Brand Personality Mapping (Contd.)

Let me continue from where I left: Aaker’s Five Factor Theory of Brand Personality. As I said, the five factors are:

• Sincerity (Down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
• Excitement (Daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
• Competence (Reliable, intelligent, successful)
• Sophistication (Upper-class, charming)
• Ruggedness (Outdoorsy, tough)

To illustrate what is meant by these, I will compare the pairs of competing brands belonging to the same product category (for familiarity sake I have chosen brands present in India). While traditionally Aaker uses a five point scale, for the same of simplicity, I will use a 3-level Likert scale. For a positive correlation with the factor, I give a score of 1, a negative one -1 and when not relevant, 0.

Sprite & Mountain Dew (For ease of understanding how I have arrived at these scores, think with reference to Sprite’s ‘Sprite Bujhaye Pyaas, Baaki Sab Bakwas’ ads and Mountain Dew’s ‘Dew Dudes’ ads)

Factor/Sub Factor Sprite Mountain Dew

Sincerity

Down-to-Earth 0 0

Honest 1 0

Wholesome 0 0

Cheerful 1 0

Excitement

Daring 0 1

Spirited 1 1

Imaginative 0 1

Up-to-Date 0 0

Competence

Reliable 0 0

Intelligent 1 0

Successful 0 1

Sophistication

Upper-class 1 1

Charming 1 1

Ruggedness

Outdoorsy 0 1

Tough 0 1

One could thus conclude that while Sprite is a sincere brand, Mountain Dew is about excitement and ruggedness

Bingo & Kurkure (Again, picture Bingo’s ads with those of Kurkure’s Juhi Chawla ones)

Factor/Sub Factor Bingo Kurkure

Sincerity

Down-to-Earth 1 0

Honest 0 1

Wholesome 0 0

Cheerful 0 1

Excitement

Daring 0 0

Spirited 1 1

Imaginative 1 0

Up-to-Date 0 0

Competence

Reliable 0 0

Intelligent -1 0

Successful 0 0

Sophistication

Upper-class -1 1

Charming -1 1

Ruggedness

Outdoorsy 0 0

Tough 0 0

So while Bingo heralds excitement and disdain for sophistication, Kurkure is more about sincerity and sophistication.

Airtel & Vodafone (Picture Airtel’s many celebrity laden ads with, say, BSNL’s ad featuring Deepika Padkone)

Factor/Sub Factor Airtel BSNL

Sincerity

Down-to-Earth 0 1

Honest 1 1

Wholesome 0 0

Cheerful 0 1

Excitement

Daring 0 0

Spirited 1 0

Imaginative 1 0

Up-to-Date 0 0

Competence

Reliable 0 1

Intelligent 1 0

Successful 1 0

Sophistication

Upper-class 1 -1

Charming 1 0

Ruggedness

Outdoorsy 0 1

Tough 1 0

So while Airtel is about excitement, competence and sophistication, BSNL focuses on sincerity and a rural feel.

The brand personality of any brand can be evaluated using Aaker’s Model in this way. An interesting case (which I leave to the readers) would be measuring the brand personality of Raymond Suitings – a brand which over the years has mastered its personality of being sincere, exciting, competent, sophisticated and rugged all at the same time! The Complete Man indeed :).

Brand Personality Mapping

Nature of the Marketing Function - Shifting Sands

Many of you would have studied the thought provoking ‘Identity Prism’ of academic Jean-Nol Kapferer as part of your foundational marketing course. This theory has had a deep and profound impact on how companies see the nature of brand building. Ever since he propounded his theory, companies have acknowledged the importance of identity in the building of a brand. Seen from a historical perspective, this market a culmination of shifts in the thinking of business communities – from efforts that were primarily product based, to a strategy based on sales, to one based on markets and finaly one based on brand identity.

Identity, Image & Personality

Often people use the terms brand identity, brand image and brand personality interchangeably. It is not my argument that these are radically different terms, but one has to be aware of the differences between these terms for they in a way affect ones marketing paradigm.

Identity refers to your true inner self - as a company or a brand. To quote Kapferer: “Having an identity means being who you are, following your own, determined, but individual path”. Be who you are. This is the inside-out paradigm of identity.

Closely related is brand image. This refers to ideas evoked in the minds of others (usually a customer/consumer) when they think of the brand in question. To adopt this as your creed means that you would adopt what others think is your identity as your own – an outside-in approach. Thus the paradigm of image is – Be what others think you are.

Brand personality combines these seemingly opposing inside-out and outside-in paradigms to create a new paradigm that while has roots in the identity, is strongly externally focused. It borrows from the identity, accepts favourable parts of image and adds to other images that it seeks. It is: Become who you should be. Why is it relevant? Well, because we, being social animals, choose brands the same way we choose friends – in addition to skills and physical characteristics, we simply like them as people.

If personality is so human a value, shouldn’t we be able to measure brand personality is much the same manner as human personality? Quite a few researchers concur and among them is Jennifer Aaker. Just like the Big Five Personality Traits theory is the most established among behavioural science enthusiasts, Aaker’s Five Factor Theory of Brand Personality has strong following among marketing enthusiasts. These five factors are:

• Sincerity (Down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
• Excitement (Daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
• Competence (Reliable, intelligent, successful)
• Sophistication (Upper-class, charming)
• Ruggedness (Outdoorsy, tough)

It goes without saying that just like there is no ‘ideal’ personality for a person or for more that matter right or wrong trait, there is no ‘ideal’ brand personality either. For example, a down-to-earth branding will just not suit Kingfisher Airlines, a medicinal pill better not position itself as daring, Navratna Tel cannot possibly carry off being sophisticated while Victoria’s Secret cannot market women’s lingerie as tough.

Innumerable brand personalities can be formed from different combinations of intensity of each of these factors. Depending on the image and identity of the brand and the category in question, one can choose to create a personality by positioning the brand on different levels on each of the factors.

In my next post I will take the example of some old and established products that have recently re-invented their brand personalities on the basis of their internal brand identity and external brand image.

Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile in India has tried to change the rules of the game. It is the first company to offer money for receiving incoming calls. It is the first company to offer free roaming services in India without any extra fees. It is the first company to introduce lifetime validity free connections with certain handsets. Virgin mobile is the first MVNO in the world. MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) is a company that provides mobile phone services but does not have its own licensed frequency allocation of radio spectrum and may be not have full infrastructure. Virgin mobile is one of 200 brands of Umbrella brand, VIRGIN.

Virgin mobile in India has segmented the market based on age of customers. Targeting youth of age 18-25 is a major aim of Virgin mobile. Youth is an obvious choice for any mobile service provider for obvious reason. There are around 210 million youth in the age category of 18-25, of which around 68 million owns phones. So still 66% market is to be tapped. Young people are heavy users of mobile services whether it is routine calls, sms or other value added service.  Virgin has promoted its products and services targeting youth population only. It has positioned itself a youth centric company. In fact all of the advertisements of Virgin have that witty taste of youthfulness. It has been seen that Virgin mobile has focussed on easy tariff plans and value added services.

Initially when Virgin mobile was launched in India, they were distributing Virgin services through their self-operated Kiosks. This distribution strategy did not work for virgin as most of the customers in India buy services from most of the local shops and Virgin was not available at these stores. So innovative branding, lucrative tariff plans, Paid incoming calls, brand name of Virgin and Tata Teleservices did not pay to the Virgin mobile as expected.  Now Virgin Mobile has tied up with retail chain of ESSAR for their distribution network. One of the most innovative distribution strategies adopted by Virgin is selling SIM online. Keeping in mind the increased usage of internet by the youth of the country, this strategy will pay off in the long term.

The initial advertisement campaigns of Virgin were quite innovative and attracted lot of young customers. In one such advertisement, a young person is shown, caught by traffic policeman, who has violated traffic rules . The young person wins the sympathy of the policeman when the angry father of young person tells policeman not to leave his son and give him severe punishment. Later on it is revealed that angry father is none other than his friend. The advertisement ends with Tagline “Think Hatke”.

In India, where the mobile service market is highly competitive and the major competitors have captured the large market share. It is not a long-term strategy to attract youth with innovative advertisements. Somewhere down the line, company has to offer some tangible services to retain customers.

Second probable challenge for Virgin is that it has got license in CDMA and the majority market is captured by GSM operators. So converting GSM users to CDMA users is one another big challenge.

Whether Virgin mobile survives in years to come is the time-bound question. But one thing is sure that Virgin Mobile in India has made communications channels very innovative.

Logos Definition: Part I

This is the first post in the series of new logo formulation. We have seen that in past few years, several companies have repositioned themselves and this repositioning has been seen in the change of logos. Few popular examples are HUL, CEAT, DABUR, ZEE TV, Canara Bank etc. In this series of Logo Definition we will try to understand the logic behind the change in the logo and meaning of new logos. How do new logos present the values of the company and brand to the stakeholders.

To start with, let us understand the new logo of India’s largest FMCG Company HUL, Hindustan Unilever Limited.  Started in 1933 initially as Hindustan Level Limited (HLL), HUL has lot of successful brands under its kitty like Lifebuoy, Lux, Brooke Bond Tea, Lipton, Annapurna Salt, Pepsodent, Closeup, Vaseline, Clinic Plus etc.

HUL has separate brands and all the brands are powerful in Indian market. So there was a great need to associate all the brands under one roof, So suddenly one day all TVCs had started giving HUL logo after the advertisements. In fact this was followed by all other FMCG Companies like P&G, ITC, Marico etc.

The new logo is a symbolic of the company’s mission “Adding Vitality to life” As per CEO of HUL, “It comprises of 25 different icons representing the organization, its brands and the idea of vitality.”

The new logo is very attractive as compared to its old logo.

This is the new logo of HUL, which has coupled 25 different icons very beautifully in English alphabet U aligning with Unilever name.

Each element in the new logo has different meaning. Few of the meanings are mentioned below:

Sun:  Our primary natural resource. All life begins with the Sun-the ultimate symbol of vitality.

Bee: Represents creation, pollination, hard work and bio diversity. Bees symbolizes both environmental opportunities and challenges.

Hand: A symbol of sensitivity, care and need. It represents both skin and touch.

Recycling:  Part of our commitment to sustainability.

Water: A reference to clear water and purity.

Heart: A symbol of love, care and health.

 All the above-mentioned icons and their meanings represent one or other value of HUL or its brands. For complete list, please see the full images.

The new logo has tried to put vitality to the corporate brand and has certainly helped the company to re-position itself.  

Brand Repositioning: A Study of Mountain Dew

-->Mountain Dew, the soft drink distributed and manufactured by PepsiCo was was invented in Knoxville, Tennessee in the 1940s. As of 2007, Mountain Dew was the fourth-best-selling carbonated soft drink in the United States, behind only Coca-Cola Classic, Pepsi-Cola, and Diet Coke.

Mountain Dew’s name is a Irish slang for home-distilled alcohol. By eluding to what is by itself a euphemism, Mountain Dew creates a metaleptic relation to a world of undulating terrain and mists. The logo further reinforces this imagery. The ‘M’ and ‘W’ are overly large – possibly to give the look of mountain peaks and troughs. The colour green is a universally associated with plant life, while red is a colour of aggression and passion which connects with Dew’s secondary association with extreme sports.

Initially a drink with strong following with rural middle-aged people, it target demographic today is radically different. The drink is mainly marketed to people in the 12-30 year old demographic group, creating a connection to activities like extreme sports and to the video game culture.

While Mountain Dew is a popular case study in marketing circles, I wish to focus on its brand repositioning in India.

Launched in Indian in early 2003, Mountain Dew was positioned as an ‘energy and exhilaration' drink – same as across the world. Pepsi started with two JWT India-created television commercials that attempted to capture the brand's spunk and attitude. The first ad featured four ‘Dew Dudes’ being asked (by a voice over) whether they'd visited some famous tourist attractions around the world. On being asked ‘Big Ben dekha?', the ads show shots of the boys bungee jumping off the Big Ben. ‘Jump maara,' one of them answers, ‘Baja diya baarah,' says another, ‘Par boring thaa saara,' a third shrugs. The ad continues in this vain till the voice over asks ‘Sab kuchh toh kiya, but have you done the dew?' The boys vouch for the drink as soon as they taste it.

The second ad became a cult hit. It featured a Dew Dude on a bike chasing a cheetah in a Savannah, catching up with it, leaping and wrestling it into submission before pulling a can of Mountain Dew from its throat! ‘Cheetah bhi peeta hai' remarked another Dew Dude.

Yet, Mountain Dew did not live up to all the hype. A survey by Synovate in late 2005 among 16-20 year old SEC A1 & SEC A2 showed that people preferred Sprite and Limca, with Mountain Dew performing only a shade better than Frooti. This ‘baffling’ result revealed an insight. Firstly, the concept of extreme sports is limited to Indian metros, that too among the more upwardly mobile sections. And even there, awareness does not necessarily mean appeal. There aren't many ‘outdoorsy types' in this country - at least not the kind Mountain Dew has in mind. The ad campaigns itself were found to be over the top and unrealistic. This survey and the market performance of Mountain Dew set the stage for a course correction.

Yet such a course-correction has to remain faithful to the current clientèle of Mountain Dew and conform to the global branding of Mountain Dew. Just a market repositioning rather than a radical re-branding was what was the need of the hour.

This repositioning saw the introduction of the ‘Dar Ke Aage Jeet Hai’ campaign. Designed by JWT India, these ad was set in a river rapid where some guys were going to attempt river rafting. The ad starts with a nervous guy telling himself ‘Itna mat dar, beta Joy. Sunny ko dekh, kaisa chilled out sa baitha hai’. Sunny is saying a silent prayer ‘Bhagwaan, aaj apne Sunny ko bacha lena. Main Anshul ki tarah stud nahin hoon’. Anshul, a well-built guy is thinking ‘Kya faayda teri body ka Anshul? Sabse dara toh tu hi hai’. Suddenly, accompanying shots of the raft overturning a voice over remarks ‘Boss, dar sabko lagta hai, gala sabka sookhta hai. Toh aaney do dar ko, kyunki dar ke aagey jeet hai’. The next shot show cheerleaders worrying for the overboard rafters when suddenly the raft comes out of the water and wins the race.

As we can see, the ad portrays the Dew Dudes human beings with normal emotions like fear. Instead of asking for people who have ‘been there done that’ to adopt Mountain Dew it asks for people who wish to conquer fear to adopt Mountain Dew. Thus the campaign effected a subtle repositioning of the brand from that focusing on identification with the Dew Dudes to one focusing on the aspirational quality of conquering ones inner monsters. All the while it remains faithful to its association with adventure.

This ‘mainstreaming’ of Mountain Dew also reflected in its secondary associations. From sponsoring fringe/niche extreme sporting events in India, Mountain Dew has moved to sponsoring regular sports and even movies. One case point was ‘Mission Istanbul - Dar Ke Aage Jeet Hai’ placing their tagline in the movie title itself!