2. TYPES OF BRANDS

1. Contents
Using this guide
Introduction
Checklist
2. TYPES OF BRANDS
“Isn’t branding only relevant in the fmcg sector?”
Case studies
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eGUIDE 1
Defining brands
Contents
> Using this guide
eGUIDE 2
Types of brands
eGUIDE 3
How brands work
eGUIDE 4
Brand strategy
> Introduction
> Common features of all brands
> Sources that influence perception of
brands and degree of control
> Differentiating features of brands
eGUIDE 5
Managing and
developing brands
> Different types of brands
> Checklist
eGUIDE 6
Brand portfolio and
architecture
> Case studies
eGUIDE 7
Measuring brands and
their performance
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Introduction
“Isn’t branding only relevant in
the fmcg sector?
”
Branding as a discipline
is probably most
commonly associated
with fmcg [but] brands
are developed in every
category.
Branding as a discipline is probably most
commonly associated with fmcg (fast moving
consumer goods) – physical products bought
more or less routinely. Many consumer
companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé
and Procter & Gamble have set the standard
for brand marketing.
However, brands are developed in every
category and it is important to understand
what these categories are and how the process
of branding differs in each one.
Perhaps the most significant development is
the evolution of the organisation brand which
introduces the idea of stakeholders as a key
target audience.
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Common features of all brands
Figure 2.1: Brand Mind SpaceTM
FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION
concerns the perception of benefit of the product
or service associated with the brand
SOCIAL
DIMENSION
concerns the
ability to create
identification
with a group
BRAND
MIND
SPACE
MENTAL
DIMENSION
is the ability
to support the
individual mentally
SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
is the perception of global or local responsibility
Source: Gad, T. (2001) 4-D Branding: Cracking the corporate code of the network economy.
London, FT Prentice Hall, p. 18.
> A brand is a mix of rational, sensual and
emotional rewards to the consumer. A
successful brand is an identifiable product,
service, person or place, augmented in such
a way that the buyer or user perceives
relevant, unique added values which match
their needs most closely. Furthermore, its
success results from being able to sustain
these added values in the face of
competition. [de Chernatony, L., 1998]
> Brands exist in the minds of people
(consumers, employees, other stakeholders).
They are not something that a
company/organisation sells, but what the
users of the brand perceive. They are the
culmination of a user’s total experience with
the product or service (or company) over
many years. Clear and distinctive brand
propositions can influence stakeholders’
attitudes in your favour.
Related reading
eGuide1: Defining Brands
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The brand owner has
direct control and
influence over some
sources, indirect control
over other sources and
no control at all over
still others.
> People derive their beliefs and utilities of
brands from many sources. The brand owner
has direct control and influence over some
sources, indirect control over other sources
and no control at all over still others.
“Products are made and owned by
companies. Brands, on the other hand, are
made and owned by people... by the
public... by consumers.
“People come to conclusions about brands as
a result of an uncountable number of
different stimuli, many of which are way
outside the control of the product’s owner.
“Much of what influences the value of a
brand lies in the hands of its competitors.”
[Bullmore, 2001]
> The more sources the brand owner can
exercise a coherent influence over, the more
integrated and secure the brand will be. One
way in which the brand managers can
become more focused on integrated brand
development programmes is by considering
the journeys each of their stakeholders
undertakes as they come into contact with
the organisation. [de Chernatony, L., 2001]
Figure 2.2: Striving for an integrated brand journey
Stakeholder
How did they become aware of your brand?
How do stakeholders further develop opinions about
your brand through interacting with each other?
When then deciding to have further dealings with you,
what routes do they follow?
Do all the brand communicators reinforce the brand's core values?
What roles do staff and technology play throughout the stakeholders'
journeys – do they support the brand's core values?
What mechanisms are in place to reinforce the brand's values
after the transaction?
Source: de Chernatony, L. (2001) From Brand Vision to
Brand Evaluation. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann.
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Figure 2.3: Stakeholder reaction to brand: the brand owner has direct
control over some aspects, indirect control over others and no control over
still others
Start here
3
Awareness
Experience
Attitudes
Image
ORGANISATION
INPUT
Vision
Values
Products
Services
Performance
Presentation
Communication
1
OTHER
INPUT
Gossip
Rumour
Media comment
Word of mouth
Pressure groups
Word of Web
STAKEHOLDERS'
MENTAL INVENTORY
Figure 2.3 shows how stakeholders’ perception
of the brand can be influenced by any point of
contact with it, be it through brand
communications, direct experience or word-ofmouth. The more control can be exercised
over each of those elements, the more
consistent the perception of the brand, both in
time and across all stakeholders.
Residual
Mental
Image
2
> Stakeholder reaction to the organisation brand changes daily
> The mechanism for this is a continuous process
Source: Davidson, H. (2002) The Committed Enterprise. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann.
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Sources that influence perception of
brands and degree of control
Direct control:
> the product (eg, ingredients, formulation and
technical efficiencies).
Limited control:
> all of company’s broader activities that
impact perception (eg, employment
practices, environment policy, social policies
and material sourcing).
> media good news (placed stories).
> the service component (eg, nature of
service, numbers of staff, degree of training
and specific deliverables).
No control:
> media bad news.
> the promotion (eg, how much, what content
and where exposed).
The fragmentation of
media channels, the
explosive growth of the
Internet, and the
changing attitudes of
consumers have all
chipped away at the 30second network TV spot
as the prime medium for
brand communication.
> the distribution (eg, where purchased or
experienced).
> accidents.
> activity of competitors.
> activities of individual employees.
> the packaging (eg, type, materials and
design).
> the price.
> the choice of partner/associate/links, with
other companies, for example.
“The rules of the (brand communication) game
have changed beyond recognition. The
fragmentation of media channels, the
explosive growth of the Internet, and the
changing attitudes of consumers have all
chipped away at the 30-second network TV
spot as the prime medium for brand
communication.
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“What’s more, the way in which consumers
form their opinions of brand is increasingly
complex. Companies may distinguish between
main media, promotions, public relations,
sponsorship, product placement and the
Internet. Consumers and potential consumers
make no such distinction.
“They may read disturbing reports of a
company in a newspaper, see its trucks being
badly driven on the motorway, be infuriated by
incomprehensible instruction leaflets, be driven
mad by the company’s call centre, receive
graceless and misspelled letters from head
office. Each of these encounters has the
potential to inflict serious harm on a brand’s
reputation.” [Fitzgerald, 2001]
Differentiating features of brands
The balance between tangible and service
elements inherent in a brand will affect the
following:
> how purchased/used/experienced.
Fmcg products are traditionally dependent
on wide distribution networks. However,
through the use of e-commerce many have
started to sell direct to consumers.
> frequency of purchase/use/experience.
Fmcg products are bought much more
frequently, as the name suggests, than big
ticket items.
> amount of thought/research/comparison
typically undertaken prior to
purchase/experience.
The consumer decision
process will vary
according to how much
risk they perceive in
buying a product or
service.
The consumer decision process will vary
according to how much risk they perceive in
buying a product or service – the risk will
depend on price, quality variance, trust in
the brand and other factors.
> degree of customisation available.
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The intangibility of services makes them
much more suited to customisation than
fmcg products, which offer a wide variety
but little customisation.
All brands have one goal
– to enhance their
perceived value.
Different types of brands
In terms of complexity, the branding issues
multiply as the underlying product becomes
less tangible. Product brands lie at the
relatively simple end of the scale. They are
easy to understand. Service brands are on the
other end of the scale, as they are difficult to
evaluate prior to purchase. Although all brands
have one goal – to enhance their perceived
value – it is important to understand how that
value delivery differs across different types of
brands. [Goodchild, Callow, 2001]
Product brands (1)
Fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) such as
cereals, drinks, washing powders, personal
care, confectionery.
Case study: Kleenex
Characteristics:
>Cost
Inexpensive.
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>Balance of product to service
Almost exclusively tangible product, although
service component can be present (eg,
customer-care lines).
Figure 2.4: The evaluation spectrum of products and services
GOODS
SERVICES
>How purchased
Mainly through conventional fmcg
distribution networks – supermarkets, other
shops, vending machines, relatively large
volume outlets.
>Frequency of purchase
Frequent.
High in
search
qualities
High in
experience
qualities
Surgery
Legal services
Hi-fi repair
Haircut
Lawn fertilizer
Restaurant meal
Motor vehicle
Difficult to
evaluate
Chair
Easy to
evaluate
China
2.
High in
credence
qualities
>Degree of research/thought/search
prior to purchase
Typically none, the brand is part of the
consumer repertoire, likely to be habitual.
>Degree of customisation
Very little. Often wide range of variants but
no real customisation for individual
customers.
Source: de Chernatony, L. (1998) Creating Powerful Brands. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann, p. 216.
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Product brands (2)
Big ticket items (eg, appliances, cars, houses,
boats, furniture, and luxury items such as
jewellery, high fashion and watches).
Characteristics:
>Cost
Expensive.
>Balance of product to service
Service is likely to take on a more important
role, before, during and after purchase.
It is always harder to
brand something you
can’t touch.
>How purchased
Traditionally through specialised outlets
(luxury = high status outlets) but
increasingly more widely distributed. For
example, luxury cosmetics are now available
in chemists, electrical appliances in
supermarkets and computers available for
purchase via the Internet.
>Frequency of purchase
Infrequent.
>Degree of research on purchase
A great deal of thought, research and
comparison goes into the decision, although
with luxury goods, investment is more
emotional than financial.
>Degree of customisation
Can be considerable.
Service brands
Service brands are characterised by the need
to maintain a consistently high level of service
delivery throughout hundreds, or even
thousands of staff. Although a product
component may be involved, it is essentially
the service that is the brand.
These are more complex than product brands
for two reasons: both because it is always
harder to brand something you can’t touch
and because they are delivered directly by
employees. [Goodchild, Callow, 2001]
Case study: easyJet
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Characteristics:
>Intangibility
Service brands can seldom be tried out in
advance, which requires the establishment of
a greater degree of trust.
>Inseparability of production and
consumption
Services cannot generally be stockpiled in
advance but are produced and consumed in
real time.
>Inconsistency
Since humans are usually instrumental in
delivering services. [Goodchild, Callow,
2001]
Different categories of service brands:
>Classic service brands
eg, airlines, hotels, car rentals and banks.
The meanings of retail >Pure service providers
eg, member associations like The Automobile
brands are more heavily
Association or RAC.
derived from consumer’s
direct experience rather
than from advertising.
>Professional Service Brands
eg, advisors of all kinds – accountancy,
management consultancy.
>Agents
eg, travel agents and estate agents.
This category of a brand has become
endangered by the rise of the Internet.
Unless value is added in some way, these
middlemen will become extinct. An example
is the demise of the ordinary travel agent, as
customers book their flights and hotels online. Luxury travel agents compete by
providing personal service and having
exclusive contacts.
>Retail brands
eg, supermarkets, fashion stores and
restaurants.
Retail Brands are complex and multifaceted.
Consumers have a much more involved and
interactive experience with retail brands. The
meanings of retail brands are more heavily
derived from consumer’s direct experience
rather than from advertising. [Gordon, 1996]
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Retail brands will differentiate themselves in
different ways, including:
> explicit customer oriented policies – eg,
Prêt à Manger, Carphone Warehouse.
> Particularly unique combination of offerings
– eg, Selfridge.
> Concentration in one category or breadth
of range – eg, Amazon, Toys-R-Us.
> Own label – eg, Tesco Finest, M&S St
Michael.
Brands from other spheres
The Internet needs to be
fully-integrated into the
total brand-building of
[a] company.
E-brands
The Internet is a medium that presents new
challenges for brand owners, but the
underlying principles of branding are
unchanged. The Internet is developing a more
direct style of relationships between customers
and brand owners, and all those interactions
give an opportunity for strengthening the
brand identity. A distinction needs to be made
between ‘e-tailers’ like Amazon.com, whose
primary activity is to deliver physical products,
and other e-brands, which focus on delivering
a service or experience, like lastminute.com or
monster.co.uk. In both cases, however, it is
the intangibles, the brand values that will
attract online customers.
Case study: Amazon
Five success factors for e-branding:
[Aaker, 2002]
1. A clear brand identity – knowing your brand
and what associations you want it to have,
what user profiles, brand personality,
organisational associations, emotional and
functional benefits.
2. The Internet needs to be fully-integrated
into the total brand-building of your company
– no longer can the Internet be perceived as
another communication medium to be
managed by silo organisations of specialists.
3. Website design needs to be consistent with
brand presence off-line – the website look, feel
and personality need to support the brand’s
overall identity.
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4. Consumers need to be motivated to return
to the site – motivation usually involves
information, entertainment and interactive
communications.
Only when off-line and
on-line efforts are truly
linked, will traffic be
driven to the website.
integrity of the brand, and promote it at every
turn. But successful branding can have a great
effect on raising awareness of the charity and
its mission, and on fund-raising.
5. Only when off-line and on-line efforts are
truly linked, will traffic be driven to the website
– the big pay-off occurs when visiting the
website is not a discrete action, but rather part
of a larger brand experience.
Nation brands
Related reading
New ways of thinking lead to countries being
positioned as tourist destinations, enhancing
status of goods and services produced, and
aiding under-developed countries. [Anholt,
2000]
Brands, the Web and Brand Strategy
Related reading
Building Digital Brands
Journal of Brand Management website
Special Issue: Nation Branding, April 2002,
Vol. 9, No.4/5
Media brands
eg, newspapers, magazines, television
channels.
Not-for-profit organisation brands
Non-profits are often at a disadvantage when
it comes to branding. After all, they don’t have
the deep pockets of corporations who can
afford to hire brand specialists, nor do they
have staff whose job it is to protect the
Government brands
Governments and political parties often have
strong brands as they are centred on
passionately held core values, eg low taxes for
Republicans, environmental issues for the
Green party. Branding is important in both
securing votes and in international diplomacy.
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Global brands
Through the 1990s, the
notion of the ‘global’
brand developed: the
same ‘sight and sound
the world around’.
Companies have been marketing their
products and brands in different countries for
decades. However they were almost always
marketed according to local conditions. The
exceptions are the famous ones – Coca-Cola,
Marlboro, McDonald’s and a few others.
Through the 1990s, as companies became
more centrally controlled, as media became
more global and the countries at least of the
developed world began to show similar
characteristics, the notion of the ‘global’ brand
developed: the same ‘sight and sound the
world around’.
This has always been something of an
overstatement: rarely is a brand identical in
each of its markets but there was a belief that
many efficiencies could be effected if brands in
different countries shared certain common
features: positioning, strategy, packaging,
certain types of advertising and so forth. This
idea has remained a powerful one but
increasingly, companies are taking second
looks at their global property and realising that
too strong a central control risks being out of
touch with the local community.
Consequently, although major companies still
try to ensure that positioning is similar in all
major markets, they are allowing more local
output in the communications.
Because these brands are very valuable to the
company, they are often referred to as ’power’
brands or ’pillar’ brands.
Related reading
2002 Global Brands Scoreboard from
Interbrand website
The Brand Chartering Handbook
International Marketing
Features of global brands
[Quelch, 1999]
> strong in home market – cash flow
generated from domestic market enables the
company to fund a global roll-out
> at least minimum level of awareness,
recognition and sales all over the world
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> the products meet the same human needs
world-wide, even though the physical
product may be adapted locally (eg,
McDonald’s).
The decision whether to standardise or localise
brands when expanding internationally should
be led by adding value to the final consumer,
not by reducing costs or facilitating HQ control.
> consistent positioning.
Several other factors may affect the decision:
[Quelch, 1999]
> consumers value the provenance of the
brand, its country of origin, and even
associate the country’s expertise with
specific products (eg, German cars,
American jeans).
> focus on a specific product category.
>use single corporate brand name.
Act local, think globcal
The brand’s core values
can be global, although
the brand needs to have
local relevance.
“While there are global brands that have a
global presence, they don’t have global
consumers. The brand’s core values can be
global, although the brand needs to have local
relevance. To bring it to life you need to be
flexible and re-enact the brand as appropriate.
It is the think global, act local strategy.”
[Gavin Emsden, Nestlé UK’s head of consumer
insight and planning for beverages]
> regulatory environments vary from country
to country, especially in pharmaceuticals,
financial services and utilities.
> the Internet allows adoption of a
standardised global strategy without
investing in distribution systems in each
country.
> the threat of parallel imports from low-price
to high-price countries.
Anti-globalisation debate: related reading
International Branding: Resolving the globallocal dilemma
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Organisation brands
Case study: Levi’s
“Every organisation is a brand, since people
have a mental image of it.” [Davidson, 2002]
What is an organisation brand? It is neither a
product/service nor a corporate brand, it is
wider than both. It relates to all stakeholders
and in many cases is rarely advertised. The
organisation brand represents the impression
people inside and outside the organisation
have of it.
Figure 2.5: How organisation brands differ from product/service brands
Organisation brand
(eg Procter & Gamble)
Product/service brand
(eg Tide)
> Impacts all stakeholders
> Flag for all employees
> Brand for Wall Street
> May or may not be customer brand
(IBM is, Procter & Gamble is not)
> Brand for media, NGOs, regulators
> May not be advertised at all
(eg, Procter & Gamble)
> Marketed to customers/consumers
> Limited impact on employees
> Limited Wall Street impact
> Always a customer brand
> Low interest to media, NGOs,
regulators, unless specific incident
> Likely to be heavily advertised
Every company, large or small, is a brand in
this sense. Every college, school and hospital
is too. Save the Children and Harvard
University are organisation brands, but not
corporate brands.
Everyone would agree that Pampers or Ariel is
a brand. What about their owner, Procter &
Gamble? You have to search hard to find
Procter & Gamble on the back of the package.
Yet to Wall Street, suppliers, partners,
retailers, and P&G employees, Procter &
Gamble is an important ’organisation brand’.
Organisation brands like P&G, Unilever and
General Motors, are not consumer brands, but
market to all other stakeholders. Others like
IBM, Tesco and McDonalds have a dual role
and are also consumer brands. Figure 2.5
summarises how organisation brands differ
from product/service brands.
Related reading
The Committed Enterprise
eGuide 6: Managing brand portfolio and brand
architecture
Source: Davidson, H. (2002) The Committed Enterprise. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann.
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Checklist
Understanding the characteristics of
different types of brands
Constructing a consumer journey
A particularly useful way of understanding the
particular features of different types of brands
and the key stages in how consumers buy and
use your particular category is what is called a
’consumer journey’. (It is sometimes also
called a ’consumer buying system’.) This is a
framework that looks at the purchase process
from the consumer standpoint and asks a
series of questions that help define the ’rules’
of different types of brands.
>What triggers or stimulates the
purchase in the first place?
Is it a habitual process with purchase
stimulated by simply running out? Is it a gift
item where a special occasion is the trigger?
Is it a seasonal purchase? Is it an
infrequently purchased, very expensive
item? Each category and sometimes each
individual brand will have a set of
circumstances that typify how consumers
relate to your category/brand and this helps
establish the consumer’s mind-set that leads
to at least consideration of purchase.
>How much searching or comparison
does the consumer engage in before
purchase?
For example, luxury or gift items will involve
quite a lot of thinking and searching
compared to fmcg; big ticket items will
involve comparisons on every dimension
compared to the cheap, semi-automatic
fmcg purchase. With service brands, the
search stage is a critical one in establishing
competitive advantage through service.
>Where/how does this searching take
place?
On the Internet? Through catalogues? In a
shop (what kinds of outlets)? Consulting
friends? Over how long a period of time?
Who else is involved in the searching?
>How much customisation takes place?
What kinds of demands do consumers
make? How is your particular category
structured to meet them? What opportunities
can you identify that haven’t been met?
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>What channels/promotional vehicles are
most appropriate for this type of brand
and how do consumers use these
vehicles?
In addition to the conventional categories in
the media mix, are there other sources of
influence, eg, middle men or direct
salespeople?
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CASE STUDIES
1. Kleenex: not a brand to be sniffed at
2. Easyjet: the Web’s favourite airline
3. Amazon: the get big fast brand
4. Levi’s: rebel without a cause
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23. 2.
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1. Kleenex: not a brand to be
sniffed at
2. easyJet: the Web’s favourite
airline
More people buy Kleenex facial tissue that any
other brand in the UK, it has remained the
number one brand since it first began
production in 1924 and enjoys a continuous
advertising presence and 100% share of voice
as the only company advertising facial tissues.
With low fares, one of the youngest fleets in
the industry and a steadily expanding range of
destinations, easyjet has changed the face of
European budget travel and become the
carrier of choice for many business and leisure
travellers.
The strength and longevity of the Kleenex
brand are based on originality, regular
innovation, quality control and heavy
promotion. In 1996 Kleenex was named as the
fastest growing brand in the UK and is in the
top 40 of all grocery brands.
The current tightening of company travel
budgets has led to companies turning to the
low cost airlines as a viable alternative for
European travel. Easyjet has used this
hardening of the market to its advantage,
growing to a FTSE 250 company with routes to
36 key European airports in seven years.
Further details can be found under ‘Kleenex’
on the Superbrands website
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The airline was launched in 1995 by Stelios
Haji-Ioannou and was positioned as a ‘people’s
brand’; a David champion to take on the
airline Goliaths. Stelios is a great admirer of
Virgin’s consumer champion strategy and
sought the advice of Richard Branson before
setting up easyjet. Note that he is known
universally as Stelios as opposed to HajiIoannou, which is as much to do with his
informal approach as to the length of his
name.
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Easyjet achieves low costs by consistently
adhering to a ‘no frills’ business model. Quick
turnaround times, online seat sales, and no
refreshments on-board have all contributed to
cheaper fares, but the biggest cost saving has
been the cutting out of travel agents. Without
commission charges, easyjet can sell seats at
prices other airlines cannot compete with.
Easyjet also implements a yield management
strategy, prices are closely linked to demand
and how far in advance a seat is booked.
Peak time seats are significantly more
expensive than seats taken at non-peak times,
which means easyjet is able to maximise seat
sales for every flight.
In keeping with the company’s strategic
philosophy, easyjet does not have a large
marketing budget; its marketing relies
primarily on sales promotions, public relations
and is ostensibly word of mouth. The in-house
marketing team design the ads and have
taken a deliberately economical approach. The
planes have the phone numbers emblazoned
on their sides in easyjet’s signature orange
colour and Stelios himself is a master of
publicity stunts, which are highly effective with
minimal costs. The ‘no frills’ approach,
emphasis on online sales and the slogan ‘The
© The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2003
Web’s favourite airline’ have all contributed to
the perception of the brand as a new airline for
the 21st century: cheap, cheerful and fuelled
by the new media revolution.
Easyjet is a pioneer of the European budget
travel market and when the brand was
launched they were virtually the only budget
European carrier. In the wake of their success,
however, direct competitors such as Ryanair
and Virgin Express have emerged and major
players such as British Airways have raised
their game in the budget market by charging
less for some fares now than 10 years ago,
providing stiff competition. With recent bad
publicity due to the aggressive defence of the
easyjet name and colour, and pilots arguing
that their turnaround rates are not sustainable,
it remains to be seen whether the people’s
brand can stay at the top of its game.
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3. Amazon.com: the get big fast
brand
Internet retail giant Amazon.com was founded
in 1994 by its charismatic CEO Jeff Bezos. His
principle was to exploit the burgeoning world
of online book sales by becoming the early
market leader and doing whatever it took to
grow quickly.
Bezos initially founded the company on the
basis that he was ready and willing to lose
money for five years before it would make a
profit, a sensible idea in a brave new world
‘littered with corpses who do new things and
expect them to be profitable quickly’. He was
right about Amazon.com losing money, but
hadn’t quite predicted the scale. Having lost
over $300,000 in 1995, Bezos was running out
of money and was forced to desperately bid
for local investment into his pioneering
company to fund the growth he craved.
Bezos’ campaigning secured investment of
$1million and he immediately began ploughing
it into the company, recruiting top staff and
buying new warehouses and larger offices as
he sought to get as great a head start over
the competition as possible. Book superstores
such as Barnes & Noble and Borders hadn’t
© The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2003
entered into online sales yet and Bezos knew
they would crush small competition when they
turned their attention to the developing
market.
Amazon.com began to grow exponentially; by
focussing on PR and customer service they
secured excellent ‘word of mouth’ approval
and generated invaluable awareness without
needing to raise huge marketing budgets. On
16 May 1996 the Wall Street Journal ran a
feature about Amazon.com as the lead story
on its front page and the brand really broke.
Investors were soon competing to plough
venture capital into Amazon.com and Bezos
began to build the business as fast as he
could. Any ideas of profits were forgotten for
the near future as Amazon.com focussed on
building the brand and dominating the market.
Advertising budgets were allocated for the first
time and the brand was marketed on the
range of choice, convenience, price and
customer focus.
By 2000, by spending money and spreading
the word quickly, Amazon.com had grown from
humble beginnings to a business with 20
million customers and a turnover in excess of
$550million a quarter.
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At the end of 2002 the company announced a
profit for the first time. Whilst other dotcom
businesses have floundered and become
expensive flops, Amazon.com has established
itself as a market leader, synonymous with
book selling online. With international markets
still growing quickly, new product lines and still
only 5% of books in America sold online the
future looks rosy.
Big investments and big vision paid dividends
for Amazon.com. Bezos knew the company
would have to grow quickly to compete and
became a market leader. As a pioneer,
Amazon.com had impeccable timing; and in
making their URL their brand name – ensuring
association with the growing Internet market
from the beginning – and focussing heavily on
customer service to ensure vital word-ofmouth buzz, they were able to secure the
necessary investment to ensure their
exponential growth. Amazon.com ‘got big
quickly’ and that was the key to their success.
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4. Levi’s: Rebel without a cause
First manufactured for the gold miners of
California in the 1850s, Levi Strauss and Co
quickly established a brand reputation for
producing tough, hard-wearing jeans for
tough, hard-working miners, and they saw the
brand grow slowly along the American West
coast throughout the depression and into
World War II.
The post war explosion of youth culture and
the large baby boom generation of young
people in the 1950s provided the opportunity
Levi’s needed to develop the brand and
expand nationally and internationally. Jeans
were the garment of choice for a new
generation looking to rebel against convention
and, as the classic manufacturer, Levi’s
became the brand of choice and a status
symbol worn by rock stars, actors and the
‘cool’.
The brand rested on the attached connotations
of originality and rebellion. A brief flirtation
with baby clothing, polyester suits and running
gear in the 1970s and early 1980s was quickly
abandoned as consumers couldn’t buy into this
ethos with these products. Levi’s had begun to
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abandon the brands core values, detaching
themselves in part from what their consumers
were buying into, and as the experiment failed
their marketers began to work on a campaign
to stabilise the brands image.
The result was a great success. Commencing
with an advert featuring Nick Kamen walking
into a laundrette sporting the classic,
relaunched 501 jean, Levi’s focussed their
campaign on their identity as the originals. The
ads featured classic soundtracks such as The
Clash’s ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’. Levi’s
were the originals, they were rugged and
enduring, good enough for gold-rush miners
and good enough for modern life.
Focussing on the brands core values of classic
identity saw Levi’s reap the rewards
throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s,
beating sales targets and achieving double
digit growth on an annual basis. The problem
was the brand became static and trends
eventually caught up with them. Sales were
noticeably down at the start of 1997 and nosedived by the end of the year. Between 1997
and 2000, Levi’s lost over 50% of its
consumption among its core customers (16- to
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24-year-olds) as youth culture diversified and
moved towards new fashions.
This shift presented a great challenge for
Levi’s. They had to adapt to the new climate,
whilst not losing the brands’ focus and
alienating loyal customers. Brand managers
sought to revitalise the brand and, after
extensive market research, launched new
product ranges such as Sta-Prest and
Engineered denim in 2000 as a new product
for a new generation to own as their own.
The modernisation of the brand was a success
as it appealed to a contemporary youth culture
and sales are now on the upturn after several
years of decline. A heavy focus on PR and
extensive use of the Internet in addition to the
standard TV advertisements to promote the
campaign were important but the key was the
increased attention paid to market research.
The Brand Vision team formed a new ‘Youth
Panel’ to give them insight into their consumer
base and prevent them from ever losing sight
of their target audience again. The panel
employs both the most fashion-forward youths
throughout Europe and mainstream young
men and women. Research has become
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integral to the business, to the extent that
products in line development have been
dropped based on feedback, something that
‘would have been unthinkable four years ago’.
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