Why Brands ?

Today I went out with my friends to shop for my other friends. My favorite shopping destination to buy gifts and greeting cards is Archies gallery. Archies has a very wide assortment of products in each product line, whether it is cards or accessories. Though expensive, yet the brand equity of Archies has leveraged it a supreme position in market.

Archies generally provides you the option of getting the gifts wrapped and it then hands over the stuffs to the customers in an Archies poly bag. Today, I got an ordinary plain poly bag and not the usual Archies bag. I felt that recession has also hit this giant in its category that led to deterioration in quality. When I asked the store manager, the excuse he gave was lack of stock of Archies poly bag.

Now, why do you think is a polybag with its brand name important to consumers? Well, I really don't think brands give you something more than any unbranded stuff in terms of tangible functionality. But there is other side of functionality that is based on perception and is more of psychological in nature. That is, the customers want to show to their peers that they have shopped in a branded outlet, which in turn enhances the self esteem of the shoppers.

This can be attributed to the fact that brands help you become what you want to become. Everyone wants to be rich, affluent and exclusive. To project this exclusivity, they buy the brands that have this exclusivity element in them. It gives consumers a sense of self conceit and a feeling of being different in crowd. As such, even branded poly bags do matter to consumers.

But the question to ponder is does Archies really need to pay heed to this? Archies is the category leader and has a monopoly in the market. So, do you think if it doesn't give customers the requisite brand sensation, customers are gonna stop coming to Archies. My answer is a straight No, at least till the time a competitor builds this kind of brand equity.

Brute Force Branding

I am reading a book named Brand Harmony by Steve Yastrow. In this book, I came across a term called Brute Force Branding. This form of branding emphasize on a two-fold way to build brands. First, marketers have to break through the clutter to gauge the attention of consumers by being able to make the customers selectively perceive the brand. Second step is to expose the customers to advertisements enough number of times to impart learning about brand and thereby form attitude.

Well, this form of branding must have worked in past, but today's consumers is just not ready to buy on basis of advertisements. The reasons for such a shift can be attributed to reasons like cutomers having more choices than before, customers becoming more savvy and having access to information. As such, relying on ads isn't going to work for brand building.

Rather, customer wants harmony in terms of brand experience, that is, harmony in their experience with ads, brochures, salesforce, etc. and definitely with the product. That's how great brands are built, at least in the current scenario. We have brands like Nike, etc. that followed Brute Force Branding , but that's history now. Today's consumers are unreceptive to bombardment with ads and as such, they have to be convinced some other way. I really feel Brand Harmony is a great way to do so.