Branding the Collective
Sunday April 13, 2008
by Todd Coats
"Brands simplify choice" according to Chris Beaumont. As President and CEO of Grey Global Group Japan, he knows brand building and I couldn’t agree more. We experience brands in multiple ways. First, it must perform reliably. For a brand to succeed, the product or service must do what it promises. Secondly, we must have an emotional connection. How does association with this brand make the customer feel? Finally, what does the brand enable me to do or feel? Home Depot empowers me, Apple makes me hipper, Toyota Prius makes me more conscience. A successful brand leaves an impression on our hearts and minds. We're made of it. We live it.
As professional brand consultants, Capstrat looks for the brand truth that can be emblazed on customers' brains. That modern definition of brand is frighteningly accurate considering it originated a century ago when cattle were literally seared to prove ownership. Talk about your first loyalty program! In turn-of-the-century retail consumerism, branding became associated with the Quaker Oats Company when they burned (like cattle) their company name into large barrels of product. At that time grocers were small neighborhood shops with numerous barrels of sugar, flour, coffee and grain. One bulk barrel of oats looked like the next. Branding barrels simplified choice by creating brand recognition and customer affinity. Interestingly, Quaker Oats also holds the very first trademark for breakfast cereal. Clearly, these guys got it.
In 1916, branding as we know today, accelerated. Piggly Wiggly opened the first true self-service grocery store in Memphis Tennessee. Clarence Saunders, Piggly Wiggly founder even patented the self-service format. Up until then, customers had choice, but little choice. They would go to their local market, ask the clerk for oats, get a scoop from the bulk barrels and leave happy.
Self-service gave us choice. Choice gave us power. Instantly, brands became important.
Now, almost 100 years later, we're paralyzed by brand options. Everything is a brand. Fewer choices become clear. Do I want Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, Diet Crystal Pepsi, Diet Pepsi with lime, wild cherry, vanilla, Pepsi One, Diet Pepsi Max, Pepsi XL, any of the three Pepsi Jazz flavors or maybe just a Coke? Do consumers love choice? Absolutely, but with every market segmentation we subdivide deeper in the weeds. We’ve gone too far. How will we stay a step ahead in brand loyalty? I have a prediction based on these tidbits:
- 1. People trust others like them*
- 2. The Internet makes us desire to customize everything**
- 3. Big box retailers have a growing gravitational pull***
As large retailers grow, differentiation will be paramount. Market segmentation will dictate that super brand retailers be more unique. They will need to look for ways to continue building on their positions, forming tighter customer engagements and owning brand space. They need to turn into lifestyle brands. It's conceivable the next iteration of large retailers (both online and off) will be to think small. To subdivide into mini brand shops. Retailers would offer choices by merchandising collections of complementary brands for a specific shopper. Put all the products that appeal to 40-year-old men in one section, products that appeal to 25-year-old females in another, products for rich divorcees could be near the young lifeguard section. Viola! Everybody's happy. Instant affinity and cross promotion opportunities.
Currently, everyone shops in the same functional departments. Take Health and Beauty for instance. A 15-year-old boy would stock up on Clearasil, A 75-year-old woman would have no use. That’s a wasted opportunity. Put the Clearasil with the American Idol music, super caffeinated soda and Play Stations. Put the calcium tablets with green tea, classical music and exotic travel guides. Customers will be happy because demographically-dictated choice is conveniently front and center, marketers will be happy because product extensions will have context and retailers will be happy because they will be creating a stronger bond with consumers.
Large retailers like Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target are super brand destinations and are already functioning like wrapping paper for many, many brands. A trip to Wal-Mart is about low prices, Target is affordable chic and Home Depot provides handy empowerment. Add to that, everyone from Diddy to the Olsen twins is a celebrity designer that shows up at every shopping experience. Our lifestyle will be reflected in these brands. Odd huh? Not really.
Under protest, I recently accompanied my wife to Wal-Mart. They not only own "low prices," they own low prices on cheesy portraits, clunky haircuts, banking, fast food (with McDonalds), vision care, scary nails and holy canoli…pedicures! Wal-Mart understands to remain competitive they must further differentiate themselves within their positioning channel. They're a complete lifestyle shopping experience. Not mine in particular, but if you want a pedicure at Wal-Mart God bless you.
Micro segmentation will change our brand experience. We'll browse with people like us, read product reviews by people like us, be served by people like us then presented with fewer product choices picked by people just like us.
So I believe we're going back to fewer choices. But boy what choices they'll be. They will be exactly what we’re wanting right then. We’ll all be much happier because we’re too busy to make our own decisions. Individual brand expression will give way to the brand collective. Imagine walking into Suburb Mart, "Honey, I’m going to the Middle-aged, Music Snob, Nice Dressing Men section. I'll meet you in the Law and Order-loving, Overly Concerned Mother section." This is cracking me up!
We'll find our child in the Hyper-marketed, Overpriced, Disney Sto…uh…oh.
