International, Nov. 12: International online journal Brandingmag is declaring November Open Branding Month. Having organized, for the past 3 years, one of the top business and branding events, Rebels and Rulers – The Global Forum for Open Branding, they have now created a platform with exclusive content and live expert sessions. Initially meant to bring branding education to underserved markets, the event is now available for one month, for free at a global level, offering viewers access to over 25 internationally recognized experts from IBM, Ogilvy, ING, Mastercard, and more. The scope is to put branding in its rightful place, at the core of a business’ foundation.
Given this year’s restrictions, the organizers got creative in order to ensure that people can still access the know-how and expertise needed for sustainable business development, even if the physical event could not take place. The result? The official launch of Open Branding Month (Nov 9 – Dec 3), a set of weeks dedicated to unveiling the secrets of strategic branding together with internationally recognized practitioners and speakers, all through exclusive online masterclasses followed by live Q&A sessions.
During this timeframe, entrepreneurs, C-level executives, marketers, and creatives are encouraged to get a thorough, practical understanding of how to create powerful brands through storytelling, how to find growth opportunities by embracing vulnerability, how to empower creativity with data, how to innovate yet maintain a coherent brand in the age of disruption, and more.
By bringing together creatives (the rebels) and strategists (the rulers), the organizers invite people, communities, and businesses to collaborate instead of choosing sides. Especially in times like these, the way out, and the only way up, is through joined forces, talents, resources, and know-how.
Looking for an experience that does not simply translate the physical event into an online one, Rebels and Rulers created a system that gives users the flexibility to watch an exclusive half- or full-hour masterclass each day, whenever their schedule permits, and then join an interactive 1-hour live Q&A session with the speaker the following day. Each of the exclusive masterclasses is available for 24 hours only, free of charge.
More details on: rebelsrulers.com
An unexpected crisis has taken the world by storm, disrupting every aspect of life and business, as we have all experienced. This disruption has many brands wondering: Should I be advertising during this time? And if so, how should I do that? What should I say?
The hesitation for many brands is real and is validated by observing the criticisms and scrutiny that many vocal brands have been met with lately, in response to their advertising during this crisis. Some of the world’s most dominant brands have been called out for being out-of-touch with their advertising and communications that do not acknowledge our shared reality. Other brands have joined the conversation — only to offer shallow acknowledgment of the strife that we are all experiencing. These brands fall into a sea of sameness, offering the equivalent of generic ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the world during this time. Others have superficially adjusted their logo with the intention of showing solidarity only to come off as lackadaisical and tone-deaf in the context of a life-threatening global pandemic.
So, while the risk of joining the conversation may seem pervasive, brands must be consistent and present with their brand advertising. Being present in these times is as critical as any other time for growth and there is a straightforward approach that brands can take to stay active and relevant in today’s high-pressure market.
We’ve all heard by now that brands need to be authentic during this time — that they need to empathize with humanity. But what does that really mean?
Know why your brand exists
To be authentic, brands must find and uphold their purpose. A brand purpose is simply the reason why the brand exists. This reason is what makes your brand relevant to consumers, not just in a time of crisis — but consistently and reliably, throughout the duration of your brand’s existence. It’s important to note and differentiate that brand purpose is not Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Brand purpose is much broader than an initiative, it is ubiquitous and synonymous with how consumers perceive your brand.
Your brand purpose will serve as a brand’s north star to remain authentic and guide how your brand should be present in today’s crisis market. Upon re-grounding in brand purpose, how should brands put it to use?
Listen to your people
A brand’s purpose should come to life in the context of what consumers are feeling, fearing, and desiring. This context of commonly held needs and emotions, changes — and these days, those changes are rapid. The most successful brands in the world see their consumers not just as buyers, but dynamically — as critics, advocates, and as friends of the brand. These brands listen and respond to the complexity and changing nature of people and consumers and of humanity.
A brilliant example of a brand that has stayed true to its purpose, in the context of global sentiments, is Nike. The famous brand launched its “Play for the World” video content a few weeks into the social distancing measures. Nike’s brand purpose is to “unite the world through sport to create a healthy planet, active communities, and an equal playing field for all”. Through brand advertising, Nike was able to join the current conversation in a relevant way, while remaining true to their essence.
Join the conversation
Your brand advertising must keep step with what people are feeling and thinking throughout the changes that are yet to come in this current pandemic and beyond. While adapting to these changes, it is paramount to remain true to your brand purpose. A brand is ultimately what your consumers decide the brand is, so by leading with purpose, you allow consumers to understand and relate to your brand on their terms, in their own context.
At no other time is the opportunity so great for brands to advertise and advertise smartly than through difficult times. A study by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, following the 2008-2009 recession, found that brands that increased their share of voice through brand advertising during the recession experienced strong profitability growth in the recovery phase, and in a highly competitive market, this led to an average of 4.5 times their annual market share growth. For brands brave enough to join the market and focused enough to make their voice relevant, this is a time that could lead to exponential opportunity.
Whether in a crisis market, or on any ordinary day — brands must start with purpose, with their reason for being, and then listen in order to join the conversation and advertise.
Cover image source: Robert Metz
*By Hanna VanKuiken, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
Branding agencies have incredible expertise in supporting clients to develop and grow their brands, even under the testing conditions of a global crisis. They can help companies achieve various positive outcomes, from resonating more effectively with customers to making more sales. However, growing a brand in a single country is not the same as positioning it for global success. As such, this article looks at localization, internationalization, and globalization as part of a roadmap to success, covering everything from what these terms mean to tips for carrying out each activity effectively.
What are localization and translation?
Localization and translation refer to the process of preparing something (from a single document to an entire brand) for a specific local market. The translation element of the process relates to the work involved in converting one language to another. The localization part involves shaping the content to fit the cultural expectations of the intended audience.
What are the benefits of localization? By reworking the original content to better suit the new audience, localization maximizes the impact of that content. Successful localization can, therefore, help a brand gain exposure, engage more positively with customers, and build its reputation quickly and sustainably.
What are internationalization and globalization?
Internationalization and globalization are, in some ways, the opposite of localization. However, their goal is often the same — to help a brand connect with new audiences in positive ways.
Internationalization is the process of removing as many localized connotations as possible from a brand. The purpose is to make the brand appeal to the international community as much as it possibly can.
Globalization, meanwhile, is a multi-layered term that’s all about brand integration. It encompasses everything from having offices and production chains to global activity and actions.
What are some of the advantages of globalization? Quite simply, globalization means that businesses now have the world at their feet when it comes to their potential customer base — provided, of course, that they get their branding right.
Roadmap to success
Branding agencies seeking to help their clients globalize their brands need to follow a number of steps.
First of all, they need to consider the brand itself. From its values and ethos to its logo, strapline, and corporate imagery, how will the brand feel to overseas audiences? True globalization means that brand owners can’t be too precious about such things during the process of internationalization. The brand will need to appeal to as broad a customer base as it possibly can.
From the agency’s perspective, this means knowing the brand inside out, including what their customers want and what makes them tick. That knowledge then has to be extrapolated around the globe, with the agency considering how audiences in different countries are likely to respond to the brand.
Branding agencies will need to rely on local expertise in order to achieve this. Cultural considerations — and, therefore, marketing techniques — vary enormously from country to country. It is those on the ground who understand this best, so internationalizing a brand should be undertaken in consultation with localization experts in each country of territory that the company plans to enter.
In terms of globalization itself, the task involves far more than just translation, though the translation has to be spot on, naturally. Everything from the product itself to its safety manual, marketing documents, and website need to be internationalized as part of an overarching globalization strategy. This means systematically removing local references wherever possible, in order to internationalize the product.
Of course, some elements will still require localization. A company that sells products, for example, needs to price them on its website in the local currency. Product descriptions also need to use the right format for any dimensions that they list. And, of course, payment and delivery systems and information need to serve local needs.
This means that branding agencies that are working to globalize their clients’ brands need to internationalize first and then localize.
The size and scope of such work should not be underestimated. An aggressive growth strategy requires careful and detailed internationalization. It also requires translation and localization professionals for each market that the brand plans to enter.
In some cases, translation and localization work will focus mainly on language and practical items such as payment systems. In others, however, it will require much more work, perhaps even to the point of transcreation, where the brand is given an almost complete overhaul in order to ensure that it appeals to a very different culture than that of its original audience.
Examples of successful brand globalization
There are plenty of examples of brands that have started off small and gone on to successfully conquer the world, with globalization playing a key part in their having done so.
The world’s most valuable brands have all made globalization a priority, internationalizing their core offering and then localizing the face of the brand and its products for each national audience.
Think of Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung. These are the five most valuable brands in the world, with values that range from US$220,791 million (Amazon) to US$94,494 (Samsung). Each provides a fairly standard core product/service offering yet also presents this differently to audiences in different countries. The result? Global success. Who reading this hasn’t heard of every one of these five brands?
Branding agencies looking to imitate the success of such brands have plenty of work ahead of them. Working with professional translation and localization services is an absolute must, not just for their skills with language but for the valuable insights that they can provide. Their knowledge should incorporate everything from local marketing tactics to the particular cultural nuances of each target audience. It is this level of attention to detail that can, ultimately, make the difference between a successful globalization strategy and one that is doomed to failure even before it has begun.
Cover image source: Joshua Rawson-Harris
*By Ofer Tirosh, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
In the last decade, retail has gone through more crises and subsequent periods of stagnation, with a marked shift in favor of the online channels and consequent reductions in sales points, the number of employees, and the profitability of companies (even large ones). The sectors most severely affected are restaurants, tourism, clothing, and furnishings.
In detail, the impact of COVID19 in the sectors under analysis in terms of trends will see different dynamics among them, according to three main variables:
- level of the expected movement restrictions in the coming months;
- type of goods sold;
- changes in purchasing behavior and expenditure availability (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 — New market scenarios and post-crisis demand trends
Apparel will suffer damage in 2020 due to the seasonal leap, the difficulty of aggregating typical traffic in the points of sale, and the difficulty of starting the supply chain. The recovery is likely for 2021, but not to such an extent as to recover this year’s negativity, also thanks to the effect of the revenge shopping that could accompany the recovery of consumer goods and impulse (think about what is already happening in China).
The furniture sector will also suffer a negative trend this year, and probably also next year, since, as happened in the past, the reduced purchasing power given by the economic crisis is reflected in the postponement of purchases of durable goods by consumers.
Coming to the beauty & wellness segment, a fairly rapid recovery is expected with the increase in the desire to take care of the image and look, as well as the wellness side linked by a double thread with the health and hygiene aspect.
Among the sectors a little less exposed in the short and also in the medium-term, drugstores should not suffer a particularly negative effect, given their traditional role of strong convenience and for the wide spectrum of basic necessities.
Consumer electronics has been maintaining only a partial sales activity in recent weeks (for those who have kept it open), given the common difficulties of movement and accessibility to the points of sale, with recourse to “massive” online. Post-reopening is expected to recover, but the impact on the year will still be heavy and the strong pressure on margins that online entails will lead to tensions on profitability.
Finally, the large-scale retail trade that today (and for the next few months) is growing strongly due to the role of basic necessity, benefiting largely from the substantial total absence of competition given away from home, and which will instead have to deal with important changes in consumption which will impact the various channels, already visible today (hypermarkets in further sharp decline, e-commerce boom, further strengthening of discounters, rebirth of the neighborhood).
Coming to e-commerce, in 2021, post-crisis, it will rise in level by making a step up towards market penetration higher than past forecasts, which will cover all sectors analyzed. In recent weeks, the use of online has accelerated strongly for basic necessities/goods that you need to have at home, much less obviously (but only for a short while) for other types of impulse/luxury goods, where the use of online delivery is now the only option to buy.
New consumer trends or acceleration of pre-existing trends are shaping with a rapidity never seen in a new market landscape. There are four key macro-trends in consumer behavior that open new scenarios for companies (Fig. 2):
Fig. 2 — Consumer trends and new priority set for companies
Consumers returned to the basics
Panic-buying focused on nondiscretionary products needed to sustain governmental shelter-in-place orders, including shelf-stable food items, healthcare products, and cleaners. Many households did not store food and household items in an amount necessary to overcome even short supply shortages. This experience of scarcity and under-preparedness for disasters will likely impact our consumer behavior going forward, and it may also make many consumers consider keeping safety stock inventory at home on an ongoing basis.
Online shopping spiked globally week-over-week
The forced closure of physical stores resulted in a pivot to e-commerce, with consumers securing essentials by any means necessary. In terms of behavior changes, the rise in online buying, specifically for groceries, is noteworthy. Among all age groups, there is a large segment of consumers that tried online grocery buying for the first time in March, and many will likely continue to buy groceries online, at least as long as the pandemic continues. Of course, it is impossible to foresee whether a large share of consumers will remain loyal to online shopping or go back to the brick-and-mortar stores once they feel safe to do so. Most of us have missed the social experience of shopping for many weeks now, and the convenience of the online channel may not make up for this.
Importance of convenience and search for social/intrinsic value brands
The economic crisis will amplify income disparities; overall, all consumers will be price-sensitive and cautious in spending, given uncertainty about the future. Greater importance is attached to the intrinsic value of the products. Authenticity and purpose (intended precisely as the objective that each brand aims to pursue on a social level) are the most relevant value pillars for the current consumer and to which brands must respond. It is no wonder, in fact, that consumer expectations require brands to be helped in daily life because they are close, becoming reassuring, but above all compassionate and supportive, as an expression of a true, authentic, and growing common collective interest.
Amplified and safe shopping experience
Growing desire of shoppers for a more amplified in-store experience that combines security and a sense of community.
From these trends derive crucial areas of intervention that brands should face in the next period for profitable growth:
Rethinking the value proposition
With the change in consumer preferences, the winning brands will be those that will better understand the new needs of their target. Leveraging on big-data analysis, brands should quickly mobilize to create a distinctive omnichannel experience and analyze purchasing data through specific data-mining techniques to generate new sub-segments of customers and orient their choices in a win-win perspective of consumption.
Rationalize and make online business profitable
The new consumer habits, resulting from the lockdown measures, have shifted demand towards online channels, and have led to an inversion of roles of the two channels (“channel shift”). This contingent situation can irreversibly change the behavior of customers, whose habit of making purchases online, overcoming the initial rigidities and fears, can translate into ‘normal’ behavior again, assuming a routine character. Companies will have to strengthen their presence on digital channels and optimize the experience lived by customers, with particular reference to new adopters.
Rethink customer engagements
As we all practice social distancing, communication is more important than ever. This is an opportunity for more creative, authentic, and personalized interactions with customers. Retailers must meet shoppers where they are now — i.e., in digital channels via social, mobile, apps, etc. They should consider virtual events such as personal styling and how-to classes via video conferencing or live-streaming product launches to engage with shoppers.
Reduce complexity in business
Retailers were forced to simplify their activities during the crisis; this forced experiment provides a unique opportunity to challenge the entire cost base, reducing complexity and increasing flexibility and resilience.
Act now
Given the dynamics of the market, retailers must adopt a more reactive mentality and play upfront, to make bold choices by redefining their overall portfolio. In other words, it is essential to plan “now” and to act “now” to face the best start, without being surprised by the competition.
Cover image source: Clay Banks
*By Giuseppe Leone, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
The production, collation, and consideration of 1,200 post-it notes of information may sound like ‘data overload’, but the depth of detail that can be uncovered from this exercise — plus the visual impact of the resulting findings — will deliver unparalleled insight. Such insight is of particular importance when attempting to fix a broken culture.
This may not sound like an obvious brand-driven project, certainly to people who work outside of the creative industries. But if we remember a point that strategic brand professionals constantly stress — that brand is not about the logo — it’s soon easy to see the role that brand and design thinking could play in an exercise of this nature.
An educational challenge
To give context, it is helpful to consider a recent project to understand the current ‘state of play’ within an organization that is potentially on the verge of crisis. A design-focused approach was adopted from the outset to uncover the true situation — not just perceptions — and suggest opportunities to improve the internal culture before the future could be tackled.
This business operates in the education sector, although the methodology undoubtedly applies to virtually all private or public firms. In this particular example, the organization faced a seemingly relentless challenge to attract more and more students, with less and less funding, while maintaining exemplary quality standards, and all in the face of mounting expectations, a pressurized teaching climate and ever-advancing competition.
The senior leadership team identified that following a period of significant change — and with further change inevitably on the horizon — this was a great opportunity to go back to basics. It was a chance to answer questions such as ‘who we are’, ‘what are our principles’, ‘what do we stand for’, and ‘why are we different’.
If organizations can’t understand and remember all of that, how can they go on a journey together? And, equally, how can they bring others — such as students and their parents — on the journey with them?
Exploratory workshops
This sets the scene as to why all the organization’s 230 colleagues, from the senior leadership team through to part-time administrative staff, were invited to attend a series of workshops, as were a number of students, governors, and other educational partners.
The group sessions sought to explore what is great about working for the organization, what it is renowned for, how it compares in the marketplace, and what could be improved, to name just a few themes.
To ‘warm up’ the participants’ openness to all-things-brand, they were initially invited to align their organization to a well-known supermarket, writing just one word on a post-it-note to explain their selection. While the exercise was initially met with resistance — not least because supermarkets and colleges are markedly different — the resulting discussion was very telling. For example, it soon became clear that singular words such as ‘quality’ could have extremely varied meanings from one person to the next, evidencing that brand is open to interpretation and what defines it is often a myriad of things.
The core post-it-note exercise followed. Questions were purposefully simple, typically asking for one-line or even one-word answers to ensure participants did not overthink their responses. People were told to note their points, relatively privately, on colored post-it notes, before being invited to stick them on large sheets of paper that covered every wall in the room. This exercise followed the principles of the ‘rose-thorn-bud’ methodology, with the pink post-its (roses) representing what was good about the organization, green (buds) demonstrating the opportunities, and the blue (thorns) showcasing the lesser positive points, which could perhaps form part of the root cause of the broken culture.
Distilling the findings
The 1,200 post-it notes were then clustered to allow salient points to be presented back to the senior leadership team, in a separate session, away from the college. This clear methodology gave context to a mass of data and helped contextualize what may otherwise have been considered an overwhelming volume of information.
Importantly, ‘theming’ the 1,200 pieces of brightly-colored paper in this manner, meant they could easily be mapped against the organization’s currently articulated mission statement and values. This provided a really powerful, digestible, and effective way to distill the breadth of information down to a handful of must-know points. It also allowed the post-it-notes to do the talking — it couldn’t be dismissed as feedback from an external party that doesn’t truly understand the organization. And it clearly demonstrated that while the college may say certain things, these points perhaps don’t ‘show up’ in the eyes of the people who matter — the employees.
Every identified mismatch, however minor, was seen as an opportunity for change, a chance to review a potentially outdated value or practice that could otherwise contribute to a feeling of unauthenticity if it remained unaddressed.
What’s next?
The organization’s proposition — most notably its purpose, principles, and personality — is currently being rearticulated so that it can be replayed to everyone in the college as they move towards their future. It is hoped that, by rediscovering and redefining who they are, there will be a far greater chance of unity behind a shared vision, which should take people on the journey and encourage their collective appetite for change.
Again, visualizations will be crucial to conveying the new narrative back to the wider organization, with posters around college offering just one way to tell the story. This story won’t make external pressures go away. It can’t deliver a rapid fix. But it will hopefully help the organization rediscover its mojo, rebuild morale, and drive productivity and efficiency as they navigate the road ahead, together.
Involving some or all?
Meeting with a body of people — on this scale — is admittedly not an exercise for the fainthearted. But it needn’t be laborious, time-consuming, or restrictive in terms of timescales either. It can — and should — be fast and furious.
In the example above, groups of 20-30 individuals gathered in back-to-back discovery sessions which ran over 2-3 days and resulted in the unveiling of a significant amount of insight.
Would the same trends have been extracted if only a sample of people had been considered? Perhaps, if that sample was truly representative. But perhaps not.
Also, would the eventual ‘buy-in’ to any resulting project be as strong if only certain people felt consulted and therefore invested in the change project? Again, perhaps not, particularly in the cases of fixing a broken culture.
Sometimes, timescales or resources may dictate that sampling is genuinely the only option when undertaking such stakeholder research. But if this option is chosen because it is merely deemed a quicker fix, it must be accepted that the successful evolution of the brand project may be jeopardized.
To proceed or not to proceed?
Investing in the support of an external brand specialist may be the last thing on an organization’s mind when trying to rebuild a broken culture, especially if the situation is reflective of a business in crisis and potentially limited financial resources. To an extent, this is perhaps understandable.
However, the cost of not resolving the situation is undoubtedly far higher.
So, whether professional help is sought to mend a broken culture or not, the investment of time needed to undertake this visualization exercise and involve every impacted colleague, is certainly not something that should be avoided.
Cover image source: Victor He
*By Darren Evans, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
“Rest in Peace” posters of Dr. Li Wenliang, who warned authorities about the coronavirus outbreak, seen at Hosier Lane in Melbourne, Australia; by Adli Wahid.
Until the Meiji Restoration (1868 – 1912), Japan would have been defined by words like samurai, kimono, geisha, and others associated with its folklore. Japan’s industrial revolution opened space for a new world and word: modern. However, Japanese modernity only became memorable when associated with brands like Hitachi (1910), Panasonic (1918), Fujifilm (1934), Toyota (1937), Sony (1946), and Sony’s Walkman (1979) among many others.
The unspoken truth, however, is that the Meiji era held a powerful metaphor — the era of light. Meiji means “Enlightened Rule”, a construct that lent itself to a deliberate, state-led industrialization policy. A reenergized “brand Japan” enabled the development of new commercial brands, just as much as the latter helped validate the metaphor Japan came to represent, in a mutually reinforcing relationship.
These metaphors represent the mental associations and constructs we create when thinking of those nations just as much as how their inhabitants may see themselves; these are their place brands. Speaking with Professor Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO’s Chair in Future Studies, who recently worked on the education futures of China, he said that metaphors present themselves as the main causation drivers of the future.
Metaphors like Hippocrates’ “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”, or Shakespeare’s “Clothes maketh the man” are just as powerful to informing our sense of self as the more modern “I buy, therefore, I am”. In fact, even the briefest exposure to the Apple logo can make you behave more creatively, according to research led by Professor Gavan Fitzsimons from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. In this case, the apple on Apple’s logo is a metaphor for creativity or, as stated on the brand’s slogan, “think different”. The transformational power of metaphors (or brands) goes even further. Cardiologist and author Sandeep Jauhar explains, during the TEDSummit 2019, that our emotions impact the health of our hearts — causing them to change shape in response to grief or fear, to literally break in response to emotional heartbreak — demonstrating the impact of what is metaphorically felt over a very tangible reality.
When considering the world’s geopolitical volatility and the ongoing pandemic, protecting the way others feel about your nation — especially for brand China — has never been so important. And investing in a nation’s brand appeal pays back. For instance, back in 2012, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon hired nation-branding expert Simon Anholt, for strategic advice in order to improve the nation’s image. By 2019, Mexico became America’s top trading partner.
Nation-branding goes beyond just telling your country’s story well, as China’s propaganda apparatus has been doing for a while now; it’s about crafting a narrative that reshapes reality.
Soft power with hard metrics is a means, not an end
While the virus is the real issue, the Chinese government’s naive attempt at protecting its image through poor conduct in communicating and responding to the disease was what ignited mistrust, commercial slowdown, and cases of racism worldwide.
Marco Wong, a local councilor in the Tuscan town of Prato, home to a large Chinese population, told The Guardian: “Parents aren’t sending their children to school if there are Chinese classmates and people are writing on the internet not to go to Chinese shops and restaurants.”
This is more than just a disease. It tests a society’s health systems, its government, politicians, the economy, and above all things, the soft power of their nations. For China, the opportunity is to re-engineer its perception by departing from the factory metaphor and reframe its soft power.
Soft power was defined by political scientist Joseph Nye as being a country’s ability to attract or persuade others to do its bidding, without having to resort to any form of coercion. As demonstrated by the University of California, Berkeley, soft power matters because countries that score high on cultural attractiveness export more. Every 1% net increase in soft power raises exports by around 0.8%.
Source: Like Me, Buy Me: The Effect of Soft Power on Exports; Centre for Economic Policy Research
In 2016, according to the Soft Power Today study, such a rise would have been worth £1.3bn for the UK, which recorded £197bn of foreign investment. While brand China may have considerably eroded its trustworthiness with a weak PR effort, its soft power was put to use to minimize the collateral effects from the pandemic and garner support from neighboring countries.
At one meeting, ASEAN foreign ministers joined hands with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and shouted “Stay strong, Wuhan!” Stay strong, China! Stay strong, ASEAN!” Yet, nothing fuels and validates a nation-brand like the relationship between place and production.
Just like the symbiotic relationship between Meiji’s Japan and its subsequent “enlightened” tech brands, China has also made a tremendous effort to launching and sustaining successful global brands, even in spite of the heated trade war with the USA. Sportswear company Li Ning’s debut at NYFW and JD.com’s Nasdaq success story speak directly to that.
Nonetheless, brand China needs to be stronger than the summation of its commercial brands, turning “made in China” into a magnet for more positive exchanges and keeping its influence as strong as before the outbreak.
Chasing the “Chinese Dream” metaphor
According to Brand Finance’s CEO David Haigh, in relation to the 2019 Nation Brands study, “China is undergoing a meteoric rise on the global stage, rivaling the traditional nation brand powerhouses in the West. Despite economic and political challenges, China’s nation brand value has grown by 40% reaching $19.5 trillion, consistently outpacing the US and other major economies.”
But that was then. According to Hoover Institution Fellow Victor Davis Hanson, [China] “ruined their international brand,” having potential serious repercussions on its economy as foreign companies may exit. During an interview on live TV, Hanson added: “You think if you’re Italy or Switzerland or Germany or Australia, you really want to have your antibiotics produced in China when this is all over? If you’re a tourist and you went to China and somebody said there’s a virus contained but don’t worry, it’s contained — would you believe that?”
Commerce, not geopolitics or policymaking, is the path to prosperity and peace. It is the only space where our perpetual state of disagreement is settled through the voluntary exchange of goods and services. An empirical study published in the Review of Development Economics Journal confirmed that, as bilateral trade interdependence increases, so does the peace process.
In the case of brand China, the current strategy — encompassing an annual Chinese Brands Day every May 10th, and a nationwide China Council for Brand Development — is no longer enough. To heal the nation’s perception and sustain its role in our globalized economy, brand China needs to fix the problems it created. In the UK, for instance, several companies are retooling themselves to fight the pandemic and confer a leadership status to their nation of origin through this crisis.
Above and beyond, such initiatives reenergize the perception of British ingenuity that skyrocketed from the 19th century Manchester and was sustained by several other inventions like the ATM (1967), the World Wide Web (1989), Dolly, the First Mammal Clone (1996), and many others. These efforts, combined, should help provide plenty of soft power value and the genesis of what could be an entirely new business ecosystem; despite the UK Government’s questionable herd immunity strategy.
Precise orchestration of marketing, media, and branding tactics are needed for a meaningful, new narrative. In the case of China, having strong, global brands is not enough. Collectively, they must mean something more than their singular narratives. There’s no better time than now, there’s no better enemy for a heroic China than a virus. From unsettling “Chinese Whispers” to the “Chinese Dream”, a new metaphor able to infuse new meaning to its economy, is the nation brand’s imperative for future prosperity in the 21st century.
Cover image source: Adli Wahid
*By Sérgio Brodsky, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
The digital-consumerist culture instigated, on the one hand, a sophisticated and constant need to articulate and maintain our personal identity through symbols and aesthetics of the branded world, and on the other, confronted us with the environmental and social effects this constant need entails. During the last half of the decade, it became clear that the only way to reconcile our need to keep consuming is to give back every time we take. As a result, sustainability initiatives came to be less than optional for luxury brands. But while sustainability seems to be now ever-present in the marketplace, it appears as though some brands master it more authentically than others. Some initiatives feel phony and inadequate, just as though they were told to jump on the bandwagon, while others are fresh, innovative, and deeply genuine. So what are the differences, and how can these insights help brand development?
“[A sustainable model] meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” — United Nations
Every initiative, narrative, and spokesperson contributes to a whole idea, feeling, and aspiration that we call a brand. Synchrony between brand elements is essential for a unified meaning, and so is the common goal that the brand helps its consumers navigate towards. To translate this into the marketers’ language: A successful brand needs a strongly defined brand essence to build tactical value-creation around. When the brand essence is well formulated, it serves as a lighthouse to storytelling, content creation, product development, and even pricing strategy. And here comes in sustainability, as a single, but crucial expression of the brand’s DNA.
Sustainability is defined by the United Nations as an idea and model that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” As easy as it sounds, in practice, implementation is intricate and puts even seasoned experts at unease. Brands, notably fashion brands, touch upon a long chain of operational stages from a single idea or trend, to design, production, sale, and even beyond if we consider after-consumption efforts. During all these stages, brands need to analyze their footprint to understand where and how they may impose harm on the environment, people, or other living creatures. Only then can a prioritization of initiatives and corrections begin to take place.
Amendments should not follow already existing practices of the marketplace but should be formed by the brand’s genuine philosophy. Hence, rather than compiling common tactics of competitors and emulating those, brands should return to their DNA. They must ask some questions and answer them truthfully:
- What is the change that we are pledged to bring from the beginning of our existence?
- What is the aspiration and hope we seek to evoke in our customers?
- What is the kind of life we seek to provide to our employees as a reflection of our philosophy?
In their best possible universe, how do individuals and communities interact, and how are the ideal environments envisioned? Once those questions are answered, that’s when companies should begin to critically assess what they can and should do for the sake of sustainable development. Laying out a map of the inflicted damages has to be first systemized, and then needs to be juxtaposed against the brand’s set of ideals. This step is crucial to generate sustainability initiatives that are authentically fitting and well-guided.
Patagonia, for example, is an eminent example of sustainability done well. Founded by Yvon Chouinard, a rock-climber and environmentalist, the company is an attestation to a slow-living lifestyle highlighting synchrony between nature and humans. They don’t preach change but pioneer it starting at home: The company offers on-site child care, maternal and paternal care, free yoga classes, and generous PTO packages. They have launched a line of repair programs, and infamous anti-consumption campaigns to cut down on consumer culture, or better, to reform that. “Balance” is their brand essence, which they seek to implement both in workers’ rights and environmental footprint. Rather than conforming to industry standards, Patagonia examines its chain of operations and molds them to reflect their own philosophy. Read about Patagonia’s famous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign in Ivan Gurkov’s article on human relations management.
Sustainability is, after all, living our best self today, while preparing for the best possible tomorrow. Meanwhile, the meaning of “best” is hardly inherent, as ideas are not inherently good or bad, but we, humans charge them with values, associations, and judgments. And exactly this is what provides brands the possibility to form and shape the future according to their own understandings and hopes. When done consequently and consistently at all touchpoints, brands remain authentic and more complex. A footprint due to operations will always exist, and the ultimate aim is not to erase it but to minimize and shape it. It would be hypocritical to state that sustainability is not a commercial opportunity in today’s marketplace, however, it is also an opportunity to lead everyday practice towards a world better lived.
Cover image source: Benjamin Davies
*By Sara Bernát, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
It sounds like one of the most obvious statements to make when it comes to the role of design — it must fit the purpose. It should engage, inspire, and educate. It should drive change, prompt new ways of thinking, and make life simpler. In short, it should fulfill the brief, no matter how that brief takes shape. And to do that — to resonate with the audience for which a concept, project, product, process, or service was intended — it needs to be human-centered.
Overlooking the fundamental principle of design
Many organizations still overlook this fundamental principle of design. Some tech firms engineer software based on the aspirations of developers or the realms of what is possible, for instance, rather than making savvy use of code to drive the change that is really required. Brands launch ad campaigns without understanding the pain point or opportunity the creative needs to ‘hit’. Services become overly complex because steps are added in piecemeal format, without the organization ever taking a fresh look to ensure the process satisfies what it initially set out to achieve. There are even, sadly, some designers who continue to focus on what looks good, aesthetically, in their portfolio, instead of what will truly help the client.
Surely, design should never be for design’s sake.
Of course, it’s possible for design to spark a need that people didn’t even realize they had — it can create desire or drive demand, for example. But to ensure truly effective design, it must be human-centered. And this requires us to see the world through a different lens.
Sometimes, human-centered priorities fall by the wayside because habits and traditions skew both designers’ and users’ thinking. ‘The way things have always been done’ takes precedent, and we fall into a trap of simply evolving the core concept rather than ever re-evaluating its present-day suitability.
Simplification of service design
For example, take a trip to see a general practitioner (GP), because service design is so commonly overlooked in media commentary. For decades, a patient with a suspected infection would suffer at home for a period of time, call the surgery, discuss possible appointment times and confirm the visit, travel to the GP for consultation, and perhaps even return a second time if tests were required to validate the diagnosis. A prescription would then be written out and a trip to the pharmacist would be required to collect the medication, for the treatment to begin.
Think about the time and resources needed for the patient, surgery, and pharmacy to handle this process — not to mention the potential difficulties associated with the trip if the patient is vulnerable, immobile, or infectious. Hasn’t there long been a better way?
Virtually overnight, however — because of the current healthcare climate — telephone appointments, remote diagnoses, and medicines-to-home deliveries have become the norm. We’re even reading about traditional visits to the GP being replaced by video consultations, as standard, to prevent the wastage of resources and better protect the wellbeing of everyone involved if unnecessary travel and physical contact can be avoided.
This process won’t be suitable for all health conditions, of course, but this is where further user-centered considerations will come in, moving forward. However, this example highlights, in principle, the benefits that can be achieved, the speed at which a long-tried-and-tested service can be overhauled, and the agility with which even a staggeringly vast organization can work, when we reassess what it means to get ‘from A to B’.
There are countless examples of external pressures forcing such change, not least because of the current health landscape. What were once considered barriers to people working from home — technology, culture, and even basic levels of trust — have now been overcome, and the masses are proving it can be a success. Remote-working strategies won’t be without their trials and tribulations, it must be noted. There may be productivity dips, connectivity issues, and even morale concerns. But again, there’s no reason why this new workplace design cannot be tested, reflected upon, iterated, and enhanced, so that it becomes a successful ‘new normal’.
Communicate, don’t presume
Herein lies another important point. We cannot assume people understand what every element of process design means, or why every product feature exists. Design is sometimes open to misinterpretation and relying on presumptions is risky.
Employees new to remote working won’t necessarily know how to achieve a work-life balance when the line starts to become blurred, for example. They will need support to navigate this new experience, and employer communication will prove key to aiding this.
Shoppers being asked to observe a 2m distance sounds straightforward enough, but that’s because we simply assume everyone knows what 2m looks like. Many do not, so savvy supermarkets have been quick to react by introducing visual tools, such as floor and wayfinding graphics, to support this new way of shopping. There’s more design work to be done, however, because 2m distancing, in some stores, is practically impossible due to aisle spacing or the overall footprint of the shop itself. Entire store layouts may, therefore, have to be overhauled before long. But everything is now being reviewed and re-evaluated, to make things better for the consumer.
Will this make for a better retail experience? Yes, perhaps so.
Would any of these ‘traditions’ have been halted if an external factor had not forced us to look at these scenarios through a new lens? Not likely.
There is a sobering backdrop to so many examples of fantastic design at present. But as designers, we need challenges to solve, and a human-centered focus should be the way we do it.
Cover image source: Joshua Rawson-Harris
*By Darren Evans, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
Brand awareness and brand equity are KPIs at the top of every brand marketer’s list. Rightly so. These KPIs are extremely important in terms of growth; without them, it is hard to know how an audience perceives a brand.
But there is one problem.
Too often, the terms are used interchangeably. They may be connected but they represent different things. If their specific roles are not distinguished, your brand strategy will be harmed. Let’s dive into the difference between the two so your brand swims rather than sinks.
Brand Awareness
What is it and why is it important?
Simply put, brand awareness is the familiarity an audience has with a brand through its qualities or images. Companies attribute much importance to this KPI because getting brand awareness right is the first step in driving a target audience to become a loyal customer base.
The term itself is pretty straight forward. Where companies can struggle is in implementing the best strategies to increase and improve brand awareness.
How to increase brand awareness
There are many ways to increase brand awareness. Admittedly, we all like to take inspiration from the bigger brands of the world. Like Coca-Cola, for example.
Coca-Cola has a very clear, consistent brand voice and they’ve successfully transferred over to the tone, visuals, and associations that we all connect to the soda brand. Almost 7.1 billion people around the world would be able to recognize the Coca-Cola label. That’s impressive.
But Coca-Cola doesn’t take things for granted. When brand awareness began to fall among millennials, the brand devised the “Share a Coke” campaign. Targeted toward the Mexican market, Coca-Cola achieved the following results:
- 1.7 million users reached;
- 81 million media impressions on display;
- 175 million social media views;
- 3.2 million views for the TV commercial;
- CTV average of 3.98 percent during the campaign;
- 80 percent of target reached;
- 51 percent of website traffic from mobile devices;
- 44 percent of Mexico shared a Coke.
And when it comes to brand awareness? This important KPI increased by 11%.
Your brand might not be Coca-Cola, but it is possible to reach higher levels of brand awareness if you set a solid marketing plan in place. It starts with knowing your target audience: who they are, what they value, how they are reacting to your competitors, and the best places to reach them. Once you have this information, you can start running campaigns specifically intended to increase brand awareness. Some easy-to-implement strategies to start you off include:
- Brand packaging;
- Collaborating with influencers;
- Referral programs;
- Guest articles;
- Podcast interviews.
Now that we know what brand awareness is, it’s time to look at how it differs from brand equity.
Brand Equity
What is it and why is it important?
Brand equity is a clear indicator of real product-value. Brand equity relies heavily on brand awareness, hence why people often confuse the two.
So, where is it that they overlap?
There are three different ways in which one can view brand equity: from a customer mindset, product marketing outcomes, and financial marketing outcomes. Brand awareness falls under the customer mindset. In addition, what determines brand awareness also determines financial marketing outcomes. To put it simply: brand awareness may be tied to brand equity but should be treated as a separate KPI. Consider brand awareness just one detail in the larger world of brand equity.
Brand equity is extremely important for brands on a growth path. Why? Because when a brand has positive equity, customers are willing to pay competitive, higher prices for a product they trust. Customers base this decision on their perception of that brand, how it affects them, and the end value. This, in turn, has a direct effect on brand sales.
Apple is probably the best example of a company with high brand equity. Apple isn’t the only company that produces smartphones; it probably doesn’t even produce the best smartphones (many argue that the more cheaply priced Huawei phones are just as good, if not better). Yet Apple is the biggest brand in the world. Let’s look at how Apple strategized to achieve this coveted position.
How to increase brand equity
Bynder has been watching Apple closely and pinpointed the following steps the company has taken to increase its brand equity:
- Apple has an aura of secrecy around its product development that creates hype and conversation;
- They position themselves as different from all the other tech companies out there;
- Apple products make consumers feel good and part of something exclusive;
- Customers are placed at the center of the brand (for example, this iPhone campaign).
Apple may be the world’s biggest brand, but they certainly have brand strategies that even the smallest of companies can easily take on board.
There you have it, the difference between brand equity and brand awareness explained. While the exact definitions may slip your mind over time, the important thing to remember is that they are not one and the same — and shouldn’t be treated so. Take a look at your brand strategy! Are you substituting one for another? If the answer is “yes”, it’s time to change things up. Target both these important KPIs, target them correctly, and enjoy better growth for your brand.
Cover image source: Alejandro Barba
*By Joy Corkery, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
The ongoing crisis has witnessed vast demonstrations of compassion and generosity by individuals, communities, and a wide range of brands. The numerous acts of kindness and genuine expressions of goodwill are heartening and, without a doubt, greatly appreciated by those on the receiving end. This sheltering in place has given me ample time to observe many things but, as a marketer, I have focused special attention on what my cohorts in the brand world are doing. From Dove to Burger King, Ikea to Uber, along with many other brands, a wide variety of actions are being undertaken that acknowledge a shared understanding of the difficulties we are all going through. The brands’ initiatives range from the offering of free products to medical professionals on the front line, to a reduction in prices or special financing for cash-strapped consumers, or just the simple message to stay home and stay safe. Some of the branding communications take a poignant, touching tone, while others try for a bit of humor to help ease the daily gnaw of anxiety. These gestures of help and concern are, for the most part, wonderful. And, in one way or another, they provide insight into the respective brand’s values, decency being a critical value for success in a transparent world.
As a marketer, I recognize that these pandemic-related branding gestures are valuable, each in their own way, and a benefit to many consumers at this moment in time. However, I also recognize that they are short-term fixes for an unprecedented time in business and marketing, and for society at large. In times of crisis, it’s always difficult for marketers to know how to navigate, as worried and distracted consumers naturally shift their attention to their families’ health, their finances, and their communities. But this crisis is of a different order of magnitude.
What hasn’t sunk in for most marketers, yet, is that the emotional and behavioral changes to daily living wrought by current events will have effects that last a long time. The way consumers are now shopping, working, being schooled, or sharing a happy hour are changing, out of necessity. But, it’s likely all of us will become accustomed to doing things in new ways, which has intense ramifications for our future marketplace. While some businesses will be more affected than others, this is the time for all businesses to think and operate in new ways. To succeed in the months and years ahead, brands and marketers are going to have to move beyond how they change their messaging to how they change their business models. To succeed in the long term, they will be required to disrupt the experiences of their current businesses to reflect the new realities. The smartest of them will stop being preoccupied with the here-and-now and look for ways to reimagine their businesses and the experiences they provide to consumers. Powerful brands become powerful by making life better or more convenient for people in a relevantly different way. If ever there was a time to become a proof point for this brand tenet, it is now. Brands and businesses in every category should already be reimagining their businesses in the context of how the world will be working, literally and figuratively, how students will be learning, and how consumers will be consuming. There will be no going “back to the future”.
A good example? Take the vast number of people currently staying home — and working from home. Allstate is among the brands that immediately recognized the short-term implications of this. It instituted the Allstate Shelter-in-Place Payback, a program that will reimburse more than $600 million in policy premiums to its auto insurance customers in April and May as a result of the reduction in their driving. As CEO, Thomas Wilson said about the company’s campaign: “Being in good hands means protecting people. We all have to buddy up and do what’s right.” His subsequent comments during a CNBC interview made clear that Allstate also recognizes the future effects of the crisis. What if people find there are significant benefits to working and shopping from home? “We’ve been in business for 89 years,” he told his interviewer. “This is not a concentrated crisis, like a hurricane. Our lives have become very virtual. We’ve all moved into the digital world. As a result of that, we’re looking at other opportunities. We’ve seen that people are driving less and we are looking for how this will play out for the long term.”
GM and Ford are not going to get into the ventilator business, but they will have to reimagine cars for the new reality. With its sales and delivery service, Carvana is already doing what Cadillac is offering short-term. Zoom, which is becoming as mission-critical as email, is giving FaceTime and Google Hangouts fierce competition. Frictionless payment systems are replacing cash and credit cards. More than anything else, social distancing is forcing multiple seismic shifts in behavioral trends. As noted above, people are driving less. The demand for e-commerce is rising exponentially. The demand for home delivery of goods and services, equally so. Consumers are returning to broadcast and cable television for their local news and information. People hunkered down are looking for more virtual ways to escape, downloading gaming apps, and streaming more movies and entertainment than ever before. From online music lessons to live-streamed yoga classes, college lectures, or social engagements, people are moving beyond their current ways and means of doing things.
As the intense consequences of this pandemic sink in, as people recognize the scope of its impact on heretofore normal ways of doing things, businesses will be forced to look at their core offerings and determine how to disrupt the status quo, to change the experiences of their brands to reflect the new realities. The most prescient, those flexible enough, are already doing so. Short-term fixes are just that. The most innovative brands are planning for life beyond this crisis. Experience disruption will become the way forward. Or, to quote Albert Einstein: “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”
*By Allen Adamson, originally featured on Brandingmag.com.
Cover image source: Hannes Richter