This week I read a report on the findings issued by Research International Observer (RIO), a global, bi-annual qualitative study conducted on brands. The study questioned more than 1,500 consumers in 41 countries and 52 cities worldwide on the following question: “There are no global brands--or are there?”
Contrary to the thesis Naomi Klein offered in No Logo, consumers do like brands, and want to be affiliated with them. At least that is what the study says they found.
As one respondent to the survey from New Zealand said, “Global brands make you feel part of something bigger and give you a sense of belonging.” A Japanese participant felt that brands “increase the value of the one who uses them,” and a Hong Kong resident noted that “You feel you are above others if you own a Louis Vuitton product.”
The universal thread in all of the above comments is that consumers align themselves with brands, in light of their own personal projections of the brand and the moirés they feel the brand projects to others (steeped in their perception of the brand).
The above comment about Louis Vuitton brings me to an interesting example of brand-based behavior.
Last week I was in London, and it started raining (I know, what was I expecting, sunshine?) It was that irritating type of rain, not hard enough to warrant an umbrella, but enough to get you looking like a drowned rat if you were in it for more than three or four minutes. So clearly, this was the time to purchase a rain hat, one that would protect my hair from the drowned-rat effect, but not slow me down the way an umbrella would on the crowded streets of London.
So I ducked into Debenhams, and started looking at rain hats.
However…none of the hats said, “Kristine, buy me!!” Rather, I found myself mentally going back to a hat I had seen in Burberry's on Regent Street, a really nice rain hat….black, bucket-style, with plaid traditional Burberry lining--just right.
Now, Debenhams had plenty of hats that looked almost EXACTLY like the one at Burberry, minus the plaid lining (and therefore, the cache, at least to my mind). So rather than getting a perfectly adequate rain hat I found myself going back out and making a beeline for, yep--you guessed it--Burberry.
I bought myself the lovely rain hat, all the while ignoring the voice in my head that said I was mental. After all, I could have gotten at least four or five of the adequate rain hats for the price of my new Burberry one, and it would have performed its task of keeping my hair dry admirably--dare I say just as well as my new one.
But what would that have said about me? Nothing. But the Burberry one--now that said “classy lady,” and whispered of polish and refined elegance.
It occurred to me later that I am indeed the same as those people in the study I quoted above. I don't just buy a brand for the function, but for the perception--mostly mine, but also other's.
I wonder, is this a sign that I have lost my mind? Have I "bought into" the marketers jingles and ads and suggested brand perceptions? Or is it true, do I buy the brand to be part of something bigger? (Is there a secret Burberry handshake?)
The answer, for me, is a little bit of both. But I do buy brands not as much for lifestyle aspirations as I do to be reflective of personal projections. I want the brand to make a statement about me. This brings us to the “Third Wave” of branding.
Greet Sterenberg, the director of Research International Qualitatif, states that the world is now in the “Third Wave” of branding. The overreaching idea of the “Third Wave” is that consumers want to actively participate in the meanings the brand provides.
In the first wave, the role of the brand was to promote physical qualities, and the benefits it offered were trust and assurance to the consumer.
In the second wave, the brand was about lifestyle projections, and the benefits were the affinity and identification the consumer felt with the brand and its image.
In the “Third Wave,” the role of the brand is to aid in personal projection, and rather than having the mass market consumer as its target audience, this wave has fragmented but proliferated audiences as its target. The “Third Wave” is geographically centered on sophisticated consumers in Europe, Asia, and North America.
The “Third Wave” has arrived, according to the RIO study, because sophisticated consumers find the Wave Two brands too imposing, and too homogenized. In the “Third Wave,” the consumer actively participates in crafting the message brands offer. Essentially, personal projection plays a larger role in the brand image than in the past, when societal projections played a bigger role in defining what a brand was, and what it represented or “said” about the end-user.
In the “Third Wave” of branding, a person can use the brand as a marker of status or grouping in the global society, but then add in their own perceptions of what they want to “say:” who they are, and who they want others to think they are.
As Sterenberg said to illustrate “Third Wave” brands, “To be a successful Wave Three brand, such as Quicksilver or G-Star, brand owners need to get the consumer involved and acknowledge that consumers shape the identities of their brands. Wave Three brands are tribal brands, with highly individualized connections with multiple fragmented groups.”
The point Sterenberg is making is that with Wave Three brands the consumer chooses a brand and makes it their own, not the other way around.
I chose the Burberry rain hat, and did so not only for what I thought the brand said about me, but also for what I thought I said about the brand. To my mind, I was reinforcing the brand perception I had and sharing it with the marketplace.
Burberry did initially craft my perception of their brand through their reinvigorated campaign several years back, but over time my personal experiences and thoughts have colored in the edges of their brand image to create the one that beckoned me in out of the rain.
For any brand to be successful in the increasingly fragmented and proliferated global marketplace, brands must not only accept, but cultivate and welcome the input consumers offer to the brand, and its image and reality. Savvy brands will realize that the consumer can be “ingredient X” in the recipe for a successful and long-lived brand. They will seize the opportunity to make the consumer “work” for the brand by helping to craft its image and message so that it has the greatest resonance in the marketplace.
By the way, did I mention how great my new Burberry tote bag looks with my rain hat?
