brand communication idea. Marketing communications and their role in brand development. Brand communication process

Merkulov Sergey Alexandrovich postgraduate student of the 3rd year of study, department " Economic theory”, Moscow State Technical University. N.E. Bauman, PepsiCo Brand Manager

Recently, brands have played an increasingly significant role in the Russian economy. Two-thirds of the population (67%) rely on trusted brands when choosing a product. The majority (51%) believe that branded products are better than branded products. Russian manufacturers it is difficult to compete with Western brands, as they lack the practice of bringing successful brands to the market. The launch of a Russian trademark, accompanied by high advertising support, is most often characterized by a short brand life cycle. Advertising is widely rotated on the central TV channels of the country, store shelves are bursting with an excess of goods on sale, but after a year or two, consumer demand sharply decreases and the brand gradually begins to disappear from the market.

Most brands do not even have time to leave their mark in the minds of consumers, leaving no signs of their existence. What is the success formula for launching, developing and maintaining an effective brand?

Most international companies engaged in the marketing of goods and services, each brand has its own architecture (there are also terms brand wheel or brand DNA in the literature). It succinctly articulates the fundamentals on which a brand is built: a key consumer insight (or in-site from English. Insight), a unique offer, functional and emotional benefits, backed by facts and reasons to believe in them, the identity and values ​​of the brand. During my work in the marketing department of Heineken, we used the brand architecture format shown in Figure 1. This format is an adapted version of the options proposed in the works of A. Ellwood and V. Mamleev.

Rice. one. Brand architecture

Brand architecture is necessary for the development of communications with consumers, i.e. advertising messages conveyed through any type of advertising or marketing technique, in order to build a relationship between the brand and consumers. What is put into it by brand managers, and becomes the main reason for the interest or indifference of consumers to trademark. The development of brand architecture should be preceded by conducting and analyzing marketing research, analysis of the competitive market, as well as an understanding of the properties and qualities of the product to be released. The fundamentals on which a brand is built must be determined before a product is released to the market. However, they must remain unchanged for long term time, determining the advertising strategy for promoting the brand.

As various studies show, from 50 to 85% of the success of any project depends not on the strategy itself, but on the quality of its implementation. Therefore, it is not enough to correctly assess the preferences of the target audience and formulate all the advantages of a new product in internal documents companies when approving a business plan. Even the most effective strategy can fail if the ideal plan for its implementation is not defined. For advertising campaigns to be successful in the long term, a brand must be consistent and focused across all of its advertising messages in any of its potential consumer communication channels. At the same time, the main task of the brand manager becomes to translate the brand architecture into a set of coherent and focused advertising messages that could work for one main brand idea for several years, thereby building a clear and understandable image in the eyes of consumers. So how, in the face of fierce competition and limited advertising opportunities, to determine the right moments and points of contact between the brand's advertising messages and the target audience? When is it necessary to convey the qualitative advantages of the product with dry facts, and when will it be more efficient to connect the main added value of the brand - its emotional component? Per last years appeared a large number of recommendations and manuals on conducting marketing research and creating brands based on the analysis of the received data. It is surprising that the topic of long-term brand support is still very narrowly disclosed, because consumer loyalty is not won immediately and requires constant efforts to maintain it. As laborious and lengthy is the process of gaining the trust of the target audience, just as quickly brand loyalty can be lost due to incorrect or ill-considered actions.

My experience at Heineken, which owns both the world's leading brands Heineken and Amstel, and the popular Russian brands Okhota, Three Bears, Bochkarev, and others, helped me answer this question. To determine how best to use the elements brand architectures for formulating key brand messages in advertising campaigns, we studied the best global and local practices. Our study included both successful Western brands (Apple, Nike, Red Bull, Lipton, Gillette, etc.), as well as trademarks that have achieved bright, but short-term success, and very quickly lost their positions (“Dosya”, “ Dovgan", "Solodov", etc.). For each brand, all possible types of communication with consumers were collected and systematized over several years: from advertising TV commercials to the simplest promotions with a gift for a purchase and press releases. Based on the collected data, we recreated the architecture of each brand under consideration and analyzed the principles of its use in advertising messages. The results of the study showed that all brands that increased sales volumes from year to year and became more and more recognizable and loved by consumers used a similar principle of building relationships with consumers. All elements of the brand architecture were used in advertising communications with a certain consistency and completeness. The same brands that lost market share, sales volumes and ceased to be trusted by people, acted according to an unidentified principle, which was called brand communication architecture. In collaboration with creative and strategic marketing agencies a guide to action was formulated to plan the development of the brand image in the minds of consumers for several years to come.

A brand communication architecture is a structured approach through which brand messages are translated into coherent, focused and consistent brand messages in consumer-relevant ways of expression. These messages are conveyed to the consumer by any possible elements of the marketing mix in order for the brand to occupy a niche in the market according to its positioning.

The communication architecture consists of a central communication message that guides the three fundamental and universal types of brand communication messages: rational, emotional, and experiential. These three messages combined should give the consumer a complete and clear picture of the brand's image, build a relationship with the brand, and provide a basis for believing in all the rational and emotional benefits of the brand. This approach ensures focus and clarity in the planning of each brand communication, as well as ease of post-evaluation. advertising campaign in terms of quality characteristics. The central communication message is based on the brand's unique proposition. Thus, it turns out that all advertising communications with target audience, despite different creative incarnations and slogans, are initially connected with each other and work for a single message from the brand.

A rational message should talk about tangible distinctive functional and rational features of the product and brand that can be proven by facts. It is important that a rational message be aligned with the key understanding of the consumer and thereby meet consumer needs and even anticipate expectations.

An emotional message should speak about the values ​​of the brand, its individuality, and the point of view of the world. Very often it reflects the views and values, character and lifestyle of the target audience of the brand. This message should become a distinctive feature of the brand image and inspire consumers to build a relationship with the brand.

An experiential message is a statement of a brand's life experience that explains, demonstrates, and introduces the consumer to the world of the brand. In this case, advertising communications should convey not image, but tangible components of the product and brand, which the consumer can feel, smell, touch, examine, hear.

Ideally, brand promotion on the market should consist of exactly these separate messages in advertising campaigns and in exactly this sequence.

For a better understanding of the components of the communication architecture, it is worth giving a specific example on the Dove brand (skin care products), shown in Figure 2. In the brand's advertising campaigns of recent years, regardless of the type advertising medium and nature of interaction with potential consumers, a single communication message "Dove for real beauty" can be traced. According to the given theory of brand communication architecture, the first step would be to talk about the functional advantages of the product itself produced by the company. It is necessary to provide facts confirming the unique qualitative or differentiating advantage of the company's products over competitors' products. The second step is to create an intangible attraction to the brand on an emotional level, using the secret desires and thoughts of the target audience. The brand makes people believe that those of their emotional needs are being satisfied, which objectively cannot be realized by simple qualitative characteristics of this or that product. The final stage of the advertising campaign allows the target audience to unambiguously associate the first two messages with the image of the product offered to their attention and consolidate the achieved effect for a long time.

Rice. 2. Brand communication architecture

With the communication architecture shown in the example, Dove begins to talk about the unique ingredients of its cosmetics in its advertising, which in an incredible way emphasize the natural beauty of the consumer. With the second wave of the Dove campaign, women are inspired by the story that each of them is unique and beautiful in her own way. And finally fixes the brand image with promotions with product samples, when consumers can experience all the company's products for themselves, as well as the organization of various scientific conferences and seminars about beauty and how to care for it.

After such a focused and consistent advertising campaign, a clear and distinct idea of ​​the brand image is built in the minds of consumers, and the main idea of ​​the brand and the central communication message - "Dove for real beauty" - is deposited on the subconscious. Understanding the brand by consumers, in turn, leads to high loyalty, that is, to the most cherished goal of all marketers.

Figure 3 clearly shows how brand architecture and communication architecture are related. The brand's unique proposition is the basis for a central communication message. Thus, it is achieved that the main idea and message of the brand are reflected in any advertising campaign of the brand. The central communication message does not need to be a common slogan for all communications with consumers over several years, although such cases do occur. The main thing is that slogans formulated differently for advertising purposes, from different sides, but would work for the same idea. A rational message should convey to consumers the functional benefits of the product. The emotional message shows both the emotional benefits of the brand and the nature and personality of the brand. Empirical reporting should be based on key knowledge about the consumer and communicate how the brand will help the target audience realize their life needs.

Rice. 3. Relationship between architecture and brand communication architecture

It should be added that it is precisely this order and sequence of messages that are necessary for the most effective and understandable communication of the brand image collected in the brand architecture to the consumer. With the correct implementation of all stages, in the mind of the consumer after a sufficient amount of time and advertising contacts there is a feeling of understanding of the brand, almost at the same level as that of a brand manager at the stage of creating a brand architecture.

In some cases, depending on the advertising budgets of brands, it is not possible to deliver even one of the communication messages even for a whole year. In this case, you need to understand that the creation of a brand is a very important and painstaking process, the haste in which can only do harm. Putting too much information into one ads, negative results can be achieved. The information will be incomplete and crumpled, and the credibility of such a chaotic data set will be minimized.

There are cases when brands, even with rich history and multimillion-dollar advertising budgets, launching in new markets for themselves, making territorial expansion, spent several years just to go through the first stage of delivering a rational message to the consumer. A vivid example of such cases on the Russian market is Lipton iced tea. First entering the market in 2003, the brand consistently communicated to consumers the functional benefits of a product based on the benefits of its hot brother, using only rational messages connected by one idea. And only in 2010 the brand decided to start using an emotional message, using Hollywood star Hugh Jackman in its advertising. The actor, although it has nothing to do directly with the benefits of drinking hot tea, carries the same emotional message as functional tea - cheerfulness.

In order to more universally show how long it takes to change the focus of an advertising campaign from a rational message to an emotional one and then to an empirical one, the degree of consumer involvement in the brand is taken instead of a time scale. Figure 4 shows the optimal proportion of brand messages, depending on how close it managed to get closer to the loyalty of the target audience. At the stage of launching a product on the market, first of all, it is necessary to achieve a certain level of brand awareness. At the same time, consumers first need to learn about the rational benefits of the brand. If a product has the required set of functional properties or is of similar quality and costs less than competitors, this will cause a wave of trial purchases. After this stage, it is necessary to begin to form an emotional connection with consumers, moving on to communication of the emotional benefits of the brand. And when the connection with the target audience is already established, it becomes the task of experiential communication to achieve trust and eventually brand loyalty. At the same time, an element of an emotional message is present in all communications with consumers at the level of the character and personality of the brand. After all, both rational and empirical messages can be conveyed seriously or with humor, intelligently or head-on, etc., depending on the properties that are prescribed in architecture.

Rice. four. The dependence of the share of brand messages on the degree of involvement

This model, of course, is conditional and may have exceptions, but it helps to visualize the ideal model for the development of brand advertising messages. At the first stage, people must hear about a new brand, then try the product or service, after which there is a connection between the brand and the consumer. With a positive consumer experience, trust in the brand arises, and if it does not break its promises and anticipates expectations over a sufficiently long period of time, loyalty also arises.

For the success of any brand, of course, it is necessary that the product offered to the consumer has a certain level of quality and a set of characteristics necessary for its category. At the same time, the skillful use of communication architecture will provide maximum efficiency in promoting the brand to the market and, as a result, an additional competitive advantage.

Marketing Research Agency GFK-Rus. Impact of the crisis on consumer habits of Russians. 2009

Pertsiya V. Mamleeva L. Anatomy of a Brand. - M.; St. Petersburg: Vershina, 2007. - S. 251.

Ellwood Ayen. Fundamentals of Branding. 100 ways to add value. - M. : FAIR-PRESS, 2002. - 336 p. - S. 140.

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Communications play an important role in brand development, as their content has a serious impact on consumer behavior. Effective communication between the consumer and the brand is necessary for the achievement of the intended goals by the product manufacturers.

Brand communication process

The brand communication process is contact, communication with consumers in order to exchange ideas and information contained in the brand, either verbally or in writing through symbols. The purpose of communications is to achieve positive emotions from the consumer of goods (receiving party) when perceiving the content of the brand from the information received.

The communication process is complex. It consists of a number of stages that are interconnected and interdependent. The purpose of each of the stages is to ensure that the ideas and goals of the brand become clear to consumers and be perceived by them as a guide to action (Fig. 2.1).

An effective communication process contributes to the formation of trust between the brand and the consumer, as they are created, maintained and developed through communications and manifest themselves in communications,

All the main elements and functions of communications should be focused on conveying objective and persuasive messages to the consumer that would facilitate acceptance. right decisions in relation to the brand. Brand messages received by the consumer should not be ambiguous and create conflict situations between them.

Communications in marketing activities carried out in various types and forms, the study of which allows you to determine ways to improve their effectiveness.

special attention deserve interpersonal communications, which depend on many factors, such as the correctness of the brand symbol, trust, respect, attractiveness, consideration of interests and needs, feedback, service culture, etc. The study of these factors allows you to better understand the processes of interpersonal communications. Among Hirx, non-verbal communications (i.e., non-verbal or, as they are also called, non-verbal) occupy an important place. They complement and enrich the process of interpersonal communication.

In order to ensure clear and effective brand communications, it is necessary to know and anticipate possible failures in advertising technology.

Interpersonal communications depend on the socio-cultural environment in which they are carried out, including traditions, customs, value orientations, etc. Cultural differences manifest themselves in both verbal and non-verbal communication between the consumer and the brand.

Verbal communications ~ communications using oral speech as a coding system. The advantage of oral communication is speed, spontaneity and the possibility of widespread use of non-verbal signals simultaneously with words.

Non-verbal communications are messages sent without the use of oral speech as coding systems, using gestures, facial expressions, postures, glances, etc. They act as means of communication only to the extent that their content can be interpreted by consumers.

In non-verbal communication, the following means of communication with the consumer are used:

Expressive movements - postures, gestures, facial expressions, gait;

Visual contact (sight);

Dynamic touches (handshake, patting, etc.).

With the help of verbal communications, information is transmitted, with the help of non-verbal communications, the emotional attitude of the consumer to the brand is formed. The effectiveness of interpersonal communications irenda depends on the presence of feedback. Feedback turns communication into a two-way process.

Components of the brand communication process and their functions

When designing a brand's communication process, it is necessary to take into account the relationship of these functions, otherwise the message will either not get to the right consumer, or will not be understood by him. If at least one of the functions of the communication process is underestimated, the expected result may not be achieved.

One of the features of the communication process is its multi-channel nature: each consumer receives a large number of messages and decrypts them using his "keys". For example, when perceiving a brand, a consumer receives one message from the packaging design, another from the picture on the packaging, a third from the information on the packaging, a fourth from the name, a fifth from the advertising message, a sixth from the price, etc.

The multichannel nature of messages received by the consumer from the brand can give rise to a dangerous situation - the emergence of contradictions between the interpreted messages. Therefore, given the multi-channel communications, you should be careful about brand development.

An analysis of the psychological impact of information on the consumer shows that what is more important for a person is not what they say, but how they say it and what the speaker’s posture, gestures, and facial expressions convey. This information refers to non-verbal communication.

One of the challenges in designing a brand's communication process is the defocusing of messages. The manufacturer, in an effort to attract a buyer, offers new information every time.

information about the consumer properties of the goods. The consumer, receiving various messages, is not able to determine what specific benefit for himself he will receive if he purchases this product. Thus, the main feature should be brand identity, i.e. a unique set of material and meaningful features by which a consumer can identify a given brand.

If a brand offers one quality and value at first, and then another after a few months, then the consumer will be at a loss and will prefer a brand with a clearer and more understandable position.

The combination of explicit and implied messages allows you to achieve the maximum efficiency of the communication process. Promises that are not confirmed in the process of consuming the product are perceived by the consumer as a deceit and lead to a loss of trust in the brand for a long time. The balance between direct statements and subtle hints creates a brand message that is easily understood by the consumer.

Rational elements of the brand are focused on the content of the brand's communications, its offers and promises. Emotional elements, brand feelings - how a brand expresses itself - form the character and style of a brand. Any messages about the brand should harmoniously combine emotional and rational elements. Delicacy and respect, smart and subtle statement can strengthen the consumer's relationship with their brand.

Consumers see an advertisement about a product or hear its name, and they have certain emotions, i.e. impression. These impressions are formed by the brand through the image, feelings, ideas that a person has when he perceives information about the consumer properties of products symbolized by the brand.

The brand image may not reflect the external features of the product, i.e. the brand or its name resembles only something dependent on the consumer properties of the product. The brand image can also reflect the logically formed consumer properties of the product, i.e. evaluative messages about the product that convey the relationship of the brand to the consumer, or its accompanying features through various hints, contexts, subtexts, etc.

The organizational foundations of brand formation require the study of such economic categories as "need", "demand", "supply".

Attention to the content of the category of needs increases with the formation of the value orientation of the brand. The development of various human needs is influenced by many factors:

Economic - the level of development of the country's economy, wages, direction of domestic socio-economic policy;

Foreign policy - organization foreign trade, establishment of foreign economic relations;

Cultural level of the population;

« socio-psychological.

Needs - the need for something that arises in the process of development of society as a whole, socio-economic groups, as well as its individual members. This means that the needs are the driving force behind the development of the brand, as well as the main factor in its transformation,

2.3 shows the classification of categories of needs. A feature of this classification is that solvent and insolvent needs are singled out in an independent block. In our opinion, the most important point for the formation of the value orientation of the brand is what social group it is oriented to.

The concept of solvent need underlies the category of demand, and at the same time, demand should be distinguished from solvent need, which acts as a need secured by money, but not presented on the market and has not yet taken the form of effective demand. This need is abstract and represents only a real desire to acquire something. Demand is specific in the sense that it is focused on the purchase of a particular product. Comparison of the characteristics of demand and demand allows us to identify the main differences between them:

The object of demand is always a product or service, and the object of need can be any object, and not necessarily expressed in a commodity form, for example, social, spiritual, intellectual needs;

Needs arise and develop along with the development of human society, while demand appears only in the conditions of commodity-money production, as it is characterized by solvency;

Demand and needs are formed and developed under the influence of various factors;

Demand and needs do not coincide quantitatively. Most often, demand is less than demand by the value of its insolvent part; demand may be equal to need, but never more than it.

Thus, if needs express the range of material and spiritual benefits that people need to have for a normal existence under given social conditions, then demand is only those that the population considers it necessary to satisfy based on their solvent capabilities.

Demand as an economic phenomenon can take a variety of forms and types. When studying demand, it is necessary to know all its manifestations due to the fact that in the transition to a market there is no necessary data bank on demand, and the available information does not always characterize demand in full.

When forming a brand, it is necessary to consider problems related to needs, supply and demand, as they fully reflect the specifics of the functioning of the product market. There is a close relationship between supply and demand. On the one hand, emerging needs and demand make demands on the brand, which should reflect the development of the production of products (goods or services); on the other hand, product offerings have an impact on the formation of needs and demand.

An offer is an economic category, which is a set of certain qualitative characteristics of a product intended for sale. The main elements of the offer: the volume and sales of products (in physical and value terms), price dynamics, the structure of the product range, the service life of the product, etc.

Supply and demand in their unity and interconnection constitute a special economic category that characterizes the relationship of the brand with production and consumption. Thus, the brand, expanding the circle of consumers of the product, increases the size of aggregate demand. Analyzing supply and demand as economic categories, as well as the mechanisms of their action, we can come to the following conclusions:

An increase in demand with a constant supply contributes to an increase in prices and a decrease in sales of this product;

An increase in supply with a constant demand leads to a decrease in price and an increase in sales.

Studying the demand, supply and needs of society will determine the needs for products and express value orientations through the brand.

Building brand-consumer relationships

Information about a product or its trademark contained in the Lease affects the consumer, prompting him to take certain actions. At the outset, it is important to build a consumer's emotional attitude towards the brand based on the information provided by the brand, as well as to create a positive feedback between the brand and the consumer.

Positive emotions in the consumer arise either in the process of direct use of goods of a particular brand, or in the process of communicating with advertising, the information of which reflects the nature of the brand. A positive relationship between a brand and a consumer can be expressed as the following sequence: consumer: hears - sees - feels = result associated with the product. Thus, the relationship between the consumer and the brand is formed.

These relationships depend on the perceptions of the buyer and his expectations in obtaining positive emotions from the purchase of goods. \\ Depending on the symbolic content of the brand, three types of relationships with the consumer are possible:

Emotional relationships are formed on the basis of the feelings evoked in the consumer by the brand (positive and negative emotions);

Behavioral relationships can be viewed as consumer actions caused by brand motivation to a practical result, i.e. as an intention to purchase a product;

Rational relationships are formed on the basis of the knowledge, evaluation, persuasion and awareness of the buyer about the brand.

In the process of the functioning of the brand, all types of relationships are closely intertwined. Their harmonious interaction depends on how well the brand symbolism is formed. Ultimately, it depends on the effectiveness and usefulness of the brand.

Factors influencing the mechanism of the relationship "brand-consumer"

The formation of a system of brand relations with the consumer depends on the human factor. Human factor affects

and on the process of forming the brand symbolism, and on the process of its promotion and functioning on the market.

In the system of relations "brand - consumer" the main element is a person, therefore the mechanism of the relationship between the brand and the consumer is probabilistic in nature and depends on many factors.

Value orientations of the individual. When modeling value orientations in brand symbols, it is necessary to take into account:

Value orientations of the individual, on which the orientation of the activity of the individual in relation to the brand will ultimately depend;

The fact that the value orientations of the individual, i.e. its social orientations, beliefs, ideals may change throughout the life cycle of the brand.

Each person has their own value orientations, which are based on generalized ideas and opinions that are significant to him. However, what is valuable to one may be of little value to another. Therefore, to compare and express the value orientation different people in one character is very difficult.

When forming a brand, it is necessary to highlight the main value orientations of the individual as a consumer, to which he aspires and which he perceives as an important part of his personality.

When analyzing and developing value orientations for a brand, it is necessary to be guided by the areas of activity in which these values ​​are realized through certain keywords, namely: health, culture, well-being, family, recreation, etc.

This approach allows you to build a brand model that will contribute to the formation of a strategic relationship between the consumer and the brand. The advertising message coming from the brand can refer to different values, however, one of them is the leading one, for example, the advertisement "It's good to have a house in the country" symbolizes mainly the values ​​of family and home, and the message about chewing gum- health values.

Motivational-need properties of personality. Human needs are diverse, but each person is characterized by a certain system of needs, including dominant and subordinate, conscious and unconscious needs. With a conscious need, a person clearly represents the brand and what he wants to purchase. At the heart of the unconscious need is attraction, i.e. a person only feels that he lacks something and feels a desire to acquire it. The brand communication process enhances the sense of need and increases the likelihood that the buyer will be more motivated to enjoy the purchase of the product.

The motives of human behavior are based on needs. In this case, motives should be understood as the motivating properties of the brand that affect the behavior of a person, as a result of which he acts and acts, i.e. buys products.

The choice of a particular brand is an active process that requires the buyer to logically rethink the information of the brand. To make the right choice, a person must have information that helps him determine his attitude towards the brand. The attitude towards the brand, in turn, is formed on the basis of the value orientation of the brand, which is significant for the consumer, and the attentive attitude of the brand to the consumer. Only in this case, you can count on the respectful attitude of the consumer towards the brand, as this causes positive feelings and emotions in him. Thus, the mechanism of the relationship between the brand and the consumer is implemented through brand motivation, the logical conclusion of which is a loyal attitude towards the brand.

External environment. Consumer interaction with external environment- this is the emotional self-identification of one's own content with the external features of the product through motives, needs, interests, desires, ideas, preferences and satisfaction.

The appearance of the product becomes a symbol of a person's need, since he emotionally identifies himself with the product. This self-identification is instantaneous, and the consumer instantly measures his capabilities on the basis of ideas and a mental assessment of the correspondence between the appearance of the product and its own content.

In order to correctly identify and model brand attributes, it is necessary to have qualitative characteristics of the brand that satisfy the interests and needs of the consumer.

Various methods of sociological research are used to develop a brand project. First, based on the test

material and marketing communications, the necessary information is collected, which is then analyzed by the research team. Upon completion of the analysis, a brand project is developed that reflects the qualitative characteristics of the product and its external design.

It can be seen from the above that the search necessary goods, m.iGop of a particular brand is an active process in the brand-consumer relationship mechanism. The effectiveness of this process depends on the relationship of the consumer with this brand, the rethinking of the information received by the consumer, the consumer's knowledge and ideas about the purpose and quality of the product.

Miscellaneous goods have different quality characteristics depending on their purpose. If the product belongs to the category food products, then its main attributes are taste, smell, color; if to durable items - reliability, durability, strength, resistance to external influences, safety.

Thus, the qualitative characteristics of the goods are specific and diverse and depend on the purpose of the goods.

Qualitative characteristics products differ from brand quality attributes in that they are closely related to the satisfaction of the needs of the individual.

The brand, in turn, is characterized by the following features:

Functional - those that reflect the qualitative properties and purpose of the product in the content of the brand. These signs allow the consumer to identify their consumer interests with the use of the brand;

Social - a trademark that symbolizes the properties of the product and is aimed at meeting the needs of a certain social group;

Individual - value orientations of the brand, aimed at the individual and his interests, in which the brand is identified with its content;

Brand communication is the ability of a brand to evoke emotions and form relationships with consumers.

The effectiveness of the communication process and life cycle of a brand depend on the interaction of all the listed signs and on how delicately they are reflected in its symbol.

Brand building requirements

When building a brand, you must be guided by the following requirements:

Brand attributes should be reflected in the trademark with

taking into account the interests and needs of the buyer;

The external design of the brand should contribute to the creation of communication support for the formation of its relationship with the buyer;

Brand symbolism should be objective and convincing, not rude and intrusive, should not cause negative emotions in the buyer.

The effectiveness of branding depends on how close the relationship is formed between the brand and the consumer. An important role in this process is given to advertising, which informs buyers about the consumer properties of products (goods and services), about the benefits and benefits that will be obtained from using the product of this brand in order to form its popularity and demand. At this stage, the emotional attitude of the buyer to the brand is formed.

The next stage in the process of forming consumer relations with the brand is the study and analysis of the effectiveness of the advertising process, i.e. revealing whether emotional expectations and promises were justified by advertising (purpose, benefit, advantage and benefit of this product). If the buyer's expectations are met, his relationship with the brand is strengthened.

The effectiveness of the brand-consumer relationship depends on the organization of marketing communications, through which trust is formed. The brand must be a person, i.e. possess human character traits, and carry important content for the consumer, causing the latter to desire to enter into a relationship with him. The brand expresses indirectly through the symbol the content of the individual and his interests and needs in the brand, therefore, when forming a brand, it is necessary to study such economic categories as “need”, “demand” and “supply”. -These economic categories are the main factor in the promotion of goods on the market.

What is brand communication?

Brand communications- this is contact, communication with consumers for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information contained in the brand, either verbally or in writing through symbols. The purpose of communications is to achieve positive emotions from the consumer of goods (receiving party) when perceiving the content of the brand from the information received.

Basic requirements for brand communications. They should be:

• sufficient
• successive
• stable
• focused

All the main elements and functions of communications should be focused on conveying objective and persuasive messages to the consumer that would help them make the right decisions in relation to the brand. Brand messages received by the consumer should not be ambiguous and create conflict situations between them.

Properly identified brand elements, in general, brand communications, can guarantee the company's success, development, growth and stable income. In order to test the potential of your brand elements for future adaptation, it is important to design them with the future in mind from the start.

Communication process

How it works?

The brand must be a person, i.e. possess human character traits, and carry important content for the consumer, causing the latter to desire to enter into a relationship with him. The brand expresses indirectly through the symbol the content of the individual and his interests and needs in the brand, therefore, when forming a brand, it is necessary to study such economic categories as “need”, “demand” and “supply”. These economic categories are the main factor in promoting a product on the market.

The communication process is complex. It consists of a number of stages that are interconnected and interdependent. The purpose of each of the stages is to make the ideas and goals of the brand understandable to consumers and be perceived by them as a guide to action.

An effective communication process contributes to the formation of trust between the brand and the consumer, as they are created, maintained and developed through communications and manifest themselves in communications.

Particular attention should be paid to interpersonal communications, which depend on many factors, such as: the correctness of the brand symbol, trust, respect, attractiveness, consideration of interests and needs, Feedback service culture, etc. The study of these factors allows a better understanding of the processes of interpersonal communication.

We have already identified what types of communication ideas have emerged and how brands are using them. But how do you decide what type (or types) of ideas will best suit your brand's needs? We believe that brand ideas are the best of all strategic ideas, but they are the hardest to create. We also found that in some cases, brand ideas may not fit a certain brand or category, and sometimes even the culture of the parent company. Therefore, this stage of the planning process should always be approached with an open mind. And in this chapter, we'll look at ways to evaluate different types of ideas to decide which one or which of them will best meet your brand's needs.

When you develop ideas, there must be some purpose behind them. In Chapter 1, we wrote that communication ideas are one of the most powerful ways to generate a return on investment, but (and this is a very important "but") without clear goals - from business to marketing and communication - your idea is born with an Achilles heel. Without the discipline you need to set goals, your idea simply won't be strong enough. It is here that the lack of faith in the power of ideas is manifested, but this is always - always! - can be avoided.

High order communication goals

Planning is often presented as a linear process, but in reality it rarely turns out to be so - especially when setting goals. It is not uncommon to see how marketing and communication goals change dramatically during planning as important new information is discovered or preliminary implementation ideas influence strategic ideas. In some cases, this is a sign of agile thinking, but very often it happens because the goals did not match the brand from the very beginning.

To determine the right type of communication idea, one must start with the right type of goal. More often than not, marketing objectives are not very helpful in generating communication ideas. For example, marketing goal to increase the sales rate by 10% is generally justified, but it cannot be used to understand what brand actions in the market the consumer will see; besides, it is not a launching pad for excellent communication ideas. So sometimes you need to take a step back and define what we call a High Order Communication Objectives (HOCO) for a brand to help you find the right type of idea. We believe that there are six main high-order communication goals.

1. Achieve priority knowledge (top of mind).

2. Possess values.

3. Play your own role.

4. Reinforce the features or benefits of the product.

5. Strengthen links with the lifestyle or hobbies of the target market.

6. Strengthen the use of "gap".

Each of these high-order communication goals establishes some territory for the brand, thereby helping you determine what type of communication ideas would work best, as well as inspiring you to implement this idea and allowing you to evaluate consumer reactions. Let's take a closer look at these communication goals.

Achieve Priority Knowledge

Almost all brands want to achieve it. (In some niches, exclusivity may be associated with prestige, and therefore priority knowledge is undesirable, but these are special cases.) There are two main ways to achieve priority knowledge.

Some brands achieve it through size or scale. A classic example is Coca-Cola. Walking down the main street or shopping center cities in a western country, you will never be more than 50 meters from some carrier of the Coca-Cola message: signs, bar windows, refrigerators, umbrellas, and so on. This means the ubiquitous presence of Coca-Cola. But in this example, we didn’t even take into account company advertising, promotions, and brand activation.

The second and most commonly used way to achieve priority knowledge is to use a meme or character. There is almost always an advertising idea behind them: in an advertisement for Energizer batteries, a rabbit, toilet paper Andrex is a puppy, Sugar Pufs is a Honey Monster, Hof meister is a bear, Smash is a Martian, Churchill is a dog, and so on. This method is often so effective that some of the most famous characters lose their brand affiliation and become part of popular culture, such as Coca-Cola's red and white Santa Claus.

It should be noted that not all of these characters originated from promotional ideas; sometimes packaging or a brand identity was used to create them, as in the case of the highly successful Felix cat food. Although it is worth noting that even in this example, it is his interpretation in advertising that breathes life into the character.

Possess values

Values ​​are persuasive: they are what draw us to other people. And although they are intangible, at the same time they distinguish us from each other, and the “correct” values ​​(for example, justice, freedom, honesty) are attractive in themselves.

The wording of the essence of the brand often talks about values. We see them in the illustrations - in the center of the "brand keys", "targets" and "pyramids". Often they stay there, practically without winning a place in the real world. But translatable values ​​that are directly applied to communications can be powerful.

One of best examples possession of value - the giant telecommunications company Orange. Looking at the Orange brand in all its incarnations, most of them have the underlying brand value “Optimism” (its emotional platform) as a primary or secondary message. This is a smart goal for a technology company, as it challenges its category standards, builds an empathetic brand image with a human face, and forms the basis for innovation. Orange only met with failure when it departed from this basic understanding that we all have about its meaning and place in the world. This is a higher-order thought that has redefined the category and created territory for the brand that goes beyond purely technical innovation.

Play your own role

Roles are a more streamlined form of values. They are less abstract and represent archetypes of instantly recognizable characters or relationship developments, such as: leader, sage, friend, mother, and - most commonly used - the challenger.

Roles or archetypes are an effective label for the relationship you want to create with a customer; they can directly incorporate the brand into the culture. Writer Terry Pratchett remarked on the peculiarity of our relationship with stories and the archetypes they contain: “People think they define the stories, but the opposite is true.”

This thought has far-reaching implications. That stories define us seems justified to us, because our culture is based on a fairly small number of stories that are simply repeated and reinterpreted, over and over again.

One of the classic books in this field is The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, published in the 1940s. There is nothing particularly unique about this book, as the stories it deals with are known from antiquity, but it is significant that Campbell articulated the structure of the archetypal hero's journey:

1. The plot begins with the existing state of affairs, and we get to know our hero in this ordinary world.

2. The hero has to embark on an adventure; he does so reluctantly at first, but the old sage urges him to leave the house.

3. He encounters obstacles and adversaries and meets helpers.

4. He passes the most difficult test, but then takes possession of the elixir or treasure.

5. He returns home, transformed by what happened, and brings with him a treasure to change the world for the better.

6. The plot ends with a new state of affairs.

We are sure that you have recognized this story in many interpretations - from the legends of King Arthur to Star Wars. And this is not just a fantasy, but a practical tool that can be used to shape brand goals.

There are many stories in which a brand can find a role to play. The classic example of an archetype is the jester. His goal is to live in the present, have a great time and bring a cheerful touch to what is happening. The jester plays the role of a pin: it pierces the bubble of pomposity, arrogance and arrogance. This is a classic archetype, and through its use, the brand begins to play a clear role, where everyone can find something close to themselves. This archetype suits businesses that are fun and entertaining and brands that want to be clearly different from those who take themselves too seriously.

Undoubtedly, the most famous jester brand in the UK is Virgin. In its most successful guises, Virgin acts exactly like a buffoon, bringing a sense of fun to the category and challenging the status quo created by solid and arrogant brands: Virgin Atlantic against British Airways or Virgin Mobile against those intimidating giants that subscribers have to sign contracts with. And in all of the less successful endeavors, Virgin stepped back from that role, and it was unclear who the brand was making fun of and where they fit in the story.

Having values ​​and playing your own role are two very powerful ways to connect with customers and get them engaged. We have no doubt that these goals will increasingly come out on top in terms of frequency of use: they have the greatest potential to attract both the mind and the heart. We expect “play your own role” type of goals to be used more and more as brands look for ways to differentiate, connect with consumers and increase their energy. As additional information on this subject, we recommend John Grant's T e Brand Innovation Manifesto. The author goes into great detail about the different roles and types, and any brand will be able to choose the right role for their own storytelling.

Reinforce product features or benefits

Guided by our experience, among the many definitions of the brand, we choose the following: "an emotional thought about rational difference." And in some market situations, the most obvious opportunity is simply to emphasize the rational difference: faster speed, more cleanliness, longer run time, and so on. While often these differences are expressed in advertising ideas, some brands and companies have based their strategy on this simple approach.

In recent years Reckitt Benckiser is showing strong growth in the detergent sector. Her strategy is to focus on high-performing products in high-growth categories. Despite strong competition, brands - including Cillit Bang and Vanish - have achieved rapid growth by purposefully focusing on product performance coupled with distinctive, highly garish packaging and advertising with simple and clear wording that borders on parody.

Strengthen links with the lifestyle or hobbies of the target market

When the advertising ideas stage ended in the development of communication ideas, the first step beyond it was to find ways to connect with the audience through their hobbies or lifestyle. Now these ideas already have a long history, but in many cases they do not use their potential to the end or do not receive sufficient funds for development. As we have already said, sometimes the result is not at all ideal models in which two ideas operate in parallel; sometimes they are symbiotic and sometimes schizophrenic. But this use of passion or lifestyle of consumers can give the brand distinctive features and several other opportunities for dialogue.

A perfect example is Unilever's Flora brand of margarine. He is very successful in establishing a relationship with in a healthy way life. Essentially, Flora is perfect example a brand in which the prevailing idea over time has reached the greatest clarity and certainty, leading to the now used idea of ​​\u200b\u200bheart health. It's not just reinforcing the benefit of the product, but a broader and more compelling picture that is relevant to everyone. With its help, you can use marketing assets very profitably (for example, sponsorship of the London Marathon).

Another good example using consumer hobbies - the Carling beer brand, which sponsors live music. As we saw in Chapter 5, this helped it stand out more and become the top selling beer brand in the UK.

Strengthen the use of "gap"

You can argue that Carling falls into this latter category as well: after all, a live music concert is a classic situation of drinking, the right moment. By linking to a period of time (we call it simply "gap"), you can improve your performance by focusing on or reinforcing consumption or purchase at a certain time of day, day of the week, season, or under a certain mood, occasion, conditions. or performing a ritual. Some of these situations are culturally determined, and here the most obvious examples are national holidays or festivals: Christmas, Easter, New Year, Valentine's Day and so on. But some brands create their own gap.

The Metro brand of newspapers is a product that is completely focused on a certain period of time. This free London newspaper is distributed at tube exits, on buses and on trains and makes great use of the 20-30 minute commute in the morning. On a subway trip two weeks after the launch of this newspaper, we were amazed to see that of the 40 passengers in the car, more than two-thirds were reading their own copy, and most of the rest were studying the newspaper from behind their neighbors. This is more than a communication goal; it's a business model, but it demonstrates that getting the timing right is half the battle.

Focus on the right goal

Deciding which goal is best for your brand or market situation depends on the current position of the brand and its long-term goals for the future. We have compiled a list of possible criteria as quick guide to help you determine the most suitable HOCO. Having considered various situations and long-term goals, we can see which of the HOCOs has the best potential for established brands or those just about to enter the market.

Does the brand already have a certain weight in its category or does it have enough potential to achieve such a weight?

Does the brand operate in the intangible category?

Is this an impulse buy?

If your answer is yes, then consider using HOCO 1: Prioritize Knowledge.

Is the brand trying to change the mindset of the category?

Is the brand trying to change behavior in the category?

If you answered yes, then consider using HOCO 2: Have Values.

Do the brand's long-term goals fall outside this category?

Is the brand looking to transform?

If you answered yes, then consider HOCO 3: Play Your Own Role.

Is the benefit from this brand more relevant than that of competitors?

Does this benefit manifest itself in a form that is important for society (it will be discussed)?

Does the brand protect a large market share?

Are you looking to encourage product sampling?

If you answered yes, then think about HOCO 4: Reinforce product features or benefits.

Is it a boring brand?

Are you looking to establish connections with key users?

Is brand positioning related to lifestyle?

Is your target group homogenous (for example, mothers who have this first child)?

If you answered yes, then consider HOCO 5: Strengthen your links with the lifestyle or hobbies of your target market.

Do you think there is an untapped product opportunity in this category?

Does the product have a targeted benefit in terms of time of day or day of the week?

If you answered yes, then think about HOCO 6: Strengthen the use of "gap".

HOCO represent the starting line. They are broad as separate areas, but they help to determine which communication idea has the best opportunities. We also tried to keep things simple. Most of them are simple and probably would have been answered in the process of writing a marketing strategy. However, we apply this knowledge and look at it from the point of view of communications.

Where do you start?

When you start from scratch

For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine that your brand is starting from scratch, that is, it has not yet entered the market or its capital has not yet been spent on established ideas. (This does not necessarily mean that such brands have no baggage; rather, they seek to change without taking much of their communication history with them.) So, if you're starting from scratch, HOCOs fit the following communication ideas:

HOCO 1: Achieve prioritized knowledge?

This is the easiest to understand. Advertising idea - The best way clearly highlight the brand or product and make it memorable. Other ideas, such as contextual frames, can also be applied, but the advertising idea will be at the center of everything.

Rice. 9.1. HOCO 1 - Achieve Priority Knowledge

HOCO 2 and 3: have values ​​or play your own role?

You need an activation idea or a brand idea along with an activation idea

There are two ways to play your own role or have values, depending on how clearly defined the essence of the brand is. If it is clear, then there is an option - to go straight to the realization and energy that the idea of ​​​​activation can instantly create. To do this, you need to be honest: to consider the essence of the brand not just as a broad territory that the brand occupies, but as a source of energy for communications. Unfortunately, the essence of almost all brands is not suitable for this. Due to its breadth and vagueness, it is unable to give the necessary spice to communications so that they can inspire action and be remembered. However, if you are sure that the essence of the brand will cope with this task, then go for it!

Rice. 9.2. HOCO 2 and 3 - have values ​​or play a role

More often, a brand idea is required. It becomes the door behind which the brand opens up the possibility of a wider implementation. From a clear brand idea, you can move into the real world and start a really exciting activation that will easily resonate with consumers. As we have seen, a great brand idea combined with the energy of an activation idea is one of the most powerful combinations today.

HOCO 4: Reinforce product features or benefits?

You need a promotional idea and a symbiotic idea. Benefits that are clearly defined can be enhanced through discipline through advertising ideas. But adding a symbiotic idea can make the benefit much more relevant. Sounds simple, but in practice, the “not invented here” syndrome often becomes a disastrous hindrance. If the symbiotic idea comes from a media agency, it is not uncommon for the ad agency to be unwilling to change its creative work, although more often the opposite happens: a beautiful symbiotic idea created by advertising agency, is coldly received by a media agency whose employees put their ego first. They can't make the creative transition from effectiveness to efficiency, or they simply don't want to do things that are out of the ordinary. This is the harsh truth, and all agencies would benefit from being more mature on this issue.

Rice. 9.3. HOCO 4 - reinforce product features/benefits

HOCO 5: strengthen links with the lifestyle or hobbies of the target market?

You need a physical platform

Physical platforms are an obvious way to connect with a consumer through their passion or lifestyle. Their obviousness can lead to the issues of superficial or low involvement that we discussed earlier.

But if you manage to avoid these difficulties, a physical platform can go a long way in connecting your brand to consumer passions.

Rice. 9.4. HOCO 5 - strengthen links with the lifestyle/hobbies of the target market

HOCO 6: to strengthen the use of the gap?

You need an activation idea and a contextual frame

At the most basic level, in order to relate to a gap, one needs to correctly define the contextual frame. But in order to achieve real change in behavior, you need to use the idea of ​​activation.

Rice. 9.5. HOCO 6 - Strengthen the use of "gap"

Let's summarize. The figure below shows how HOCOs are related to communication idea types.

Rice. 9.6. When you start from scratch - summary

When you don't start from scratch

We looked at those cases of working with HOCO when the brand starts from scratch. But if he already has some good communication ideas, things can be more complicated, and the number of options will be limited. In this case, it is usually worth keeping existing promotional and activation ideas. If they are really strong, then there will be ways to apply them more beneficially: either by increasing their relevance in context and seeking to develop symbiotic ideas in a purer form, or by highlighting the most effective in the activation idea to see if it can make sense of the brand idea.

Rice. 9.7. When you don't start from scratch

But the most important factor is...

Most important quality necessary when evaluating the types of ideas is good old common sense. However, it should not be forgotten that this evaluation process is closely linked to long-term goals. If you're not sure what your brand is trying to achieve, all attempts to evaluate the types of ideas are doomed to failure in an environment of confusion and frustration.