Branding like People Matter
Branding like People Matter
Monday, 30 January 2006 05:03
Branding has been much heralded for being the wind beneath the wings of many a corporate success story. While this has been the case, I wish to address the other side of branding; the side that recognizes the fact that branding is neither the alpha and omega nor is it the panacea to all corporate malaise. Indeed, it can be the seed of corporate failure if not implemented in a holistic manner and with some sense of not only consistency but more importantly, responsibility.
Brands cannot assume a position of dominance without a concomitant assumption of responsibility. Brands can also not afford to forget where they initially came from and quite often a conglomeration of otherwise good brands may not produce the imagined megabrand.
Some brands such as Coca Cola’s family of brands are finding it harder and harder to justify their existence to the now more health conscious public. More and more people are asking themselves why they should take a drink that is simply some artificial flavour, sugar and water all put together into some carbonated concoction then sold like it were a magic potion. This does not augur well for the Coca Cola family of brands because the truth does not really work in the global enterprise’s favour.
My jaw fell in shock when I recently came across the new “shapely” Fanta bottle whose story I’d be very interested in hearing. It had silently been sneaked into the market almost as though the brand manager was ashamed of the move. It is probably what can be termed as an attempt to add scaffolding to the decaying structure that the carbonated drinks market is fast becoming in the face of a more health conscious populace. More recently though, the old bottle seems to be slowly elbowing the new one off the shelves and making some of us think we may have imagined the new one!
MacDonald’s, the American fat food, sorry, fast food chain learnt responsibility and responsiveness the hard way when it recorded its first ever quarterly loss to the tune of 343.8 million dollars in 2003. MacDonald’s had built its brand around fast food and with the single-mindedness of a typical victim of brand narcissism, was totally oblivious of what was happening around. I dare say the brand was simply acting irresponsibly and exploiting its own customer who is incidentally the custodian of the brand. Like the children of Israel in Egyptian captivity, it wasn’t an eternity before the Red sea parted and not only did it see the exodus but also left the Egyptian army, read shareholders, clutching at straws in an effort to save themselves in the face of the unprecedented floods. The ‘almighty’ MacDonald’s had to wake up and smell the coffee when it found itself being sued for causing obesity by some of its best customers. Only recently, the plaintiffs won the first round, making the case even bigger and setting a precedent for even more litigation. The King of the Big Mac now finds itself having to sell vegetables in the name of salads with fancy names. While this may be a healthy move, you must agree that is shall be hard to disassociate MacDonald’s from the greasy buckets of chicken and cholesterol drenched burgers. In a show of some “responsibility” the fast food chain even has a “discussion on nutrition” on its website.
A change in menu simply does not qualify as a rebranding exercise. If you thought branding was just a name game, may be you also need to wake up and smell the same coffee as Macdonald’s. Branding certainly does have an impact on the bottom line.
Ever listened to Classic 105 FM? The Classic FM brand is a classic example of how not to brand. The brand suffers from a congenital disease of trying to be everything to everyone. Most of the music played on the station is great, truly classic if you were born sometime before or in the ’70s and may be early ’80s. Anybody younger than that may think they have tuned in to a history lesson or accidentally strayed into a time machine.
When PQ “politely” appropriated what SK believed to be his, I really thought he had something more “classic” up his sleeve! All is not lost thought, I’m sure if I look hard enough I’ll find a radio, probably made in the hovels of Malaysia for a Japanese electronics giant, that can filter out all the yapping that so rudely interrupts all that good music. I guess the not-too-well guarded secret of when I was born is out of the bag now! The combination of the western-twang-voice-over-lady brand, the old-school-pirated-Titi-Nagwala brand, the oldest-school-Willy-Mwangi brand, the fits-in-every-station-Jimmy-Gathu brand, among a handful of other personality brands form a rather odd bag. This is a case study for a conglomeration of otherwise good brands failing to create what should have been a megabrand. So far the advertisers seem to agree that there just is no brand to tune their purse strings in to.
Have you listened to 98.4 Capital FM during weekdays lately? I could swear the station tuned in to Nation FM in the morning, went back to its own material in the “mid morning” and then tuned in to KISS FM for the afternoon session. Not much can be said about the evening when the brand completely sells out, heart, soul and guts too! In retrospect, 98.4 Capital FM was a real brand during the Linda Holt days and spared no effort in staying true and tuned in to its brand.
In a recent development, Proctor & Gamble announced its acquisition of 100 percent shares in the Gillette brand for a whooping 57 million dollars. Rita Clifton, the Chair of Interbrand reckons that this single move makes P&G the largest consumer goods concern in the world. P&G, well known for pampers locally, is now poised to cater for the needs of both baby’s smooth bottom and daddy’s smooth chin!
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