There are major changes a-comin' 'round the bend. There will be generational changes that will transfer the largest amount of wealth in recent history. This wealth will then belong to a group of consumers who have grown up being totally immune to advertising or marketing of any kind. There will be social changes that will widen the divide between the "have's" and the "have nots" that will increase our fear and endanger our sense of well-being. And there are technological changes that will flatten our world, reshape our markets and redefine everything we know about the efficient management of media.
How will today's brands survive these imminent changes in the world around us? Certainly we will have to do away with the premise that one size fits all. Or one message fits all. Or even one form factor fits all. These were the last remnants of the 20 th Century and have no place in the coming marketing landscape.
Then there is the issue of consistency of image and messaging. As consumers seek to customize products to meet their own specific needs, these antiquated practices will begin to fall by the wayside. What then, will arise to replace them?
So many critical questions. So few reliable answers. Save one. No matter what may come, the brand will endure. This has to be the only point of view in the midst of constantly changing markets and selling environments. Coca-Cola will always be Coke. No matter what comes next.
This is the baseline of all branding considerations. Continuity of purpose. It is that statement of purpose that defines and redefines brand character. Coca-cola will always be cool and refreshing. Even in the midst of a worldwide drought at $500 a bottle or a global product scare that drops the price to 5 cents a carton. Coke will still be cool and refreshing. Bank on it.
So is it projectable that a strong, memorable, descriptive core trait is the key to a brand that will withstand the vaguerities of time? Perhaps. But take this into account. Our various societies are becoming more and more visual. This means that symbolism will play an increasing role in defining the character of the brand.
In many cases "real people" have come to represent brand character. This technique was highly effective for us in developing the "Quality Is Job 1" campaign at Wells, Rich, Greene. This was due to the importance of associating "quality" as a mindset rather than a corporate mandate. Even today, with the campaign long gone, consumers still equate Ford Motor Company's brand character as being focused on manufacturing quality.
Character branding, on the other hand, personalizes the relationship between the individual consumer and the organization through the dynamic personality of a graphic character who represents the organization's or product's values and overall characteristics.
Mr. Clean, the Keebler elves, or the Pillsbury dough boy represent character brands that have become part of American culture. Unfortunately, even when done as creatively as the GEICO gekko, these efforts appear to be dated and seem more rooted in the past then applicable for the foreseeable multicultural future. Wil Vinton of California Raisins fame and David Altschul of the Character Camp have gone so far as to come up with four rules that govern a brand's successful character development:
1. Don't be a shill.
Prior to a makeover by BBDO and Will Vinton Studios, M&Ms did little more than appear on screen. "Once they gained human traits," says Character president David Altschul, "they gave the brand more appeal."
2. Create a life.
With Angel Soft, they created two irreverent higher beings named David and Larry, who have distinctive personalities--David is the overbearing bathroom guru; Larry is more cherubic. The characters reflect detailed, carefully conceived biographies that helps keep the brand "honest" as they struggle to make characters work with new generations of consumers.
3. Make them vulnerable.
Every great superhero has a flaw; it makes them appealing. But admitting weakness isn't easy. "Our character has to be perfect," is how Maytag's Kristi Lafrenz describes her company's attitude before it put "Old Lonely," its repairman, through Character Camp in 2000--which led to a new character, the Apprentice, who showed Old Lonely a thing or two.
4. Imagine the long run.
Doug Moore has worked at General Mills just two years as VP of advertising and branding. Some of his characters, like the Green Giant, have been there 50 years. So he won't fire one of them just to shake things up. Taking hard, honest looks at characters, he says, "reminds us that these characters are part of us."
5. Don't ask too much.
Some characters work best with simple missions. The Foster Imposters--a pair of chickens--helped Foster Farms drive sales of naturally grown fowl. Character Camp persuaded the company not to dilute the impact by using the Imposters for line extensions.
Of course in this day and age of branded entertainment, one might be tempted to apply some of the character development methods and techniques of Stanislavski to the brand building process. Certainly the concept of the "uncontrolled core" that actors utilize to flesh out a character might hold a degree of promise.
But the end result of this technique is the sense of contradiction that gives a theatrical character a certain depth. " candid and private, gregarious and solitary, self-doubting and daring, witty and melancholy," is how John Lahr describes this quality in Kate Blanchett in a recent issue of The New Yorker.
In his excellent on-line publication " THIS BLOG SITS AT THE Intersection of Anthropology and Economics" Grant McCracken writes of Blanchett's range in relation to brand character " The idea that a brand could be any of these things is a little dizzying. The idea that it could all of these things at once is completely removed from the realm of possibility. Still, that's doesn't mean that brands won't someday master contradiction. After all, if a real world of perfect dynamism is truly upon us, it (brands) won't have any choice."
So, given the unsure future and constant state of change that faces brand marketing at this point in time, the prospect of brand dynamism as it relates to brand character may well call for some degree of contradiction in their personification. For example, the character of the iPod even now can claim to be both gregarious (rhythmic) and solitary (isolating).
But the point of why right now more than ever is very simple. What if "right now" is as stable as society gets? If this is the case, then now is the time to nail down the baseline of your brand character. So stop reading this drivel and get busy.
Stay tuned.
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