BRANDS - The Magic - Part 1 of many
"Let's push hard. It's only a matter of time before customers start getting attracted to our brand", said the Chairman while motivating the marketing team of a region where the brand wasn't doing so well.
"We are, sir", cried the Business Unit Head, "but the customers here seem to be blind. They can't see we are better than their preferred no.1".
"Well, keep trying. You'll find openings you can widen, cracks you can hammer, frustrations you can encash, dissonance you can amplify. We'll keep funding, don't worry".
"OK, sir. Thanks a lot. But sir, these idiots seem to be getting customers with minimum advertising and followups! They don't work half as hard as we do.. but the customers don't seem to notice".
This is a typical coversation in many organisations. Almost all organisations. I too have been a part of this more than once. Both the gentlemen (or ladies) in this conversation realise what they are doing. Both know most likely what the consequences are going to be (at least in the short run). Both will still keep trying.They are caught in a classic magic spell. The stronger brand, or the number 1, has cast its magic spell on the customers in this particular marketspace already. And once that is done, there is little others can do (in the short run) that will undo that spell.
Brands are emotions. (Dettol is painful)
Brands are perceptions. (Mercedes is costly)
Brands are created when people talk about a company's product (or service) to each other, owning it personally, and promoting it without any expectation of a return of favour. They do it because the brand truly made them feel delighted (about something).
Strong brands are created when lots of customers do this. (Are you on LinkedIn?)
Magical brands are created when this loyalty crosses a rational limit, and customers promote the product (or service) so hard it becomes almost a given for any new customer (unaware) entering the market to accept this as the world-view that's prevailing, that's the done thing, that's the right thing, that's the moral thing, and that's THE thing. (It's an IPod man!)
Magical brands thrive on the irrationality of the consumer. They thrive on the cumulative good the product behind the brand has done over the years, which has translated into a goodwill, residing inside the minds of the then users, which has manifested itself outside of those brains through rigorous consistent word-of-mouth, creating a typhoon of goodwill that just keeps coming like the antediluvian flood.
It is almost impossible for a new brand, a challenger brand, to win over the majority of customers in the face of an existing, pre-eminent magical brand in a certain marketspace. It is like drlling a hole through Earth to emerge from the other side. Unharmed.
Bad news for the no.2, no.3 and the rest! Good news is that such magic spells are usually localised. So there's enough space for your brand somewhere, someplace.
This makes you think about a lot of things really. Should managers stop trying in such situations? How and when will such spells break? What's the cost of creating such a spell in time, money, effort?
And what's the returns?
Happy thinking
~
