Brand Management Audit brand sphere

Male1: We think about the third of the five blocks, the buyer—the buyer domain. And what we really now need to start think about here is what role does the buyer want the brand to perform? What role are they looking for it to perform? If they are looking for it to really reinforce you as an innovator, let us say in the handset market you are always the one that tries to be ahead in the handset markets.

Then quite frankly they do not keep from developing more new ideas. You are just going to think why is this not for me? In some ways got to say something about you. What is it doing for you, one. The second thing, how are they going about buying the brand? Almost what we are doing in terms of marketing and selling because you see, the dream I think in many organizations is that the consumer is in a so called high involvement state.

They you know maybe mobile hand set market. You know this might be a market where people really get involved and then when their contracts come to—change on the contract, they will spend a little bit of time looking at the web, talking to friends, maybe going to a few stalls, so there will be enough information research process. They then from a set tools, they will then evaluate different handsets, they will make a buy decision, they will try it if it works well. They then talk to other people about it.

If it does not work well you know they will try and be discreet in terms of what is going on or maybe they will then start to take more rigorous action against the organization. High involvement states, so it cleans a opportunity for the brand to be trying to influence but you see ladies and gentlemen, plenty consumer markets. They are so many consumer markets where the consumer is in the low involvement state.

They are not really thinking about what is going on. They are using a very simple model and that model really is C brand, it’s worked well in the past. It is just not worth my while. Spending time thinking about this handout, you know into baskets and then what do you see? You then start looking at some of the advertising. You then start looking at somebody in-store promotion. You then start see the way that the—it is the brands that are being merchandised and they just thirdly well not thirdly but they are now sort of it’s below their radar which is not interested.

Male2: We have taught a lot about retail environments but a very different environment and a classic example of what you taught about is the utility companies who people pay for their utility bills by direct debit. They loose any sense of emotional connection or reality of who that money is going to. They have no involvement in the brand. In fact I can’t remember right now who I bought my gas and electricity from.

Male1: Loved the example there, love the example there. Maybe when if you had a contract and it comes renewed, then switch in to a slightly higher involvement states but even then think about what goes on with these computers here. You know we now got search engines that would do automatic comparisons for us. So if we do not watch it, this interaction now between a distribution channel and a low involvement state says I am not going to feel any form of connection.

It is a code organization, all they do is they just keep on sending me bills or what I just do is I keep on having you know direct debit coming through. I have not found a way you know to pamper that. So the challenge is a low involvement state, you know you got to start thinking in terms therefore of respect but you got to find those critical points of which somebody then has got to make a buy decision.

A little time to go as with another colleague, it should be wonderful viral that was being used in Sweden to encourage people to think if you do about paying for you TV license every year and it was a campaign that you had no idea what some of it is going on and it was a campaign that asks you to upload a photograph of yourself. You do this and then they all looks like a film and starts and it is a very senior minister coming in or a very senior person coming in with an assistant there.

This person starts talking and says, you know in this world we got to thank certain people for the way they have enabled us to communicate, to have a democracy, to have an ability, to influence society and they just go on. This is build up and then you see football players start playing football. You see people in the living rooms sort of you know somebody stop talking, this was going on. You see somebody washing out stopping washing up.

Who is this person? And she looks at the other person’s assistant who opens a briefcase out comes a big brown envelope and the person says we need to thank the hero. Opens it and guess what did your photograph and then you hear the music changing the whole crescendo suddenly goes up. The beat goes up and then they go to all sorts of situations, there are crowds there and they were all holding placards showing a picture of you and thank you for being a hero. You know see big billboards where you are up in the billboard yeah and you in different zones in the world where these people they are just saying thank you and then you think, God this is reticulate and then finally because you got no idea all what this viral is about, then just like at the very end of a cinema production and it is a cinema production.

Instead of having the cast of who was performing it then invites you to realize the TV license is due, are you going to be a hero now? And sort this thing out? The past song of this thing I forgot the number because it was just astounding. What is going on, here is your challenge in the buy stage. Look there is two ways of now shifting somebody from a low involvement to a high involvement state. One way is fear the other way is respect.

You know using these two, totally confuse but again you know now using a new techno—What is called new technology there are established but you know, using the, you know the idea of the viral so kiss keep it simple. Stop thinking about large amounts of information going out there and start thinking about what is the role of the brand? What is the buying process that the person is going through therefore knowing what the role the brand has to play, knowing the way that people then buy this brand? What are we doing?

Well we are we doing it badly. Yeah? Doing it well and we saw something badly. Now I am simplifying and in the book that I started earlier on that I heard this thing happen there is a whole chapter there where there are much, much more points but I am just trying to bring the thing to life. So I have now got a three I now got a three component model.

Male3: But what you are doing across all three of those so far is you are taking alignment aren’t you.

Male1: That is the end of the day. That is the end of the day where there is a misfit—where there is a misfit coming through.