Brand and Brand Users Galore!

Today, businesses are fighting out their marketing warfare not merely at the product attributes level or at the advertising campaigning level, but it is also happening at several other levels. It is at the totality of the image that brands create in the minds and hearts of their customers. Marketers are concentrating on building Brand Values, images, power and authority centered on customers – their self esteem. Their dreams and aspirations – whether the fight is between Coke and Pepsi, HLL and P&G, Siemens and L&T.

Consumer Brands and Brand Personalities

Consumer Brand creators concentrate around creating brand personalities around their products. If Gold Flake were a person, how could he be? Do you not picture him as being more suave? More successful? More gracious? What kind of personality do we attribute to Charms and Coke? Would not Mr. Charms be younger, more fun-loving? Would he not be like your college-going son? For that matter, would Mr. Coke not be smart, fun-loving, bright, and full of spirit and success?

If we look around, we find hundreds of examples. The Marlboro Cigarette gave birth to the Marlboro man – the ultimate specimen of manhood from the Marlboro country. Camel brands’ Camel Cartoon Mnemonic has captured such a strong “I am cool” personality that in US children recognize this cartoon far more than even Mickey mouse.

Also look at the personalities of our local brands; the strong associations of Liril, personified by Kren Lundl with the effervescent image of the water nymphet; that of Rasna with the lovable child offering her tired daddy Rasna and that of Onida evoking the hidden devil in us or Lalitaji insisting that it makes better sense to buy Surf because of good logic developed on her own. A successful brand is built around 4 principles

• Quality Product meeting or exceeding continuously the functional needs.
• An attractive Wrap-around to differentiate and enhance appeal.
• Delighting customers with additional products or services to augment basic appeal and
• Ensuring origin of trials leading to repeat-buys.

Advertising, promotion, PR etc are used as triggers for the mechanism of repeat buys and for starting the wheel of usage – experience and keep it recurring.

The Acid Tests of Successful Brands

Firstly, they have a leading share in their segments and distribution channels. Secondly, they command prices sufficient to provide a high profit margin. Thirdly they sustain their strong share of profit when competitive and generic versions of product hit the market.

How Do Brands Wield Their Magic Touch on Their Owners and Consumers?

The two laws of brand are quite interesting. The first law pronounces “The bigger the brand, the more is total spent on marketing” and the second law are “the bigger the brand is the less in Unit Cost terms are spent on marketing.”

This gives rise to the triple leverage effect of brands on high volumes (higher asset use and economies of scale), higher price (at consumer level and more so at retailer or distributor level) and lower Unit Costs in R& D, Production, Marketing (Sourcing and operating advantage).

Wear Someone Else’s Name on Your Back and Quickly Become Somebody Your Self! Now let us see the joy of the consumers. Brand names- obsessed executives are spending big money on big Brands. Any doubt? Look at the favorite of some Indian executives. Van lack shirts (Rs. 6,000-7,000 each), Aquascutum suits (Rs.25, 000- 30,000) & Burberry socks (yes, socks at Rs.600 a pair!) provide the necessary classification.

Business barons and executives alike are making a beeline for the Big Names and in both outer and inner wear. The annual budget of life style practitioner young executives is upward of Rs. 50,000/- on an average of such things such as jockey briefs, Vanity Fair lingerie, and Louis Fraud jackets Murray Allen Cashmeres, Lotus Bawa or Bally shoes. Look at the prices! Hermes scarf (hand printed Rs.12, 500; Mont Blanc in sterling silver & 18K gold plate pen Rs.37, 000, Unisex Undies (Calvin Klein in white cotton) Rs. 5,000 a pair, Piaget watch Rs.1, 50,000. a made to order Ray Ban in 14K Gold Rs.1 lakh.

“Brands – Love, Hate and In Between” Fournier has classified 15 types of relationships that can exist between a consumer and a brand.

• Committed Partnership – Long term and voluntary relation- ship For example, a man is so involved with his brand of bicycle that he becomes an advocate for it, singing its praise to his friends.
• Marriage of convenience – Long term bond that springs from a chance encounter. A woman becomes a fan of a particular salad dressing after a bottle is left at her workplace.
• Arranged Marriage – Long term commitment imposed by third party a consumer uses a particular brand of wax to clean cabinets because it was strongly recommended by the cabinet manufacturer.
• Casual Friendship – Friendship that is low in intimacy, with only occasional interaction and few expectations. A consumer rotates among different brands of breakfast cereals, avoiding a long-term commitment.
• Close Friendship – Voluntary union based on sense of shared intimacy and rewards. A consumer believes a brand of sneakers is a comrade in daily athletics activities.
• Compartmental Friendship – Highly specialized friendship, often dependent on the situation and characterized by low intimacy. A woman uses different brands of perfumes for different activities.
• Kinship – Involuntary union of the cost associated with family. A cook feels obliged to use the same kind of flour his or her mother used.

• Rebound Relationship – Union based on desire to replace a prior partner. One woman Fournier interviewed switched mayonnaise brands because she didn’t want to use the one her ex-husband preferred
• Childhood Friendship – Affectionate relationship of infrequent interaction dating back to childhood. A man buys a brand of instant dessert because he remembers eating it in his childhood.
• Courtship – Period of testing before deciding on a committed partnership. Fournier cites the example of a woman experimenting with two brands of perfume before committing to one.
• Dependency – Obsessive attraction that results in suffering when the partner is unavailable. A consumer is upset when a favorite peanut butter is out of stock.
• Fling – Short term engagement with great emotional rewards. A consumer loyal to one kind of coffee enjoys (bur feels guilty about) sampling a competitor’s brand.
• Adversarial Relationship – Intense relationship characterized by negative feelings and a desire to inflict pain. A man refuses to buy a brand of computer that he hates, buying a competitor’s brand out of spite.
• Enslavement – Involuntary relationship governed exclusively by partner’s wishes and desires. A consumer is unhappy with the local cable operator but has no alternative source for this service.
• Secret Affair – Highly emotional, private relationship that is considered risky. A consumer hides a favorite brand of frozen dessert in the freezer and sneaks some late at night.