Among the current hot buzzwords, branding is right up there with metrics and traction.
Advertising agencies have pushed the notion of branding as the key to customer loyalty. Uhhh…I beg to differ.
Yes, yes, I'm much aware that I'm entering an arena whose combatants can be rabidly antagonistic when anyone questions the sacred status of the word “brand.” After all, every one of us grew up with that word as the key to…well, to brand loyalty.
But sorry, folks, I'll qualify as an opinion what I really believe is a fact: Brand loyalty sits in a weak second place in the contest that matters — ongoing repeat sales. My buzzword, offered for competition: multibuyers.
AN EASY WAY TO KEEP SCORE
Turn your clock back just one year. Someone asks, “Which is the more stable and salesworthy brand, Ford or Tata?” Your automatic answer — as would have been that of anyone who hadn't experienced the power of Tata in the company's home country, India — would be, “Ford, of course. Tata? They're planning to market a car retailing for about $2,500.”
One year later, Ford, in extremis, has sold its top brands, Jaguar and the Rovers, to Tata.
Will that damage sales of the “brands”? My local Jaguar dealer, a personal friend from whom I bought my current car, says, “Tata will implement the improvements Ford was unable to make, because Tata has the financial strength to keep technology current.”
In the United States, no department store had a stronger image than Marshall Field's. Oops — Marshall Field's is now Macy's. The Sharper Image had not just brand but image (as its surname, too). Oops — one of the leading brands of 2008 is named Chapter 11. Kind of catchy, isn't it?
Where are you buying gasoline these days? Every one of us has seen an empty brand-name gas station, across the street from a car-filled gas station whose name means nothing but whose price is a nickel a gallon less.
A “brand” drug or medication becomes available as a generic. The compositions are identical, but the branded version costs twice as much. Which would you buy? Your answer might be, “I'd still buy the branded version because I don't trust the generic.” Yes, that attitude does constitute a percentage of response, albeit the percentage drops in ratio to discussions with the family doctor or pharmacist. Point: Ongoing education diminishes brand as a factor.
So I'll offer another opinion I believe to be a fact: Branding without a competitive offer is a weak plea. A competitive offer without branding is where greater appeal and strength lies.
CREATIVE ROI
If you're a member of the creative team flailing away in the dungeons of an advertising department, a catalog's rabbit-warren of cubicles or a freelancer's work space, what would give you more confidence in the anticipated return on your word-investment in a mailed or e-mailed offer: Selling a branded cashmere jacket at full retail price or selling a made-up-name but identical cashmere jacket for half that retail price?
Don't answer that question based on worn-out tradition. Tradition is so 20th century. We're in the Internet era, and airlines, restaurants and retailers that sponsor cynically designed “loyalty programs” know full well what 21st-century loyalty represents — an unheady mixture of bribery and greed. A neat equation for this decade: Avarice = Loyalty.
Except for those whose communications are hung on the venerable wooden pegs of tradition, contemporary copywriters write in the Web mode for all media, including direct mail — fast, terse and breezily convivial, with an accent on “What's in it for you,” not the rhetorical Viagra-impotent “This is who we are.” Each of these replacements, on analysis, not only is at variance with branding; each exemplifies the competitive edge of direct marketing.
OK, got it? Then let's play a short game of Marketing. You be Ford and I'll be Tata.
HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS (www.herschellgordonlewis.com) is the author of 31 books, including the recently published “Creative Rules for the 21st Century.” He's also written “Hot Appeals or Burnt Offerings,” the curmudgeonly titled “Asinine Advertising,” and “Effective E-mail Marketing.”
