Brands, Ethics and Authenticity

I have written a lot about how brands can tap into deep attitudes, values, hopes, fears and other emotions to sell their products and services. Compared to selling attributes, features or functional benefits, this works extraordinarily well. Having said that, far too many brands have as their foundations these deep emotional promises, promises that are hollow because the brands' products and services don't actually deliver what is promised except in the mind. I have come to realize how unethical this is. Yes, it is very powerful to sell dreams, but what if the dreams are false dreams?

I will use one example to drive this point home - Marlboro. Marlboro has a 40% share of the tobacco market, far more than twice the share of the next brand, Newport. It has been an extraordinarily successful brand. What does Marlboro sell? Rugged freedom. Independence. Self-sufficiency. Adventure. The Wild West. The simpler times of a black and white world where right is right and wrong is wrong. What does it deliver? Addiction to a substance that causes cancer and death. Does this aid in real freedom? Yes, one is free to be as self destructive as he or she wants to be in a free society, but is this the type of freedom the brand purchaser is really seeking?

As marketers, if we have consciences, we must check our urges to create "knock it out of the park" marketing campaigns if those campaigns deliver on powerful but hollow claims, especially if our brands' products are harmful to one's health or society as a whole. We must be better than that. It may be more difficult to develop equally compelling campaigns that are ethical and authentic, but ultimately, we will have not harmed anyone. That will help us sleep better at night. And it will help make the world a better, not worse, place.

Here are some related blog posts:

• Ethics in Marketing
• Brands and Authenticity
• Authentic Brands
• The Power of Socially Conscious Brands
• States of Mind
• Brands and Freedom
• Brands and the Emotions They Evoke
• Poison Parasite Defense

Core Human Needs and Marketing

Psychologists have long hypothesized, studied and tested what they believe to be the core human needs. While most psychologists highlight six basic needs, many also include a seventh need. Here are the seven needs:

1. Certainty/Safety/Comfort/Control/Security
2. Love/Affection/Physical and Emotional Connection
3. Significance/Respect/Uniqueness/Feeling Special
4. Competence/Mastery
5. Contribution/Making a Difference
6. Variety/Experience/Stimulation/Novelty/Satisfying Curiosity
7. Independence/Freedom/Autonomy

Most people experience deficiencies in meeting one or more of these needs on a regular basis. Knowing this, marketers can target their brands' unique value propositions and marketing messages to address these needs.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. As a marketer, consider your role to be that of delivering Kintsugi to your brand's customers, that is to help them to fill their perceived deficiencies or brokenness with your brand's "gold."

As an exercise, try to identify at least one brand that focuses on each of these core human needs.

As an example, here is my list:

1. Certainty/Safety/Comfort/Control/Security - National Car Rental
2. Love/Affection/Physical and Emotional Connection - Hallmark
3. Significance/Respect/Uniqueness/Feeling Special - MINI Cooper
4. Competence/Mastery - Footjoy
5. Contribution/Making a Difference - Patagonia
6. Variety/Experience/Stimulation/Novelty/Satisfying Curiosity - Dr. Pepper
7. Independence/Freedom/Autonomy - Marlboro

These needs are fundamental and very powerful. Consider how your brand can promise the fulfillment of one or more of these needs. 

Brands and Habits

Habit:

1. A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition
2. An established disposition of the mind or character
3. Customary manner or practice
4. An addiction, especially to a narcotic drug

We all have habits. For instance, we order the same menu item every time we go to a specific restaurant. Or we purchase the same brand of soda pop. Or we start our day with a cup of coffee and the morning paper. Or we go to the gym and work out every morning. 

Some of our brands are habits for people. For instance, someone may smoke a pack of Marlboro Reds every day. Or maybe someone stops at Dunkin' Donuts every morning on the way to work. Or perhaps someone only goes to Hallmark stores to purchase her greeting cards. Someone may have a favorite peanut butter brand or a favorite brand of toilet paper, which she faithfully and habitually buys. Or maybe someone pours himself a shot glass of Tito's vodka after arriving home from work every evening.

Some brands have tried to increase sales by suggesting that their brands could be incorporated into daily rituals. A food brand might try to incorporate its use into the morning breakfast ritual. Other brands might try to incorporate their use into family picnics, happy hours, Thanksgiving celebrations or graduations. 

I recently interacted with an organization whose 9 month reconstruction project would create a brand interaction hiatus for that long. The organization is a cultural institution and the audience is composed of cinephiles. I suggested an ideation session to identify ways to engage the audience in similar brand-related habits until the theatre reopened with teasers to create anticipation of the reopening. 

For a while, Starbucks was encouraging its morning customers to purchase a second drink in the afternoon via a price discount offered on their register receipts.

If your brand interaction is habitual, congratulations. Focus on reinforcing that habit and be careful not to do anything that could break the habit. If your brand interaction is not habitual, consider how you can make it so. Habitual behaviors tied to brands create regular guaranteed frequent repurchases of the brands. 

As a side note, I would strongly encourage the establishment of healthy brand habits, such as working out at an LA Fitness club every morning, using a Waterpik water flosser every night or hiking with Merrell hiking boots every Saturday over more health damaging brand habits. 

To learn more about the ten habits of Starbucks drinkers featured in the image above, click here.

Common Brand Problems

Problem 8. Overextending your brand into different categories and markets so as to completely blur the brand’s meaning and points of distinction

Analysis. You can always make more money in the short term by licensing your brand out for use on a variety of products or by extending your brand into a myriad of new categories. The long-term effect, however, is detrimental. People no longer will be able to tell what your brand stands for. It will lose its meaning and its point of difference. Extend your brand based on a clear understanding of its essence, promise, archetype, and personality. And make sure your consumers “get it.”

Problem 9. Frequently changing your brand’s positioning and message

Analysis. New brand managers and marketing executives often feel as though they need to make a name for themselves to continue the climb up the corporate ladder. Don’t succumb to this temptation by changing the advertising campaign or the brand slogan, especially if the current ones are working well or haven’t been in place long enough for you to assess their effectiveness. Consistent communication over time is what builds a brand. After all, Hallmark has used its “When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best” slogan since 1944; the Marlboro Man has been Marlboro’s icon since 1955; Absolut Vodka has featured its bottle’s shape in consumer communication since 1978. Since 1921, General Mills has used Betty Crocker as its face to the public. Her portrait has changed in subtle ways eight times since then. If you do make changes, make them gradually in an integrated fashion, based on sound consumer research.

Problem 10. Creating brands or subbrands for internal or trade reasons, rather than to address distinct consumer needs

Analysis. There is nothing more inefficient or wasteful than creating a new brand or subbrand for a purpose other than meeting a different consumer need. Brands and subbrands exist to address different consumers and consumer need segments. It is expensive to launch a new brand (and very expensive to maintain multiple brands that meet similar consumer needs; it also adds unnecessary complexity to your organization). Worst of all, it dilutes the position of your original brand. This problem often results from egos and organization structure. People head up divisions or business units that deliver specific products or services. They create a name and identity to put on business cards and to rally their employees around, without considering whether the products or services are similar to products or services other divisions create. (This tendency has resulted in Hewlett-Packard having multiple printer lines: DeskJet, OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro, LaserJet, DesignJet, DeskWriter, and PhotoSmart. It is unlikely that consumers understand many of these distinctions. They are likely to think of them all as HP printers.)

Sometimes, companies create separate brands or subbrands for trade reasons— for instance, to offer something different for specialty stores vs. mass channels of distribution. (Hallmark created the Expressions from Hallmark brand to offer mass channel stores while specialty stores continued to carry the Hallmark brand. These two brands don’t meet different consumer needs, and I’m not sure consumers perceive differences between the two.) This problem can also result from mergers and acquisitions in which the brands are neither rationalized nor strategically managed after the enterprises are combined.


Three of thirty-five common brand problems excerpted from Brand Aid, second edition, available here.