My Essays
The Influence of Advertising on the Creation of Brand meaning
When shopping, consumers choose one product or service out of a selection of similar items in that product or service category. Persil washing powder may be selected above Ariel, or McDonald’s preferred to Burger King. But these selections are not purely based on the facts of price and quality, they are also based on consumer beliefs regarding these brands; the brand meaning. The brand meaning is the emotional 1, often irrational consumer interpretation of a brand and this influences purchase choice. It is the perceived personality 1 and character of the product or service and helps encourage brand loyalty by consumers. But where does this brand meaning or image come from and how is it created? Fanning describes the brand meaning as a public image based on “impressions, ideas, opinions and random associations” 1 by potential purchasers. But these impressions, ideas, opinions and random associations must have a semantic connection with the brand that has been made by the consumer. The consumer’s image of a brand is slowly built up from the evidence they gather over time. Everything discovered by the consumer, however trivial, is translated into a meaning and significance 1 that affects their opinion of the brand and therefore what the brand means to them. “People build brands in their heads - whether or not the owners of that brand intend them to” 2. The owners of these brands therefore wish to influence this construction by consumers and are believed to do so using a variety of marketing methods such as user imagery; advertising; and packaging 3. The creation of brand meaning is not purely from advertising, as Stockdale describes; “out in the real world, genuine belief is earned, after consumers have heard what the brand has got to say.” 4.
This report looks at the influence advertising has on consumers to build brand meaning that the company desires. Two main brands will be used to help discuss the issues raised;
•Škoda, the motor car manufacturer;
•Nike, the sports equipment, clothing and footwear
These have been selected due to their UK advertising campaigns and their changing brand meaning and image over this time. Nike has become a symbol of sporting success, maintaining a very positive brand meaning. Škoda meanwhile was at one point in its history a symbol of failure and embarrassment, and is only now beginning to turn this image on its head.
Advertising is defined as “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor” 5 and therefore not only covers television adverts and posters but also methods such as sponsorship. Brands have four main types of meaning; attributes, benefits, values and personality 6. Each of these have differing effects on the consumer’s interpretation of the brand. Attributes are the features of the product or service that can be reflected into the brand meaning. The attributes of the product or service can not be altered with advertising but can only be promoted by it. Nike products are engineered to maximize their efficiency in the sporting arena and are produced to the highest quality. Features such as the specialized ‘Air’ soles are a major attribute of their range of ‘Nike Air’ trainers and are were heavily advertised in the late 80’s including a campaign called ‘AirRevolution’ that cost over seven million dollars 7. The adverts centered on the advantages of these new trainers; their benefits. The main benefit was the increased comfort of the shoe and was shown with a ‘spring board’ image.
Since the creation of Nike in 1971, the company has heavily invested in advertising and promotion of their brand through normal advertising and sponsorship of sports personalities. Between 1973 and his death in 1976, one of Americas best track runners in history, Steve Prefontaine wore Nike shoes as he broke many track records. This was his choice of footwear and encouraged others to use this new brand 7 – he was not paid to carry the brand. Endorsements such as this are highly successful in promoting a product as it is believable and honest. These are two of the three key features in a successful advert. KAS&W tell us that advertising appeals should have three characteristics; they should be meaningful, pointing out benefits to make the product more desirable; believable, prevent consumers from doubting the honesty of the advert, and finally distinctive, setting the product apart from the competition8. The voluntary endorsement of Nike trainers by Prefontaine succeeds in all three characteristics. It is meaningful because the product has brought great success to a user, it is believable because it is the users choice and he is not being paid to wear them, and it is distinctive because they have brought the user unrivaled success. Realising the affect of having a successful sports person using and therefore endorsing their products, Nike signed up the young tennis prospect John McEnroe in 1978 because they believed he was the personification of the Nike brand - colourful character and feisty personality. This use of human characteristics within a brand helps to enable a consumer to make associations between the brand and the type of user of the brand. By becoming a user the consumer is attempting to express his or her own self 9, an ideal self 10, or specific dimensions of the self 11 through the use of the brand12. By aspiring to be like McEnroe, consumers aspire to use Nike footwear, and they build a portrait of what Nike means, its brand meaning, around its most famous user.
In 1981 McEnroe won two major tennis championships whilst using Nike footwear and this was used in billboard adverts by Nike’s advertising agency, Wieden and Kennedy. The posters showed two images of McEnroe playing tennis, one at Wimbledon and one at the US open, with the Nike tick logo clearly visible on his footwear. Beneath each picture the location and date is written with “singles and doubles Champion” also written beneath each picture. At the base of the poster both the swoosh and ‘Nike’ logos are displayed 13. Wieden and Kennedy were now ensuring that consumers were indeed associating Nike not only with McEnroe but more importantly with success. This is an example of the evidence consumers use to create an image of brand meaning, and from this a brand meaning is molded through advertising.
Nike’s next major connection with a sporting personality was in 1985 with young basketball player Michael Jordon. Nike not only sponsored Jordan but created a separate range of footwear branded “Air Jordan”. Nike were trying to make Michael Jordan synonymous with their brand and any successes he would make would also by associated with Nike, more so than with McEnroe. Sponsorship falls into the definition of advertising, and therefore any influence on brand meaning from sponsorship is an influence of advertising. Sponsorship is though, a very risky type of advertising. With a television commercial the company can mold the advert into the brand meaning they require, but with sponsorship, the sporting personality becomes an ambassador for the brand. All of their actions will be connected to the brand, be they positive or negative. As Nike had created ‘Air Jordan’ they were committing themselves to the sponsorship. However, as risk increases, so do the heights to which it can have a positive effect on the brand. By succeeding, Michael Jordan’s success could, in part, be put down to the brand that he believed in.
Nike were creating more “brand imagery associations” 14 using Michael Jordan. This builds up a mental image in consumers minds of types of users of the brand and if positive, results in social approval 14. This is where users of a brand receive positive opinions and feedback from other consumers. This social acceptance of a brand encourages more consumers to use the brand and so it becomes fashionable – furthering the creation of a positive brand meaning.
In 1986, following the success of their footwear, Nike were able to extent their brand to clothing, creating apparel for McEnroe in Tennis and then Jordan in Basketball 15. Nike were able to make these extensions because Nike had built a brand image of success in sport instead of success in footwear, achieved through the sponsorship of McEnroe. The creation of brand meaning builds an image of the brand within the consumer’s minds and this tells consumers not only what the brand is but more importantly what it cannot be 16. By creating a brand meaning of sporting success, extension to sports clothing was simple and made simpler still when it was linked with the personalities who had made their brand such a success. In 1991 Michael Jordan helped the Chicago Bulls win their first NBA championship, 5 years after teaming up with Nike, another example of success brought from the Nike brand – from zero to hero.
It is not only sponsorship that brings about brand meaning, slogans used within adverts are a key influence on how brands are viewed. In 1988 Wieden and Kennedy created the slogan “Just Do It” for the Nike brand to encourage consumers to get into Nike clothing and footwear and get out and succeed. The slogan was launched on a poster with a distant image of a runner and a quote of him that read; “I run 17 miles ever morning. People ask me how I stop my teeth from chattering in the wintertime. I leave them in my locker” followed by the slogan “Just Do It” 13. The advert promotes the idea that an aged man with false teeth dons his Nike gear and just does it. This slogan has been synonymous with Nike and therefore with the brand image and meaning. It creates an image that Nike is designed for and available to everyone, and brings their top technical advances in sportswear to aid anyone’s sporting demands.
From the example of Nike we see a heavy influence on brand meaning from their advertising methods, especially sponsorship, which they continue to this day. Due to the success of their sponsored ambassadors, satisfaction of consumers and constantly improving attributes bringing new benefits to users Nike have successfully upheld a strong and positive brand meaning. Their methods of advertising and perceived quality of products (brought about through endorsements and adverts) have meant there are no negative influences on the brands meaning.
Other companies meanwhile have failed to maintain quality of their goods or the perceived quality to ensure their brand meanings stay positive. This results in the brand becoming socially rejected and so consumers do not wish to be associated with them. To flourish the brand must change this consumer opinion. The brand Škoda has, in the past been immediately associated with failure and embarrassment, but since being taken over by Volkswagen in 1991 has been slowly gaining consumer approvals and increasing the image of the brand.
The origins of the Škoda motor car date back to 1905 but it was not until the 1930’s that the brand name Škoda was introduced. The quality of their cars pre-war was reasonable but post war, as western technologies advanced, the quality and reliability of the Czechoslovakian company’s vehicles stayed the same and floundered in comparison. That was until the end of the nineteen eighties, and beginning of the nineteen nineties when the end of communism came about and the brand became part of the Volkswagen group. A new production plant was built in 1996 and with it came the new Octavia. Two years later and an Octavia world rally car was unveiled onto the world rally car scene and it came 3rd in the World Rally Championship against 5 other world class manufacturers 17.
Before its take over by Volkswagen, Škoda cars had an infamous reputation for being highly unreliable to such an extent that Škoda joined ‘blonde’, ‘light bulb’ and ‘knock knock’ in having its own chapter in joke books. The following joke highlights the meaning of the company at the time; “why do Škoda’s have rear-heated-windows? To keep your hands warm while you push it.” The brand meaning of Škoda had become very poor and the word Škoda had become synonymous with ‘unreliable’, ‘cheap’, ‘uncomfortable’ ‘undesirable’ and as has just been shown, ‘joke’. Škoda carried out limited advertising, attempting to brand themselves as very cheap motor cars to carry users from A to B but with many extra features such as the rear heated window described in the joke. The vehicles often failed to carry users from A to B and therefore the extra attributes became of little benefit. Škoda were not in a position to mold their brand meaning from fresh clay, like Nike but from a broken pot. Volkswagen had a brand in Škoda that came with an unwanted meaning that was set into consumers minds; it had become a social outcast that no consumer wanted to be associated with.
After ten years of Volkswagen ownership, the Škoda brand has been fully rejuvenated, so much so that in 2000 its Fabia car was voted best European car 18 and recent advertising in the UK resulted in a 20% rise in sales19 on the previous year. Volkswagen put all of their technological knowledge into all Škoda manufacture and design whilst maintaining low costs, and so the product associated with Škoda has completely changed. The brand meaning of Škoda meanwhile stayed the same and so advertising was implemented to update the consumer image of the Škoda brand.
The Volkswagen group accepted the failings of the Škoda brand and advertised the new models using a unique form of comparative advertising. Comparative advertising is a type of persuasive advertising used by companies to compare their brand with another competing brand 20. In this case the comparison is created between what Škoda is and what consumers think Škoda is. In a series of adverts created by the agency Fallon 21 consumers were shown people attempting to link the new Škoda models with the old brand image before being reassured, “it’s a Škoda, honest”. The billboard advert (fig.1) shows the miss conception that consumers are expected to make – that the car and badge (Source: www.fallon.com)
Appear to be a miss match. This acceptance, honesty and almost apology of previous failings of the brand within the adverts has as much effect on the perception of the brand as the story in the advert itself. As Emma Halls of The Times described, “Glossy ads will not sell but the truth will” 22. Initially the influence of advertising in the creation of a brand meaning was non-existent and built purely on its performance. After improving the product, up-take was slow due to the remaining brand meaning, but following this advertising campaign from the first half of 2002 an increase in sales of 20%, compared to the same period in the previous year 19, was experienced.
This report suggests that advertising – any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor5 – has a large influence on the creation of brand meaning. Brand meaning is created within the minds of consumers over time and built up from all evidence they are exposed to. Advertising, packaging, quality of product, price of product, recommendations – both positive and negative, stories, news reports, social acceptance as well as personal experiences of the brand by users create the consumers own interpretation of the brand and hence forth its brand meaning. The first four of the above list of influences are the main factors that the company have control over and are used to combat the other influences that are creating an undesirable or unwanted brand meaning.
Word count: 2600
Bibliography
1.Fanning, John (1999) tell me a story: the future of branding, Irish Marketing Review, 12, 2, 3-15
2.Bulmore, J. (1991), Behind the Scenes in Advertising, NTC Publications, London
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4.Stockdale, Mark (2002) Ads that beggar belief can't gain trust for brands, Marketing (UK), p18, 1/3p, 1c
5.KAS&W, (2002, third edition) principles of marketing (pp.819)
6.KAS&W, (2002, third edition) principles of marketing (pp.470)
8.KAS&W, (2002, third edition) principles of marketing (pp.668)
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14.Hoeffler; Keller (2002) Building brand equity through corporate societal marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing; Chicago, Vol. 21, 1, 78-85
16.Oakenfull (2000) Measuring Brand Meaning, Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 40, 5, 43-54
20.KAS&W, (2002, third edition) principles of marketing (pp.664)
22.Halls, Emma “Roll up the truth zone”, The Times (7 July 2000) p.30
1st Year Marketing (2002 - 2003)
