Brands of Influence

The Globe and Mail featured an article (Jan. 31, 2014) containing results of an annual list of influential brands as released by Ipsos Reid.

Roughly 5,000 Canadians are surveyed and asked branding questions about a brand’s trustworthiness and innovation, and whether it plays a central role in those consumers’ lives (presence; corporate citizenship; and engagement).

Included in the Top 10 Most Influential Brands in Canada, according to Ipsos Reid, were:

Google

Facebook

Microsoft

Apple

Visa

Tim Hortons

YouTube

President’s Choice

Walmart

MasterCard

President’s Choice and MasterCard were both new to the top 10 this year.  Other fast-growing brands included Netflix, Hudson’s Bay Company, and McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada.

Interesting differences were seen in how the genders, generations and regions view brands.  The Millennial generations love YouTube, Pinterest and Netflix, while Gen Xers find The Weather Network as more influential than their Boomer or Millennial counterparts.  Among iconic Canadian brands, Tim Hortons is very influential in Ontario, while the CBC ranks particularly high among men, Boomers, and those from Quebec and the Maritimes.

In 2013, the Most Influential Brands study was also conducted in 15 other countries to find the most influential brands in the world, including the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Australia, China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Easy as X-Y-Z

By Wendy J. Miller

The basics of marketing are simple. Take a product or service, which we’ll call X. Anticipate what potential consumers want, Y. Align X with a promise to deliver Y to produce the client’s goal, Z – be it trial, positive perception, or brand loyalty. Repeat.  Here’s the rub: to be successful, the formula needs to ring true in reverse too: product/service X + trial/perception/loyalty Z needs to deliver on brand promise Y.

The formula works wonders with concrete brand promises, which marketers make when a product is different in a meaningful way from its competitors. For example, Apple makes a new computer. Recognizing consumers’ frustrations with their PC’s knack for crashing, Mac creates a series of ads poking fun at its counterpart’s inadequacies. The message resonates with Steve, so he goes and buys an iMac. It doesn’t crash. Steve tells his friends. Some, encouraged by his testimonial, buy one too, and tell their friends. The story practically writes itself, especially advertising supports what you friend has already told you.  It’s a “true” confirmation of the message you need/want to hear.

But when a product is materially similar to its competitors’ (like in the soft drink industry), marketers often need to make intangible brand promises to differentiate the offering. Ultimately, their goal is to link their brand with a highly desired feeling or esteemed value so that consumers have something to buy into – a perceived reason to favour one product over another.

In the past, this has been accomplished this through traditional advertising. For example, Coca-Cola has been selling “happiness” for decades through cinematics.  First there was “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” (and, of course, that would lead to world peace) and now there’s “Open Happiness” which continues to market Coke to the world.  But these days, people are much more media savvy and reluctant to drink the corporate Kool-Aid, er, Coke. 

So rather than just tell consumers through traditional media that Coke is happiness, Coca-Cola has begun to show consumers how great Coke-flavoured happiness can be by bringing it to real people, and then sharing it with others through social media as a form of brand testimonial.  This act makes an abstract brand concept more concrete, more tangible, more real.

Does it make everyone want to run out and buy a Coke? Probably not. But that’s not what it aims to do. It is intended to increase positive perception about the drink and support its brand promise – happiness – so that you, and your friends, can share a global feel good moment, courtesy of Coca-Cola.