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The WPP Journal of original thinking in communications services
VOLUME
Front cover illustration by Argyro Tsavala, winner of the annual WPP-sponsored Royal College of Art illustration competition 2007
The WPP Journal of original thinking in communications services
VOLUME
WPP 27 Farm Street
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Published by WPP 2007
For further information go to www.brandz.com or contact:
David Muir at WPP, [email protected]
Peter Walshe at Millward Brown,
CHARACTERZNEW BRAND PERSONALITY MEASURE
Hero, Rebel, Friend ... and why?
Stronger brands have more ‘character’
CHARACTERZ is a key component of BRANDZTM, the WPP brand equity tool, that evaluates brand strength among category users. By asking consumers to compare brands within a specific competitive frame, BRANDZTM can determine market dynamics based on the way consumers shop the category.
BRANDZTM covers over 40,000 brands in 380 categories in 31 countries and is available exclusively through WPP companies.
Winner
Grand Prix
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From the WPP CEO 2
From the Editor 2
Trends and issues
Local heroes, global stage 3Rethinking the global advertising modelWilliam SharnockJWT
My brain hurts 10How to create successful consumer technologySimon SilvesterY&R EMEA
Just for you 24The brave new world of hypertargetingGerard Broussard Mediaedge:cia
Endangered species 40Building sustainable relationships with research participantsLiz McMahon and Sarah Sanderson BMRB
Beware! 44New challenges facing crisis management in the digital ageChris GidezHill & Knowlton
Ganging up on retail 60Using the internet to bargain in ChinaAruna NatarajanMindShare
Consumer insights
Gut feelings 6A study of digestion and emotionJoseph HeathRainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R
Don’t sell me. Tell me 20Learnings from the Japanese consumerBrian HarrisonDentsu Y&R
New media’s false storm 28The evolution of media consumption Nigel HollisMillward Brown
Power play 48Behavioural characteristics in ChinaTom DoctoroffJWT/Bridge Advertising
Always look on the bright side 55Uncovering the two dimensions of natural productsShaziya KhanJWT
Does this grab you? 62An analysis of states of attentionDamian ThompsonMediaedge:cia
Contents
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Atticus Abstracts
A selection of papers from the 2007 Atticus Awards that were judged worthy of merit
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Brand matters
Getting the little things right 16Why brand loyalty is all in the detailAndy Chambers, Daljit Singh, Mike Bennett and Fergus Jackson Digit
Ah! Brands 34The role of scent in brand communicationsStephen Bell and Sarah RidleyColey Porter Bell
The inner consumer 37From mass branding to internal self-expressionPhilip HerrMillward Brown
A many-splendoured thing 53Can one brand have several propositions?Iqbal MohammedOgilvy & Mather
Words and pictures
Atticus Corporate Award 66/67This Year Next YearGroupM
LiveWireJWT Mature Market Group
Thought LeadershipMillward Brown
Atticus Under-30 Essay 68
“There comes a point at which ever-increasing consumer choice does more to confuse than it does to liberate.”Erin NewbyRainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R
Atticus Award winners 70The complete listing
WPP at a glance 72
The Atticus Judges 75
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A many-splendoured thing
expensive ‘shelf space’. We pull off air any brand idea that doesn’t connect with all of our identified consumers – even if it has its own small niche of buyers.
Whether we realize it or not, we have been dancing forever to the tunes of shelf-space scarcity and distribution bottlenecks, while all the while believing self-righteously that the single-minded brand proposition is the only right way to build a brand in any situation. We have been doing this even in current times – abundant shelf space (for brand ideas), abundant distribution (in media channels and bandwidth) and abundant choice (of brand propositions tailor-made for each of your niche audiences).
So what’s the option? Chris Anderson summarizes what to do, not just for the world of brands but for anyone staring at a long tail Wild West. “In scarce markets, you’ve got to guess at what will sell. In abundant markets, you can simply throw everything out there and see what happens, letting the market sort it all out.”
He elaborates: “The more abundant the storage and distribution, the less discriminating you have to be in how you use it.”
In short, the application of the first principles of long tail thinking to brand building yields an essential truth – one more in
n The Long Tail, Chris Anderson writes that the hit-driven media and enter-tainment culture of the second half of the 20th century can be defined by these
characteristics:n A desperate search for one-size-fits-all
products. n Trying to predict demand.n Pulling ‘misses’ off the market.n Limited choice.
For anyone who has ever worked in advertising, the above should definitely sound very familiar. Try replacing ‘products’ with ‘brand ideas’ and have a look at it again.
We seldom think of the brand ideas and advertising we create as something we sell but that indeed is what we do. Consumers pay for it with their time and attention, and when the price or the benefit is not what they are seeking, they tune it out. We have a no sale and the gigantic universal spam counter registers yet another click.
In creating and peddling our wares we also use the very same devices and tricks that the media and entertainment industry have perfected in the last century.
We use pre-filtering as a mechanism to predict and decide what will have mass appeal. We choose between alternatives – only allowing one brand idea at a time to make it to the
Most brands are marketed with a single idea; but what if there is a small but receptive audience for many different ideas for the same brand? Iqbal Mohammed explains how mass customization could play a role in advertising.
Traditional brand building advocates artificially truncating the curve at the head to make the economics work.
Single-minded brand proposition
Truncated brand communication curve
The primary proposition still draws the hits. But abundant shelf space and low distribution costs enable the brand to connect with every niche idea with its own set of loyal consumers.
Primary brand proposition
Secondary tertiarybrand propositions
A healthy and complete long tail of the brand
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harmony with the way the world works than with the artificial construct of advertising and brand building.
There’s nothing sacrosanct about the single-minded brand proposition. In fact, in markets of abundance it is the wrong strategy to follow. In these markets, it makes sense to make available in the market every single proposition your brand can and should stand for.
The long tail of brand building In effect, the communication for every brand represents an individual market in which different messages for that brand compete for consumer attention and time. Largely due to the scarcity and expense of media, contemporary brand-building models advocate pre-filtering what goes on the limited and expensive ‘shelf space’ of media.
To ensure maximum bang for our buck, traditional brand-building models also advocate focusing on only one brand idea – called the single-minded brand proposition. That made sense in times of mass media dominance, given the economics of the situation. If you couldn’t speak much or, if it was too expensive to speak, it made sense to speak about one thing only, and ensure it got across.
Since everything – especially the entire advertising budget – rode on it, arriving at the correct brand proposition was a task of infinite magnitude. Some brands spend millions – on research and on employing the best professionals – to ensure that as many people as possible consume what’s on offer by paying with their time and attention. In short, the advertising agency’s task was to engineer a ‘hit’ – a task made infinitely more difficult because there is only one product to get it right and there is no way to hedge one’s bets.
But what of the other equally viable brand ideas for the same brand? They probably can’t
end up as ‘hits’ and attract audiences by the millions, but they too can have their own niche audiences – numbering in the thousands, hundreds, tens or even ones and twos. But the harsh economics of a hit-driven world mean that there’s no place for them.
On the other hand, a healthy and complete long tail of brand building would look something like this:
The task of the advertising agency here is to generate all the myriad communication messages with which people could relate to a brand and create communication for them all.
Of course, the streamlined and aerodynamic economics of mass media would still mean that one brand proposition may have to lead the overall communication. But no longer should it be allowed to dominate all the communication for the brand.
The fragmentation and abundance of media has now helped lower the barriers to connecting the supply and demand of more brand messages – theoretically of all possible brand messages.
For example, Volvo’s primary brand proposition could continue to be safety. But if there are people out there who relate to it as a stylish car, you can create communication tailor-made for them. Simultaneously, another bunch of people might actually like a Volvo for its European-ness. No longer will they have to ignore that connection and only seek ‘safety’ in Volvos.
As Chris Anderson puts it, “Long tail businesses treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass market fare.” n
Iqbal Mohammed Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore, India The Elongating Tail of Brand Communication – An Approach to Brand Building Incorporating Long Tail Economics
