brands and sporting events (a historical oddity of the 1970s and
1980s) was always a great deal more than an awareness
campaign. While few were moved to believe that cigarettes were
actually good for you as a result of the emotional projections,
many were ‘relaxed’ in their habit by these good associations.
Personalities attached to the brand can do all sorts of things
for the emotional charge, whether it’s Tina Turner or Jack Dee.
And if the personality can be home-grown, all the better –
Victor Kiam did wonders for Remington shavers (so good he
bought the company), and Virgin was made all the more power-
ful as a brand just because Sir Richard Branson kept trying to
take a balloon around the world, and had longish hair…
Of course, some brands manage to get along with doing very
little – no linked promotions, no advertising, just the continua-
tion of a heritage built up by a previous generation of brand
managers. This can be a very low-cost approach to brand
management, and why spend money if it isn’t needed? The truth
of the matter with such brands, however, is that they are only as
good as their lack of competition allows them to be. Enter a
competitor, and make it one with a good deal of energy, and
old-established brands can disappear fast. Many an FMCG
grocery brand back in the 1970s and 1980s gave ample space
for the growth of the supermarket’s own label.
Customer interaction
Brands can pour millions into urging their customers to interact
with them, and get very little return. It seems that some brands
are just better suited to higher levels of interaction and higher
levels of emotional response than others. The answer doesn’t lie
in the promotional budget (at least, not to start with) but in the
customer’s circumstances as a buyer, and how that conditions
their perceptions.
You might love Gucci if you have plenty of money and need
to show people how successful you are, be indifferent to it if
you have just enough money to buy that sensible pair of shoes
you have had your eyes on for some time, or hate it if you have
little money and despise conspicuous consumption.
18
ᔡ
Understanding brands