Trigger 6: Marketing communication plan

Compare different marketing communication planning models: what are the stages?

SOSTAC Model by P.R. Smith:

• Systematic planning
• Objectives
• Strategy
• Tactics
• Actions
• Control (Smart insights 2017.)

The SOSTAC model is mainly used in strategic planning, however can also be used in marketing planning. There are two disadvantages to this though; determination of the problem must be a given and that the model suggests to set the objectives before the analysis of the situation/environment. (Smart insights 2017.)

PASTA method

• Problem definition
  • Goal, issues involved, strategic objectives
• Analysing
  • Internal and external analysis
• Strategy
  • Positioning, objectives, proposition, target group
• Tactics
  • Communication tools, devices, technics
• Action
  • Time, money, people: how is the plan realized (Smart insights 2017.)

PESO Model by Gini Dietrich

Allows to separate the content and communication one creates into media buckets and helps to better integrate ones marketing efforts by identifying opportunities and gaps (Gunelius 2017).

The four media buckets are:

• Paid media
  • Social media ads, sponsored content, pay-per-click ads and other online contents that are paid for
• Earned media
  • Content about your brand that is created by someone else: media coverage, interviews, social media mentions, reviews
• Shared media
  • Anything related to social media that is not paid for
• Owned media
  • Created, owned and controlled content by the company: website, blog, email marketing, videos, social media account (Gunelius 2017.)

NICE Model by Susan Gunelius

The goal of the model is to ensure that the company is producing the right content for the right audience at the right time. Focus is on who, when and why. (Gunelius 2017.)

• New
  • New audience members by SEO, SEM, advertising, social media etc.
• Interest
  • Keep the audience interested in your products/services after the initial interaction. Can be done by email marketing, personaized content, blogging, videos.
• Convert
  • Remarketing and retargeting, automated marketing campaigns, personalized campaigns, highly targeted content in order to convert leads into customers
• Engage
  • Engage the customers in order to create brand loyalty, repeat purchases. Can be done by email marketing, social media, educational content, specialised and targeted promotions. (Gunelius 2017.)

Susan Gunelius (2017) mentions in her article that the most effective marketing communications plan is one that adresses both the how and what and the why, who and when. She suggests to combine the NICE model with the PESO model to get the most effective results.

Discuss the different stages of the marketing communication planning process.

For this part I chose to discuss the PASTA method in more depth. I chose this because I think it is the most comprehensive model. I wanted also to bring up a made-up example of my own in order to make the concept a bit more concrete.

Problem definition

I think this is a good first step. The problem and goal needs to be defined in detail before knowing what to do about it. A problem could be that a company is not getting enough repeated purchases.

Analysing

The analysis part is the most crucial. This goes into what the problem is in more depth, and gives better information on what the core issue is. The analysis needs to include both internal and external analysis in order to get a comprehensive look into the big picture. Here we could say that the issue is post-purchase engagement.

Strategy

The strategy sets the more concrete objectives, makes a proposition on how to tackle the issue as well as defines the target group. Here the objective could be to get repeated purchases increased by 10%. The target group would be customers who have already bought from the company.

Tactics

The tacticts go into even more depth on how the problem will be tackled. What tools or devices will be used in order to enable success of the objective? Some tools here could be email marketing to customers who have purchased, social media engagement, a regular customer program (e.g. S-Bonus).

Action

In the action plan the resources are allocated and a time schedule is made. Basically it is making a concrete action plan on who does what in order to achieve the objective of the marketing communications plan. Here the budget for the realisation and implementation is made, roles are distributed within the project, the time schedule is made and concrete tasks are defined.

What are the characteristics of a successful marketing communication plan or campaign?

First of all, a plan needs to be quite concrete and measurable based on the previous research made. Also a successful plan reaches the objective set.

Based on what Fill & Turnbull (2016, 305) say in their book about marketing communications, I think the number one charasteristic is that a campaign evokes some kind of emotion and a rational element.

Based on what works on me in regards to campaigns, it’s always emotion. But, it depends on what emotion is evoked in me. For example, guilt is something that I will never buy because of. For guilt I think specifically charity organisations that show children who are starving in poor conditions, this is something that always affects me and evoked emotion of empathy, and then guilt – for being in the position I am and having the feeling like I should help but I don’t want to be “guilted” into spending my money. It’s conflicting. The emotions that make me want to buy is joy and a sense of need, be it false or not, but if I feel like I need it, I will buy it. Here a good example is Elisa’s “Elisa Missionary” advertisements, they are the reason I switched to Elisa in the first place, in addition to their cheap-ish prices.

Discuss the marketing communication planning of a chosen company.

Fill & Turnbull (2016, 181-184) bring up the example of Petplan in their book. I will discuss this example, as it is a success story.

In short, Petplan is a UK based pet insurance provider. They had been the market leader in the industry for several years, providing specialised insurance coverage for pets. In 2012 new competitors started rising, ones that were cheaper for the consumer and had a larger marketing budget.

Petplan realised that in order to continue to succeed they must move to a more direct communication with the customer, as up until 2012 most of their sales had come through partners such as vets, breeders and charities. They noticed a significant decline in these sales which led to a drop in overall sales.

Petplan then started to set a new position for them in the market, set new target groups and build a new identity. They positioned themselves as a more premium pet insurance provider targeting people with a strong emotional bond to their pets. The brand identity was revamped to a more premium-looking insurance provider.

TV proved to be a big channel for them, and they published a TV ad in 2013 that included a song about pet breeds that they have taken care of during their years in the industry. In conjunction with that ad they also launched their new slogan “Every pet deserves Petplan”, which they still use to this day.

2013 TV ad:

2018 TV ad:

They put user experience at the heart of their approach, redesigning their website to subtly promote their “Covered for Life” insurance which differentiated them from their customers who mainly offered fixed-term pet insurance.

Petplan also wanted to drive customer engagement. They leveraged their expertise of pet insurances due to their long history in the industry. They created more personalized messages to their customers.

All in all the re-branding was a success, as the sales and value increased. Their brand awareness also increased, as well as direct communication with the customer. Direct purchases increased significantly as well, by 29 %.

I think Petplan is a good example on how to respond to the changing market environment. They noticed what was going on in the industry and pinpointed the issue well. They created a concrete plan on how to regain their position as a market leader in the industry. In their TV advertisements, which proved to be a good investment for them, they try to evoke emotion and relate to their customers. In the 2013 TV ad I brought up as an example, one might think “aww, what cute pets”, which grabs one’s attention and makes one curious. The jingle in the advertisement is also quite jolly and fun. In the 2018 TV ad, they show the connection an owner has with a pet, which a pet owner can easily relate to.

References

Fill, C. & Turnbull, S. 2016.  Marketing Communications. Discovery, creation and conversations. 7th Edition. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow.

Gunelius, S. Entrepreneur.com 2017. Which Marketing Communications Model Should You Choose? URL: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/298302. Accessed: 1 October 2018.

Now Advertising on Youtube 2013. Petplan ‘Breeds’ Advert. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roqbndqcwfw. Accessed: 1 October 2018.

Petplan UK on Youtube 2018. Petplan new TV Advert – July 2018. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yNjw1eQUQQ. Accessed: 1 October 2018.

Smart insights 2017. Marketing communications planning using the PASTA model. URL: https://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/planning-budgeting/marketing-cdommunications-planning-using-pasta-model/. Accessed: 1 October 2018.

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

What is IMC and what does it mean for a company to follow IMC?

Conaway & Laasch (2012, 26) explains IMC as all communication from a company should interconnect into a single, unified message, both internally and externally. The goal of IMC is to build stakeholder goodwill.

De Pelsmacker, Geuens & Van den Bergh (2013, 6) define IMC as “a new way of looking at the whole, where once we saw only parts such as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, purchasing, employee communication, and so forth, to look at it the way the consumer sees it – as a flow of information from indistinguishable sources”. This means that instead of information in and out from the company being cut into pieces by departments, it is all coming from one source, becoming homogenous. This in turn increases clarity in the workplace for employees and makes many aspects clearer for the customer as well.

When a company follows IMC in all areas of their communication, effectiveness of the communication is increased and duplication of messages reduced (Conaway et al. 2012, 27). It also allows the consumer to, if done right, understand what message the company is trying to send better (De Pelsmacker et al. 2013, 7).

In Table 1.3 (De Pelsmacker et al. 2013, 9) the differences between classic and integrated communications are listed.

Table 1.4 illustrates the key drives of integrated communications (De Pelsmacker et al. 2013, 22).

 

Who is in charge of IMC? What are the roles of the company and different agencies?

De Pelsmacker et al. (2013, 8) argue that successful IMC should have one communications manager who is responsible for supervising and integrating all of the communications functions. This will help to start a radical change in the company, which is most likely why many companies do not use this method.

I cannot really find information on what the roles of agencies and companies are.

 

How should the companies follow and execute IMC?

In a global world, and especially if the company is an international company, cultural differences cannot be ignored. Companies need to be careful not to fall into the “self-reference criterion”, which means that one will unconsciously refer to ones own values and beliefs, without realizing that there are a lot of people who do not have the same values and beliefs. (De Pelsmacker et al. 2013, 10-11.)

An integrated communications plan can, and should, be made. De Pelsmacker et al. (2013, 29) list the communication plan in essence as:

1. Situation analysis and marketing objectives
   1. WHY?
2. Target groups
   1. WHO?
3. Communications objectives
   1. WHAT?
4. Tools, techniques, channels and media
   1. HOW AND WHERE?
5. Budget
   1. HOW MUCH?
6. Timing
   1. WHEN?
7. Measurement of results
   1. HOW EFFECTIVE?

I think it is also important to acknowledge that there are some barriers to integrated marketing communications. This seems like an obvious thing to us as students, but in real life it is not always as simple as it looks. De Pelsmacker et al. (2013, 26-27) list some of the barriers as:

• Functional specialisation in communications agencies
  • Meaning that an agency is specialised in one area of marketing communication, e.g. PR
• Functional specialisation in companies
  • Meaning that there are teams in PR, advertising, sales etc. who are and have always been highly specialised and rewarded for the work they do in their communication function. As these functions have different goals, they have different strategies for communication as well as might convey different messages
• Existing structures
  • Change is hard in every single existing company, no matter if it’s big or small
• Turf wars and ego problems
  • Fear of reductions in authority and power in managers
• Lack of internal communications
  • This one seems obvious, how are you supposed to integrate anything if you do not communicate?
• Perceived complexity of planning and coordination
  • Relates to the lack of internal communication, a company thinks it is a lot of work when in reality it can be very streamlined and easy

 

Find good (well integrated) and unsuccessful (un-integrated) IMC executions

Success: Melbourne Metro Trains – Dumb ways die

https://youtu.be/IJNR2EpS0jw

It started as a humorous song and video made by the Melbourne Metro Trains in order to get people’s attention and promote safety when using trains. Within 10 hours of the launch of the song it reacher the top 10 chart in iTunes. In order for the campaign to keep going, there was an expansion of the campaign into new areas, such as merchandise based on the characters, mobile app, mobile game and a book. This ensured the longevity of the campaign and was especially attractive for young people, children specifically. The real success of the campaign was that the Melbourne Metro Trains noticed a 21% reduction in accidents and deaths on its network as a result of the campaign. (Digital Marketing Institute 2018.)

 

Failure: McDonald’s #McDStories

McDonald’s tried starting a Twitter campaign with the hashtag McDStories in 2012 with the objective of engaging customers to share stories about McDonald’s. They paired it with the hashtag MeetTheFarmers in order to showcase the farmers who are producing food for McDonald’s. However, this did not go as planned, since the backlash from the Twitter community was everything McDonald’s had not wanted to happen. People started sharing stories of their experiences in McDonald’s.

Some examples are:

“These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald’s 10 piece Chicken McNuggets left in the sun for a week”

“#McDStories I lost 50lbs in 6 months after I quit working and eating at McDonald’s”

Basically, not so successful. McDonald’s tried to pull the campaign out of Twitter, but as it is a public platform and the trend had already been started, it was too late. As this was in 2012 it has blown over since, but I can still find some tweets from 2015 and 2016, even 2017 where people remind others of the #McDStories failure. (Forbes 2012.)

 

 

References

Conaway, R. & Laasch, O. 2012. Communication in Responsible Business. Strategis, Concepts, and Cases. 1st Edition. Business Expert Press, LLC. New York.

De Pelsmacker, P. Geuens, M. & Van den Bergh, J. 2013.  Marketing Communications. A European Perspective. 5th Edition. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow.

Digital Marketing Institute 2018. Integrated Marketing: 7 Successful Campaigns Through the Decades. URL: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/the-insider/27-03-18-integrated-marketing-7-successful-campaigns-through-the-decades. Accessed: 25 September 2018.

Forbes, Hill K. 2012. #McDStories: When a Hashtag Becomes a Bashtag. URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/01/24/mcdstories-when-a-hashtag-becomes-a-bashtag/#171778e2ed25. Accessed: 25 Spetmber 2018.

How to communicate the brand through storytelling and social media?

What is a brand story and what makes a good brand story?

A brand story is a story told by the brand, about the brand. It is mainly used to communicate with customers. The goal of a story is to create a connection with your customers. (Patel 2018.)

A good brand story has a few attributes. These are:

• It is inspired by the presence of people who participate, create, connect and develop the stroy
• It has personality – evolution of an entity
• People trust people – a good brand story needs a human touch: personality
• It has a problem, a solution, and success
• It is simple
• It is authentic
• It creates an expectation for the experience you will deliver (MarketingMO 2018; Patel 2018.)

A great brand story answers the question “why does your brand exist?” (Patel 2018). A great brand story also evokes emotion in the reader (MarketingMO 2018).

A brand story can also have a theme. MarketingMO (2018) mentions these as possible story themes:

• A quest for something intrinsically special
• Rags to riches
• Good against evil
• Revenge
• Love
• Survival in a new environment
• Individual against society

What is storytelling and how does it affect people?

A brand story has a beginning (problem, introduction), a middle (solution, description), and an end (success). The important thing to remember is that the end of a brand story should not be the actual end, but more like a leeway to the beginning of success and how it will continue. (Patel 2018.)

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool in communication. The human brain responds to the descriptive power of stories. To read a story, or hear a story, is feeling an experience. When telling a story, a person or brand can connect with the listener and create a bond of trust between the two. (Patel 2018.)

Telling a story actually has scientific proof to it. The brain is engaged a lot more when hearing a story than when just listening to someone speak. The listener’s brain mirrors the patterns of the storytellers brain, it begins to turn the story into own ideas and experiences, and it releases dopamine when listening to a story. (Filtered Media 2018.)

What is the role of community management in brand building and how to engage customers?

In the thesis of Safwan Saif (2016, 33-34) it is mentioned that well executed community management helps to:

• Personify the brand by giving it a personality
• Interact with the customer and to build a lasting relationship
• Gain insight to the market and customers in order to plan operations
  • Understand the attitudes toward the brand
• Be an effective customer service channel
• Control damage in the event of mistakes

Many companies do not realise the importance of having a set community manager, but think it is something that a social media manager or PR or customer service can handle. This is not the case – a community needs a manager who understands the goals of the community, is involved in day-to-day operations in the community,  and knows how to communicate on behalf of the brand. (Chowdhury 2017; Saif 2016.)

I think that a successful community gives a positive image of the brand to the customers, and engages them in discussion and participation.

Customers can be engaged in the community by facilitated conversations, updates and relevant content, a shared emotional connection. Most importantly, there must be some kind of content! The persons who are most active on the platform want to be recognised, and by doing this there is a sense of belonging to the community, which is the ultimate goal of a community, which may spark more engagement from the other members. Also the community manager must be approachable and able to take constructive feedback. This way members will be more likely to engage in the community. (Chowdhury 2017.)

Furthermore, Lithium Technologies (2018) list five ways to boost the engagement on your online community:

1. Educate
   1. About your product or service – you can use webinars, live streams
2. Celebrate
   1. Gamify some content, e.g. Receiving badges when reaching a goal
3. Enlist
   1. Use user-generated content to your advantage, people trust people!
4. Connect
   1. On an emotional level with your customers, live stream, FAQ, video testimonials
5. Listen
   1. Take the criticism from your customers and develop

Analyse or design a brand story for a chosen company.

I chose to analyse the story of GoPro.

They start with the sentence “GoPro frees people to celebrate the moment, inspiring people to do the same.” on their About Us page. This gives a sense of freedom for the user and a celebration of everything one does. They also mention that they want to help the customer to capture life as you live it as well as share the experience with friends. (GoPro 2018a.)

This has elements of the narrative mentioned earlier, “a quest for something intrinsically special“.

When watching the video below, it evokes feelings of freedom, curiosity, and how beautiful the world is. This is the best kind of storytelling, one without words. The images in this video also gives a sense of belonging, or being there with the people who have filmed the clips. They showcase a variety of different situations and sceneries, from a dad playing with their child to a person running on a mountaintop.

(GoPro on Youtube, 2017.)

So, in my opinion GoPro has quite a good story, even though it is not in the traditional storytelling as in a story. They still convey feelings, and inspire you as the customer to create your own story.

How could the chosen company build the brand in social media?

I think GoPro has quite a good social media presence. Looking at their Instagram, they share photos and videos that customers have taken with their GoPro, whether it is from an extreme sport or just a day on the beach. (GoPro on Instagram 2018.) I think this supports the narrative that I understood from their website of inspiring people to create their own story. The same goes for their YouTube channel, they share videos from people who have filmed their own activities with a GoPro camera. (GoPro on YouTube 2018.)
What I think they could do more on both Instagram and YouTube is reply to people’s comments and try to build a sense of community in that way (GoPro on Instagram 2018; GoPro on YouTube 2018). They could learn from social media influencers in that sense, since they are usually very active in replying to people’s comments and trying to facilitate conversation between followers and the influencers themselves. This gives the followers a sense of belonging and builds a strong bond between the influencer and follower.

What they do well on their website is encourage people to share their content with the company. They have the GoPro Awards, in which they reward users for their best content. (GoPro 2018b.)

References

Chowdhury, A. 2017. Community management 101: Everything You wanted to know about building your community from scratch. URL: https://medium.com/strategic-content-marketing/community-management-101-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-building-your-community-from-scratch-aafb539a55a9. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

Filtered Media 2018. What is brand storytelling? URL: https://filteredmedia.com.au/blog/what-is-brand-storytelling/. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

GoPro 2018a. About Us. URL: https://gopro.com/about-us. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

GoPro 2018b. GoPro Awards. URL: https://gopro.com/awards. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

GoPro on Instagram 2018. @gopro URL: https://www.instagram.com/gopro/. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

GoPro on Youtube 2017. GoPro HERO6: This is the moment in 4K. URL: https://youtu.be/vr0qNXmkUJ8. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

GoPro on YouTube 2018. GoPro. URL: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoProCamera/videos. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

Lithium Technologies 2018. How-to Guide: 5 Ways to Boost Your Online Community Engagement. URL: https://www.lithium.com/resources/how-to-guides/5-ways-to-boost-your-online-community-engagement. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

MarketingMO 2018. How to Create a Compelling Brand Story. URL: http://www.marketingmo.com/strategic-planning/how-to-create-a-compelling-brand-story/. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

Patel, N. 2018. How to Create an Authentic Brand Story that Actually Improves Trust. URL: https://neilpatel.com/blog/create-authentic-brand-story/. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

Saif, S. 2016. Community management and its role in a business model. URL: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/115745/Saif_Safwan.pdf?sequence=1. Accessed: 17 September 2018.

Trigger 3: Brand architecture and brand strategy

Compare the brand strategies and architectures of different companies. How and why are they different?

Urban Decay	Revolution Beauty
“Beauty with an edge”	“The home of revolutionary makeup brands”
“Feminine, dangerous and fun”. They say that their makeup appeals to women who relish their individuality and dare to express it.	Believe that everyone, regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, budget or location deserves to be thrilled by and have access to makeup
Most of the brand is focused on colourful makeup	Focus on innovative and inexpensive products
Rely mostly on influencers talking about them without being so obvious about it (at least that’s how it seems).	Use almost exclusively social media influencers in marketing – doing a lot of collaborations on makeup collections with them
Have a bunch of content on their website, they try to engage the “makeup junkies” on their website. Also strong social media presence. (Instagram: 9,9M followers)	Not much content on their website. Very active on socia media. (Instagram: 1,3M followers)
More risky looking logo, lots of colour on their website	Professional and sleek looking website and logo
(Urban Decay 2018.)	(Revolution Beauty 2018a.)

The table above gives an idea on the differences and similarities between two cosmetics brands; Urban Decay and Revolution Beauty. Already the slogan of Urban Decay – beauty with an edge – is very descriptive of their brand. They encourage people to take risks with their makeup and dare everyone to be themselves. As for Revolution Beauty, they say that they focus on making innovative makeup accessible to everyone by keeping the products inexpensive and shipping worldwide. They both have a strong social media presence on Instagram at least, however Urban Decay does have almost 8 times as many followers as Revolution Beauty. I think this is because of the colourful and inspiring looks Urban Decay post, as well as all their other content being incredibly visual and eyecatching.

The one thing I will still note is that Urban Decay says that they want their makeup to appeal to women who relish their individuality, and Revolution says that they believe everyone should be thrilled by makeup, regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, budget or location. This inclusivity has been a big talking point in the makeup industry in the recent years. Granted, most makeup in the world is bought by women, but there is an increasing number of men who want to express themselves through makeup. I think Urban Decay is missing a big thing by saying that they want to appeal to only women. This difference in inclusivity is also found on their digital channels – Urban Decay features almost only women on their Instagram and website, while Revolution Beauty has a better representation of men on both Instagram and their website.

As for the brand architecture, I could not find any other brands under Urban Decay. Revolution Beauty however has four different brands; Revolution, Revolution Pro, I ❤ Revolution, and Obsession (Revolution Beauty 2018a). Revolution seems to be focused on the basics – everything you might need in your makeup collection. This brand also has most of the collaborations with influencers (Revolution Beauty 2018b.)

Revolution PRO is more focused on working makeup artists (Revolution Beauty 2018c). I ❤ Revolution is more fun and colourful, seems almost to be targeted toward kids (Revolution Beauty 2018d). Then we have Obsession, which seems to be the “trendy” of the bunch. It has most of the current trendy items in makeup, with packaging that looks fancy (Revolution Beauty 2018e).

What brand architecture models do companies you know use?

Branded house is used by e.g. Virgin – they have Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Media, Virgin Mobile etc. House of brands is used by e.g. Procter & Gamble, with brands like Pampers, Duracell and Head & Shoulder’s being a lot stronger than the P&G brand itself. (Inkbotdesign.com 2017.)

Other examples are:

Branded house

• Google
• FedEx

House of brands

• Unilever
• Mars
• L’Oreal

Then there are hybrid brands, such as Coca-Cola, who have both a strong corporate brand as well as other brands that one would probably not know belongs to Coca-Cola. Then the idea of sub-brands is strongly present in Apple, where they have a very strong corporate brand as well as strong sub-brands.

(OWNSELF.ME 2018.)

 

Which brand architectures are good for different products and services?

I think the House of Brands is suited very well for consumer goods, like as how P&G is doing it. When a person wants to buy batteries, they may think more on Duracell than any other brand. Having as many brands in different segments, it could be confusing for a consumer if a “master brand” would sell batteries, chips, and diapers under the same brand. If a big company is basically in one segment, with some niches in it, like Google who is in the IT industry, it is beneficial to have the Branded House approach. As then people immediately know it is a Google product that they are using, and also all the products Google has are easily accessible from one place.

Analyse the brand strategy and architecture of a chosen company.

I have chosen to analyse Google. The brand architecture is a Branded House, as mentioned previously. They have a lot of different products and services, that all contain the name Google; Google Chrome, Google Drive, Gmail (which I think stands for Google mail), Google Home, Google Earth etc. (Google 2018a).

Their brand strategy seems to be based on inclusivity – equal opportunities for everyone, as well as responsibility. Opportunities for education, success, and speaking your mind. (Google 2018b.) Many of the stories posted on their corporate website are heavily focused on helping people, people helping other people using Google products, and inclusivity (Google 2018c). They also have an entire section in the footer of their corporate website where they list responsibilities. These include crisis response, accessibility, diversity & inclusion, and digital wellbeing among others.

Resources

Google 2018a. Our products. URL: https://www.google.com/about/products/. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Google 2018b. Our commitments. URL: https://www.google.com/about/our-commitments/. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Google 2018c. Our stories. URL: https://www.google.com/about/stories/. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Inkbotdesign.com 2017.   What is Brand Architecture? Sub-brands and strategies. URL: https://inkbotdesign.com/brand-architecture/. Accessed 11 September 2018.

OWNSELF.ME 2018. Brand Architecture Models. URL: http://ownself.me/brand-architecture-models/brand-architecture-models-fresh-cialisalto-com/. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Revolution Beauty 2018a. About Us. URL: https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/en/About-Us/cc-1.aspx. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Revolution Beauty 2018b. Revolution. URL: https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/en/Revolution/cc-15.aspx. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Revolution Beauty 2018c. Revolution PRO. URL: https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/en/Revolution-Pro/cc-70.aspx. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Revolution Beauty 2018d. I ❤ Revolution. URL: https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/en/I-Heart-Revolution/cc-17.aspx. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Revolution Beauty 2018e. Obsession. URL: https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/en/Obsession/cc-66.aspx. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Urban Decay 2018. About Us. URL: https://www.urbandecay.com/about-us. Accessed 11 September 2018.

Trigger 2: Brand identity and brand symbolism

What is brand identity vs. brand image?

Businessdictionary.com (2018a) defines brand identity as “The visible elements of a brand (such as colors, design, logotype, name, symbol) that together identify and distinguish the brand in the consumers’ mind.”

They define brand image as “The impression in the consumers’ mind of a brand’s total personality (real and imaginary qualities and shortcomings). Brand image is developed over time through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme, and is authenticated through the consumers’ direct experience.” (Businessdictionary.com 2018b.)

Basically, brand identity is how you, the company, want the consumers to see you, whilst brand image is how the consumers perceive you.

Alina Wheeler (2013, 4) defines brand identity as “tangible and appeals to the senses. You can touch it, hold it, hear it, watch it move.” It fuels recognition, amplifies differentiation and makes big ideas and meaning accessible. It is also mentioned that design plays an essential role in creating a brand identity.

 

Compare different brand identity models.

The process for brand identity needs a combination of investigation, strategic thinking, design excellence and project management (Wheeler, A. 2013, 102-103). It also requires patience, an obsession of getting it right and an ability to synthesize vast amounts of information.

Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism

(Srivastava, A. 2018a.)

I will shortly recap what the Brand Identity Prism’s different parts mean.

Physique: physical specifications and qualities. What is it concretely? What does it do? What does it look like? E.g. Coca-Cola’s iconic glass bottle, which is featured even on the design of the Coca-Cola cans. Colours are also included, both packaging and colour of the product itself.

Personality: the way a brand speaks of it’s products or services  – how would a brand be if it were human? E.g. Red Bull, that sponsors a lot of different extreme sports and has thus built a brand of being a thrill-seeking person, if it were a person.

Culture: Helps to differentiate brands. Brands with a strong culture can end up being a ‘cult’ even. E.g. Apple’s ‘iSheep’ fans who blindly buy every product the company launches. (Glance, D. 2014).

Self-image: The target’s inward mirror (I am, I feel).

Reflection: Abrand is a reflection of the typical customer. E.g. When asked how a consumer perceives a car brand, they are quick to answer that it’s for “old people, rich people, young people” etc. Mercedes-Benz = old people. The target’s outward mirror (they are).

Relationship: the relationship between a brand and consumers. When the relationship is built ,the brand can demand consumers to do things that the company believes in. E.g. Nike “Just Do It” -> encourages people to let loose and not worry so much about sports. (Srivastava, A. 2018a).

 

Aaker Model of Brand Equity

This model includes a lot more than just brand identity, however it talks about brand identity being very important for building brand equity. The Aaker Model has 12 dimensions in the brand identity that are organized in 4 perspectives:

1. Brand-as-product
   1. Product scope
   2. Product attributes
   3. Quality/value
   4. Uses
   5. Users
   6. Country of origin
2. Brand-as-organization
   1. Organizational attributes
   2. Local vs. Global
3. Brand-as-person
   1. Brand personality
   2. Brand-customer relationships
4. Brand-as-symbol
   1. Visual imagery/metaphors
   2. Brand heritage

 

Aaker also mentions there being a core and an extended identity. With core identity the meaning is the central, timeless essence of the brand. This part is most likely to stay as is while internationalizing or expanding the product/service line. The extended identity refers to various brand identity elements that are organized into cohesive and meaningful groups. (Srivastava, A. 2018b).

Comparison, Kapferer vs. Aaker

	Kapferer	Aaker
Physical qualities	x	x
Personality	x	x
Culture	x
Reflection of self and org.	x
Relationship	x	x
Organizational attributes		x
Visual elements	x	x
Product		x

When comparing these two models with eachother, there are a lot of similarities. They both think physical qualities and visual elements are a part of brand identity. A brand also needs to have a personality and a relationship with consumers. The difference is really in the fact that Kapferer talks about the culture as well as reflection and self-image, whilst Aaker does not. However, Aaker refers to the brand-as-organization and brand-as-product parts, which are a bit more in-depth than what Kapferer talks about.

 

How is the visual identity based on the brand identity?

The visual identity of a brand strives to communicate the brand identity to consumers. For example, colour. We associate a certain colour with certain brands. E.g. The Tiffany’s blue/green/turquoise kind of colour, you see the box and you immediately know it is from Tiffany’s. (Wheeler, A. 2013, 150)

(Tiffany & Co 2018).

 

This specific colour is also found on the Tiffany’s website, so their brand image, and identity, is strongly associated with this colour.

A choice of font can also effect the perception of your brand.

(Thomas, J. 2018).

Which accountant would you trust more?

Other elements that can be considered in building a brand identity is sound and animations. This is however not something every brand needs to consider. (Wheeler, A. 2013, 156-159)

Touchpoints such as the website, business cards, uniforms, packaging and advertising are also a big part of building a visual identity as a brand.

 

Analyze the brand identity of a chosen company with a suitable model.

I will be analyzing the brand identity of Red Bull using the Kapferer Brand Identity Prism.

Physique

When I think of Red Bull I think of just that – the Red Bull logo that they have on every can. It is also easy to recognize the colours of the original Red Bull can – blue and silver. The colour of Red Bull’s drink is not that unique anymore, since there are so many similar drinks in the market, but I would imagine that in the mid-80’s when Red Bull was launched it was very unique and recognizable – the yellow-tinted liquid.

(Wallpapercave.com 2015.)

Personality

As spoken before, the personality of Red Bull as a brand is very daring, thrill-seeking and youthful. I see Red Bull as being a daredevil if it was a human. This is mostly communicated through the photos they have on their website, the events they sponsor, and the advertisements they have. Red Bull even has their own Formula 1 team, they sponsor the X Games, they organize different competitions such as Cliff Diving, Air Races (Red Bull Flugtag), they sponsor musicians and festivals, golfers, windsurfers, alpine skiers, and the list just goes on and on. One of the most notable events was the Red Bull Stratos -event, whenthe Austrian Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of the stratosphere back to Earth, and travelled faster than the speed of sound. He jumped on 12th October 2012 from a height of 39km. Basically, these are the things the Red Bull human does. (Red Bull 2018a).

Culture

I think the culture of Red Bull is strongly linked to the personality. I get the feel of risk-taking, giving people wings and yet a professional brand.

On their “jobs” page they mention that “We don’t have videos of smiling employees enjoying free lunches and bean bags in colorfully painted offices. Instead, please judge us by the quality and professionalism of what we produce across our many products and projects.” (Red Bull 2018b.)

Self-image

Here, again, I feel like the personality is the main driver for this. They feel like they are a youthful, fun-loving company, and their entire brand identity screams that.

Reflection

Again, people perceive Red Bull as an extreme-sports type of brand, that seeks thrills and wants to do crazy things.

Relationship

Red Bull has a strong relationship with consumers that are this thrill-seeking type. Or people who want to be like that, having wings and doing things that they may have thought they never will do.

 

Analyze (or design) the visual identity of a chosen company.

I have decided to analyse the visual identity of Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company.

From the moment you open their website, you get a very down-to-earth feel of the company, and that they love nature. This is achieved by the green resembling grass, pictures of cows, the font choice and the way they higlight content on their website. It feels like you are reading about a farm, which supports the image of them having locally supportive, natural and fair-trade ingredients. The same kind of aesthetic is also found on their packaging and their ice cream shops. (benjerry.fi 2018a.)

(benjerry.fi, 2018b.)

Their social media accounts are also very much inline with the same visuals. The green grass, blue sky and cow pictures are featured on every single package of their ice cream. Their Instagram account is also filled with cosy, warm photos that look like they have been taken in someone’s home (Instagram 2018).

The fonts of different packaging varies, however they all have the overall feel of a local ice cream parlor somewhere in a small town, or a small farm boutique in the middle of the countryside (Instagram 2018).

 

Resources

benjerry.fi 2018a. Home page. URL: https://www.benjerry.fi/. Accessed 31 August 2018.

benjerry.fi 2018b. Jäätelömyymälät. URL: https://www.benjerry.fi/jaatelomyymalat. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Businessdictionary.com 2018a. Brand Identity. URL: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-identity.html. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Businessdictionary.com 2018b. Brand Image. URL: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-image.html. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Glance, D. The Washington Post. 2014. The Psychology Behind Apple’s Obsessive iSheep Fans. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/15/the-psychology-behind-apples-obsessive-isheep-fans/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.931a3bc86fbd. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Instagram 2018. Ben & Jerry’s Suomi. URL: https://www.instagram.com/benjerrysuomi/. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Red Bull 2018a. Merkkipaaluja 1987. URL: https://energydrink-fi.redbull.com/red-bull-historia. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Red Bull 2018b. Jobs. URL: https://jobs.redbull.com/fi/fi. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Srivastava, A. Marketinglessons.in 2018a. Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism – Concept & Examples. URL: https://marketinglessons.in/kapferer-brand-identity-prism-concept-example/. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Srivastava, A. Marketinglessons.in 2018b. Aaker Model – Defining Brand Identity (Philip Kotler Summary). URL: https://marketinglessons.in/aaker-model-defining-brand-identity/. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Tiffany & Co 2018. The Tiffany Gift Card. URL: https://www.tiffany.com/gifts/the-tiffany-gift-card/the-tiffany-gift-card-GRP07063. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Thomas, J. Canva.com 2018. 20 actionable tips to build a winning visual brand identity. URL: https://www.canva.com/learn/20-easy-tips-build-visual-brand-identity/. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Wallpapercave.com 2015. Red Bull Logo Wallpapers. URL: https://wallpapercave.com/red-bull-logo-wallpaper. Accessed 31 August 2018.

Wheeler, A. 2013. Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Trigger 1: How to understand brand management and the roles of the brand manager, the employees and external consultants?

What is brand management?

In order to understand what brand management is, it is important to understand what a brand is. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group, and to differentiate them from those of a competitor” (De Pelsmacker et al. 2013, 39). In essence, a brand is a bundle of meaning of how a consumer perceives an organization.

Brand management is a function in an organization, marketing to be more exact, which purpose is to increase the perceived value of a product or brand over time (Investopedia LLC 2018).

What are the brand manager’s tasks and responsibilities?

A brand manager has a variety of responsibilities depending on the organization that he or she works in. The Branding Journal (2016) listed the following as some of the responsibilities of a brand manager:

• Protecting the brand; ensuring that every product and service launched is in line with the company’s brand
• Working with several departments; making sure that the brand strategy is right in every aspect of the company
• Coordinating with marketing agencies; making sure that they respect the brand guidelines
• Focus on consumer; research, monitoring market trends – also keep an eye out for what competitors are doing
• Making important business decisions; the synergy of the overall strategy of the organization with the branding strategy
• Brand strategy; style and brand guidelines, vision and value proposition.

When we look at the trigger for this problem, in the job ad for Stills Brand Manager at Coca Cola Sweden Franchise, they list some of the responsibilities for the job as:

• Managing profitable growth for Stills brand portfolio in Sweden
• Developing leading local brands and leveraging central marketing plans to optimize the use of resources
• Supporting the central marketing team in ensuring that brand plans meet local market requirements and drives portfolio expansion
• Ensures optimal implementation and amplification of the brands programs in the local market (LinkedIn 2017.)

I also wanted to think about the question of what I think the most important task or responsibility for a brand manager. In my opinion, it is guarding the brand and keeping it unique as well as anticipating future trends. These both combined ensure the competitiveness of the organization in the long term. Differentiation, values and vision are the backbone of successful branding, while these need to be kept up to date in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

What are the steps in the brand definition process?

I had a hard time finding a credible source for this question. I found an article on Entrepreneur.com (2013), where Jim Joseph writes that in order to define your brand you need to:

1. Make an inventory of your skills
   • What are you good at, and what do you want your customers to think of when they think of you brand
2. The needs of the customer
   • Which of your skills are essential for the customer
3. Focus on differentiation
   • Be different and better than your competition

How does the brand manager work in cooperation with the company management, the employees and external consultants? (What are their roles?)

In the case of the Stills Brand Manager for the Swedish Coca Cola Franchise, the brand manager would work closely with e.g. the commercial and shopper team to identify local growth opportunities. They would also work together with the franchise marketing team to implement community marketing plans (LinkedIn 2017). These are just some of the responsibilities that the brand manager would have in collaborating with others.

Brand management: LUMENE Oy – “Inspired by Nordic women, created with Finnish nature, born of Arctic light”

LUMENE’s brand is built on the natural beauty of the Nordics. They emphasize the use of natural ingredients, saying that all their products have a minimum of 80% natural ingredients, as some have a whopping 99% natural ingredients. They focus on bringing to the consumer’s attention the pure Finnish nature; the natural spring water collected in Lapland and the hand-picked arctic berries that are packed with natural nutrients and antioxidants. (Lumene 2018a.)

Their target audience seems to be most strongly Nordic women, as they say that their roots are in the Finnish perception of beauty; being down to earth, genuine and carelessly beautiful (Lumene 2018a). However, they do claim that their product work for people of all ages, skin types and skin tones.

They have a variety of products that cater to specific needs of one’s skin. For example LUMENE HERKKÄ [CALM] which is targeted for people with sensitive skin, LUMENE HELLÄ [COMFORT] targeted for people with dry skin and LUMENE PUHDAS [PURITY] targeted for people with oily & combination skin. They also have a variety of products that are suited for all skin types. (Lumene 2018b).

I think this kind of mass customization is something that today’s cosmetic brands must have. If I don’t feel like a product caters to my specific needs, why would I use it?

I feel like the brand management of LUMENE is very successful. In today’s world consumers are very careful with what they use, especially in cosmetics. In Finland especially Finns value nature greatly and having mainly natural ingredients in their cosmetics is something I see as very beneficial for LUMENE to stress in their marketing. They also recently repackaged all of their products so that it is easy for the consumer to instantly recognize that it is a LUMENE product. I think that their new packaging (which they introduced in 2017 if I remember correctly) has been greatly successful. It really picked up LUMENE on my radar regarding skincare after they launched the new packaging, as well as many of my friends recommending their product more often to me.

RESOURCES:

De Pelsmacker, P.; Geuens, M. & van den Bergh, J. 2013. Marketing Communications: A European Perspective. 5th edition. Pearson Education. Harlow.

Investopedia LLC. 2018. Brand Management. URL: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brand-management.asp. Accessed 27 August 2018.

Joseph, J. 2013. Defining Your Brand: The First Step In Your Marketing Strategy. Entrepreneur.com. URL: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226603. Accessed 27 August 2018.

LinkedIn. 2017. Stills Brand Manager Coca Cola Sweden Franchise. URL: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/382691674/. Accessed 27 August 2018.

Lumene. 2018a. Tarinamme. URL: https://www.lumene.com/fi/tarinamme.html. Accessed 27 August 2018.

Lumene 2018b. Ihonhoito – Puhdistus. URL: https://www.lumene.com/fi/ihonhoito/tuote/puhdistus. Accessed 27 August 2018.

The Branding Journal. 2016. What is the role of a Brand Manager? – Job Description. URL: https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2016/08/brand-manager-job-description-role/. Accessed: 27 August 2018.