Millward Brown: Point of View

The Keys to Brand SuccessStrong brands drive the financial performance of many successful companies. How

do brands become strong? By virtue of the relationships that consumers develop

with them.

These relationships are the end result of all the experiences that consumers have with brands through direct contact, marketing communication, news, or publicity. All of these experiences contribute to the formation of brand associations that are called upon when a consumer is considering a purchase. The decision to purchase one brand over another will depend on the strength and quality of those associations, which determine what an individual knows, thinks, and feels about a brand.

The associations from which brands derive their value are stored in our brains, where they are organized and saved in one of three clusters according to what they relate to: knowledge, experience, or emotion. Some brands succeed by establishing very strong associations in just one of those areas, but it is highly desirable for brands to have well-developed associations across all three. On average, the market shares of brands that have rich associations in each of the three areas are four percentage points higher than those of brands with less balanced associations. The essential task of marketing is to create and strengthen the brand associations that build and support market share.

Which Key Opens the Brand Cupboard?

In his book The Advertised Mind, Erik du Plessis likened brand memories to items in an overstuffed cupboard, which, when the door is opened, come tumbling out. When the door to one of our mental brand cupboards is opened, what falls out is a cascade of brand memories. Those that were most recently accessed will spill out first, followed by a stream of other memories that will continue to flow until the cupboard door is closed.

So what key unlocks this cupboard of associations and allows us to retrieve those memories? And what makes the key easy to use? If brand associations are going to influence a purchase decision, they need to be accessed quickly. For many brands, the main key is the brand name — Nescafé, Walmart, Red Bull — whether that name is seen, heard, or conjured up in your mind.

For an uncomplicated brand with a highly distinctive name, like Facebook, little else may be needed to unlock brand associations. However, some categories, such as smoking

When the door to one

of our mental brand

cupboard is opened,

a cascade of brand

memories spills out.

Gordon PincottChairman, Global SolutionsMillward Browngordon.pincott@millwardbrown.com

Millward Brown: Point of View The Keys to Brand Success

©2009 Millward Brown

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Starbucks logo would be recognizable even if the Starbucks name were in an unfamiliar script.

Color is also a distinct association for some brands: blue for IBM, red for The Economist, gold for Kodak, copper and black for Duracell. Evidence of the importance of color is apparent on most grocery store shelves, where the packaging of store brands invariably copies the color scheme of the leading brand in the category.

The shape of the packaging can also identify a brand. The Toblerone box and the original Coke bottle are two distinctive examples. The shape of the product itself can also be a cue, as it is for Volkswagen Beetle or Pringles snacks. A sound can be a distinguishing feature for a brand, as it is for Intel. Smell and taste can also identify a brand, but at the moment of decision, those sensory associations are rarely available as triggers. It is interesting that although strong brands often have associations that are multi-sensory, the key to release those senses is nearly always visual.

The Face of the Brand

In reality, the process of unlocking brand associations is more complex than simply matching up brands with words, shapes, or colors. In many cases it is not the individual elements of a brand’s presentation that are important, but the way these work together. Recognizing a brand may be analogous to

recognizing a face, and research has shown that we identify faces not by scanning and identifying individual elements (eyes, nose, mouth) but through recognizing the unique combination of features that make up the face as a whole.

The most easily identified “faces” unlock the brand cupboard fastest. Marmite has its uniquely shaped dark brown jar and bright yellow cap. Gordon’s Gin is known by its distinctive logo and label on its green bottle with a white cap (though in some markets

cessation products and drain cleaners, include a number of competing brands with similar sounding names. When a brand name is not obviously unique and distinctive, additional cues help to access the correct associations.

Additional cues will also be needed when the brand name is one that has been extended across a number of products. For example, the brand key “Dove” will unlock something different than “Dove Shampoo” or “Dove Beauty Bars. ” The key “Toyota” will access different memories than “Toyota Yaris, ” and the key “Tesco” opens a different door than “Tesco Metro. ” Managing such portfolios of brands is one of the most complex marketing tasks, and minimizing confusion is crucial for brand success. If associations with an umbrella brand are not clear and distinct in every context where the brand name appears, it will be harder for people to access the most relevant memories.

Visual Cues Can Be Crucial

Even where a brand name may be distinctive, other cues are also extremely helpful. If it were all just about the name, then presumably huge sums of money would not be plowed into eye-catching design features such as logos and packaging. But for many products, these factors are just as important to brand recognition as the name. For example, brand names like Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s are associated with a distinctive script, and the logos of BMW and BP may be at least as powerful as the names themselves. The wavy green and white

Ad reprinted with the kind permission of Kellogg’s.

3Millward Brown: Point of View The Keys to Brand Success

©2009 Millward Brown

Gordon’s appears in a completely different guise: clear bottle, yellow cap, red-and-yellow label). Neuroscientists have a term for this type of instant recognizability: super-familiarity. A brand that has become super-familiar to consumers has a big advantage at the point of purchase when people are looking for a brand and drawing upon the brand associations that have built up through their experience and marketing activity.

So do you know what makes your brand identifiable to consumers? What is the configuration of features that helps to unlock the associations? How can you engineer some of those features into your products to maximize the chances of recognition? Though these are crucial questions, we suspect

that most brand marketers are not certain of the answers — yet it is essential to know these things. If, for instance, you are thinking about changing your brand’s packaging or logo (perhaps to make it look more modern), you need to be aware of the boundaries of your brand’s configurable identity. If those boundaries are misunderstood or overstepped, you may jeopardize assets that took years to create.

Marketing Communications: Stocking the Brand Cupboard

The fact that branding is more complicated than it first appears comes as no surprise to us, as we have worked for years to help clients understand and perfect the complex task of ensuring that marketing communications are well branded. In order for marketing communication to be of value to a brand, it must build brand memories and associations — that is, it must add to the contents of the brand cupboard. Therefore, it needs its own key to gain access.

We have long known that branding communications is not about putting a pack shot on the end of an execution. An analysis of our database shows that there is no relationship between the number of times a brand appears in an ad

and its ability to be associated with that brand. Nor does the time when the brand first appears in the execution have any bearing on the branding.

What turns out to be crucial is the integration of the brand into the idea. In a TV execution, this has to do with the brand being central to the creative aspects of the execution. In a print ad, it may have more to do with the eye flow through the execution.

But whatever the ad format is, the brand needs to be relevant to the surrounding creativity. A great deal of creative energy goes into dramatizing the message of a creative execution; typically much less effort goes into dramatizing the brand. Yet the brand is no less important.

The brand name can have an important role in the branding of advertising, but other ways of creating brand identification may be even more powerful. Some of the strongest campaigns around the world rely on the use of a consistent device for branding. For example, the striding man of Johnnie Walker allows the brand to be the center of the action without the need for a pack shot. Branding in marketing is about putting the brand at the heart of the communications, not necessarily in a literal sense but certainly in a dramatic, creative sense.

Standing Out from the Crowd

Marketing activity that works from an understanding of the “face” of the brand is not only more powerfully branded, but it can highlight and enhance the features that allow the brand to be identified at the point of purchase. Toblerone is a classic example of this. Not only is the brand instantly identifiable in-

A brand that has become super-familiar to

consumers has a big advantage at the point of

purchase, because memories of that brand will

come to mind faster.Photo provided with kind permission by Think Eyetracking. The circles depict eye movements that correspond

with the cognitive processes occurring in the brain as an ad is viewed.

Millward Brown: Point of View The Keys to Brand Success

©2009 Millward Brown

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memories can be quickly and easily accessed. Making it easy for your buyers to identify and use that key is a fundamentally important part of the marketing role.

store, but the triangular mountain-shaped chocolate is played up throughout their communications.

Thinking about your brand in this way may help you to better align your out-of-store communication with your in-store activity. Your communication should help create and strengthen the link between the brand and its accumulated associations so that when shoppers encounter the brand at the point of purchase, those associations will come to mind. Your in-store activity should take account of the cues that your advertising has set up in people’s heads in association with the brand.

Branding is a relatively subtle art that goes well beyond shouting out a brand name or sticking a pack on the end of an ad. What can you do to maximize your branding impact? You can make your brand’s face stand out from the crowd. Creating distinctiveness that can be used both at the point of sale and in communications will pay rich rewards. Established

brands need to do this without destroying the recognizable characteristics they already have. New brands need to be genuinely creative and establish their own unique identities. Understanding the keys that provide access to your brand’s cupboard is critical to success. It ensures that communication memories are properly stored for future use and that those

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Branding in marketing is about putting the

brand at the heart of the communications, not

necessarily in a literal sense but certainly in a

dramatic, creative sense.

To read more about the keys to brand success, visit www.mb-blog.com.

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