Brands and Branding

Stephen Brown

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781473919518
• eBook ISBN: 9781473988040
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

A fun and humorous introductory book, written in Stephen Brown?s entertaining and highly distinctive style, that introduces curious readers to the key components of brands and helps them to begin to make sense of them - what they are, what they do, why and how - using plenty of examples and references drawn from a wide range brands such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Gucci, Nike, Nintendo, Starbucks, Swatch and The Worst Hotel in the World.

With 3, 000 branding books published each year, why would you (or your students) want to read Brands & Branding?

Here are seven reasons why:

• It's introductory, aimed at undergraduate students or postgrads without a bachelor degree in business and assumes nothing more than readers' awareness of high profile brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Chanel
• It's indicative, focusing on the basics and thus being a more reliable revision aid than Lucozade
• It's immersive, taking readers on a journey and, working on the assumption that they have smartphones or tablet computers to hand, the print text links to images, articles and academic publications to give emphasis and context where appropriate.
• It's inclusive, considering articles and reports but also blogs, novels, newspapers, reviews, social media and other sources
• It's irreverent – branding is not always a deadly serious business!
• It's intimate, Stephen speaks to you directly and together you will pick your way through the sometimes weird and unfailingly wonderful world of brands and branding using examples rather than abstract ideas to illustrate points.
• It's inspirational, celebrating the curious and successful stories of brands from Cillit Bang to Cacharel
• Suitable for first and second year marketing or advertising students, and for those new to or interested in branding and who are keen to know more.

Chapter 1 The Rudiments of Branding

Overview

We live in a branded world. From dawn to dusk we interact with brands. But what are brands, exactly? Why do we need them? How come companies devote so much time and effort branding their goods and services? This chapter addresses these questions. It shows that brands, like still waters, run deep. They are hard to define. They are subject to all sorts of legal constraints. However, they are immensely valuable and found in ever more sectors of contemporary society, from politics to pop music.

Brands Surround Us

• Alpen, Bovril, Cadbury, Dove; eBay, Facebook, Google, Hello; Infiniti, Jay-Z, Kodak, Lexus; Marlboro, Nescafé, Oreo, Pepsi; Qantas, Rolex, Sony, Tiffany; Uber, Vodafone, Wrigley, Xbox; YSL, Zegna.
• Armani, Beyoncé, Chanel, Dior; Esso, Flora, Gant, Heinz; Intel, Java, Kleenex, Linux; Mercedes, Nikon, Omega, Porsche; Quaker, Radox, Smirnoff, Tetley; Umbro, Visa, Wella, X Factor; Yahoo, Zynga.
• Apple, Beckham, Cisco, Dell; Emirates, Ferrari, Gucci, Hermès; Iams, Jameson, Kellogg’s, Lynx; Microsoft, Netflix, Oracle, Puma; Q-Tips, Rihanna, Samsung, Twitter; Uniqlo, Versace, Wrangler, X-Men; Yoplait, Zoopla, Zonga, Zappos, Zoella, Zantac, Zizzi …

Most consumers, if you asked them to name a brand, would likely mention one of the above. Or something very similar: Adidas, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Duracell, easyJet, Fiat, Guinness, Hollister, etc., etc. Everyone knows what brands are. They are the packaged goods we find in supermarkets. They are the luxury labels that we own, or aspire to own. They are the IT kit we use to keep connected. They are the websites and apps we’re connected to. They are the names of the stuff that surrounds us, from Aldi to Zanussi. They are the celebrities with personalized ranges of perfume and apparel. They are what we eat, we drink, we wear, we read, we wash with, we’re addicted to, we’re entertained by and, as often as not, we work for. They are the things that get us through the day:

7.00 a.m. Your clock radio blasts you awake, terminating your recurring MasterCard nightmare. Your eyes, still blurred from sleep, can hardly make out the Sony logo on the radio as you fumble for the off switch, but you dutifully launch yourself from bed and stagger toward the shower. Midway between the L’Oréal shampoo and the Pantene conditioner, you remember that today is the day the jeweller promised your Rolex would be fixed. Even better you remember that today is Casual Friday at the office, so once out of the shower, you bypass the ranks of Brooks Brothers and Armani in your closet and opt for Dockers, your favourite Nikes, and a Gap chambray shirt. Breakfast consists of Maxwell House and a Pop-Tart.¹

Although brands are fantastic, fascinating, fun-filled things to learn about, they’re tricky things to define. It isn’t easy to draw a line between ‘brand’ and ‘not-brand’. Here’s why.

What is a Brand?

A couple of years ago, I did some research on RMS Titanic, the ‘unsinkable’ ship that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank with enormous loss of life. Countless movies, innumerable novels, hundreds of songs, sermons, poems, paintings, plays, musicals, miniseries, documentaries, exhibitions, websites, smartphone apps and, not least, a veritable tsunami of tie-in merchandise from T-shirts to teabags, have been produced about the terrible events of that unforgettable night.²

Whatever way you look at it, the Titanic is very big business. And that business was never bigger than in April 2012, the centenary of the sinking. In addition to the magazine articles and newspaper features and television programmes and orchestral recitals and religious ceremonies and black-tie charity galas and deep sea dives to the wreck and general commemorative overkill, every single city with a link to Titanic used the connection to promote its tourist attractions. Southampton built a brand new Sea City Museum; Cherbourg constructed its Cité de la Mer attraction; Cobh (formerly Queenstown) opened a Tourist Trail and Heritage Centre; and Liverpool, Titanic’s port of registration, chose to tell the tragic tale in an enormous work of performance art, a street parade featuring giant puppets of the luckless passengers.

The city of Belfast, my home town, also went overboard for the Titanic. It pushed the boat out, big time. A massive, £100 million visitors’ centre was constructed beside the slipways where the iconic liner was built by Harland & Wolff, whose giant yellow cranes still scrape the city’s skyline. Although many local taxpayers objected to the investment, or wondered whether the building would attract sufficient visitors to cover its cost, Titanic Belfast was duly launched with great branding fanfare and massive worldwide publicity. Just like the original.³

Among other things, my research involved interviewing lots of people – from foreign students to Titanic tour guides – about ‘the unsinkable brand’. Their answers were all over the place. As far as property developers and the local Tourist Board were concerned, Titanic Belfast was nothing less than the ‘biggest brand museum in the world’, better by far that its nearest Irish rival, the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. The Tourist Board even produced a ‘brand book’, advising businesses how best to cash in on the Titanic connection.

Ordinary people didn’t feel the same way, however. The Titanic, for most interviewees, was a majestic ship, an appalling tragedy, an unconsecrated graveyard, an exploitative blockbuster movie by James Cameron. But a brand? Absolutely not! Since when, they said to me, did catastrophes become brands? The very idea was grotesque, disgraceful, sick and twisted.

The most memorable interview, mind you, was with the marketing manager of Harland & Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic and continues to take a proprietary interest in the wreck. When the b-word came up, he looked at me in a querulous manner and authoritatively announced: ‘The Titanic is not a brand. Never was, never will be.’

I was dumbfounded. This was a marketing man talking. He, above anyone, must surely be aware that the Titanic is a brand with a capital B. He’s bound to appreciate its worth, its value, its equity, its vast commercial potential, not least for the closely associated H&W brand. But, no, he didn’t. Quite the opposite.

What on earth, I wondered, is going on here?

‘The Titanic is not a brand,’ he then explained, ‘because the name cannot be trademarked. It’s generic. Anyone can use it. Therefore Titanic is not a brand.’

Legal Intervention

In one sense, H&W’s sales manager is correct. Titanic’s standing as a brand is debatable. But only from a strictly legal perspective. Because, if a brand isn’t formally registered with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), pretty much anyone can take the name and make money from it.⁴ The Simpsons discovered this to their cost with Duff beer – a spoof brand swilled by Homer – which is made and sold in several countries without the TV show’s approval.

If, conversely, your surname is McDonald and you are considering opening a fast food restaurant, don’t even think of naming it after yourself. Ronald’s lawyers will be round with a writ before you can say Happy Meal, never mind Big Mac. Let alone Supersize Me.

The legal side of branding is crucially important, and you ignore it at your peril (Think Box 1). Just ask my local Italian restaurant, the Cipriani. Nice name, I hear you say. However, it’s a nice name that’s owned by the world-renowned Hotel Cipriani in Venice. And the Cip’s attorneys – à la Liam Neeson in Taken – look for and find any marketing miscreants who mess with their trademarked entitlement, even unto the ends of the earth.

Think Box 1

Some Legal Considerations

Although trademarks have been around since the dawn of civilization, as makers’ marks on Greco-Roman pottery prove, the pertinent legal apparatus dates from the late 19th century. The Trade Marks Acts have been amended on several occasions since 1875, as well as harmonized within the EU in accordance with the 1994 Trademarks Directive. Different registration regulations apply in different parts of the world and even within the EC countries. Member states with a common law tradition (where custom and practice give some degree of protection in the absence of registration) operate on a slightly different basis than those with a civil code system.

The legalistic details are less important for present purposes than the simple fact that brands can apply to register their names with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). At present, applications cost £170 with the proviso that the name isn’t already registered by another brand in its particular category. There are forty-two fairly broad categories in the official classification framework, ranging from firearms (class 13) to footwear (class 25). Each category is autonomous to some degree, inasmuch as the name Polo, registered by Volkswagen in class 12, doesn’t infringe on the name Polo registered by Ralph Lauren in class 25, or on the Polo mints confectionary registered by Rowntree (now Nestlé) in class 30. When Apple entered the music industry via iTunes, however, the Apple record label established by The Beatles in 1968 sought appropriate legal redress, until common sense prevailed.

Registration applications, as a rule, don’t stop at brand names. Signs, symbols, slogans, smells, sounds and just about everything that is used to distinguish the goods and services of one brand from another, are ripe for registration. Applications are often made for several classes, furthermore, since this gives the applicant scope for subsequent brand extensions into contiguous categories. If a global market is aspired to, registrations are routinely sought in multiple national jurisdictions. As each of these applications costs money and as some names may already be in use in certain places – which may necessitate the purchase of the property from its present owner – the seemingly simple act of registering a brand can turn out to be a very expensive process. If patent protection is also sought for inventions (such as Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner technology) or copyrights (which pertain to literary, dramatic and musical works), the total outlay can be prohibitive. Even more so, if trademark infringement rears its ugly head. Policing patents, trademarks or copyrights doesn’t come cheap. Failure to do so, though, can be catastrophic, because legal protection can be lost if it’s not actively enforced.

Thinking Outside the Think Box

Taylor Swift, the pop star, is trying to copyright the title of her bestselling album 1989. Find out why she was moved to do this and, after ‘reading around the subject’ (aka RATS), assess her chances of success.

But that’s daft, some might retort. How in the name of the sainted Ronald McDonald could a tiny trattoria in Belfast adversely affect, much less damage, an iconic Italian haunt of movie stars and A-list celebrities? The answer is that it can’t. Of course it can’t. That’s not the point, though. If Hotel Cipriani fails to police its trademarks assiduously, the brand could lose the legal protection it currently enjoys.

Just ask Colin Mackey, an aspiring Irish entrepreneur who created a brand of flavoursome, freshly-pressed fruit juice, John Appleseed’s. Unbeknown to Colin, a near-identical brand named John Appleseed nestled in the bulging product portfolio of AB InBev, one of the biggest brewing conglomerates in the world, whose bedazzling brand-name beverages include Budweiser, Löwenbräu, Corona and Beck’s. Even though Colin’s ethical, environmentally-friendly social enterprise channels its profits into helping the homeless, his brand duly received a cease and desist letter. Politely worded, no doubt.

Now, Mr Mackey could have told AB InBev to take a hike (and battled it out in the courts thereafter). But most itsy-bitsy brands don’t have the time, the money, the managerial resources – not to mention the dedicated legal department – to take the big guys on. As an intellectual property lawyer, asked to comment on the case, made perfectly clear, AB InBev had to act in the way they did because ‘What they are doing is taking action to preserve their legal position. It’s unfortunate that [Colin] has stepped on the shoes of someone large and sophisticated. But brand is king in today’s economy.’⁵

She’s right there. And if you’re still sceptical, ask the good folks at Martial Arts Guardian, an online magazine for kung-fu fighters, which recently aroused the ire of The Guardian newspaper for treading on its trademarks.⁶ Swatch watches, similarly, is squaring up to Apple, because its supersmart timepiece is called iSwatch and the legal eagles in Cupertino don’t like it. Tokyo’s Olympics organizing committee isn’t best pleased either. Its proposed logo for the 2020 Olympiad was withdrawn, amid much embarrassment, because it was ‘plagiarized’ by designer Kenjiro Sano from the insignia of a theatre group in Belgium.

Nowhere, however, is the legal side of things better illustrated than in the case of Monopoly, the bazillion selling board game, which is eighty years old and still going strong. Except that it isn’t. Eighty years old, that is. According to legend, the board game was invented by Charles Darrow in 1935 and subsequently sold to Parker Brothers, who successfully turned the great game’s pretend money into untold millions of the real stuff. Thirty years before Darrow, though, Lizzy Magie came up with the same idea. But she failed to protect her patents properly and lost both fame and fortune as a result. Eighty or 110 years on, depending on your viewpoint, Monopoly remains the undisputed brand leader in its category.⁷

The key point here is that the market...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Author
• Preface: Reasons Why
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Rudiments of Branding
• Part I Components
• Chapter 2 Brand Names Matter
• Chapter 3 Logos, Slogans, Mascots and More
• Chapter 4 Brands Tell Stories
• Part II Commandments
• Chapter 5 Brands Are Living Things
• Chapter 6 Consumers Beware
• Chapter 7 Brand Management
• Chapter 8 Expanding the Brand
• Part III Constraints
• Chapter 9 The Brand Stops Here
• Chapter 10 The Dark Side of the Brand
• Chapter 11 Pop Goes the Brand
• Conclusion
• Chapter 12 The Brand Finale
• Index