Guess what? Heathrow T5, "The home of Bristish Airways" has no business lounge facilities in Satellite C ...
Guess who is advertising their lounge facilities in T5C, taking advantage of any negative centiment amongst business travellers towards BA?
Sadly I agree, "Your airline's either got it or it hasn't" ...
Back in the Spring of 2008, Citroën UK ran their Unmistakeably German advertising campaign to support the launch of the C5. The premise of the campaign being that the build quality of the C5 could only have be achieved by a German company. The aim was to overcome the negative perception of Citroën build quality, amongst UK consumers.
Now prepare for a little role reversal, as Volkswagon attempt to use German born designer Karl Lagerfeld and the perception of Parisian chic to sell the new Polo STYLE, which is only available in Germany ...
In a 32 second TV spot, fashion icon Lagerfeld believes that his two new "very elegant" super models will be the toast of Paris, only to be told they are only available in Germany!
Upon hearing the news Lagerfeld exlaims: "Was! Nur in Deutschland?" (What! Just in Germany?)
Looking discussed He follows up with: "Deutschland ... diese Modelle gehören nach Paris!" (Germany ... these models belong in Paris!)
... just like Karl Lagerfeld himself!
For a few weeks now, our SugarSync service, has not been working. (See, "Sync with added sweetness"). This might seem a strange point, to start a brief blog on branding; however there are two reasons, why we are taking the time to comment ...
PRODUCT: Its only when we had the service stop working, that we realised, the true benefit of SugarSync. Having to go back to using USB memory sticks and external hard drives to sync data between PCs, compared to the simplicity of the service, was areal reminder of the true power of the service.
BRANDING: If behaviour is branding, then their Customer Service team are delivering the SugarSync brand, as surely as the Marketing team, with their approach to Blogging, PR etc.
Having used many email or Internet only customer support services and gotten used to the slow, faceless, indifferent support, the team at SugarSync stand out from the crowd. They have managed to turn a potentially faceless customer services route into a positive experience.
A special mention goes to Burhan, the CS Marvel, who resolved our issue ... thank you.
** For the sceptics ... SugarSync is not a client of Light the Fuse **
Citroën, have a big problem ...
Despite being part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group, the worlds 5th largest* Motor Vehicle producer, they have a problem when it comes to customer satisfaction and perception of product quality.
In a recent UK survey**, Citroën were ranked 33rd, of 35 car manufacturers, for customer satisfaction. In the same survey, the two other mass market French brands, Renault and Peugeot, were ranked 34th and 35th respectively. In the UK, being a French car brand, is not necessarily seen as a good thing.
Citroën UK, have come up with an interesting solution to this problem, for the launch of the new C5 ... exploit the positive attributes associated with the same product, manufactured in another country. In this case, the quality and performance of German cars.
The Citroën UK, "Unmistakeably German" campaign, ( TV commercial and Website ), uses a cliché of German culture, through imagery, ( the German Count, the Bavarian Alps, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Olympic Stadium ) and a stirring, Ride of the Valkyries sound track, to link these positive German attributes to the C5.
Other elements of the campaign, offer a more humorous but direct approach, to forging this link:
The Advertising elements of the campaign are beautifully constructed, however the PR and Experiential elements of the campaign, also have a significant role to play. Product reviews will undoubtedly focus on the "Unmistakeably German" claim. Ultimately, however, it is only through experiencing the quality of the product, through events such as Ride & Drive and the business as usual showroom test drives, that potential buyers will be persuaded, that the car is, "unmistakeably German".
Geographic & Cultural Considerations.
Although the exploitation of positive cultural attributes, is often used in product positioning and brand development, such attempts are usually made, based upon the origins of the product or brand. As such, these activities can translate between different cultures and geographies. A classic example is the exploitation of attributes associated with Switzerland and Swiss Made, in the watch market.
In the case of the Citroën C5 campaign, such an approach will not translate across territories. The concept itself will not work in France, as it acts as a denial of their French heritage. Nor would it work in Germany. This failure is not due to the German stereotype in the execution, but due to the cultural pride in German engineering excellence. A more obvious analogy, would be marketing English wine in France, with the strap line "Unmistakeably French, *made in England". The French psyche, with its belief in the superiority of their wine making heritage, is simply not going to buy-in, to this claim.
This view is re-enforced by the different campaigns that have been used to launch the C5 in both France and Germany. Both of these campaigns, are more traditional, emphasising style, rather than quality, through the strap lines, "Distinguez-vous" ("Distinguish yourself") and "mehr Stil für die Straße" ("More style for the street").
Unmistakeably ...
For a fiercely proud French brand, this is a brave attempt to overcome their customer satisfaction issues. However, the impact on the remainder of the Citroën range must also be considered. If the the C5 is singled out as being "Unmistakeably German", is the rest of the range unmistakeably ...
.
Sources:
* Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d' Automobiles (OICA) Correspondents survey 2006. Published - July 2007.
** Top Gear Survey 2006. Published - February 2007
When Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best merged their respective companies in 1925, to form The Caterpillar Tractor Co., would either of them have believed that at the beginning of the 21st Century, the Caterpillar brand, would also be used on a range of footwear and subsequently clothing?
The leap from tracked diggers & dumper trucks to boots is a remarkable extension of the brand, but it both makes sense and works. It does so, because of the transferable values of the master brand and strong consumer associations with the values of durability and toughness.
As a growth strategy, extending a brand into new product categories is an obvious candidate for consideration; however such a strategy is not always feasible, either for financial or brand reasons. In such cases, businesses may chose to collaborate with another brand, leveraging their respective strengths for mutual benefit. Numerous examples exist within the Automotive Industry, of such collaborations, at both a Design and Functional level.
The relationship between Peugeot and Pininfarina, is a powerful example of Design collaboration, used to enhance a product proposition. Their relationship dates back many years, but in our view, reach a pinnacle, with the launch of the Peugeot 406 Coupe, in 1997. Designed by Pininfarina, the 406 Coupe used many of the styling cues, from Pininfarina’s work on Ferrari’s road cars. As well as winning numerous design awards, the 406 Coupe, benefited from the positioning it generated as “the poor mans Ferrari”.
Functional collaboration in the Automotive Industry, usually focuses on performance enhancement and results in such vehicles as the Vauxhall - Lotus Carlton (otherwise know in mainland Europe as the Opel - Lotus Omega), and more recently the Mercedes - McLaren SLR. The sport/racing brand usually provides the knowledge and technology necessary, to implement significant performance enhancements, in the vehicle of the volume manufacturer. This kind of relationship has potential positive effects for both brands:
As the telecommunications market matures and businesses look for growth strategies, we are beginning to see similar behaviours amongst handset vendors. Existing players are beginning to collaborate with non telecommunications brands, in order to sub segment their product offering or strengthen their proposition. We are also seeing the first attempts by brands, without consumer electronics backgrounds, at entering the market. As in the Automotive Industry, these are driven by Design and Functional oriented product developments.
The Mobile Fashion Statement: As penetration rates rise, we are seeing a trend amongst some segments towards a more fashion oriented mobile phone purchase. This trend was first exploited by the introduction of “pink” phones. As consumers become more sophisticated in their choices, the trend is starting to be further exploited through a number of high profile collaborations between handset vendors and fashion brands, i.e., Motorola - Dolche &Gabbana; Nokia – Kath Kidston; Samsung – Ted Baker; LG – Prada. Although these collaborations have been successful in driving sales of handsets, the brand impact is usually biased towards the fashion partner. For example nobody refers to the LG Prada HE850, as it is invariably known as the “the Prada Phone”. Indeed when journalists write about the fashion phone market, they talk about Prada, Ted Baker and D&G having launched phones.
Possibly the weakest example of design collaboration, we have seen to date, is the Fly – Hummer HT1. In our view this collaboration fails to deliver for three reasons:
This may explain why Fly Mobile, does not market the HT1 in the UK, instead focussing on Russia, India and other developing markets.
Interestingly Levi, soon to be followed by Tag Heuer, has taken the brand extension route, as opposed to collaboration, licensing their brand to Modelabs of France. The launch of an own brand series of products, means they take all the brand risk themselves.
The Mobile Function Statement: In our view, the most exciting developments have been in the cross over of brands into the telecommunications market, based upon brand equity in their core market, which deliver significant functional benefits in the telecommunications market.
Amongst the major handset vendors, Sony-Ericsson has focused on this functional brand extension, choosing to utilise the Sony Walkman and Cybershot brands, in order to strengthen their music and camera phone proposition. This in our view is an unsurprising winning formula, given the shared Sony heritage. There are however, two less obvious examples that are worth considering.
Nokia addressed initial consumer scepticism over camera phones and perceptions of poor image, via its collaboration with Carl Zeiss. The image quality of digital cameras is as much a function of the optics as it is the sensor. Nokia’s collaboration with Carl Zeiss, which results in the incorporation of high quality optics in their high end camera phones, immediately positions Nokia camera phones as high quality serious photography products. It also had the side effect of diluting Sony Ericsson Cybershot camera phone launch. Carl Zeiss optics is an integral element of the Cybershot proposition that could not be transferred to mobile, because of the nature of the Nokia deal.
The JCB ToughphoneTM, which extends the JCB brand into the mobile market, is one of the most exciting announcements to date. Not because it will deliver large volumes, as the target market is relatively niche, but because it is an excellent example of how a brand has transferred values between product categories. The phone aimed at Construction Workers (and Extreme Sports Enthusiasts), incorporates a number of features and benefits, such as 3 year warranty, which show that JCB have truly thought about the extension of the brand, the transfer of values and their impact on the product proposition in the new category.
Regardless of whether it is extension or collaboration that is used as the growth or entry strategy in the telecommunications market, there are a number of important considerations:
1. Transfer of Values: As consumers become more sophisticated, it will no longer be possible to simply airbrush a brand name to a product and automatically expect success. Success or otherwise, of the activity will depend upon the ability to transfer values with a strong consumer association into the product. Whether it is a Design or Functional based approach, this will depend upon the influence the respective brands have over the design of the product, whether the brand equity can be transferred during the design process and ultimately the appropriateness of the overall proposition for the audience being targeted.
2. Its still a mobile phone: It is not enough just to transfer values with strong consumer association. The resulting handset and accessories must be functional, easy to use, and of high quality. Without these three core deliverables the parent brand is prone to damage. The approach adopted by Bang & Olufsen, for the launch of its own brand of mobile phones, is interesting, in that, they made no effort to hide that Samsung were the providers of the mobile phone technology, while they focussed on their historic strengths of design, interface and acoustics.
3. Distribution: The main benefit of brand collaboration, as a market entry strategy, especially with an established handset vendor, is that there are automatic benefits in accessing an established distribution network. The issues facing the likes of JCB, Levi and Tag Heuer, are the difficulties in developing a distribution network appropriate to their brand and the product category.
Whether it is collaboration or extension, consideration needs to be given to the potential impact. Failure may result in significant harm to the master brand, potentially effecting perception in its core markets. Success, however, could provide fresh impetus to a brand, as seen with Sony Walkman.
