1.

Brand Essence - a way of summing up the significance of the brand to stockholders and consumers alike of the brand in one simple sentence

Lynn Upshaw, USA

"Brand essence is the central nature of what the brand represents to all those who come into contact with it. It is closely related to Sal Randazzo's concept that a brand sometimes has a soul which he defines as "a spiritual centre, the core value(s) that defines the brand and permeates all other aspects of the brand"."

"Harley-Davidson motorcycles are considered by their owners to be a companion as much as a vehicle because consumers have affirmed the brand's positioning as a motorcycle will change your view of by conferring its personality as an American-style, machismo original."

"Essence can sometimes be prompted from the business team by asking them to think of the "ness" of the brand. What do you think of as "Coke-ness" or "Compaq-ness"?"

Helena Rubinstein, The Lab, UK

"The process of Brand Essence is that of defining the future direction and vision for the brand; how consumers, customers and management should view the brand in the future". When any employee or other servant of a brand (eg an advertising agency executive) reads the essence defining a particular brand, they should see "the enduring, competitive position of the brand expressed in an unique way".

A polished Brand Essence should be maintained in such a way that it has 100% recall amongst the whole business team. Because then it will influence every (branding) value judgement they make, be this communally or individually. Therefore, in the process of defining Brand Essence recognise that "it is not an advertising slogan, nor a description which will change with every communication. Essence should be a long term positioning which changes rarely and is more like a mission statement for a brand. For this reason, brands with strong Brand Essences tend to have sought the most fundamental consumer needs and sought to own them".

Jean-Noel Kapferer, France

It is most helpful to conceptualise a brand as a particular sense of 'meaning and direction' with which customers and the brand team organisation can develop a relationship through the products, services and communications which this directs. The essential purpose of brand strategy is to ultimately define this sense of 'meaning and direction'. The following questions can help rehearse a brand’s make-up: What is its individuality?

• What are its long-term goals and ambitions?
• What is its consistency?
• What are its values?
• What are its basic truths?
• What are its recognition signs?

Andy Mosmans, BDO Netherlands

In true essence, a vision captures the life force that provides a brand with an identity and destiny. It reveals the brand's reason for being, then motivates the participants (developers and consumers as partners) to respond (to share, communicate, buy etc). It is:

• Synthesising : It inspires each of the brand's actions on the market by interconnecting the brand's reality in terms of values, voice, endeavour, culture etc. It steer the perceptions that people are willing to invest in the brand.
• Seminal : It leverages nothing less than the power of revelation. Inside and outside the branded company, it urges people to see the world and business in a new way. It therefore creates or recreates the market.
• Stimulating : It electrifies people to act. For people who serve the brand, it is a guiding light compelling you, motivating you to continuous improvement. For customers, it generates empathy and establishes a relationship of shared visions (a brand that understands me or makes me understand something).

The power of a vision sets the brand free from being limited to a fact, it confers a self-destiny. the tension which vision animates provides the brand with more than a reason for being:

• A reason for doing: the mission
• A reason for becoming something more : the ambition

Look at the connections between Apple's:

Vision - "There is a great unexploited potential of creativity and intelligence in every individual"

Mission - "To make the power of computing totally subservient to the stimulation of people's intelligence and creativity"

Ambition - "To become the brand that is indispensable to anyone willing to develop his or her mindpower"

Mission originates in vision and drives the brand to achieve its ambition : what the brand, in fulfilling its duty, wants to be judged by in its contribution to the history of the marketplace. Vision is the essence of ultimate tension. Once aware of it, you can't continue looking at the business/the brand/the world as you did before. For that very reason, you can no longer just sit there without doping something.

Examples of campaigns:

Apple (The Power to be Your Best)

Marlboro (Marlboro Country)

BMW (The Ultimate Driving Machine)

General Electric (We Bring Good Things to Life)

Benetton (United Colours)

Body Shop (Trade not Aid)

Gillette (The Best a Man Can Get)

Visa (It's Everywhere You Want to Be)

Nike (Authentic Athletic Performance)

Hallmark (Caring Shared)

Disney (Fun Family Entertainment or Disneyworld, Magical Fun)

Starbucks (Rewarding Everyday Moments)

The Nature Conservancy (Saving Great Places)

Source: http://www.allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?article=108

2.

Brand Slogan - a public way of identifying the brand for consumers - often associated with a logo

Strategy, vision, story telling and poetry. Haiku in 15 words or less.
When people speak of brand slogans and jingles it seems to conjure up the innocent days when bread cost 5 cents, milk was delivered to your door. A bygone era - cute and catchy - but quaint and naive.

But for all the good the new personalized communication tools are for marketers, a well crafted brand slogan can be exceptionally powerful. When they work, they capture the essence of the brand, its desired uniqueness/positioning in the market and even hint at the brand promise being made.

A brand slogan is not a tag line. A tag line is what you get if you fail. Taglines are one of the first things to change as soon as a new marketing or agency team or on the assignment. A slogan on the other hand is more enduring. It becomes the clarion call for the brand. The great ones take on a life of their own often receiving extended coverage from the media, popular culture and talk around the water cooler.

To have a great brand slogan you have to capture the voice, personality and soul of the brand promise that will embed itself deep inside the mind. Think of strategy, vision, story telling and poetry all coalescing in space and time to remind us of something important.

The following are a few of my favorite brand slogans:

New York Times (All the news that's fit to print.)
Amtrak (See America at see level.)
Avis Rental Car (We're number two. We try harder.)
General Electric (We bring good things to life.)
M&Ms Candy (The milk chocolate melts in your mouth - not in your hand.)
NYSE (The world puts its stock in us.)
UPS (Moving at the speed of business.)
John Deere (Nothing runs like a Deere.)
Kodak (Share moments. Share life.)
L’Oréal (Because I’m worth it.)
Michelin (Because so much is riding on your tires.)
NyQuil (The-nighttime-sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy-head-fever-so-you-can-rest-medicine.)
Smith Barney (We make the money the old-fashioned way—WE EARN IT.)
Oscar Meyer (I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener.)
Oscar Mayer (My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R.)
MasterCard (There are some things that money can’t buy. For everything else there's MasterCard.)
Canadian Blood Services (Blood. It’s in you to give.)
Dofasco (Our product is steel. Our strength is people.)

A wealth of others can be found at the sites listed below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11748/Historyofbranding-com-Famous-Brand-Slogans
http://www.adslogans.co.uk/hof/2top10.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_slogans
http://adage.com/century/index.html
http://historyofbranding.com
http://www.taglineguru.com/sloganlist.htm

For a seriously in depth and mind numbing research on ad slogans, click here. Don't say I didn't warn you. I would also like to take this opportunity to award the most effective brand slogan of the year: London Choco Roll! The jingle is so addictive that once the commercial starts, my brother and I will immediately put down what we are doing and devote our attention to sing along faithfully. The power of branding is thus witnessed when I finally decided to try out the product; to my surprise, London Choco Roll costs more than the more well-establised Apollo (another brand selling similar product)! Well... You have to find out for yourself if it tastes as good as it sounds.

Chinese version

English version

Source: http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2007/10/brand_slogans_-_strategy_vision_and_haiku.html

3.

Brand Personality - marketeers can describe their brand as though it were a person, with likes and dislikes and certain behaviour

To see how the relationship basis model works, consider the personality types of people with whom you have relationships and the nature of those relationships. Some of the types might be as follows:

• Down-to-earth, family oriented, genuine, old-fashioned (Sincerity). This might describe brands like Hallmark, Kodak, and even Coke. The relationship might be similar to one that exists with a well-liked and respected member of the family.
• Spirited, young, up-to-date, outgoing (Excitement). In the soft drink category, Pepsi fits this mold more than Coke. Especially on a weekend evening, it might be enjoyable to have a friend who has these personality characteristics.
• Accomplished, influential, competent (Competence). Perhaps Hewlett-Packard and the Wall Street Journal might fit this profile. Think of a relationship with a person whom you respect for their accomplishments, such as a teacher, minister or business leader; perhaps that is what a relationship between a business computer and its customer should be like.
• Pretentious, wealthy, condescending (Sophistication). For some, this would be BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus (with gold trim) as opposed to the Mazda Miata or the VW Golf. The relationship could be similar to one with a powerful boss or a rich relative.
• Athletic and outdoorsy (Ruggedness). Nike (versus LA Gear), Marlboro (versus Virginia Slims), and Wells Fargo (versus Bank of America) are examples. When planning an outing, a friend with outdoorsy interests would be welcome.

Two elements thus affect an individual's relationship with a brand. First, there is the relationship between the brand-as-person and the customer, which is analogous to the relationship between two people. Second, there is the brand personality--that is, the type of person the brand represents. The brand personality provides depth, feelings and liking to the relationship. Of course, a brand-customer relationship can also be based on a functional benefit, just as two people can have a strictly business relationship.

THE BRAND AS A FRIEND

Fred Posner of Ayer Worldwide has observed that people live in a world characterized by stress, alienation, and clutter. [footnote omitted] Noting that people cope by developing escape mechanisms and meaningful friendships, Posner suggests that brands can provide these roles by being either an "aspirational" or a "trusted" associate. Escape can take the form of aspirational relationships which provide a social lift or trusting relationships which provide some expertise or knowledge of a subject in which a given person is interested. Posner believes that either relationship can be the basis for real differentiation and competitive advantage. He further suggests that the chosen relationship should be the centerpiece of brand strategy and execution.

WHAT IF THE BRAND SPOKE TO YOU?

Max Blackston of Research International has argued that to understand brand-customer relationships, it is necessary to consider what a brand thinks of you. [footnote omitted] One approach to obtaining this information is to ask what the brand would say to you if it were a person. The result can be illuminating. Blackston illustrates this approach with a doctor-patient example. Consider a doctor who is perceived by all to be professional, caring, capable, and funny--characteristics that most would like in a doctor. But what if the doctor also felt you were a boring hypochondriac? The resulting negative relationship would be impossible to predict based only upon perceptions of the doctor's personality or external appearance.

Blackston's approach was used in a research study of a credit card brand. Customers were divided into two groups based on how they thought the personified brand would relate to them. For one customer segment (labeled the "respect" segment), the personified brand was seen as a dignified, sophisticated, educated world traveler who would have a definite presence in a restaurant. These customers believed that the card would make supportive comments to them like the following:

• "My job is to help you get accepted."
• "You have good taste."

A second "intimidated" segment, however, described a very different relationship with the brand. This group's view of the brand personality was similar to that observed in the respect segment, but had a very different spin. The credit card was perceived as being sophisticated and classy but also snobbish and condescending. This segment believed that the personified card would make negative comments such as the following:

• "Are you ready for me, or will you spend more than you can afford?"
• "If you don't like the conditions, get another card."
• "I'm so well known and established that I can do what I want."
• "If I were going to dinner, I would not include you in the party."

These two user segments had remarkably similar perceptions of the brand personality especially with respect to its demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The two different perceived attitudes of the credit card toward the customer, however, reflected two very different relationships with the brand which in turn resulted in very different levels of brand ownership and usage.

RELATIONSHIP SEGMENTATION

Research International routinely segments consumers by brand relationship. In a first-phase research effort, fifty to a hundred subjects are interviewed, usually by phone. [footnote omitted] A series of open-ended questions are asked, including word associations, brand personalization, characteristics of liked and disliked brands, and a dialogue section (based on what the brand would say if it were a person).

The first analysis stage involves scanning the data and forming hypotheses about the types of relationships that exist. In the second stage, respondents are allocated to relationship categories on the basis of the hypothesized relationship groupings. In the process, the relationship typology is refined. The relationships are then formalized into specifications, and coders classify the respondents into those relationships. The groups are then profiled. Often the relationship groupings correspond to like, dislike, and neutral segments. The "dislike" group for credit cards, for example, perceived the brand as being snobbish; the "like" group, in contrast, felt that they were accepted by the brand.

Source: http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/marketing/PAPERS/AAKER/BOOKS/BUILDING/brand_personality.html

4.

Brand Values – what does it stand for/against?

Values-based approaches are essentially human. This means that there are bad value systems (like Hitler's) as well as good. There are also bad executions (Andersen had fine looking values), as well as ones lived by every person in the company.

1 NXT, 2002 'Network' house mag - website
Andrew Williams, Marketing Director
Strive to innovate
Look for the win-win
Meet or exceed expectations
Support, respect & learn from each other
Be Passionate

2 Fujitsu, 2002 - website

Indomitable spirit
Pride in providing high-quality products and services
Concern for environment
Deeply felt sense of responsibility to solving our customers' problems

3 IKEA, 2002 - website
nb IKEA tells founders stories as opposed to listing values. Listing approximate
Learning/curiosity - always be inquisitive about the possibilities tomorrow offers
Diversity & respect - beyond basic belief in same conditions & opportunities for all, when you work worldwide diversity is a dynamic to treasure
Low cost & right quality - we work hard and use our heads to make best possible use of limited resources
Developing value - with our suppliers in countries with hard-working craftsmen, with our customers (eg self-assembly), with employees
Servant-leader - main role of manager is help employee with most contact to customer to do best job

4 Body Shop, 2002 - website
Against animal testing - end the use of animals in cosmetics testing
Support community trade - big business has a huge responsibility to use trade not just to make money but also to have a positive influence in the world
Activate the self-esteem (of women) -awareness, self-confidence, self-worth, and self-acceptance ...don't get manipulated by latest beauty fad
Defend human rights - responsibility of every individual to actively support those who have human rights denied them
Protect our planet - business has a responsibility to protect the environment in which it operates both locally and globally

Source: http://allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?article=259