This is not the first time we've lamented brand survival. Think back to the turbulent '80s, when the growth of store brands and the pressure on pricing were certainly going to kill established high-priced branded products. However, we failed to see the demise of brands and instead, successful brand managers were able to grow and strengthen their brand, and we also witnessed the rise of major new brands like Starbucks, Verizon, Dell, Lexus, the iPod, and many more.
It is true that pressures existing on today's brands make it hard to sustain strong franchises. The recent economic pressures affecting consumers' pocketbooks will influence many to "trade down" from their high-priced brands, but many will return if given sufficient incentives in a continuing rebounding economy—and remember, competition is a good thing.
We have seen significant improvement in recent years in both the quality, and more importantly, the messaging of that quality, among "store brands." Many chains actually brand their own products—Wal-Mart's Sam's Choice, Sears' Kenmore or Craftsman, for example—seeking to increase trial and approval for these products. This would appear to be a positive sign of acknowledgement of the importance of branding. In some cases these chains seem to understand the importance of brand messaging better than some established manufacturers.
What we might be seeing, in fact, is the decline of branding, not brands. The proliferation of line extensions and the resulting effect of "line advertising," the fact that over two-thirds of many brand budgets are now spent on consumer and trade promotions, and reliance of many brands on fifteen second advertising has led to the creation of labels, not brands. No emotional connection is built, and much of the traditional product testing, Internet testing, and focus group activities are terribly outmoded and archaic.
The solution is to redouble efforts to personalize brands, find the emotional connection with a brand, and go beyond the "go/no go" mentality of product testing. The ability to reasonably and objectively predict product and advertising success that motivates a consumer and builds long term connections is the future of branding.
It falls upon manufacturers to own up to their responsibility to strengthen brands to meet today's consumer needs. Adding line extensions that fail to enhance current franchises; spending increasing amounts of money on short-term promotions that do not build, or worse, tear down, a given brand; and failing to develop brand-building objectives all need to be addressed to ensure brand longevity.
It starts with proper ideas or advertising testing, with methodologies that will allow a brand manager to be more successful—to seek clear, actionable recommendations based on normative databases that can identify opportunities in subsequent product or advertising development. Strategic and executional recommendations should be coupled with the ability to ask open-ended questions to a pinpointed target audience.
Although validated testing is key, creative brand building is the overall answer. This comes from selling benefits proven to be important in the category and among current brand users, while even more importantly bonding emotionally with the brand's customers. In categories consisting of mainly parity products, how consumers feel about your brand is more important than what they think about your brand. It is precisely this emotional reaction to the brand that leads to consumers spending more money for a particular product. Understanding and reinforcing the brand's emotional appeal is every bit as important as understanding its functional benefits.
Many of our great brands were built over a long period of time by using strong and consistent advertising and public relations messages. As we all know, the purpose of marketing communications is to build brands over time. Consumers use specific brands because they trust that brand to deliver what they are looking for, consistently. Consumers form brand opinions from the advertising messages they see. When the promises made and inferred in these messages, both functionally and emotionally, are satisfactorily delivered, loyal customers are born and reinforced.
We see a lot of new product ideas and advertising campaigns, and are provided opportunities to study brand equity. While few come up with sustainable long-term advantages versus their major competitors, the successful ones reinforce their brand image and brand promise with strong new products that enhance rather than detract from their equity, coupled with advertising campaigns that fit with their images and give consumers what they have learned to expect from the brand—both functionally and emotionally.
Good marketing companies use this availability of consumer information to their advantage. They reinforce their basic brand messages and keep these messages up-to-date and relevant. They may change their advertising medium to keep up with consumer viewing, but they don't change their basic communication objectives—and, when most successful, these objectives include an emotional element.
So, are we seeing the beginning of the end of brands? No. There are still enough good marketers and sharp advertising people out there to set creative direction that builds brands over time. The question is will they have the resources to continue to accomplish this critical objective, such as up-front testing before going to market or a proper budget to achieve the communications tipping point. If not, we could just be seeing the decline of branding—not because consumers have changed—but because companies themselves have changed.
Using marketing dollars more efficiently is a good thing, but must not be done at the expense of building and maintaining a brand. Organizations and agencies must be able to test a variety of stimuli in a single study, which often saves time and money versus other methods that require multiple steps. Just one study can be designed to test a broad range of marketing stimuli, which helps you get more return on your research investment. Fail to support the brand, and the vicious circle of lower sales revenue and slashed marketing dollars becomes self-fulfilling.
