Help with Case

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Iconic Brands

Brand activism 03 Saving Barbie

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I c o n i c B r a n d s

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Iconic brands

• Brands are an accepted part of our daily lives. But some brands seem to transcend their product or service categories to become part of the popular culture.

• What distinguishes these iconic brands from the rest of the pack, and what can marketers learn from them?

Every marketer wants to build an iconic brand. Why do so few succeed?

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The Corona Myth

• The association between relaxation and the brand cannot explain the success of Corona

• Relaxation had been a central benefit in the beer category for many decades, long before Corona. Budweiser had emphasized a relaxation theme as far back as the 1950s.

• Since other beers shared Corona’s generic connection with relaxation, what, then, made Corona’s particular expression more resonant than those offered by other brands?

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6Cultural changes in the labor market

• Big changes in the labor market. Outsourcing meant that middle-class salaried jobs were now routinely subject to layoffs and firings.

• Work became intensely competitive, and work-related stresses dominated everyday life. The rat race.

America's Rat Race | Apr. 24, 1989

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An evocative representation of relaxation

• Corona used the Mexican beach to escape from the hectic pace of work life.

• Corona owned a particularly evocative representation of relaxation in American culture: doing absolutely nothing on a faraway Mexican beach.

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Corona as an iconic brand

• Corona succeeded by shifting its myth, from a story about partying in Mexico to one about relaxing in isolation on a quiet beach.

• Corona succeeded when managers attended to historical changes and made the appropriate adjustments to better align the brand’s myth with tensions in society

A particular expression of the myth. For Corona, the brand exists in the Mexican beach and its “nothing’s happening” style of advertising

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S o , h o w t o b u i l d a n i c o n i c b r a n d ?

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Brands can be cultural champions

• A brand is a champion of an ideology that resonates with consumers.

• People use brands in their everyday lives as an important component of their identities.

• Iconic brands are important for consumers and thus they are strong and command respect (even love).

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Iconic brands address acute contradictions in society.

• By tapping into a collective desire or anxiety, iconic brands develop a status that transcends functional benefits.

• They challenge people, either directly or subtly, to reconsider accepted thinking and behavior.

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B r a n d a c t i v i s m

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Brand activism

Marketing is evolving to not only encompass emotional appeals, but also controversial elements, including political issues.

The reason, partly, is that young consumers report an aversion to traditional advertising and use consumption as social commentary.

The messaging strategies address big social problems; people call for corporations to engage in causes that political leaders ignore.

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15Examples of brand activism

AUDI “Daughter” NIKE “outsider”

Branded products provide a tangible vehicle to transfer meaning for both: fit into peer groups and express individuality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt1mgngwfyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-UO9vMS7AI

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Brands say Pride!... why?

Aligning your brand with subcultures demonstrates values

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Examples of brand activism

Branded products provide a tangible vehicle to transfer meaning for both: fit into peer groups and express individuality

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Open your world - Heineken

Target audience

Purpose

Consumer insight

Creative tone

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The black supermarket – Carrefour

Target audience

Purpose

Consumer insight

Creative tone

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#likeagirl – Always

Target audience

Purpose

Consumer insight

Creative tone

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Brands are carriers of meaning

Branded products provide a tangible vehicle to transfer meaning for both: fit into peer groups and express individuality

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C u l t u r a l B r a n d i n g

D o u g l a s H o l t

231960’s “Hippies”

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Symbols associated with hippies

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Objects associated with hippies

VW type 2 The hippy bus

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The Volkswagen Type 2 addressed fears generated by the rise of a corporate, materialistic and conformist society (Holt, 2004, pp. 65–72).

Products and brands become a vehicle to express ourselves

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“

“Anthropologists know that we live in an experience economy. In fact, all

consumption is about experience, and once that you have taken that view,

products are not longer tools or practical utilitarian, but they are really about

meaning. They are the way in which people create meaning and transform

meaning”

John Sherry, Professor of Marketing S tr

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B r a n d s a r e a v e h i c l e f o r s e l f e x p r e s s i o n

A brand’s strength depends on how well it encapsulates an identity myth and how important is that myth for consumers.

The brand’s genealogy is important to understand if and how it fits the cultural tension.

T h e i d e a i n s h o r t

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Take note of the key-words and images in the following ad

Reverse-engineering Coca Cola

C o c a C o l a w i t h f e e l i n g

Lets see if we can reverse engineer the brand identity of Coca Cola and how they arrive to their particular form of activism

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The core functional claim: be refreshed

All-Americana “pin-up”

Delicious and refreshing RefreshingDelicious and refreshing

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“See that ever man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca Cola for 5 cents wherever he is and whatever the cost to the company”.

Coca Cola lifted the spirits of the US Armed Forces… and developed production facilities overseas.

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The “pause that refreshes” gets a new meaning associated with the war effort. It refreshes and “lifts the spirit” from the horrors of war by reminding soldiers why are they fighting for.

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American optimism in a bottle

A tool to overcome cultural differences

• A sign of friendliness • Giving a Coca Cola was a sign to

communicate friendship to allies regardless of intercultural obstacles

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Examples of friendliness

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Brands often participate soothing anxieties because they enable a ritual that is often repeated.

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Brand activism: Why now?, Why these causes?

Cultural consumption preserves important features of the dominant society but provides for values, norms, and

behaviors of its own.

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We are constantly surrounded by reminders of fear…

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“Tribal” dynamics… us vs them

The dilemma between the fear of “the other” and the responsibility to help those in need.

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… but also of actions of kindness and hope.

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… enter Coca Cola

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42Brands respond with myths that bring life to an ideology

Coca Cola becomes a sign of a humanitarian utopia.

A pause for a Coke not only refreshes, but also allow us to feel a communion with others that are

different from us. The myth is that Coca Cola inspire consumers to imagine a world in which the most

troubling inequalities can be overcome by kind individual and small actions. Sharing a coke with others

different from us embodies the humanitarian utopia of the brand.

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Brands are historical artifacts

◉Brands are historical artifacts that carry meaning. ◉Brands gain meaning from collective

interpretations through time ◉The key difference with other types of branding is

that cultural branding takes into consideration that brands are socio-historically constituted.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA5Yq1DLSmQ

Explain what is wrong in this ad.

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