Global Branding - Case Studies

The following brands have been analysed by assessing them against given questions during the in-class activities and elaborated later during after-hours:

Harley-Davidson

• The brand is a legend, globally renowned and extremely popular. The brand has been conveyed from the officila Trademark status into Lovemark.
• From the factual point of view the company is not producing the best-performing or the most environmentally friendly product. Furthermore, the company has conceded a number of mistakes which could have worsen its reputation substantially (such as launching a contradicting perfume). However, regardless all these factors, Harley-Davidson is massively considered to be one of the world's most successful pure branding experience. Its logo is tattooed onto incredibly big number of bodies. 
• The strongest points of the brand are considered to be its brand image and vision, associated with legend and mystery of the wild-soul riders, constant travelling and courage spirit. The perception of masculinity is probably the strongest from any other brand. 
• The brand also develops an emotional connection with its customers by addressing the Loving-Belonging level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs as well Self-Esteem level. That is because the brand connects the members of the club making them feel a part of a entity, and additionally a higher-class entity. 
• Harley-Davidson is not just a brand, it is a lifestyle, a religion, a cult as it inspires the profound devotion following specific rituals.   
• Due to having such a powerful brand asset there is no need for this brand to adopt any other culture in its globalisation process. On contrary, it is a culture itself and therefore it is adopted by the customers. 

HSBC

• It is one of the largest and the most successful financial organisations in the world.   
• As it is seen in the brand name initials, it was evolved from Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. HSBC adapted global market by acquisitions and subsidiaries. 
• Unlike other organisations, HSBC has created a completely new identity, which was evolved around the strategy that the name and logo must be maximally recognised throughout the world so that each local subsidiary would be seen as a global bank. The strategy was the following: "the more a bank is recognised abroad, the more confidence it inspires back home, a paradox reflected by the slogan "the world's local bank"(Haig, 2011).
• Its global presence and local approach is considered its main strength point.
• Its standardised operations provide consistency and therefore develop trust of its clients 

Reference:

Haig, M. (2011) Brand Success: How the World’s Top 100 Brands Thrive and Survive. 2^nd Ed. London: Kogan Page Ltd.