Marketing Strategy : The Art of Brand Laddering

The Art of Brand Laddering

This article was Originally Published Here at Adclubbombay.com

Raymond makes you a Complete Man, Bournvita makes you Confident, Fiama Di Wills makes you Beautiful Today, Tomorrow, Nike asks you to Just Do It and Eating Parle-G makes you a Genius!!!

Welcome to the world of brand laddering. …

Brand laddering off late is the most sought after strategy in the Indian marketing space. Brand laddering involves positioning of a brand from common product attributes to more abstract values or concepts. Its moving from a focus from product attributes to brand benefits.

One of the Indian brands which have successfully undertook brand laddering is Raymond. Raymond’s is now positioned on a more abstract benefit ( Complete Man) rather than the product /functional attributes of clothing like fashion, texture, quality etc.

From product attributes to higher values involves a series of stages. Marketers have to be careful while trying to position their brands on higher abstract concepts.

The first stage of laddering is establishing the brand’s association with product attributes. Attributes are the physical properties of the product that in turn will deliver the desired benefits to the consumer.

When a brand is launched, the focus of the marketer will be to establish the product attributes. The task is to establish category membership and also to achieve parity with competitors on functional performance.

For example, textile brands will be trying to convince the customer about their product properties like texture, colours, quality etc. For a TV marketer, the focus will be on features like clarity, sound quality, technology etc. For example Sony Bravia is now focusing on its 2 million Bravia Pixels for establishing itself as a leader in the emerging LCD TV market. Automotive marketers concentrate on the product features and attributes while launching its brands into the market.

Once these attributes are firmly established in the mind of the consumer, the brand moves into the next step in the laddering process .This stage involves positioning the brand on product benefits. Here the brand moves from a functional focus to the benefit focus. Maggi Noodles had built its brand based on its product qualities like “easy to cook “and taste. Later the brand repositioned itself on the health platform.The latest tagline of Maggi – Taste Bhi, Health Bhi, takes the brand from attributes focus to benefit positioning.

The most critical stage of laddering process is to associate the brand to abstract benefits. Abstract benefits are conceptual benefits which focus on a deeper need of consumers much above the product benefits. Often these abstract benefits are aspirational in nature.

Brands over a period of time try to move from a basic benefit based positioning to a more abstract benefit. While comfort is a benefit, being a complete man is an abstract benefit. Airtel is about Expressing Yourself. This is an abstract benefit that the cellular service provider tries to position itself on. Fair & Lovely when launched concentrated on its functional benefit of “fairness” during its initial stage of brand building. Over a period of time, the brand has laddered up to the abstract concept of confidence and women empowerment.

Abstract benefits helps increase the aspirational value to the brand. It also helps the brand to extend itself into related categories since its positioning is no more conceptual and not limited by any functional attributes of a product.

The final stage in the laddering process is where the brand becomes synonymous with the abstract benefit. This is a level where the brand personifies abstract benefit. Johnson & Johnson is synonymous with mother – child relationship. Over these years, the brand has established itself by positioning on this abstract concept. In theory, this is referred to as Brand Essence.

Brand laddering helps a marketer in many ways. The most important benefit is that abstract attributes gives more flexibility to the brand. It takes the brand away from the most basic attributes so that marketers can experiment with various communication themes. Abstract benefits also give the brand to be more creative in its campaigns. Raymond’s was able to create highly popular campaigns because it focuses on an aspirational benefit of “Completeness”. Raymond’s can create new stories about a complete man which would not have been possible of a brand focusing on functional attributes.

The fundamental objective of brand laddering is to create icons. Iconic brands are that which truly represents or personifies aspirational values. Nike personifies authentic athleticism and Harley Davidson is synonymous with masculinity, free spirit and rebelliousness.

Although laddering is a sexy marketing strategy, it requires certain preparation for successful execution. The laddering will be successful only if the brand is able to establish its association with functional attributes. If a brand tries to ladder up without establishing its functional expertise, consumers may not believe in the brand’s claim. . The highly acclaimed “ Dirt is Good “ campaign of Surf is a successful brand laddering exercise because it was done after establishing its functional expertise. The brand should first establish its Points of Parity (POP) with its competitors in terms of performance. Only then, the laddering will be accepted by the consumers.

Another important condition is the abstract attribute should be relevant to the brand. For example, Nike and Athletics performance go hand in hand. Bournvita and confidence have obvious connection. Dove and Beauty are connected with each other.

Before venturing into a laddering exercise, the marketer has to decide on the brand essence. The abstract benefit should be carefully chosen because there is going to be a long term association often a permanent one.

Usually laddering is done on a benefit derived out if the core brand mantra. Brand mantra is the core DNA of the brand. It is what the brand stands for. And like DNA, brand’s mantra also remains constant. Choosing the right Brand Mantra enables the brand to ladder up effectively.

Even after a successful laddering exercise, a brand should not leave its focus on functional attributes. Sometimes, the brand should do a laddering down exercise to reinforce its association with functional attributes. This could be done by parallel campaigns focusing on functional attributes. This laddering down should be done if there is a change in consumer’s perception or if the competitors launch an innovative feature. In such a scenario, the brand should reinforce its functional expertise to the consumers.

Go Cheese : From 100% Cow's Milk

Brand : Go

Company : Gowardhan Dairy ( Parag Milk Foods)

Ad Agency : Scion Brand Incubation

Brand Analysis Count : 444

GO is the new brand of Cheese from Gowardhan Dairy which is a part of Pune based Parag Milk Foods. Gowardhan Dairy is one of the largest players in the dairy market in India. The company owns India's largest cow farm and also has constructed Asia's largest cheese plant near Pune.

GO cheese brand is the company's venture into the value added product category. The Indian cheese market, although in a nascent market stage ,having a market size of about Rs 2000 crore is dominated by brands like Amul, Britannia, Mother Dairy etc.

GO cheese has entered a market which is growing at around 20% p.a. But the market is dominated by established players on one side while there is a large unorganized market on the other side.

GO Cheese in now running the launch campaign in various channels.

Watch the ad here : Go Cheese

GO cheese is positioned on the basis of the attribute that it is made from 100% cow's milk. The ads are really good and infact I thought GO is an international brand. More than the 100% milk factor, what is more striking about GO cheese is its packaging.

GO cheese has took packaging very seriously and it will be one of the brand elements that is going to help the brand with lot of customer trials. The packaging looks international and the wedge shaped Cheese pack SKU is appealing to kids and will help the brand get lot of customer trials. It is good to see lot of Indian brands utilizing the potential of packaging in their branding efforts.

Besides the smart packaging and interesting communication, GO brand also has a brand mascot - the cow. The mascot ( although the name is not mentioned anywhere) is shown in the pack and reinforces the positioning of 100% cow's milk.

The 100% cow's milk positioning is a good strategy but not new. Infact Amul used the same positioning for its icecream product range. The problem with 100% cow's milk is that competitors can easily copy the USP and hence negate the point of difference created by GO Cheese. If Amul or Britannia starts showing that their cheese is also made from 100 % cow's milk, GO Cheese may lose its USP.

Hence GO Cheese either needs to OWN up this platform or find another USP which could be sustainable over time. GO can only own this positioning through heavy ad spends reinforcing the consumers about their claim. I am not sure whether the brand can spend that much on the promotions . Another way is to create an ingredient brand which can own up the 100 cow's milk proposition . How ever , the brand needs to protect this proposition from the competitors.

There is always a space for new brands in the large untapped Dairy market in India. GO is in the right position to create a space for itself. There are larger issues to consider like the distribution reach and supply chain management. Cheese is a perishable item and needs a very strong supply chain set up if the brand wants to create a national impact.The brand's task will be to get the distribution and logistics correct and ensure enough retail support for the brand. The brand is expected to go on a phased approach while catering to a large market like India. Even Amul is finding it difficult to get its distribution right in many markets. For example, in my city Cochin, Amul dairy product's distribution is erratic with the products not available in many retail outlets. I hope that GO will go after volume only after setting up a strong distribution reach across the markets.

Marketing Strategy : Executing Marketing Strategies

Executing Marketing Strategies

Originally Published in Adclubbombay.com

Although lot of research and writing is being done on formulation of marketing strategies, little has been said about execution of those marketing strategies. Many problems arise when the marketer fail to properly execute strategies in the market place. It is said that 70-80% of new product launches fail in the market. Most of them fail not because of lack of strategies but because of poor implementation.

For example, most of the Customer –Relationship programs fail at the implementation stage where the program gets morphed into a crude form of database marketing.

Poor implementation of marketing strategies can either dilute the effectiveness or can accelerate failure faster. Unlike other functional areas like finance or production, marketing implementation is external in nature. Take the case of advertising or personal selling, the implementation happens outside the organization. The parties involved in the implementation process are also external. Marketing implementation also requires co-ordination with various other functions like production, finance human resources etc. Hence managing implementation becomes both complex and critical.

For example, when the management decides to cut production costs, the implementation remains largely simple because it is internal. But a decision to reduce marketing expenses will have far reaching effects on various stakeholders like channel members, advertising agencies, media, sales personnel and customer.

There are lot of factors that marketers should focus in order to ensure proper implementation. Most often, implementation is confused with control. While control is of utmost importance, it only helps to correct deviations from the standards. Implementation is more than control. Implementation is about skills, communication, teamwork and culture.

Skills

Marketers tend to focus on systems and process for effective implementation forgetting the human side of implementation. Process orientation alone is not sufficient in marketing implementation because the implementation environment is dynamic in nature. In order to make perfect execution of marketing strategies, one has to look at the skill set of the managers who are in charge of implementation.

Harvard Business School Professor Thomas V Bonoma in a 1984 Harvard Business Review article ‘Making your marketing strategy work ‘identified four critical skills for effective implementation. They are

Interaction skills : Providing leadership to the team and communicating

Allocation skills: Allocating right resources to the right team at right time.

Monitoring skills: Controlling and monitoring on a continuous basis

Organising.skills: Identifying and organising resources and creating an execution culture.

These human skills are a necessary condition for marketing strategy programs to work. In most of the marketing organizations, the implementation is the responsibility of the middle-level managers. Hence it is important that these managers are having execution skills for implementing the marketing strategy.

While implementing strategies, firm must take an objective view of its implementation capabilities of its managers before venturing into execution. It also has to see whether the managers have the ability and the authority to interact, allocate, monitor and organize the necessary resources to execute.

Communication

Most of the implementations fail because of lack of communication between the planners and the implementers. Marketing plan should be treated as an execution manual and the implementers should be able to understand the essence of the strategy.

Lot of miss-selling happen because the sales staffs are not aware of the wider implication of the strategy. For example, if a service firm is moving towards customer orientation, the front-office personnel should be able to understand the relevance of their action in realizing the overall marketing plan. Recently a reputed car dealer was telling me that he knew about the recent price cut through newspaper and not from company sources.

It is also important to encourage communication flow from the external stakeholders like customers and channel partners to the top level executives. Often, these communications do not reach the senior management. Feedback sessions and other communication channels should be tapped in order to make sure that the management gets the real time feedback from the market.

Internal Marketing.

Employees are also a vital element in your implementation plan. In an organization, it is important that the implementation team is also aware about their role in the marketing plan.

This is especially important in the sales management perspective. The quality of customers and the quality of presentation will have a great impact on the success of marketing implementation. The recent sub-prime crisis is a classic example of a failure of proper implementation. While the strategic plan envisages acquisitions of quality assets, the implementation team went after poor quality assets.

Managers must device new communication channels to connect with the internal partners. Companies extensively use internal chat forums and blogs to keep talking to the lower layers of the team.

It is also important to get the commitment of the implementation team for the flawless execution of the marketing strategy. Employees tend to perform better if they realise the relevance of their role in the overall strategic vision of the firm.

Marriott International is famous for its exceptional customer service. The staffs of the hotel called as Marriott Associates represent a remarkable example of commitment and initiative. Once, a very young guest left her favourite Teddy Bear in the hotel while checking out. The staff found the teddy and safely returned it to her home .Although this sounds trivial, it made a big difference to that little guest. This happened because of the commitment of Marriott Associates to take customer service excellence to perfection. No where in the service manual, we could have a process or a budget allocation for such acts. These acts should come from the employees themselves.

Culture

It is important to create a culture of execution in the organization. This has to be consciously created and not to be hoped for. For creating a culture, it is important to have the involvement of top management. Execution oriented culture can be developed by encouraging team members to perform without worrying about failure. One of the biggest resistances to change is the fear of failure. This fear causes managers to tread cautiously.

Organizations should encourage the marketing implementers to fearlessly execute their tactics. This could be done by bringing in transparency, encouraging communication and clearly spelling out the deliverables.

FfUuNn : Full Marks + Fun

Brand : FfUuNn

Company : Navneet Publications

Ad Agency : Euro Rscg

Brand Analysis Count : 443

FfUuNn is a brand of non-paper stationery products from the publication major Navneet Publications. Navneet is a well known brand in the publications field. The company which formed in 1959 , soon emerged as a major player in the educational books in the Indian market. Later in 1993,the company diversified into paper stationery market through products like notebooks, long books etc.

Ffunn ( Fun) brand launched in 2006 was Navneet's foray into the non-paper stationery products. The brand has gained lot of ground in the last four years.

The Indian stationery market including notebooks , printer/copier papers, scholastic products like geometry boxes , pencil boxes, erasers etc is worth around Rs 10,000 crores ( source). The notebook/paper stationery market is worth around Rs 4500 crore.

Business line gives another set of numbers for the Indian stationery market as on 2007. According to Business Line , the stationery market can be divided into different categories with the following market sizes -

Files and Folders - Rs 220 crores

Writing Instruments - Rs 1215 crores

Desktop Accessories - Rs 90 crores

Glues, Adhesives, tapes etc - Rs 260 crores

Computer Consumables - Rs 1700 crore

The non-paper stationery market is estimated to be around Rs 1500 crores in 2007.

The non-paper stationery market is dominated by brands like Camlin . Natraj is a famous brand in the pencils segment. It is in this market that Navneet launched the Fun brand.

Although the size of the Indian non-paper stationery market is large. , the per unit sales per consumer will be low. Consumers may not buying a pack of pencils but one or two. Since the per unit price is also low, consumers are not that brand loyal and the key is to have the distribution reach and channel support. Brands like Camlin has a generic status in the various categories within this market.

For a challenger brand like Ffun, the brand must own a larger share of mind in the consumer. The brand should also have a fair share of voice inorder to achieve this share of mind. Navneet was investing heavily in building the brand. The brand broke into the market with some smart campaigns.

The best thing that Navneet has done for the non-paper stationery entry was to create a new brand for the category. Navneet could have chosen to extend the corporate brand ( Navneet) into this market hoping to extract the equity of Navneet. Instead, the company took a bold and wise decision to create a new brand.

The next smart act was the selection of the brand name. Navneet was wise enough to choose a brand name which appeal to the target segment ie kids. To take a name such as " FUN " creates a huge leverage interms of brand promotion and communication. The brand created some uniqueness to the brand by coining the brand name as FfUuNn.

The brand interprets itself as Full Marks + Fun. That explains the rather unique name spelling. By combining two important attributes like Fun and Study, FfuUNn created one of the best positioning platforms in the category. Although it sounds good, integrating the two divergent concepts like Fun and Study is not easy.
Luckily for the brand, the agency created some smart campaigns for FfUuNn and the brand had a very very good start in the market.

Watch the campaigns here : Fun Giraffe Fun Sea

Fun is now category brand of Navneet under which the entire range of stationery products are launched . The brand launched its range of colors, erasers, sharpeners and whole lot of products in the category. Again for colors, the brand came out with some very good commercials. Watch it here : Fun colors 1,Fun colors 2 .

FfUuNn is a good brand with some good brand properties. The communication also supports the brand's core positioning. The brand virtually has all the marketing mixes going right for them . It will be interesting to see how this brand going to shake up the stationery market.

Brand Update : Perk

Perk has gone in for a makeover. Cadbury has launched the new Perk with Glucose Energy. According to the company website, this is the first time that a chocolate brand from the company has come out with glucose energy. The brand is running a campaign announcing its new avatar.

Watch the TVC here : Perk with Glucose Energy

When I first saw the ad, I took it just as another line extension by the brand. But was really surprised at the news report suggesting the new product as a relaunch of the original Perk. Infact DNA reports that the original Perk will be phased out soon ( Source).

The reports are little vague as to whether the Perk with Glucose Energy is the New Avatar of Perk or a line extension.

If the report of relaunch is true then it is a big change for the brand. The entire brand personality is changed and frankly I am upset.

Perk always had a charm and its persona of a bubbly youthful brand was always there since its launch in 1996. Priety Zinta is still remembered along with the brand. But the new face of the Perk is entirely opposite to the brand's current image.

According to the company version, the new Perk is targeting the youth 14-18 year olds which are looking for a snack which is refreshing. The new launch is the result of a study conducted by the company which showed that youth prefers a tasty snack which also refreshed them ( source).

In my personal opinion, the relaunch campaign is a big let down. When I saw it the first time, I mistook it for some telecom ad - with all the usual stuff of a young man doing lots of stuff, trying hard , loved by all etc. But was surprised to find that it was an ad for Perk. Disgusted after finding that it is a relaunch ad.

The new campaign just poured cold water on the entire positioning of the brand. The brand lost is bubbly , cool , irreverent character and instead acquired an uncool, rational , conforming kind of a personality. Today's youth prefers those personalities who takes things easy, without effort accomplishing tasks and enjoying life Bindaass.. But the main character seems to be taking lot of efforts which just killed the brand's established persona.

The brand also has changed the packaging color. The new tagline of Perk is " Sapno se race kar le" roughly translated to " Race with your dreams " which I think may miss the mark with the young crowd. I still miss the magic that this brand brought about in its earlier campaigns. The last campaign of " Take it Lightly " was also a smart move of the brand. But the current relaunch is too off mark.

Having said that Perk has already an established equity which will prompt customers to reach for this brand. The new Perk is priced attractively and the " Glucose " factor will entice many consumers to buy this brand. Despite all these campaign, both Perk and Kitkat were not able to create any significant growth for the wafer based confectionery in the Indian market. This category still remains in the periphery of the larger market of confectioneries

Perk has changed for better or worse, the sales figures will say. But on a branding perspective, the brand just started dying..

Another thought ... what about Ulta Perk ???

All my above criticisms are based on the assumption that Perk has been relaunched and the older Perk is being laid to rest. If the new Perk with Glucose Energy is a line extension and the older Perk is going to remain in the market, then it is just a new product line extension with a lousy campaign.

Related Brand

Perk

Brand Update : Alpenliebe

Yet again another subbrand taking a personality on its own. The brand in question is Creamfills Alpenliebe. The brand launched as a subbrand is now famous because of some smart creatives.

Creamfills Alpenliebe was launched in 2006 specifically for the Indian market. The product idea and the brand name was devised in India. The brand became a huge success and is now exported to China , Poland and other countries ( Source).

Creamfills Alpenliebe although a candy is a different product when compared to Alpenliebe. While Alpenliebe is a hard candy, Creamfills comes with a creamy core.

The brand came into limelight with some very smart advertisements. One such campaign I like was the " Daddy Khar Main " ad

Watch the ad here : Creamfills Daddy ad

The ad smartly communicated the core positioning of the brand. Creamfills is positioned as a candy with a " surprise cream core " inside. The ad had the tagline " Kuch Alag Achanak " translated to "Suddenly Something surprising ". The brand uses the " Surprise " angle to convey the creamy core of the product. The ad was a big hit so was the product.

Last year, Creamfills launched another campaign . The ad was one of the best I saw in recent times.

Watch the ad here : Creamfills Lions Ad

Like the earlier ad, the new TVC reinforced the positioning of the brand of the surprise core. The ad seems to be expensive but worth all the money spent on the animation. ( read an interesting story about the tvc here).

What I liked about the ad most is that it is never boring. I have watched it many times but still it is enjoyable and the message is conveyed spot on.This brand is an example of the power of a good idea backed by smart creative execution.

The natural question that comes to my mind is whether Perfetti missed the opportunity to create a new brand rather than launching a sub-brand of Alpenliebe. Creamfills shares most of the brand elements of Alpenliebe like the color of packaging . But the positioning of Creamfills is entirely different from that of Alpenliebe. Although the parent Alpenliebe brand is not going to be significantly affected by this different positioning, I feel that Perfetti could have given Creamfills an independent role rather than being tied up to another brand.

Related Brand

Alpenliebe