Building Brand Values
- Page 2
|
|
Not so the lamentable Rover. This once proud brand – at least in the 1950s, ‘60s and early ‘70s – is a shadow of its former self. The product line-up is too ‘long in the tooth’ and the reputation of those running the business – and therefore the business itself – has been tarnished by fat-cat accusations and ‘noses in the trough’ press
speculation.
Result: ailing brand, mediocre product, poor reputation. A classic dysfunctional business.
Other companies get some of it right, some of the time, but are perhaps firing on less than full throttle. Take easyJet for example. The reputation of its founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, as well as the business he founded, rode relatively high while he was involved.
The brand was strong, bold and different. No one had previously thought of pioneering online booking and painting a web address on the side of its aircraft in bright orange. By cutting out the travel agent and passing the savings to the customer, easyJet became a true consumer champion, or at least would have done had the product been better.
Stories about cancelled flights with no compensation, lost luggage and an indifference towards passenger care from a young and inexperienced workforce undid much of the positive sentiment being created. Had all these elements been in concert – as with Mini – the business could have been even more successful than in fact it was.
Marketing pundits would have you believe that customers ‘buy’ into your business through a linear process that is led by image (brand) and supported by expectation (reputation) and then experience (product).
The reality however is that we ‘enter’ businesses through any one of these main touch points – image, experience or expectation – which is why brand, product and reputation are all avenues of equal status when it comes to attracting new customers and maintaining the loyalty of existing users.
Body Shop, First Direct and Virgin Atlantic are examples of successful businesses that have promoted themselves through reputation and word of mouth and until recently spent relatively little on advertising.
Sony, Apple Inc and Dyson are companies that lead through product innovation.
Prada and Rolex are examples of branded organisations that are driven foremost by image and brand desire. However, their position in the table of successful businesses is not due entirely to their pre-eminence in one of these three portals to market.
It should be no surprise that Body Shop, First Direct and Virgin Atlantic also have first rate productsand brand image. Apple Inc, Dyson and Sony have excellent
brand image and healthy reputations, and Prada and Rolex have strong product ranges with a solid brand reputation.
In short, they are businesses with ‘synergetic communications’. Like the stock market, brands can decline as well as rise. Businesses that find themselves in ownership of brands with failing reputations rarely overcome the prejudices of the consumer in the short term.
