One thing that both these natures of brand have in common: ultimately they depend on the values, integrity and effectiveness of the organization that creates the brand. If the brand is a promise of a level of quality, you can’t break the promise with immunity, especially in a digitally amplified world of blogs, forums and buzz. Each of the “promise” brands I used as examples, GM, United and Microsoft, stand in danger of their promises losing all meaning with customers. A promise is only as good as the level of trust you’ve built with the recipient.

But if the brand is a religion, the culture of the organization becomes even more important. Irrational decision factors run amok: the perceived culture of the organization, how the brand label connects with who we are, the social circles it places us it, or the circles we wish it would place us in, the values the company stands for, the exclusivity of the brand. The brand relationship becomes a complex stew of beliefs and emotions. We only make this investment for brands that hold a unique position in our mindscape. We feel we have to get as much from the brand as we’re willing to give it in terms of our emotional loyalty. And if a brand doesn’t reciprocate, it is quickly downscaled from a religion to a passing fancy.

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“I thought I’d be able to tell the difference, but I couldn’t — I looked at the ingredients and they seemed almost the same,” says 30-year-old Ms. Mills, a stay-at-home mother of two in Ardmore, Okla. On her next shopping trip, “I’m going to buy the store-brand moisturizer and cleanser — it’s less money.”

Many Americans are changing their everyday purchases and abandoning brand loyalty, prompted by the persistent financial pressure of rising food, gasoline and electricity prices. 

Retailers are also sensing more shopper experimentation. This fall, supermarkets Safeway Inc. and Kroger Co. noted that sales of their store brands are on the rise. “In this economy, customers are much more willing to try a private-label item, and we’re seeing signs that this is happening more and more as the year progresses,” Kroger CEO David Dillon said on a conference call.

To be sure, overall sales of name-brand goods are still higher than those of store brands. Still, about 40% of primary household shoppers said they started buying store-brand paper products because “they are cheaper than national brands,” according to a September report by market-research company Mintel International, which interviewed 3,000 consumers. Nearly 25% of respondents reported that it is “really hard to tell the difference” between national brands and store brands of paper products. Store brands on average cost 46% less than name-brand versions, Mintel found.

The above paragraphs are extracted from todays WSJ’s article At the Supermarket Checkout, Frugality Trumps Brand Loyalty .

Crisis provides brands a challenge and an oportunity. Is the time that most of the brands will be put to test by tougher buying conditions or pricing beyond brand as a final buying argument.

It’s the time new brands can made their way up into the consumers minds and benefit later from surviving these harder times.

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Seek out insights:

Outstanding brands identify customer insights. When these insights are shared across cultures they assist in a brand’s adoption globally.

Integrate local intelligence:

Brand guidelines are tremendous tools for ensuring consistency. However, they have been known to impede innovation and diminish relevance. Brands are dynamic, never static, so the management of them must integrate new thought. In the case of global brands, to assume that one message can appeal uniformly to all audiences with equal relevance is unrealistic. Well-managed global brands cull local markets for intelligence related to the ‘next big thing’ to ensure local relevance and to counter competitor’s moves.

The Team:

Global brands demand a global brand management team. This regional and international organisation is in place to maintain brand leadership. Companies with large brand portfolios tend to have separate managers for each brand. Regardless, global brand managers have the authority and resources necessary to implement key decisions based on performance measurement. Global brand management teams implement processes to create, review, and improve brand performance.

Investment:

Intangible assets, including brand, now comprise the majority of the value of a company. These assets require capital investment like any other. Progressive companies and enlightened management recognise the need for appropriate communications spending.

Measurement systems:

In order to sustain a global brand’s long-term position, there must be consistent and widespread brand equity measurement. This will not only help brand development by highlighting and demonstrating best practices, but it will also provide the brand management team with a means of monitoring global consistency.

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The purpose: to highlight to senior executives the importance of paying close attention to their brand’s performance in the online arena.

The method: ranking is based on the number of times the brand’s name appears in leading search engines like Google, Baidu and Technorati, the number of links to the brands website, its reach and Page-rank relevance, and the number of times people express their “love” or “hate” for the brand.

The Top 10 (Interbrand/BusinessWeek position in brackets):

1. Google (38)
2. eBay (55)
3. Apple (41)
4. Amazon.com (68)
5. Disney (7)
6. Yahoo! (58)
7. Microsoft (2)
8. Canon (35)
9. Nokia (6)
10. Sony (28)

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Lacoste has coming roaring back from obscurity to become one of the hottest sports/apparel brands around. The company’s US sales grew in the US of 1000% in 5 years. Not bad for a brand that was once languishing under General Mills’s ownership.

What can other brands learn from Lacoste’s comeback?

1. History Can Be Made Relevant to Today
2. If You Have an Iconic Identity, Use It
3. Seize Relevant Trends
4. Don’t Be Scared to Innovate
5. Patience Pays
6. Scarcity Adds Value

Read the full InfluxStyle article: 6 Reasons Behind a Brand Comeback- Learning From Lacoste

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Image hosting site ImageShack ranked No. 4 among July’s fastest growing Web brands, increasing 233 percent, from a unique audience of 2.3 million to 7.7 million (see Table 1). Heavy.com, a video sharing site, took the No. 5 spot, increasing 213 percent, from 965,000 to 3.0 million unique visitors. Photo sharing site Flickr followed at No. 6, growing 201 percent from 2.1 million to 6.3 million unique visitors. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing Web brands were MySpace, with a 183 percent year-over-year increase, and Wikipedia, with a 181 percent year- over-year increase.

“User-generated content sites have seen significant growth over the past year, owing in large part to their reliance on viral marketing. They also benefit from their cost-effectiveness — the content is practically free.”

said Jon Gibs, director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings.

Brand % Growth
——————————————————————–
HSBC                   394%
——————————————————————–
Sonic Solutions     241%
——————————————————————–
Associated Press   234%
——————————————————————–
ImageShack          233%
——————————————————————–
Heavy.com            213%
——————————————————————–
Flickr                    201%
——————————————————————–
ARTIST Direct       185%
——————————————————————–
Partypoker.com     184%
——————————————————————–
MySpace                183%
——————————————————————–
Wikipedia               181%
——————————————————————–

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These catchphrases are designed to sum up the essence of a business in a way that will stick in the mind and trip off the tongue.

Marketing professionals say a corporate slogan must be concise and distinctive, encapsulating a basic “promise” to a company’s users.

BBC had an interesting analysis on some of the world well known brands slogans from Carlsberg’s Probably the best beer in the world to Honda’s Power of Dreams. Here’s what they say about Carlsberg:

History
First used in the 1970s, the “probably the best” line has evolved in many different directions over the years.

What is Carlsberg saying?

Carlsberg drinkers are successful but enjoy laughing at themselves.

Expert opinion:

Carlsberg’s slogan has resonated down the years, Graham Hales says, but has also put a bit of strain on the product.

“The contemporary ads – like probably the best flatmate – have taken the concept into new territory and taken the pressure off Carlsberg of terms of it being probably the best lager in the world.”

“That is a very difficult thing to claim or substantiate.”

Impact verdict: Still refreshing

Full article.

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Branding experts differ on the chief causes of the apparent loyalty shift. They cite factors that range from deft, low-key marketing and product innovation by firms to a political pushback by young consumers. Smart brands win teen market share by allowing teens to be part of a brand “story,” experts say. Mr. Walker names the global teen “passion points” as music, media, sports, and communication.

Still, not all experts see country of origin as an issue with teens. Some doubt whether many US teens could name Adidas’s home base.

“For today’s teens, online buzz is king, and peers hold the most sway. What applies to young people is ‘Did it break? And did my friends say it was cool?’ [It's an] opinion process that goes on through IMs and text-messaging, and it applies to everything from movies to cargo pants.”

says Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group who has worked with the trend-watcher firm Intellisponse on its annual surveys of what (primarily US) teens want.

10 Most Popular Brands With Teens Worldwide

If you want to read full Energy BBDO release on the study here is the PDF file (85 kB).

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[..] unlike the Gen-Xers that preceded them, this new generation believes there are causes worth supporting, with 70% agreeing with the statement, “I would fight for a cause I believe in.”

So what does this means for brands? In a statement, Walker said, “The days of a Nike-style mega brand that dominates an entire generation may be over, but so is the enclave-ization of the teen world into stereotypical Skaters, Goths, Geeks and Cool Kids. Welcome to a world with as many different definitions of cool as there are individuals.”

The PDF copy of the report can be seen HERE (PDF, 2.6 MB)

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Color is may be an important brand asset. It may help clients and prospects recognize your company or product. But color can be used to support goals way beyond just recognition. It can be used to evoke emotion and build that all-important connection with the people who surround your brand.

You can use color to further differentiate your organization from your competitors, revitalize an aging product and engage and unite your employees, partners and customers. When you go beyond the traditional use of color, you can make incredible strides in achieving your goals.

Some colors are associated with certain emotions that the brand wants to convey (e.g. Loud colors, such as red, that are meant to attract the attention of drivers on freeways are appropriate for companies that require such attention. Red, white, and blue are often used in logos for companies that want to project patriotic feelings. Green is often associated with health foods.)

For other brands, more subdued tones and lower saturation can communicate dependability, quality, relaxation, etc.

Color is also useful for linking certain types of products with a brand. Warm colors (red, orange, yellow) are linked to hot food and thus can be seen integrated into many fast food logos. Conversely, cool colors (blue, purple) are associated with lightness and weightlessness, thus many diet products have a light blue integrated into the logo.

William Arruda at MarketingProfs.com has a list of 10 ways to make the most of color:

To make the most of your color, ensure that it…

1. Supports your brand attributes
2. Is relevant to your target audience
3. Is always the same shade and hue
4. Is visible to all members of your brand community, inside and outside the company
5. Is understood and appropriately used by all employees
6. Is featured on all your communications materials and sales tools
7. Is different from your competitors’ colors
8. Works in all parts of the world where you plan to do business
9. Is applied to more than just your logo
10. Comes with guidelines on its use for partners and affiliates

More than that, in case you missed it, Martin Jelsema on BuzzworthyBranding has an interesting color guidelines for brands:

• Red – evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength, vitality. In business, it is great for accents and boldness, stimulates appetites, is associated with debt.
• Pink – evokes femininity, innocence, softness, health. In business, be sure you’re aware of its feminine implications and associations.
• Orange – evokes fun, cheeriness, warm exuberance. In business, it’s great to highlight information in graphs and on charts evokes positivity, sunshine and cowardice. In business, it appeals to intellectuals and is excellent for accenting things. Too much is unnerving.
• Green – evokes tranquility, health, freshness. In business, its deep tones convey status and wealth; its pale tones are soothing.
• Blue – evokes authority, dignity, security, faithfulness. In business, it implies fiscal responsibility and security. Plus it is universally popular.
• Yellow – is an optimistic color that almost always evokes a positive response. Yellow gets you motivated; it stimulates creative and intellectual energy; it’s cheerful and easygoing.
• Purple – evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery. In business, it’s right for upscale and artistic audiences.
• Brown – evokes utility, earthiness, woodsiness and subtle richness. In business, it signifies less important items in documents.
• White – evokes purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined. In business, it enlivens dark colors and can be refreshing or sterile.
• Gray – evokes somberness, authority, practicality and a corporate mentality. In business, it is always right for conservative audiences.
• Black – evokes seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness and being classic. In business, it creates drama and is often a fine background color.

Further readings on this:
Martin Lindstron’s Brand Sense : Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound
Designer’s Guide to Color series: Designer’s Guide to Color, Designer’s Guide to Color 2 (Designer’s Guide to Color), Designers Guide to Color 3

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