Brand Heritage - Oh the good old days!
Friday, 5 November 2010
Brand Heritage
Dark financial clouds have been blighting our horizon for a good
couple of years now and with the lightning cuts striking down all
around us, it seems fairly certain that the skies won't be clearing
anytime soon. All the doom and gloom has got me pining after
happier days and I've increasingly been reminiscing back to times
of simplicity, smiles and stability. Fortunately whenever I turn on
the TV I'm greeted by an army of nostalgic adverts that help me on
my way. I see the nice Fairy house wife doing the washing up in
black and white and my troubles are alleviated for a few seconds. I
grab my empty bottle from the kitchen to build a Blue Peter space
ship with Pritt Stick and tin foil and run around the house making
whooshing noises in a fit of past glory. (Alright, I don't actually
do that, but I think about it.)
After taking a moment to compose myself I realise how
intoxicated I was by this glimpse of the past, the mere sight of a
product from my childhood exciting so much enthusiasm. This is the
power given to a brand by the long standing relationship it has
developed with consumers and our idealisation of the past. Some
brands have been present through my whole life and even generations
before me, they have been passed on to me with the assurance that
they've served my parents and grandparents well. Whether or not the
product, or life in general, was better when I was young is
irrelevant - it was a simpler, happier time, a time of cheer and no
bank statements, and the current resurgence of old style adverts
whisk me back to that carefree place.
Some brands go a step further from mere nostalgia and push the
notion of overcoming adversity. The award winning 2008 Hovis advert
shows a boy running through streets with a fresh loaf, passing
through historic events that include two world wars and the miners'
strikes. Here, the advert not only plays on the heritage of the
brand both in the theme of the advert and the long history of the
product, it also shows that the relationship between consumer and
brand has endured through even the most difficult of times. It's
almost a 'we're in this together' message, times are tight now but
we've got through it before and we will again.
In such difficult financial climates it is the emotional
relationship that brands can share with customers that really gives
them an edge. A brand comes to embody certain values that consumers
can identify with, they trust in those values and increasingly look
to them in times of uncertainty - making a reliable brand heritage
a powerful tool indeed. Heritage is expressed as part of the brands
narrative; the story that exists in the mind of the customer of how
the brand has featured in their own lives. Nostalgic montages help
define this narrative and, using clips that lead up to the present,
demonstrate why the values associated with the brand are still
important today.
The narrative or values of a brand go beyond the product itself
and create a fuller degree of character to relate to. Baileys Irish
Cream for example is second only to Guinness (and maybe whiskey) as
a quintessential Irish drink, of the three it's the most appealing
to women and it's the top selling liquor brand in the world. Its
name, Celtic symbols and rolling green fields point to a
traditional past that is unmistakably Irish.
However, unlike Guinness with its 250 year history in the heart
of Dublin, Baileys was the invention of a multinational drinks
group in 1978 who borrowed the name from the Baileys Hotel that was
outside their boardroom window in London. The name RA Baileys which
is signed on every bottle is a marketing fiction that creates the
appropriate feeling to fit the brands narrative: a self made man
who made a drink that has become a symbol of Irishness, much like
Arthur for Guinness. The fact that their alluded history is false
is inconsequential compared to the relationship it cultivates with
consumers; they have a narrative which identifies the brand clearly
in their minds, as brandchannel.com note "Whether the story is made
up, or rooted in fact, is beside the point. Like a fable in
folklore, what matters is that the brand's mythology has the power
to intrigue and to draw people in."
It's for these reasons that rebranding or a change in image can
cause such anger in customers. After years of using a brand in
everyday life we're emotionally invested in them, we think we know
what they're about. If they change into something that doesn't fit
our perception of them, if they alter from the values we associate
with them, then we feel betrayed. The loyalty and respect that's
been nurtured over time demands that the new image takes the heart
of the old one with it.
Whereas the difficulty for some brands with an established
heritage is to demonstrate they still have a part to play in
consumers' lives, for technology brands that are pushing consumers
on to the future the challenge is to maintain a link to their past.
The solution for brands like Sony has been to link new capabilities
with new ways of capturing memories, visual memories being the most
powerful connection to our history. In this way the sharing of
memories creates a link between past, present and future, thus
maintaining the narrative of the brand. By highlighting how the
latest technology will improve your emotional life, the brand finds
its place in the consumer's own narrative and cements the bond with
the customer.
Brand heritage has to be earned by building a successful
relationship with customers over a prolonged period, but once it
has been established it becomes a very handy rock to fall back on,
especially when the financial forecast makes people more cautious
in their choices. It should be respected by brands and customers
alike, for the relationship we share says as much about ourselves
as the products we buy: "When we pick a brand, what we're really
doing is picking an element of ourselves that reinforces who we
are" Tom Dougherty - Brand Strategist & CEO of Stealing Share.
So if you remember the good times and remember the brands you used,
give some thought to the role they've played in your life and you
might be able to unlock the huge benefits that brand heritage can
offer.
Rob McCorquodale
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