The Law of Publicity With virtually no advertising, but with massive amounts of publicity, The Body Shop has

s become a powerful global brand it was the endless torrent of newspaper and magazine articles, plus radio and television interviews that literally created The Body Shop Advertising generally wont get a new brand off the ground A new brand must be capable of generating favourable publicity in the media or it wont have a chance in the mar et place The best way to generate publicity is by being the first brand in a new category media wants to report what is new, not what is best What others say about your brand is far more powerful that what you can say about it yourself Todays brands are built with publicity maintained by advertising !ompanies such as "icrosoft, #ell, $ntel, %ateway, &racle, !ompa' etc are companies that were first created by the Wall Street (ournal, Business Wee , )orbes and )ortune "agazine publicity, not advertising Strategy should be developed from a publicity point of view rather than from an advertising perspective

The Law of Advertising *ublicity is an essential tool for a product in its initial stages, but the product will eventually outlive the publicity you cant rely on publicity forever After the product has been written about and spo en about in the media, get the media to concentrate on the company and how innovative the company is etc+ &nce that avenue of publicity has been e,hausted, then you must turn to advertising ie- )irst publicity, then advertising .ou should loo at your advertising budget as insurance that protects the brand against losses caused by competitive attac s A brand leader should advertise brand leadership eg- /%ood .ear, 01 in tyres2 When you say that the product is /better2 consumers thin /that is what they all say2, but when you advertise that your product is /the leader2, they thin that it must be better

"ost people buy the leading brand Advertising is useful to maintain brand leadership, but not to obtain it

The Law of the Word )ed3, has become synonymous with /overnight delivery2 To build a brand you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospects mind+ A word that nobody else owns 4eg- 5olvo owns the word /safety26 A common mista e in branding is when once the company /owns2 a word it then moves on to broaden its base and enter into other mar ets $n the same way that 7leene, owns tissue 4/!an you pass me a 7leene,2 really means, /can you pass me that bo, of tissues2 even though it may not be 7leene,6, !oca !ola owns cola, Band Aid owns adhesive bandages and 8ollerblade owns in9line s ates you now when your brand owns the category name when people use your brand name generically .ou can only become a generic brand by being the first 4*epsi will never own the word /cola2 even if it outsells !o e2 $f you were not the first in your category, you can become the first by creating a new category by narrowing your focus eg- )ed3, overtoo 3mery because 3mery offered all different types of services+ )ed3, concentrated only on overnight deliveries and soon became famous for being able to deliver pac ages overnight, while 3mery was not seen to be able to deliver that 'uic ly The product itself might have a visual reality, but its the brand name and its associations that give the product meaning in the mind of the consumers #ont e,pand the brand, e,pand the mar et ma e your product the /in9thing2 in your industry eg- /:ey, this data must be important because it was analysed using $!8)S2

The Law of Credentials !redentials are the collateral that you put up to guarantee performance of your brand ;eadership is the most direct way to guarantee credentials for your brand 3verywhere that the brand name is used, so are the credentials 4/The 8eal Thing2 was used in the <=s every time !oca !ola was mentioned !redentials are important in the publicity process+ 8eporters and editors will not dismiss leadership and other aspects to a brands credentials as /puffery2 9 $f a reporter is doing a story on car rentals, they will call :ertz 9 $f a reporter is doing a story on cola, they will call !oca !ola

$f a reporter is doing a story on computer software, they will call "icrosoft

When the benefits of a product are structured around credentials, they carry much more weight >ever assume that people now who the leader is in a category "ost people would wal away from an empty restaurant and wait for a table at a busy one because the food?service?ambiance must be better at the full one, otherwise there would be a line outside the door of the empty restaurant

The Law of the Name $n the long run, a brand is nothing more than a name $n the long term, the uni'ue idea or concept disappears and what is left is the company name @ero, built the first plain paper copier+ Today all copiers are plain paper, but what distinguishes @ero, from the rest of the mar et is their name What is important is the perception that the name creates 4eg- A 8olls 8oyce may not really be a better car than a (aguar or a Bentleigh, but the name suggests that it is and you have to believe it because it is the /8olls 8oyce of automobiles2 The most valuable asset of the @ero, corporation is its name it is short, uni'ue and connotes high technology What is a "itsubishiA $s it a carA A televisionA A semiconductorA $t is all of these ieB generic+ The only thing worse than a generic name is a line e,tended generic name eg- The "itsubishi )a, "aster 4nobody can distinguish it from the other fa, machines+ $t is not uni'ue6

The Law of Extensions ;ine e,tension ills sales of the original brand+ *roduct A is released and is doing well 4;ets call it Acme Beer6 so then we e,tend the product line to attract more customers Acme ;ight, Acme Bitter, Acme 3,tra Taste+ .ou dont attract more customers, but you shift customers from Acme Beer to the e,tended lines isnt an Acme Beer drin er more li ely to try Acme ;ight than a Budweiser drin erA $f you e,tend your product you may be suggesting that the original wasnt the best+ That is why />ew !o e2 failed wasnt the 8eal Thing really the 8eal ThingA / Should 3vian launch Sulfate )ree Water wasnt the original water good for youA

"anagement often measures the e,tension rather than the new product+ So Cust because 7ellogs )ruit ;oops is successful, it doesnt mean that 7ellogs :ealthy Style )ruit ;oops will also do well $T "A. 38&#3 .&D8 &8$%$>A; ;$>3 but What will customers of the current brand thin when they see your e,tended brandA $f the mar et is moving out from under you, stay where you are and launch a completely second brand 4ie- not $!8)9*lusE but AB!#3 brand6

The Law of Fellowshi &ne of the best locations from a number two brand is right across the road from the leader both brands will benefit !hoice stimulates demand the competition between !o e and *epsi ma es consumers more cola conscious 4a monopoly ma es consumers suspicious+ ;oo at "icrosoft6 !ompetition broadens the category while allowing the brands to maintain focus But when there is too much choice, consumers get confused eg- in !alifornia there are 1,=== wineries and F,=== brands but no brand leader Two maCor brands wor well eg- !o e and *epsi, 7oda and )uCi, #uracell and 3nergiser &ften the law of )ellowship can be seen in Business !entres, Shopping !entres etc egthe garment district on <th Avenue or the diamond district on )orty Seventh Street or the financial centre of Wall Street $t ma es sense for similar businesses to be located near each other+ Similar businesses in the same area attracts more customers who can comparison shop and have a choice+ Businesses can also eep an eye on their competition >o brand can ever own the entire mar et 4e,cept WindowsG6

The Law of !iblings There does come a time when there is a need to launch a second brand but not so that it detracts from the original brand Sometimes it is good to create a family of brands sibling brands 3ach brand has to be different and distinct in its own right Some managers want to ta e advantage of the e'uity that they have in their brand, but they are mista en if they use the e,isting brand to support the new one as it could damage the original brand

Time $nc is the worlds largest magazine publisher by launching totally separate publications ie- Time, )ortune 4not Time for Business6, ;ife 4not Time for *ictures6, Sports $llustrated 4not Time for Sports6, "oney 4not Time for )inances6, *eople 4not Time for celebrities6 Siblings are not associated as being in the same category as the other members of the family The siblings can all be controlled by the same parent+ Dpper management has to be more involved to ensure that there is no mi,ing of the siblings so that they remain separate #o not tag the company name onto every sibling do ;e,us buyers buy a ;e,us because it is made by ToyotaA &r in spite of the fact that it is made by Toyota 7eep the following siblings in mind9 )ocus on a common product area 9 Select a single attribute to each segment 4eg- distribution, age, flavours but most commonly, price 9 Set up rigid distinctions between brands 9 !reate different brand names for each sibling 9 !reate a new sibling only if you can create a new category 9 7eep control of the siblings at the highest level otherwise the effectiveness of the brands can degrade+ A sibling strategy can be used to dominate a category over the long term

The Law of Colour !olour can help to ma e a brand distinctive $t is best to stic to the five basic colours of red, blue, green, yellow and orange rather than a mi,ed colour or combination of colours 9 8ed is the colour of energy and e,citement 4!oca !ola6 9 Blue is a tran'uil colour but also a corporate?leadership colour 4$B"6 9 &range is an in9between colour which is li e 8ed, 9 %reen is the colour of the environment 4eg- 5itamins, :ealth )oods6 9 .ellow is a neutral colour that also is associated with caution 4road signs6

There are other colours which can be used as well9 White is the colour of purity 4Weddings6 9 Blac is the colour of lu,ury 4(ohnnie Wal er Blac ;abel6 9 *urple is the colour of royalty

)ocus on the identity that the brand should create, not Cust the mood !hoose the best colour possible, but if there is another brand with that colour, choose the opposite colour The colours that you choose will determine whether consumers can visualise your logo or not eg- !o e is easy to visualise 4lots of red6 but *epsi has two colours and it is difficult to picture ;ine e,tensions destroy the impact of colour on the original brand Sometimes, but rarely, a case can be made for multiple colours eg- )ed3, chose two colours that would be sure to stand out on someones des orange and purple

The Law of "orders Building a global brand means- eeping the brands narrow focus in its home country and going global The words /imported product2 on a brand creates the perception of 'uality :eine en Beer is actually made in :olland but because of its geographical pro,imity to %ermany and because of the perception that %ermany produces very good beer, :eine en capitalised on that perception+ They even distributed cardboard coasters that had written on them /*rinted in %ermany2 There is no such thing as a global brand without a global perception 4eg- Toyota, :onda and >issan are (apanese, !ompa', $ntel and "icrosoft are American etc6 !oca !ola is one of the only brands that can be classified as being the closest to a truly /$nternational2 brand but it must stay with its American heritage because every brand must originate from somewhere $t doesnt matter where the brand originated, is produced etc, the name and the associated connotations determine its geographic perception eg- :Hagen9#azs ice cream sounds Scandinavian, but it was developed in >ew (ersey The use of 3nglish words in promoting a brand and in the brand name is important because 3nglish has become an international language 48ed Bull energy drin is Austrian, but they dont call it /8oter Stier2G6 The name of your product doesnt have to be an 3nglish word but must sound li e one+ Be careful with advertising slogans because sometimes they dont translate well eg/!ome alive with the *epsi generation2 translates to !hinese as /*epsi brings your ancestors bac from the dead2

The Law of Consistency A brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something+ B"W has been the /ultimate driving machine2 for EF years Brands should never change they can be bent slightly or given a new slant but not changed $f the mar et moves, stic with the brand and the cycle will come bac to you 4Cust because the trend is towards white alcohol 4gin, vod a etc6 (ac #aniels would destroy its whis ey line if they introduced (ac #aniels 5od a6 Limiting the brand is the essence of branding# Limiting the brand and being consistent $over decades% is the &ey to successful branding

The Law of 'ortality Brands have a life cycle they are born, prosper and die+ !ompanies spend millions trying to change an old brand 47oda uses the 7oda name on all digital products to try to change with the mar et6 &pportunities for new mar ets are always being created with the birth of new categories "any managers ma e poor financial decisions because they fail to distinguish between the two aspects of a brands value- :ow well nown it is and what the brand stands for A well nown brand that doesnt stand for anything has no value and a brand that stands for something but is not well nown has value because there is the opportunity to create a powerful brand Brand new brands ma e the impact, not rehashed old brands 4eg- Bloc buster video became a mar et leader in video rentals even though it was up against established companies who were too generic and not e,citing enough in the new category

The Law of !ingularity .our brand must be a single idea or concept that you own inside of a prospect if it is too many things at once, it is confusing and becomes worthless What is an AtariA $t used to be the most popular games console but then it became a computer and now it is nothing because it lost its singularity 5olvo sells more cars in the DS than B"W or "ercedes because over IF years it has stuc to its concept of burning into the minds of consumers that it is the safest car on the road

Seven deadly sins of branding/ Why brands fail? Brand amnesia. For old brands, as for old people, memory becomes an increasing issue. When a brand forgets what it is supposed to stand for, it runs into trouble. The most obvious case of brand amnesia occurs when a venerable, long-standing brand tries to create a radical new identity, such as when Coca-Cola tried to replace its original formula with New Coke. The results were disastrous. Brand ego. rands sometimes develop a tendency for over-estimating their own importance, and their own capability. This is evident when a brand believes it can support a market single-handedly, as !olaroid did with the instant photography market. "t is also apparent when a brand enters a new market for which it is clearly ill-suited, such as #arley $avidson trying to sell perfume. Brand megalomania. %gotism can lead to megalomania. When this happens, brands want to take over the world by e&panding into every product category imaginable. 'ome, such as (irgin, get away with it. )ost lesser brands, however, do not. Brand deception. *#uman kind cannot bear very much reality,+ wrote T ' %liot. Neither can brands. "ndeed, some brands see the whole marketing process as an act of covering up the reality of their product. "n e&treme cases, the trend towards brand fiction can lead to downright lies. For e&ample, in an attempt to promote the film A Knights Tale one 'ony marketing e&ecutive invented a critic, and a suitable ,uote, to put onto the promotional poster. "n an age where markets are increasingly connected, via the "nternet and other technologies, consumers can no longer be deceived. Brand fatigue. 'ome companies get bored with their own brands. -ou can see this happening to products which have been on the shelves for many years, collecting dust. When brand fatigue sets in creativity suffers, and so do sales. Brand paranoia. This is the opposite of brand ego and is most likely to occur when a brand faces increased competition. Typical symptoms

include. a tendency to file lawsuits against rival companies, a willingness to reinvent the brand every si& months, and a longing to imitate competitors. Brand irrelevance. When a market radically evolves, the brands associated with it risk becoming irrelevant and obsolete. rand managers must strive to maintain relevance by staying ahead of the category, as /odak is trying to do with digital photography.