatic brands are reaching their clients through significant emotional involvement, therefore emotional but not rational aspect is another criteria for such a brand. Neumeier (2006) names such emotional benchmark as a 'dedication to aesthetics' in its book The Brand Gap 
• Clear competitive stance (Neumeier 2006) is a crucial element for a charismatic brand in order to be recognised and unique in the mind of consumer
• Providing a sense of rectitude (Neumeier 2006) is important for a brand in order to become appealing and gain valuable trust of consumers
• There should be a solid alignment of brand ideas to make the core idea of a brand memorable and visible

Charismatic Brands can be referred as to Lovemarks - a recently introduced concept and gaining its popularity with increasing speed. It was developed by Saatchi&Saatchi, a global advertising agency. They call this notion 'the future beyond brand' or 'loyalty beyond reason'.

'Lovemarks are not owned by manufacturers, the producers, the businesses. They are owned by people who love them' (Roberts, 2006).

'Lovemarks are personal. And they can be anything - a person, a car, a country, an organisation. Lovemarks are charismatic brands that people love and fiercely protect. You know them instantly' (Roberts, 2006).

The term groups up all successful brand names by assessing them on Love and Respect gradation. Based on such position 4 groups of brand categories are formed: Products, Brands, Fads, and Lovemarks.  

Saatchi & Saatchi (2011) believe that the most valuable group of Lovemarks is infused with three intangible yet very critical ingredients: Mystery, Intimacy and Sensuality. 

Reference:

Ehret, J (2011) Being a Charismatic Brand. The Marketing Blog [online] Retrieved from http://themarketingspot.com/2011/05/charismatic-brands.html, [accessed on 22/09/2011]

Howard, B (2009) Chaotic vs. Charismatic. Matchblog [online] Retrieved from http://matchstic.com/blog/2009/10/3659/, [accessed on 22/09/2011]

Roberts, K (2006) Lovemarks. The Future Beyond Brands. Saatchi & Saatchi Designer Edition, Brooklyn, NY, Powerhouse 

Saatchi & Saatchi (2011) About Lovemarks. Lovemarks [online] Retrieved from http://www.lovemarks.com/index.php?pageID=20020, [accessed on 22/09/2011]

Brand Dimensions

Brand DNA - Ingredients (after Gossain, S. 2011) :

• Vision & Mission - future aspirations for the company
• Essence - company's DNA
• Values - company's culture 
• Positioning - space in the mind of consumer

Brand Dimensions (Asker and Iochimsthaler, 2000) :

• Product: scope, attributes, uses, quality, value, functional benefits
• Brand Personality
• Symbols
• Brand/Customer Relationships
• Self-Expressive Benefits
• Emotional Benefits
• User Imagery
• Country of Origin
• Organisational Associations

Brand Areas of Influence (extracted ideas from various sources) :

Levels of Brand Meaning

                                                   Source: Zaltman, G (2003)


This is one of the very useful tools to analyse the brand.

The levels depicted above may be grouped as following:

1. Associations with the brand and other brands - Physical and Functional attributes
                     - bright appealing colour, easy to apply, quick finish, etc
2. Meanings with consumers - Psychological perception
                     - this brand makes me feel more secure
3. Wider system of Popular Culture - Social consequences and Values and Goals
                     - this brand makes me feel one of the gang, gives me a sense of freedom

TASK A: The Power of Branding

The Role of Branding and Its Critical Value to Business

The concept of Branding is relatively very new and fresh, especially in business sphere. Following down the foundation of Branding processes, it is necessary to go back into late nineteenth century. As Wally Olins (2006) demonstrates, at that time very few successful companies introduced design into their businesses for the sake of making employees feeling proud of their work place and working in comfortable conditions. That was usually in architecture and product design itself. It had a solely glorious context under it, rather than profit-driven. Therefore, the concept of demonstrating the status and celebration of the achieved results is considered to be one of the roles of branding, but surely not the most important one.

Only later American architects noted that design could be a source of attracting customers and therefore revenues. That particular moment in time, approximately 1950s, is considered to manifest the initiation of the term ‘corporate identity’. It was referred as a process ‘to create a coherent corporate whole associated with specific theme, attitude or personality’ (Olins, 2006). The importance of this operation was growing in a fast pace as results were demonstrating higher profits and ROI. Therefore creating corporate identity matters were discussed even on top-management and board of directors levels as a strategic direction for the company. ‘Corporate identity’ was now seen as a mean of communicating clear and important messages to the audiences on all levels, from shareholders to employees, - that is another very notable role of Branding in Business. In order to get a better linkage with the customers and to smoothen communication between managers and designers, organisations started involving marketing people into the corporate image creation process.

The evolution of Branding then progressed into the introduction of packaging and new product design into business strategic concepts. Simultaneously, interior design was brought into the business context in order to create a more efficient service layout and raise customers’ satisfaction. As Wally Olins (2008) pointed out, the term ‘interior design’ was now referred as ‘brand experience’. Consequently, the improvement of the physical aspects of products and services is another vital function of branding.

Branding, unlike design, corporate identity and others, has the most direct link to calculation of results and profitability. A good example of this is the fact that in 1988 Philip Morris purchased Kraft for six times more than its paper value. That was referred to as a brand value (Firdaus, 2011)

Nowadays Branding is a remarkably comprehensive concept, which is vital to any business, from SME to world’s biggest corporations.  It has to embrace such areas as graphic design, environmental and interior design, media, advertising and IT operations, consumer behavioural issues, organisational culture, reputation, marketing practices, such as research and forecasting and many others.

Branding is the only tools created up to now, which is able to communicate all the company’s values and target messages in one. Everything else, for instance images, advertising, mission statements, sustainable strategies, etc, all those address only one subject at a time, unlike the complex result of branding strategy.

Nowadays, in the mass customisation society, business operations and innovations are not bringing any competitive advantage, as companies are able to copy each other products’ features and techniques relatively easy (Neumeier, 2006). Therefore branding may be the only and the strongest differentiator.  In such cases the real value and importance of a brand can be calculated. Modern society is characterised as ‘information-rich and time-poor’ (Neumeier, 2006), that is why the consumers’ choices are based more on symbolic attributes.

Branding is believed to be the best way to build customers’ loyalty. As an example, Starbuck’s customers say they are sure what they are about to get there when they see the familiar sign at any corner of the world… It is all about trust and branding is able to create this trust like no other process.

The word ‘brand’ can be associated with everything, from retail products, supermarkets where they are sold, up to countries. Brands have an enormous influence on the world’s population and are currently directing and even manipulating people and, therefore, must be applied and used ethically and with care.

Nowadays companies and corporations are operating more and more sophisticated branding programmes. Now brand value is appearing regularly on balance sheets, especially for larger businesses therefore the importance of branding has been realised and proved. However, the intangible value of a brand is often much greater than the corporation’s tangible assets and is still very vague and hard-to-measure aspect.     

Bibliography:

Olins, W (2006) On Brand: Branding and Money Making, Chapter 10, London: Thames & Hudson

Olins, W (2008) The Brand Handbook: Definitions in Branding, pp.10-22, London: Thames & Hudson

Neumeier, M (2006) The Brand Gap: Introduction, pp.8-13, Berkeley: AIGA

Firdaus, I (2011) The History of Branding. Branding history [online], retrieved from http://www.brandinghistory.com/2011/02/the-history-of-branding/, [accessed on 17/09/2011]

The Evolution of Branding

We usually tend to think of branding as a modern day phenomena, however the evolution of this process leads to as early as 2000 BC.

The word 'brand' is derived from the Old Norse 'brandr' meaning 'to burn'.

The first mention of branding refer to branding of cattle, livestock, i.e. burning a mark into cattle's skin with thick hides in order to identify ownership. Later, in 1300 BC, special marks were used on pottery and porcelain in China, India, Greece and Rome.

In Medieval Times paper makers used marks as well. In England bread makers goldsmiths and silversmiths were required to put their marks on goods, mainly to ensure honesty in measurements. Even the signatures on paintings of famous artists like Leonardo Da Vinci can be considered as early branding tools.

Between 1600s and 1800s slaves were branded roughly to connote ownership and criminals were branded as a form of punishment and identification.

In early 1800s some fraternities and sororities used to brand their pledges during initiation rites as a form of identification and bonding (abandoned after recognised as hazing). Around the same time period, companies that sell tobacco and patented medicines began branding their products.

The last stage is considered to commence in late 1990s when branding gained popularity as a significant area of value not only for companies and their products, but also for municipalities, universities, non-for-profit organisations and even for individuals.

Reference:
Daye, D (2006) History of Branding,  Branding Startegy Insider [online], retrieved from http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2006/08/history_of_bran.html, [accessed on 17/09/2011].

Firdaus, I. (2011) The History of Branding. Branding history [online], retrieved from http://www.brandinghistory.com/2011/02/the-history-of-branding/, [accessed on 17/09/2011]

Brand Protection

To protect a brand from use by others the process of securing a trademark or a service mark from an authorised agency was introduced.

A registered trade mark is a word, logo or even a shape which has been registered with a government body and gives the owner the exclusive right to use that mark in relation to certain goods or services. (Brand Protect, 2005)

 That implies that only the registered owner can obtain any benefits from this particular trade mark and also can prevent any other person from using that trade mark without the owner's approval.

However, even registering a brand name and logo may not fully protect a brand from being imitated by other companies. In that case the power of the original brand plays vital role for not being affected by these imitations.

What is a Brand?

A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. ...an aura, an invisible layer of meaning that surrounds the product. (Neumeier, 2006)
According to Neumeier (2006), the brand is defined by individuals but not companies, markets or general public. It is each single person that is generating their own personal opinion of some conception. And only after a greater number of people arrive at the same feeling about some particular conception, a company can be said to have a brand.
Companies cannot fully control this process of psychological perception in people's minds, however they can influence it by communicating specific visions, ideas, qualities of the products and/or company itself.

A brand is not what you say it is. It's what THEY say it is (Neumeier, 2006)

A famous founder of an advertising agency, David Ogilvy, describes a brand as 'the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation and the way it's advertised'.

According to Persuasive Brands website (2011), any brand is a set of perceptions and images that represent a company, product or service. While many people refer to a brand as a logo, tag line or audio jingle, a brand is actually much larger. A brand is the essence or promise of what will be delivered or experienced.

Importantly, brands enable a buyer to easily identify the offerings of a particular company. Brands are generally developed over time through:

• Advertisements containing consistent messaging
• Recommendations from friends, family members or colleagues
• Interactions with a company and its representatives
• Real-life experiences using a product or service (generally considered the most important element of establishing a brand)

Once developed, brands provide an umbrella under which many different products can be offered--providing a company tremendous economic leverage and strategic advantage in generating awareness of their offerings in the marketplace. 

As Wally Olins (2008) pointed out, a brand on its early stage is referred to consumer goods, their names and logos, one may see on the shelves of supermarkets. On the second level the supermarkets and stores in which these branded products are sold have become brands themselves (for example: Tesco and Waitrose are very distinct brands). Another cluster of brand perception is referred to luxury goods, where a huge percentage of excessive price is due to their specific brand promotion allusion. For some people brand is just a sign, a symbol, a logo, a website or a piece of paper, without the realisation of the people and processes that stand behind it. Even countries are branded in their own way by transforming their specific cultural and traditional differences into one vision and image and communicating it globally by means of music, flags, clothing, languages, and other representations.

A brand represents a promise that a company will deliver, therefore it is one of the most important aspects for the business.

Branding is the process of forming an emotional attachment between the brand itself and consumer

A brand is the DNA of the company, it should live and breather through everything the company does (through Gossain, S, 2011).

Brands are the company's most valuable assets (through Gossain, S, 2011).