No Logo - Naomi Klein
First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 2000
Copyright ® Naomi Klein 2000
ISBN 0 00 653040 0
'The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multinational corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. ' - Klein, 2000, p25
An overal brand makes something successful, not the products, originating in the mid 80's.
'Advertising any given product is only one part of branding's grand plan, as are sponsorship and logo licensing. Think of the brand as the core meaning of the modern corporation, and of the advertisement as one vehicle used to convey that meaning to the world. ' - Klein, 2000, p27
Advertising is a way of selling, whilst branding is the core identity.
'The first mass-marketing campaigns, starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, had more to do with advertising than with branding as we understand it today. Faced with a range of recently invented products — the radio, phonograph, car, light bulb and so on - advertisers had more pressing tasks than creating a brand identity for any given corporation; first, they had to change the way people lived their lives. Ads had to inform consumers about the existence of some new invention, then convince them that their lives would be better if they used, for example, cars instead of wagons, telephones instead of mail and electric light instead of oil lamps. ' - Klein, 2000, p27
People essentially needed to be interested in the physical product first, much before brand loyalty is needed.
'What made early branding efforts different from more straightforward salesmanship was that the market was now being flooded with uniform mass-produced products that were virtually indistinguishable from one another. Competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age — within a context of manufactured sameness; image-based difference had to be manufactured along with the product. ' - Klein, 2000, p28
Products all looked the same, and a brand was needed to distinguish one product from the next.
'In the 1880s, corporate logos were introduced to mass-produced products like Campbell's Soup, HJ. Heinz pickles and Quaker Oats cereal.' - Klein, 2000, p28
The 1880s was essentially the start of the existing logo.
'As design historians and theorists Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller note, logos were tailored to evoke familiarity and folksiness (see Aunt Jemima, page 2), in an effort to counteract the new and unsettling anonymity of packaged goods. "Familiar personalities such as Dr. Brown, Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, and Old Grand-Dad came to replace the shopkeeper, who was traditionally responsible for measuring bulk foods for customers and acting as an advocate for products... a nationwide vocabulary of brand names replaced the small local shopkeeper as the interface between consumer and product."' - Klein, 2000, p28
To create a sense of familiarity, personalities were personified to mask a larger corporation.
Brands could conjure a feeling — think of Aunt Jemima's comforting presence —but not only that, entire corporations could themselves embody a meaning of their own. In the early twenties, legendary adman Bruce Barton turned General Motors into a metaphor for the American family something personal, warm and human" - Klein, 2000, p28 / 29
Characters were not needed, a corporation in itself could act as a metaphor.
'Nineties marketers, being on a more advanced rung of the sponsorship spiral, have dutifully come up with clever and intrusive new selling techniques to do just that. Recent highlights include these innovations: Gordon's gin experimented with filling British movie theatres with the scent of juniper berries; Calvin Klein stuck "CK Be" perfume strips on the backs of Ticketmaster concert envelopes; and in some Scandinavian countries you can get "free" long-distance calls with ads cutting into your telephone conversations.' - Klein, 2000, p29
The 90's showed how brands can infiltrate the consumers lives, through different ways of selling.
'On April 2, 1993, advertising itself was called into question by the very brands the industry had been building, in some cases, for over two centuries. That day is known in marketing circles as "Marlboro Friday," and it refers to a sudden announcement from Philip Morris that it would slash the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 20 percent in an attempt to compete with bargain brands that were eating into its market.' - Klein, 2000, p32
The power of the brand did not seem to be working, and for the first time price reduction was used for competition, instead of the promotion of the brand itself.
'It's not that top corporations weren't flogging their products, it's just that to attract those suddenly fickle customers, many decided to put their money into promotions such as giveaways, contests, in-store displays and (like Marlboro) price reductions. In 1983, American brands spent 70 percent of their total marketing budgets on advertising, and 30 percent on these other forms of promotion. By 1993, the ratio had flipped: only 25 percent went to ads, with the remaining 75 percent going to promotions. ' - Klein, 2000, p34
Due to customers identifying a cheaper competition (because of a recession), they became less loyal to their brands. Corperations began to spend much more money on promotion.
'Just as the admen had predicted at the beginning of the recession, the companies that exited the downturn running were the ones who opted for marketing over value every time: Nike, Apple, the Body Shop, Calvin Klein, Disney, Levi's and Starbucks. Not only were these brands doing just fine, thank you very much, but the act of branding was becoming a larger and larger focus of their businesses.' - Klein, 2000, p36
The companies that focused just on branding during the recession (instead of promotional sales) were not affected.
'Everything was an ad for the brand: bizarre lexicons for describing employees (partners, baristas, team players, and crew members), company chants, superstar CEOs, fanatical attention to design consistency, a propensity for monument-building and New Age mission statements. ' - Klein, 2000, p36
Brands began to not just be about the aesthetic, but everything was considered.
'And then there were the companies that had always understood that they were selling brands before product. Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King and Disney weren't fazed by the brand crisis, opting instead to escalate the brand war, especially since they had their eyes firmly fixed on global expansion. ' - Klein, 2000, p38
These companies focussed on expanding globally, instead of the sales of their products.
'Starbucks seemed to understand brand names at a level even deeper than Madison Avenue, incorporating marketing into every fibre of its corporate concept-from the chain's strategic association with books, blues and jazz to its Euro-latte lingo. '
- Klein, 2000, p39
Starbucks express themselves not only as a brand, but a lifestyle choice.
'Here were two companies that had fostered powerful identities by making their brand concept into a virus and sending it out into the culture via a variety of channels: cultural sponsorship, political controversy, the consumer experience and brand extensions. Direct advertising, in this context, was viewed as a rather clumsy intrusion into a much more organic approach to image building. ' - Klein, 2000, p39
Starbucks (as well as the Body Shop) used a less confrontational way to sell. They sell the brand, not an obvious product sale.
'Scott Bedbury, Starbucks' vice president of marketing, openly recognized that "consumers don't truly believe there's a huge difference between products," which is why brands must "establish emotional ties" with their customers through "the Starbucks Experience." The people who line up for Starbucks, writes CEO Howard Shultz, aren't just there for the coffee. "It's the romance of the coffee experience, the feeling of warmth and community people get in Starbucks stores." - Klein, 2000, p40
Starbucks is about an 'experience', not the sales of one particular product.
'"Polaroid's problem," diagnosed the chairman of its advertising agency, John Hegarty, "was that they kept thinking of themselves as a camera. But the '[brand] vision' process taught us something: Polaroid is not a camera-it's a social lubricant." IBM isn't selling computers, its selling business "solutions." Swatch is not about watches, it is about the idea of time. ' - Klein, 2000, p43
A certain ambiguity is needed to create a brand. You're not selling a product, you're selling an idea.
'Take Starbucks, for instance. As recently as 1986, the coffee company was a strictly local phenomenon, with a handful of cafes around Seattle. By 1992, Starbucks had 165 stores with outlets in several U.S. and Canadian cities. By 1993, that number had already gone up to 275, and in 1996, it reached 1,000. In early 1999, Starbucks hit 1,900 stores with outlets in twelve countries, from the U.K. to Kuwait. ' - Klein, 2000, p143
The Starbucks boom.
Apple and Google - Does Their Success Stem From Product or Brand?
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/oct/11/apple-google-most-valuable-brands
Posted by Nir Wegrzyn
Friday 11 October 2013 10.16 BST
'Apple, meanwhile, has ingenuously built a sense of belonging for its consumers - of setting them apart with its distinctive aesthetics. It creates a family for its users defined by the recognisable brand "look" and incomparable, consistent ease of use across its entire product range.' -Wegrzyn, 2013
Consistency across all products sets Apple apart. A product which is Apple is obviously Apple.
Apple, from its icon (said to signify knowledge), to its products, promises to make users' lives better; to set them apart; to give them something they can't get elsewhere. And it is consistent in its efforts to deliver on this as a brand, both externally and internally - from product rigour to its social and environmental values.
For example, the company's entire product line exceeds US environmental specifications, and it not only powers its North Carolina data centre through the US's largest privately owned solar facility, but has set targets for 100% renewable energy across its data centres and facilities worldwide. -Wegrzyn, 2013
The entire brand is considered, even the way in which their products are manufactured.
As Interbrand writes in its report: "Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but also with its ethos." This ethos, famously pioneered by celebrated visionary Steve Jobs and summed up in the "Think different" motto, is valuable to us as consumers because it also alters how we are perceived socially, by association.
They have made themselves indispensable, creating a genuine consumer "need" for their products across many levels - emotional, psychological and social. -Wegrzyn, 2013
You are buying products because of how the brand perceives it's products to be, not on the product technicalities.
They have bridged the gap between technology and the consumer, pioneering a new sense of intimacy within the sector. And this they have achieved by starting from the beginning, rigorously building their brands before applying the same rigour to their products. -Wegrzyn, 2013
Products are designed and built around the brand, not the other way round.
Apple - It's All About The Brand
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2002/12/56677
Posted by Leander Kahney
Friday 12 April 2002
"People talk about technology, but Apple was a marketing company," Sculley told the Guardian newspaper in 1997. "It was the marketing company of the decade." - Kahney, 2002
The products aren't what sell, it's the way in which they market.
"Marketer Marc Gobe, author of Emotional Branding and principal of d/g worldwide, said Apple's brand is the key to its survival. It's got nothing to do with innovative products like the iMac or the iPod.
"Apple is about imagination, design and innovation," Gobe said from his office in New York. "It goes beyond commerce. This business should have been dead 10 years ago, but people said we've got to support it."
Gobe is of course referring to Apple's financial tailspin during the mid-1990s when the company looked in danger of going out of business. At the time, its products were lackluster, its branding a mess.
"Before Steve Jobs came back, the brand was pretty much gone," he said. "That's one of the reasons Apple has been rebranded -- to rejuvenate the brand."
Apple abandoned the old rainbow-hued Apple logo in favor of a minimalist monochrome one, gave its computers a funky, colorful look, and streamlined the messages in its advertising. It's done wonders, Gobe said." - Kahney, 2002
Branding was key in reviving Apple as a brand.
"It's like having a good friend," Gobe said. "That's what's interesting about this brand. Somewhere they have created this really humanistic, beyond-business relationship with users and created a cult-like relationship with their brand. It's a big tribe, everyone is one of them. You're part of the brand." - Kahney, 2002
This is emphasised by the use of a sensory experience - The use of the trackpad or the touchpad on iPods. Or Siri!
Writer Naomi Klein is a leading critic of branding, especially Apple's. Klein, author of No Logo,argues that companies like Apple are no longer selling products. They are selling brands, which evoke a subtle mix of people's hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Klein notes how Benetton used images of racial harmony to sell clothes, while Apple used great leaders -- Cesar Chavez, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama -- to persuade people that a Macintosh might also allow them to "Think Different."
"People are drawn to these brands because they are selling their own ideas back to them, they are selling the most powerful ideas that we have in our culture such as transcendence and community -- even democracy itself, these are all brand meanings now," she told the Guardian newspaper. - Kahney, 2002
Apple draws us in through a sense of community, not product specifications.
Nike Brand Strategy: Emotional Branding using the Story of Heroism
http://602communications.com/2013/02/nike-brand-strategy-emotional-branding-using-the-story-of-heroism/
Posted by Graeme Newell
18th Feb 2013
'The most common story of the hero is that of a man of humble origins setting out to defeat a great evil – one far more powerful than he – and, against all odds, emerging triumphant. This same pattern could apply to, say, a home security system against a house fire, or an antacid against heartburn. As long as there is a clearly identified enemy and a clearly identified hero, the emotional branding can begin.' -Newell, 2013.
This theory can not only be applied to Nike, but a common theme in other forms of branding.
'Instead of inspiring customer loyalty by singling out an external enemy, it pulls out the stops and focuses on an internal foe – our laziness. Nike advertising knows just how often we battle with our lazy side. Every morning when that alarm goes off and it’s still totally dark outside, the battle begins. When we choose how long to run, the battle continues. This is how Nike marketing uses emotional marketing to inspire customer loyalty. They know that while some people may identify with an external foe, all people identify with an internal one.' -Newell, 2013.
We see 'laziness' as an internal foe, something we need to defeat.
Brand New - Jane Pavitt
First published in London by V & A Publications
Copyright ® The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum 2000
Printed in Singapore
ISBN 185177 324X
'From cornflakes to cars, our daily lives are increasingly dominated by branded goods and brand names; the brand is the prefix, the qualifier of character. The symbolic associations of the brand name are often used in preference to the pragmatic description of a useful object. We speak of 'the old Hoover', 'my new Audi' or 'my favourite Levi's' - not needing to qualify them an object description' - Pavitt, 2000, p16
An opening quote? We describe a brand name, not the object itself.
'So how is a brand value established? The invention of a new brand overnight with subsequent rapid marketing is unlike to be a success. Brands with strong images are the product of a successful nurturing of the relationship between produced and consumer. They also require economic investment, marketing and corporate nurturing' - Pavitt, 2000, p23
Successful branding requires time, and not just an initial image.
In 19 out of 22 product categories, the company that owned the leading American brand in 1925 still has it today - Nabisco in cookies, Kellogg's in breakfast cereals, Kodak in film, Sherwin Williams in paint, Del Monte in canned fruit, Wrigley's in chewing gum, Singer in sewing machines, Campbell's in soup, Gillette in razors'
- Pavitt, 2000, p26
Proof that a successful brand can lead to a successful business.
'According to a survey of Chicago grocers in 1920, more than three quarters of their customers asked for baked beans by brand name' - Pavitt, 2000, p33
The influence of branding at it's early stages.
'Once in the supermarket, however, the package had to do the work of the shopkeeper, and make the sale. Faced with an array of choices, the well known brand name is a constant upon which the shopper would rely. It is a means of making the choice on behalf of the shopper' - Pavitt, 2000, p37
The knowledge of reliable and known goods by a brand reassured the consumer that they were buying the right product.
'Products, whether sportswear or electronic goods, can have the brand values of the company 'built in'..............
'The design of the product is actually a vehicle for brand value, rather than the other way round. Rather than brands existing to sell more of a product, products are developed as a means of extending and consolidating the brand'. - Pavitt, 2000, p39
Branding comes first, with the products function and aesthetic made to fit the brand's existing values.
'The brand acts as a quality control, reassuring us that a hamburger in Moscow will be the same as in Manchesters. Globalisation, it seems, offers the kind of market solution of which corporations once only dreamed, and suggests the domination of marker forces over all other cultural practices' - Pavitt, 2000, p48
The globalisation of a brand makes consumers feel consistent quality. It also interestingly over rides cultural beliefs.
Due to travel (and maybe even the internet, brands now need to be consistent and effective globally.
'There are far too many different possible readings both between and within social and cultural groupings (consider how assertions of sexuality and female individuality are not acceptable in Muslim cultures) - Pavitt, 2000, p51
Due to differences in culture, there are often limitations to globalisation.
'Often a particular brand logo on a product or service can enhance the consumption experience. The Nike brand worn by many says little about the nature of production, and few wearers could say where or how their clothing was made ' - Pavitt, 2000, p73
Brand's tend to not show much about where they have come from.
Others, such as fashion and sports goods, promote self - assurance and the autonomy of the individual. The 'separate striving self' is told to 'Just do it', suggesting that human will and strength of character are the means to success' - Pavitt, 2000, p170
Nike promotes the idea of being an individual, making choices for yourself.
The theory that women are far less likely to be autonomous.
'In fact, so popular is Nike that the Chinese sports company Li-Ning, has appropriately and slightly adapted its Swoosh logo. Perhaps because of its brand association, Li-Ning has become one of the most popular Chinese sports companies in China' -Pavitt, 2000, p151
The extent to Nike's popularity in China.
Brandwashed - Martin Lindstrom
First published in USA by Crown Publishing, 2011
Copyright ® Martin Lindstrom 2012
Printed in Croydon, London
ISBN 978 0 7494 6509 9
'Teenagers don't know who they truly are yet, so they sport the brands they do as a backup form of ID' - Pavitt, 2011, p117
Nike manipulating a younger audience?
'Approximately 60 per cent of the 2,035 US teenagers we polled in our national SIS study believed that wearing or owning the right brand of clothes, gadgets or cars could help them 'buy' happiness' - Pavitt, 2011, p117
Teenagers have a strong belief that buying branded goods will make them happier.
'According to a poll of 112,000 teenagers in 30 countries, just under half of all teenagers consider the brand when making purchase decisions, with Nike, Lacoste, Adidas, Sony and Apple being the most popular among the boys' - Pavitt, 2011, p118
Teenagers have a strong belief that buying branded goods will make them happier.
'Few brands have shrewdly amassed a more cult - like almost religious following than Apple. Peer pressure has been central to many of Apple's strategies. One such strategy is early recruitment, or in other words, very deliberately marketing to kids age 13 to 17. This campaign has been so effective that today a staggering 46 per cent of the US population in that age range own an iPod' - Pavitt, 2011, p119
Apple's marketing strategy working successfully on children. This is emphasised with student discount on Apple products.
'Apple offers all kinds of baby-friendly apps, like Toddler Teasers, Baby Fun!, Infant Arcade, Peek-A-Boo, Pocket Zoo and more. Sure these are a godsend to many tired parents, keeping their child busy so they can have some peace and quiet, but they are also one of Apple's many stealth strategies' - Pavitt, 2011, p26
Apple's marketing strategy working successfully even on pre - teens.
'According to the New York Times, 'Starbucks is considering whether to add new drinks or drink sizes that better meet the needs of kids and tweens. We need to be realistic about who comes into our stores, so if we have children coming into out stores on their own, we want to make sure we have products that are appropriate to that age group' - Pavitt, 2011, p24
Starbucks wanting to expand their audience to a younger age bracket.
Starbucked - Taylor Clarke
First published in Great Britain by Sceptre, 2008
Copyright ® Taylor Clarke 2007
Printed in Kent
ISBN 978 0 340 96081 3
'Starbucks coffee equals romance, relaxation and luxury - the company made itself synonymous with those concepts, transforming a cheaply produced, age-old commodity into a sophisticated coffee indulgence"'
- Clarke, 2007, p94
Examples of the influence of branding over a basic and cheap product.
'Former Starbucks CEO Orin Smith, speaking for Fortune magazine, stated "We changed the way people live their lives, what they do when they get up in the morning, how they reward themselves, and where they meet"'
- Clarke, 2007, p8
Starbucks changing a way people live, not simply making a need for product.
What Would Apple Do? - Dirk Beckmann
First published in Great Britain by Biteback Publishing, 20013
Copyright ® Dirk Beckmann 20013
Printed in Great Britain
ISBN 978 1 84954 573 0
'Instead of cramming as many features as possible into its products - something which its competitors love to do - Apple leaves out as many as possible. It makes products that are easy for the customer to understand' - Beckmann, 2013, p5
By making a product more simple, Apple set themselves apart.
Inside Apple - Adam Lashinky
First published in Great Britain by John Murray Publishers, 2012
Copyright ® Adam Lashinky 2012
Printed in Great Britain
ISBN 978 1 84854 724 7
By making a product more simple, Apple set themselves apart.
'Apple storytelling initially is high concept, telling customers not what they want to buy but what kind of people they want to be. This is classic 'lifestyle' advertising, the selling of an image associated with a brand rather than the product itself.' - Lashinsky, 2012, p119
Apple sell a lifestyle, not their actual products.
A Brand New World - Scott Bedbury
Bedbury, Scott. A New Brand World. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life - John Heskett
Heskett, John. Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
'Objects and environments can be used by people to construct a sense of who they are, to express their sense of identity'
The Nike logo and tag-line serve to identify ordinary human beings as icons for action and excellence.
Niketown Berlin: The City as a Brand Experience - Friedrich Von Bories
Von Bories, Friedrich. “Niketown Berlin: The city as a brand experience.” Advances in Art, Urban Features. 2003, Volume 3: 75-86
.
“Niketown is neither a sporting goods supermarket nor simply a building; it is a city animated by the spirit of Nike (von Bories, p. 75).”
