PROJECT A - Presentation-part2, Pedigree

PROJECT A - Presentation 1st part - BaskinRobins

   

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.

Brand Name

Brand Name is defined as "a commodity, process or service having a trade name" (Farlex. Inc. 2011)

It is still arguable what exactly the term originated from. The most common version is that the initiator was wiskey as the producers were stamping their names on barrels.  The branding name as well as branding is the evolution of ancient custom of putting a mark on one's belongings' in order to make them distinct. It was used for clothing, pottery, and livestock at the initial stages.

Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the human life without brand names, as they are everywhere, on every object we use. One of the rare examples of a product without a brand name would be medications: some of them are still named for what is contained in the medicine. For instance: Aspirin is an ingredient and therefore can be used by any company, Bayern in contrast, is a distinctive brand name, used by one company only.

The following are the some examples of the renown brand names:

The influence of a Brand Name:

• achieve competitive differentiation
• reinforce a existing unique positioning platform
• create positive and lasting engagement with targeted audience, by building emotional connection
• remain in the memory of consumers
• can act as a self-advertising and promotion agent, therefore enables management to spend less on marketing efforts
• provide a deep marketing and advertising impact 
• be a source of success, higher revenues, and product popularity if implemented correctly

There are four main Naming Strategies (Mustafa, N. lecture slides, 2011):

1. Functional - based on the products'/ service's features

2. Invented - formed from merging different words or using abbreviation

3. Experiential - non-exisiting, created word

4. Evocative - arising some associations

References:
farlex. Inc (2011) The Free Dictionary [online] Available URL: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brand+name, Accessed on: 12.11.2011

TASK B: Global Branding

Discuss the problem and solutions of global branding, explore some real life examples and critique their success and failure at going "global".

 “A wide geographic footprint does not qualify you as a global brand. You also need all the other aspects that make a brand a brand”

                       - Simon Rothon, senior vice president of Unilever Marketing Services

In the modern days the trend for brand-globalisation is incrementally growing. The ground behind that process lies in the new opportunities that may be discovered when entering foreign markets, especially those in developing countries (Hollis, 2010).

The success of the companies that has achieved the status of a Global Brand is incredibly attractive. Such companies as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Nestle were able to establish their brand internationally and thus attain incredibly valuable positions and brand value. The benefits of expanding the brand presence to new markets employ gaining from economies of scale and also reducing risks and expenses of launching an entirely new brand (Hollis, 2010).  However, “going global” is not as easy as it seems.

The majority of these prosperous companies where initially exceptionally powerful in their countries of origin and only after went abroad using trials and errors approach (Hollis, 2010). However, in today’s competitive environment such strategy would not work anymore as many gaps in demands are already fulfilled, and besides, there is constant time pressure, regulatory changes as well as continuous tension due to extremely aggressive competition.  

Another barrier when going global is exceedingly contrasting cultures, languages, religions, traditions, as well as economical and political situations amongst countries (Gregory and Wiechmann, 2002). These difficulties imply attempting to find a perfect balance between the consistency that is vital to maintain brand image and the necessary adaptability to the local settings.

In order to combat all the difficulties mentioned above, Hollis (2010) suggests the framework of The Brand Pyramid (based on Millward Brown’s BrandDynamics brand equity framework):

Source: Hollis Nigel, (2010), The Global Brand, p.36

The presented model explains the progression of a customer relation with a brand, by starting at the basis of the pyramid. The bonding level implies that a customer perceives the brand’s adding values as unique.

One more route for success proposed by Hollis (2010), is to maximise a brand’s growth potential using the following factors:

·      Creating a stronger presence compared to competition

·      Creating the perception that the brand is the one able to satisfy their needs

·      Securing the loyalty of the more valuable customers in the category

Looking into practical case studies, the success of Evian water cannot be ignored. It is a definite global brand leader nowadays, coming from being drunk solely for medicinal purposes in the 19^th century (Haig, 2011). Even though Evian has a very strong competition considering its substitute is tap water, accessible and free of charge. It is also priced relatively high, comparing even to Coca-Cola and other soft drinks. Nevertheless, it conquered the global market and still remains at the top brands ranking. According to Haig (2011), the critical success factors for Evian are Pure and Healthy brand image clearly communicated. Another factor is a strong association with Alps in the mind of consumers mostly as a result of consistency of mountains depiction on the label since 1995. Evian has never produced any flavoured drinks, which proves the quality and trustworthiness of the brand.

Speaking regarding negative examples, several fiasco cases can be illustrated. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux gained negative reputation in America by presenting their new slogan “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”, which was considered inappropriate and rude. One of the most often misinterpretations is referred to translation negligence. For instance Pepsi’s campaign in Taiwan “Come alive with Pepsi generation” was translated as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from dead”. American Airlines launched a campaign for their new luxury business class segment in Mexico stating “fly in leather”, which in Spanish read “Vuelo en cuero”. However the Spanish dictionary neglected that “en cuero” is a slang term for “in the nude” and thus was not very successful. Not only language issues are arising when companies are expanding internationally. For example, when Lufthansa decided to form a joint venture with Indian Modi Group and launched ModiLuft, the enterprise did not work out. After that Lufthansa was suing Modi for applying funds acquired from German company to other ventures. Modi in return, accused the opponents in supplying defective planes (Haig, 2011).

Taking a look into examples provided above it became clear that the success in global environment requires a lot of effort. Even good products can fail as a result of a negligent branding strategies or mistakes. That is why the importance of branding in going global process must be fully appreciated.

References:

Hollis, N (2010) The Global Brand: How to create and develop lasting brand value in the world market. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Gregory, J and Wiechmann, J (2002) Branding Across Boarders: A guide to global brand marketing. Pp.28-47. New York: McGraw Hill

Dyson, P. Farr, A. and Hollins, N. (1996) “Measuring and using brand equity”, Journal of Advertising Research, vol36, Nr 6, Nov/Dec, pp9-21.

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

Haig, M. (2003) Brand Failures: The truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all times. London: Kogan Page Ltd.

Brand Lifecycle

Applying the Mootee's (2001) Brand Lifecycle Model, this progressive and systematic development may be observed. However, it is mandatory to mention, that this model portrays a successful and almost ideal case of brand development, not including the downfalls and failures a brand usually experience. 

Applying this model to the branding visual aspect, such as logo for instance, we can observe the Brand Lifecycle stages on examples of Starbucks and Nike:

1971 Nike - Product Brand

1978 Nike - Experience Brand

1985 Nike - Corporate Brand

current Nike - Global Brand

1971 Starbucks - Trademark

1987 Starbucks - Service Brand
1992 Starbucks - Personality and Ingredients Brand
2011 Starbucks - Global Brand

Reference:

Mootee, I (2007) Innovation Playground [online] Available URL: http://mootee.typepad.com/innovation_playground/advanced_branding_strategy_masterclass/page/2/, Accessed on 8.11.2011

Brand Architecture

" As the pace of business quickens and the number of brands multiplies, it is customer, not companies, who decide which brands live and which brands die"
                                                                                        - Marty Neumeier (2007), Zag, Peachpit Press


1. Brand Extensions
 According to Serena Gossain (2011), brands are expanding gradually over the years of existence by creating Subbrands, Masterbrands, Superbrands, Megabrands and other brand extensions.

Sub Brand / Brand Siblings - a new subsidiary brand of a Parent Brand or a Corporate Brand in the brand system (For example Sony Playstation, or Taurus for Ford, or Accord for Honda)

Master Brand - historically used to be the dominant brand in the hierarchy and the only brand in the system. It is a specified overarching brand that attempts to create a strong association between company's products and the main brand image. (For example: Intel, which produces the following products Pentium, Centrino and Core Duo)

Parent Brand / Umbrella Brand / Family Brand - is a brand that is expanded into more than one category (For example Honda, Ford, or P&G)

Corporate Brand - always bearing the company name and is the highest in the hierarchy (For example: Ford, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Virgin, Kingfisher-a beer and an airline, Mitsubishi-a car, a bank, and a canned fish, etc.)



2. There are three main Brand Architecture Types:

• Monolithic / Stand alone brand - the single business identity. The organisation uses single name and visual system throughout (For example: Chanel, HSBC, Yamaha, Virgin, BMW, Harrods)

 

• Endorsed  - the multiple business identity. The organisation owns a variety of brands, each of which is endorsed by the group name or visual style (For example: Nestle, Banco Santander, Marriott)

• Branded / Free Standing Brand - the brand-based identity. The organisation owns a number of brands or companies that are unrelated to each other as well as to corporation. The organisation stays "invisible"to the consumer (For example: P&G, RBS, General Motors, LVMH, Pfizer)

3. House of Brands vs Branded House

	House of Brands	Branded House
Pros	+ Distinctive positioning for each brand + Dominating niche markets	+ Minimal investment in new entries + Brand leveraging by parenting brand
Contras	-Absence of economies of scale - Absence of brand leveraging for new entries	-Harder to target specific audiences - Bigger risk involved in case of failure of the main brand

Exercise:
Define a type of brand architecture for the following brands: Cadbury, Regents School, Fiat.

Cadbury - Branded House/Endorsed - many products reinforced by a parenting brand name
Regent's School - Stand alone brand - though various products are produced they are all under the same brand name, logo and identity
Fiat - House of Brands - as it holds the biggest stake in Ferrari (90%) and Chrysler (54%), it is considered to own the companies, however, these brands portray absolutely different images and do not intersect in the minds of consumers.  

Reference:
Ollins, W (2008) The Brand Handbook. pp.44-53. London: Thames & Hudson

Investopedia ULC (2011) "Masterbrand" [online] Available URL: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/masterbrand.asp#axzz1ffKvjQqj, Accessed on 8.11.2011

Riches, E (2009) "Comparison Test: 2010 Ford Taurus vs 2009 Honda Accord". Edmunds Inc. [online] Available URL: http://www.insideline.com/honda/accord/2009/comparison-test-2010-ford-taurus-vs-2009-honda-accord.html, Accessed on 8.11.2011