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Contents
Images........................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Chapter One - Brand Identity and
Brand Awareness............................................................................. 7
Chapter Two - Brand Image and Brand Equity..................................................................................... 13
Chapter Three - Brand Psychology............................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................................................. 24
List of Images...................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................................................... 27
Images
Figure 1. IBM
logo
Figure 2.
Supreme logo
Figure 3. Barbara
Kruger inspiration for the Supreme logo
Figure 4. Colour
theory in branding
Figure 5. Coca-Cola life typographic logo
Figure 6. Apple
iPhone packaging
Figure 7. Nike
running leggings
Figure 8. Supreme box logo hoodie
Figure 9. Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs
Do
We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand Wear Us?
Introduction
It would be
ignorant to believe that we go shopping in Ralph Lauren shirts, Levi jeans and
Nike trainers with our iPhone’s in hand to buy clothes that we just ‘liked the
look of’ on ASOS as we were browsing on our MacBook. Companies invest millions
so that the consumers invest in them by buying their products and promote the
brand just by using or wearing their products.
‘The brand is controlled by us – the customers. When a
brand is really successful it can take off in way and at a pace, which
bewilders those who purport to be in charge of it; and when a brand gets into
trouble the opposite can happen. Look at Gap, which lost touch with its market place
and tried to sell things people didn’t like anymore.’ (Marketing, 2014)
The assertion
‘Do We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand Wear Us?’ has become an increasingly
important question as the amount of disposable income the average consumer has
increased along with the amount of brands competing for their custom. Brands
cannot simply rely upon their products selling because the customer likes the
look of the item now that there are so many different options available at the
touch of a button or in a large shopping center. A brand needs to stand out
from the rest, promote their unnecessary products as necessary to ensure their
products are desired and bought time and time again, no matter the price tag.
This essay will
explore the components that make up a brand, to assess whether the success of
these elements promote the assertion ‘We Wear The Brand’ or ‘The Brand Wears Us’.
Firstly, I shall break down the aspects that build up a brands identity and
explore each factors importance in establishing brand awareness. Brand
awareness is fundamental in ensuring that the customers select a certain brand
over its many competitors. Secondly, I will review brand equity and the impact
a brands image has on the sale of its products. To do this I shall review
brands, including Abercrombie and Fitch and Apple, whom have opposite consumer
perception’s to assess as to whether a brands image impacts the sales of their
products and the hold they maintain on their customers. Establishing the
components that create a successful brand, that repeatedly sells products to
the masses, is essential in reviewing as to whether the customers are choosing
to wear the brand or whether the brand has ensured that they are being worn.
Finally, I will explore
the psychology
around brand selection to explore whether the customers select the products
they purchase via free will or whether this is influenced by external factors
manipulated by brands
marketing
techniques. Reviewing all of these aspects will allow me to understand whether
the customers purchases the products they do because they chose to, or a brand
manipulates all of its fundamental components to ensure their products are
desired so much so that customers subconsciously will always chose their
products.
To obtain an in
depth understanding of the assertions and theories I read in a range of books
and internet sites, I interviewed a range of Supreme customers as they queued
to purchase the brands merchandise to gain some firsthand opinions. By asking
these customers, whom had been queuing since early that morning in an attempt
to purchase some Limited Edition clothing, a range of questions surrounding
their reasoning for purchasing Supreme clothing provided a firsthand account as
to whether they felt that they were wearing Supreme or if Supreme was in fact
wearing them. Sections of these interviews will be included throughout this
essay but the full interviews, and photographs taken of the Supreme customers,
can be found in the 56 pages magazine I created as the practical aspect of this
dissertation.
Do
We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand Wear Us?
Chapter One - Brand Identity and Brand Awareness
When creating a brand, the company’s
first and fundamental design equity stage is establishing a strong and focused
brand identity. ‘A company's brand identity is how that business wants to be perceived by
consumers.’ (Investopdia.com, 2010) This identity is created by focusing a
range of the brands key visual components on the values and appeal it is to
bring to the market, and creating something that becomes recognizable to the
consumer. It is essential that we establish that brand identity is separate
from brand image, which will be focused on in Chapter Two, although the two
elements link significantly. Brand identity is how the company attempts to
portray themselves and their products, whereas brand image is how the consumers
actually perceive the brand. In this chapter I will explore brand identity, its
importance in establishing brand awareness and assess whether this impacts the
consumer’s decision in their selection of products.
The
way in which the public recognizes a certain company or brand comes from the
familiarity it establishes with the visual elements they create for the brand,
such as the name, logo, tagline, colour scheme, packaging and typefaces. All of
these elements must fit together well and be consistent amongst all the brands products and produce
to ensure it creates brand awareness. A
recognizable identity is essential for any company; they want it to stick in
the minds of any consumer. (Investopedia.com, 2016) The logo is the main element in brand identity; a logo
is the graphic symbol that represents a person, company or organization. A
range of brands, such as Coca-Cola and Disney, chose to use their brand name as
their logo, creating a typographic logo, to establish a cohesive brand
identity. Logotype ensures quick connection between the brand, logo and product
establishing brand awareness instantly. Although often a company’s logo becomes
more familiar to the customer than the companies name itself, brands with long
names will use shorthand abbreviations of their name for the convenience of the
customers and to make them more memorable. This is represented perfectly with
the company ‘International Business
Machines’. The majority of this company’s customers may not be aware of
whom this company is, let alone that they are its customers. However if one
refers to this company by its acronym logo
‘IBM’ (Figure 1) the company is recognized as a globally renowned household
name. (Morgan and Lloyd Morgan, 1999, P.15)
The logo can be the most significant aspect of brand identity as it allows
the brand to be recognized and advertised with ease. Successful and
established
brands are able to advertise and promote themselves without the brand name,
with just the use of their well-known logos. Often these logos have a bearing
on the company’s name, such as the previous example IBM, along with Apple, KFC
and Gucci. Although brands such as Nike, Puma and Adidas have built such a
strong combined brand identity and thus brand awareness that their logos, with
no bearing on their brand name, quickly establishes a connection with the
public on a global scale.
Whichever style
of logo a brand choses to use, the importance is that they ensure that this
logo is used consistently and excessively to ensure that it becomes established
as the widely recognized symbol of the brand and creating brand awareness
amongst the public. This allows the company to produce a range of products that
are quickly recognized as belong to that particular brand. As long as the logo
remains consistent, a company can expand and adapt their products yet still
stay recognizable. More often than not, a logo is featured on all products a
brand produces. The popular street wear brand ‘Supreme’ (Figure 2) ensure that their simple red and white logo inspired by Barbara
Kruger’s artwork (Figure 3) appears
in the center of all of their products. This design choice has led to vast
popularity with hundreds of customers queuing up in an attempt to purchase
plain clothing with the logo branded on the front. This brands popularity is
now from the recognizable logo alone. This is also especially true of sports
clothing. Brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma use their logos as the main
design feature of their products. Due to this public’s familiarity to these
logos, this provides an alternative advertisement strategy for the brand and
the customers becomes a walking mannequin, ultimately paying the brand money in
order to promote them. The purpose of
this is explained below.
‘The ultimate goal
with brand awareness, of course, is to be the first in line in the minds of
consumers. For example, when someone wants new basketball shoes, perhaps Nike
is the first brand that comes to mind. Depending on the product or service you
provide, being first in line is what you are looking to achieve when it comes
to brand awareness’ (How
important is brand identity? 2015)
Whilst the logo
is an essential aspect of the brands identity, the colours a brand choses to
use for its logo, products and advertisements are crucial to ensure brand
awareness and customer selection. The human brain is programmed to prefer
immediately recognizable brands and the colours a brand choses to use is a
fundamental factor, as the brain absorbs colour before any other aspects of
information. All animals are programmed to respond to colours; albeit different
species see and react to colours in different ways. Some animals are brightly
coloured, with
yellow or red
stripes to warn of predators as it is seen as poisonous whereas humans are
socially conditioned to view green as ‘Go’ and red as ‘Stop’. Whilst there has
been many psychological
studies on the
impact of colour stating that our responses to certain colours is subjective,
based upon passed experiences and preferences, ‘there are a few generalities about how people respond to color’. (The ultimate guide to using colour
psychology in marketing + free colour schemes, 2016) In the study ‘Exciting Red and Competent Blue’ (Scout,
2016) by Author Satyendra Singh it was
concluded that a customers purchasing intent is influenced greatly by colour,
as the colour is seen to reflect the brands personality. ‘Who, for example, would want to buy a Harley
Davidson motorcycle if they didn’t get the feeling that Harleys were rugged and
cool? (Scout,
2016) A further study titled ‘Impact of Colour on Marketing’
established that up to 90% of our snap judgments made in regards to products
are down to our perception to the colour alone. The colours a brand uses should reflect the message they
intend to deliver and be appropriate for their products or services.
Colour theory (Figure
4) is a key aspect in choosing the right colour for the brand as each
colour represents different emotions or portrays a different message. A perfect
example of a brand creating global brand awareness with its use of colour is
Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has created brand awareness with the colour red with heir
logo and the vast majority of their products and advertisements using a bright
shade of red.
‘Red is a very
powerful, dynamic color that reflects our physical needs whether to show
affection and love, or to portray terror, fear, and survival. Red is also
a very energizing color that can portray friendliness and strength’ (The ultimate guide to using colour
psychology in marketing + free colour schemes, 2016).
The success this brand has had with colour and brand
awareness is represented by their manipulation of Father Christmas. In 1931, the soft drink giants, Coca-Cola
wanted a campaign to show a realistic and symbolic Santa, hiring illustrator
Haddon Sundblom to create an advertisement using Santa Claus. The final produce
took one the most loved childhood heroes and turned him into one of the biggest
advertising campaign by just using their powerful colour red. Thus the colour
Coca-Cola selected has become fundamental to their brand identity and brand
awareness as when one thinks of Christmas or even the colour red you think of
Cola-Cola’s produced and adverts. There colour red works perfectly with what
people see as Christmas, family, love, happy and sharing. Christmas links
perfectly with how Coca-Cola wants to seen by is consumers.
‘Coca-Cola has built
this personality through advertising campaigns promotions that position the
drink clearly in a relaxed, happy, youthful environment, essentially
participatory and informal.’ (Morgan and Lloyd-Morgan, 1999, p.75)
However, Coca-Cola also stray from their usual red and
amend their colour scheme, still founded upon colour theory, to best suit their
range of products. Coca-Cola Life (Figure
5) uses the colour green to represent health whereas Coca-Cola Zero uses
black, a very reserved color that completely
lacks any light as its an absence of all the colours, to represent
the absences of calories. The brand has the ability to do this and still ensure
the consumer recognizes their products as they keep the
other fundamental aspects of their brand identity remain consistent and
recognizable, often their typographic logo and the shape of their cans or
bottles. This is key for clothing brands, as the design and styles of clothing
change from season to season, they must ensure that they keep fundamental
aspects of design the same, to ensure the brand identity remains strong and the
customers remain enticed.
Packaging and produced design is a key element in
brand identity; both of these will include the logo, colour and typeface.
‘When a product is
sitting on a shelf or hanging on a rack, its package is the only way it can
market itself. That package is the only chance that product has to make an emotional
connection and persuade the consumer to buy it.’ (Red Chilli: The importance of packaging when marketing a product,
2001)
The Studies have shown that the customer buys instinctively by colour
and shape leading brands to market to the reptilian brain that responds before
logic. The company thus designs their products and packaging to include
‘Biomotive Triggers’. There are vast ranges of triggers that connect with the
customer on a subconscious level, generating an emotional response before the
conscious mind responds. Colour and brand recognition are key triggers, thus
most products will have a cohesive range of colours and usually feature the
brands logo whilst producing products that are similar to one another so the
brain links the items together. These ‘Biomotive Triggers’ are fundamental to
Apples product and packaging design.
(Figure 6) Apple products and
packaging colors are also an extension of the brands image that the companies
are trying to get across to its consumers. The technology giant has been
manufacturing products since 1976 and whilst the products have been evolved
gradually with
increased technology, Apple has kept some aspects of
the design consistent across all of its manufactured goods and packaging. This
allows the products to be recognized by the consumers not matter what
generation or product it is. All of the products use key aesthetics that can be
acknowledged by the public these are colour, shape and logo. Apple always uses
a simple colour palette using metallic shades of black, white, silver and now
rose gold. It is said that ‘simple design
is more effective. In a busy, visually agitated market, we so rarely experience
moments of visual or auditory calm that we gravitate toward it. (Marketing, 2014) These colours represent
and reflect sleek, modern, clean, simple and innovative Apples key elements in
it brand aesthetics and brand identity.
For a brand to be successful it must stand out from
the market in a distinct way. ‘Effective packaging makes it easy to understand
at a glance, who I am, what I am, and why I am relevant to your life.
Naturally, the product has to deliver on its promise to ensure repeat
purchase.’ (Marketing, 2014) All products also have the well know Apple logo located
on the back. However even if the produced an iPhone is placed with the logo
down on a table for example, the shape of the casing and the circular shaped
button can still be recognize as an Apple product and this appears on all
iPhones, iPods and iPads. Apple has used their brand image and message on their
products and packaging, ‘make the package
part of the experience. Part of the reason it's so fun to unbox a new Apple
product is that it’s packaging reflects the sleek, user-friendly experience of
the product inside.’ (Conran, 2014) Thus
Apple have brought together a clear brand indemnity with an attractive product
that is iconic and provides the message they would like to promote; that the
product has top of the range technology, nearly the most complex on the market,
yet is simple to use. This entices a vast audience, whilst creating a market
for their future products before they have even been designed.
Brand identify is thus the main elements of design
used to ensure the company and its products are recognizable, ensuring when a
customer buys a product they are buying into this identity and wearing this
identity rather than their own. For example (Figure
7), if a customer goes into a shop and purchases a pair of black Nike
running leggings, with the Nike logo running up the leg, they have now become a
walking advert for Nike. They purchased these leggings because they were led to
buy that product as they were aware of the brand from advertising, recognized
the product as it displayed the logo and selected them due to their fondness of
the design and colours. The customer thus buys the product, as they would like
to be an extension of the brand, the sleek look of the black smooth leggings
and the popular logo promotes their selection to their
peers. The customer believed that they chose it
because they liked the product, but many factors implemented by Nike ensured
that the customer selected their product. Whilst many other factors come to
play in ensuring a brand is selected, which will be focused on in later
chapters, brand identity is fundamental in ensuring customer selections of
products, and if used well, allows the company to brand their customers. Thus promoting the assertion that the ‘Brand
Wears Us’.
Do
We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand Wear Us?
Chapter Two - Brand
Image and Brand Equity
Brand Image and Equity are the
impressions left with the consumers of the brand itself and creating a positive
image and equity is essential for a brand to become successful and promote the
ascertain that ‘the brand wears us’. ‘Brand
image is developed over time through advertising campaigns with a consistent
theme, and is authenticated through the consumers direct experience.’
(Do you know this term? 2017) Similarly brand equity is the value a company generates from a product.
Brands create equity by creating products that are memorable, recognizable and
high quality. And is developed by consumer perception that is built from
knowledge and experience they have with the product. The perception the customer
has on the brand, if it’s positive, can have financial benefits as it the
customer would then chose that product or brand again. When consumers are
purchasing a product from a brand, they are not just buying into the product
but the brands image. If a company creates a strong
brand identify and a positive image showing them to be respectable and
reliable, then customers will view all of their products in the same light
increasing the likelihood that the products are purchased. Apple is a prime example
of a company with a good brand image, their products are reliable and they
ensure that if their products fail, they are fixed or replaced with haste. ‘Positive brand image is exceeding the
customer’s expectations. Positive brand image enhances the goodwill and brand
value of an organization.’ (Management study guide, 2017) Whereas their
competitor Samsung’s image has declined due design failure and some of their
smartphones catching fire. This led to a product recall, and then another
recall of the replacements. This had led to a distrust of the products,
damaging the brands image, reducing the likelihood of the products being
purchased thus creating negative brand equity.
Costumer association’s is what builds a brands image.
‘Brand is based on the association that
people make with a company in addition to its tangible material aspects so that
it exists in the minds and hearts of the consumer.’ (Hancock, Muratovski and Manlow, 2014, p.68)
Brand
image is based on consumers associating brands products with the image the
brand wants to be identifies with: Nike and high performance, Rolex and luxury,
Tesco with affordability. Brand identity plus brand image is what creates a
successful company and it instills brand equity. Brands create their
image and positive equity over time. They must produce new product lines and
ensure that their product is constituent in quality, in order to develop
customer loyalty,
‘People have a terrific loyalty to their brand of
cigarette and yet in tests cannot tell it from other brands. They are smoking
an image completely.’(Packard and Miller, 2007.
P.65)
The fundamental factor in ensuring
brand equity is the quality of the product, or more importantly, the perception
the customer has in regards to the quality of the product. If the product
preforms its function well and looks aesthetically pleasing, then the customer
will view this product as high quality and pay the asking price without
hesitation, even if it made in the cheapest way possible. A prime example would
be Apple iPhones. iPhones can cost around £600, whilst it is common knowledge
that these are made in factories across China with the production cost being a
fraction of the retail price. If the quality of the iPhone were poor, then
customers would not pay these prices, or chose Apple products again. Thus, the
first step, and the most important step in brand equity, is customer perception. A positive perception to a product enable
the brand to perform their key role of selling their current stock and secures
the success of future sales. Nearly all Apple customers would upgrade their
iPhones to the next generation of iPhone. Similarly, Nike’s products are seen
as durable as well as fashionable, opening their products up to a wide
audience. When a customer purchases a Nike product the brand have ensured that
it always preforms its function and the quality is high. This means that the
customer has a good overall perception of not only that product, but also Nike
as a brand, creating loyal customers.
‘A
young athlete in the US wears Nike running shoes, both because he thinks they
will help him perform better and because they are a fashion statement. Their
purpose is both functional and symbolic. Of course most people who buy Nike
shoes don’t run in them at all – expect for the bus. They don’t even exercise.
They simply show off in them.’ (Olins
and Olins, 2014. P.17)
To ensure that their products are
recognised by their potential, or loyal customers, the companies ensure that
their products are easily recognisable. This component of brand equity is
encompassed in the brands identity; with the use of their logos, tag lines,
colouring and product designs. Ensuring consistency through their quality and
brand identity, combine to ensure they instil brand equity and ensure a
constant stream of custom. Generating brand awareness for positive reasons
establishes the brand in the mind of the consumers when something related to
the product is brought to mind. Google is a perfect example of positive brand
equity and brand awareness combined ensuring that it is most Internet users
first choice of search engine. Google is easy to use allowing instant access to
millions of results on all devices. This consistency has
created global positive brand equity
and has allowed the search engine to dominate the Internet; generating vast
amounts of profit due to the brand equity it holds, allowing them to invest in
brand advertising, further securing customer brand awareness.
Supreme
clothing brand is another example of a brand that has created positive equity
and an ultimate community of loyal consumers. At a recently clothing release, I
witnessed thousands of the brands eager customers queuing for hours on end in
an attempt to purchase a plain hoody with the simply designed Supreme logo
printed on the chest (Figure 8). Many
of these customers are prepared to queue every Thursday just to purchase an
item from the brand. The brand has developed its equity over the years
producing all types of clothing and items. In a interview I conducted at a
Supreme clothing release it was brought to my attention that Supremes product
line once included a brick, with the brands logo located on top, along with a
range of other obscure products.
‘The
brand wears you. They literally sold a brick, did you know that, for £28 and it
was reselling for £60. They made a key ring with a ball bag on it, a crowbar
and a fire extinguisher. Us mugs queued up and bought ball bag key rings!’ (Jarvis, 2016)
Apple has also created a globally successful brand
image. Apple has promoted the idea that the brand and all of its products are
sleek, modern, reliable and cutting edge. This positive brand image has ensured
that they have loyal customers across the globe; one of the most important
relationships a brand has with its customer. Apple have established this
positive equity by producing high quality state of the art products, providing
high quality customer service and ensuring there are no negative stories about
the company in the press. By continuing to emit this image the company has created
trust and commitment to the brand, elements that are key in creating a
successful brand. Trust creates
‘Consumers believe
that the brand will deliver its promise, respect them, and be open and honest
with them.’ Whereas commitment creates ‘Consumers feel some longer term emotional attachment to their
relationship with the brand.’ (Clifton, R, 2004. p.99)
The company has created a positive image though out
the brand not just from its products but also from the shops and the
environment. The environment is a big subject that a lot of people think about
and care about, Apple has been clever and made its company 100% environmentally
friendly and also helping the environment. The company
has seen something that costumer’s care about and solution causing more
positive equity, image, loyalty, trust and commitment. Apple is a innovative
company and has always put the costumer first and has come up with solutions
for it consumers keeping them happy which means when the next iPhone comes out they now the loyal customers are going to
purchase a new one every year. Supreme and Apple emphasizes the phrase ‘the brand wears us’. They have both built
a large loyal fan base that their customers will buy their products even if
they perform the same functions or have no value at all, purchasing the
products purely for the brand. Brand equity is a key element in creating a
successful brand although a brand also needs a positive image to ensure their
customers are not deterred from purchasing a brand products due to external
factors reported in the media.
Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) have
created a unique brand image, with often controversial and offensive aspects of
their brand identity being discussed in the press. The company has a range of
stores, all showcasing half naked men and women modelling the clothing in the
store whilst working. The company will thus only employ staff that they believe
represent the brands idea of ‘beauty’ and ‘attractiveness’. Brand ambassadors
freely admitted that the staff represented the people they would like wearing
their brand and explained that the clothing is only made up to a certain size,
as they would not want customers exceeding this size to be seen in the
clothing. The clothing giants Chief Executive Offices openly admitted this
aspect of hiring policy stating that they ‘hire
good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other
good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people.’ (Farfan,
2016) Whilst
this has proved controversial, it has become to be a very successful marketing
technique, with customers lining in the street for the opportunity to get a
photograph with the welcoming staff. The company has gone to extreme lengths to
keep their brand identity and emit the image they would like to portray and
ensure their marketing hits the intended target audience, and admit that the
brand ‘really don’t care what
anyone other than our target customer thinks.’ (Farfan, 2016) This target audience again has proved very controversial and has caused
vast discussion amongst the retail community, along with the general public. In
another interview with A&F’s Chief Executive Office, Mike Jefferies states:
‘In every school there are the cool and popular kids,
and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids.
We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of
friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong.
Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.’ (Farfan, 2016)
An
A&F manager, whom preferred to remain nameless, furthered the negative
press surrounding the brands target audience by stating ‘Abercrombie and Fitch doesn’t want to create the image that just
anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing. Only people of a certain stature
are able to purchase and wear the company name’ (Levinson, S, 2015) then
joking that the brand would rather burn excess stock than donate it to charity.
These comments sparked outrage amongst the press and public. Elite Daily, an
online newspaper, wrote several reports on the A&F debate and their views
towards the tarnished brand, one article stated;
‘Despite the bad economy and all the
people who could use a little help, Abercrombie and Fitch prefers not to
sacrifice any bit of their superior, cliquey image in order to help anyone but
themselves. This company is completely outrageous. Think of all the clothing
they could have donated to people like the Katrina victims, or for the Haiti
relief. In today’s world, consumers are looking for altruistic companies,
not those littered with biases and preoccupied with superficiality. This type
of bad business will hopefully lead to negative results for this clothing
giant.’ (Levinson, 2015)
Sales
at A&F stores plummeted due to the scandal with a steady decreasing profit
margin and the value of their stock prices fleeting, financially representing
the brands now negative equity due to the poor brand image. Due to this,
A&F bosses have been forced to rebrand in an attempt to regain custom. "This Is
Abercrombie & Fitch", a new campaign video was released in late-2016 highlighting tags lines
such as ‘People have a lot to say about
us’, ‘They think they've got us figured out’ and ‘Time to start afresh’. ‘Time
to start afresh’ seems to be the key element
of the rebrand, with the brand creating new
adverts, clothes, online website and deleted all posts on Instagram, creating
‘a clean slate.’
(Mccall, 2016) As of yet, the company is still to see an increase in
stock value. Before the infamous insight into the key components of brand
identity, stock was valued by the New York Stock Exchange at around $70.69, on
April 11th 2008. Stock plummeted down to $19.33 by November 28th
2008, and whilst it did manage to rise to $74.22 by May 20th 2011,
it has steadily decreased down to around $14 by the end of 2016. (The New York Stock Exchange, 2016) Whilst
the brands future equity is still unknown, this highlights the necessity of
both positive brand equity and image. The clothes may be of good design and
quality, but this is completely overshadowed by the companies’ attitude towards
the customer. In this sense, the company has neither the customer wearing it,
or the brand wearing the customer but this highlights the necessity for good
brand image for the company to be in control of the customer.
‘The brand is controlled by us – the
customers. When a brand is really successful it can take off in way and at a
pace, which bewilders those who purport to be in charge of it; and when a brand
gets into trouble the opposite can happen. Look at Gap, which lost touch with
its market place and tried to sell things people didn’t like anymore.’ (Marketing, 2014)
The perfect example of rebranding to ensure the
company regains jurisdiction of its customers is Burberry. Burberry was
previously associated with anti-social behavior and fake products and now is
now a globally desired luxury brands. Burberrys Chief Executive Officer,
Christopher Bailey, rebranded its target audience. ‘Deliberately targeting what Ahrendts called ‘millennials’ — young
customers — because they believed their competitors were ignoring them.’ (Ostler, 2014) To target the younger
audience they used influential younger celebrities with a strong presence on
social media, like Cara Delevingne and Romeo Beckham. By paying celebrities to
wear their brand in public, have them on their advertisements and promote it on
social media, they amended how the customers perceived their brand. Christopher
Bailey then made the decision to concentrate on the heritage of the brand. They
forced on trench coats and moved all fashion shows back to London; this gave
the brand its image back and also its identity. This is called selling sense of
roots, it creates pride and captures more consumers as brands that represent
nationality helps promote a product and create trust, as patriotism is often
successful. To continue this London image they made the decision to use models
from England or even models that have an ‘English’ look. Whilst Abercrombie
& Fitch’s choice of models proved controversial, it has worked in
Burberry’s favour. Burberry has become an iconic London image and a high-end
image to wide audience this proves the decision made by the company has used
amended elements of brand identity and brand image that have captivated the revised
intended audience and also demonstrates the how good brand image promotes the
success of a brand. Whilst the products
are expensive, limiting the number of customers, the desire for the products is
not limited. The brands image has made the products iconic; the Burberry trench
coat is now seen to optimize British style.
Successful brands need positive brand equity; this
positive brand equity is built by a strong brand identity, a positive brand
image and reliable produce. Brands such as Apple and Supreme have all of these
components which has led to a large customer base that purchase their products,
whether they are necessary or not. Thus they have their customers buying into
their brand. These companies will have buyers no matter what the product is,
purely because the consumers are a
fan of the brand itself and the image it has. This
exemplifies the fact that a successful brand wears its customers.
Do We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand
Wear Us?
Chapter Three - Brand
Psychology
We, the consumers are making
decision on things in everyday life from moment we wake up until we fall
asleep; we are exposed to around 3,000 to 10,000 brand exposures every day. With
products such as the iPhone and Apps like Facebook and Instagram, at a touch of
a button we are seeing adverts and brands on every page or in every picture. In branding, psychology is probably one of the most important elements
a brand needs to understand, as unlocking the reasons to why the customer needs
and desires something and their actions to wanting to buy something will allow
them to make decision on their marketing that will benefit the company and
boost sales.
As a brand is established,
in the identity stage, creating a logo or a colour scheme can be difficult as
the impact of colour is subjective, different colours emit different emotions
to different audiences. For example someone might say the colour red is for
power or hate however another person might argue it means love. These are
things a brand needs to consider when creating its visual elements. When we talk about
psychology in branding we a look at one specific part of the brain, the
unconscious side. ‘The initial (“gut’)
and final (“spend money”) decision. The silent side is, or should be, to the
adverting executive, the “sell to” side.’ (Maddock and Fultio, 1996) This side of the brain is making
decisions for you, without you realizing, as your walking around the store or
scrolling online. Stores have ways that can enhance your decisions you make on
an item and create more need a desire for them with the use of Sensory
branding, they do it in a subtle way but have a great effect on the costumer.
This has become a key and successful strategy found in nearly every shop. ‘Intimate touch lays a hand across the
screams of solitude. Equally, merely touching an item can trigger emotional
attachment.’ (Gabay, 2015. P.196) When in an Apple store customers are encouraged
to touch and play with the products; customers are encouraged to test out the
new technology, to listen to music, go on the internet and play games. This is
all a strategy to create an emotional attachment to the products, as engaging
in a product via touching something enhances this feeling and creates more need
for the item. This technique entices millions of potential customers into their
large, open plan stores each day. Customers are made to feel comfortable with
the products and understand how to use the product before purchasing, whilst
being encouraged to sample other products in Apples range.
Sensory Strategies isn’t limited to touching; clothing
brands use smell to sell their products. Making the costumer feel relaxed in
the store entices the customer in, and encourages them to
stay longer. Spending longer in the store allows more
time for the customer to make a connection with the products, increasing the
likelihood of a sale. The customer then is lead to associate these smells with
the brand, so now the company produces these fragrances as perfume and
aftershaves, promoting the store and its products on its clients on a
day-to-day basis. Sight also plays a major factor in brand psychology. Jonathan
Gaby explores the impact of sight on purchasing power in his book Brand Psychology; Consumer Perception and
Corporate Reputation. He explores the idea that packaging is like the
brands face, using examples such as Cadbury’s which has a recognizable purple
package, like a recognizable face you would notice in a crowd. A brands
identity is a brands face, and when you see this face or a face familiar it may
trigger emotions. Customers may remember when they last opened a box of their
favourite product and remember how excited they were to open and see their new
item. All of these elements are in place to create a cycle that happens every
time the costumer purchases and item in store or even online.
For brands to understand the human psychology in
consumer behavior we need to ask the following questions: ‘what do consumers need? Do they really need those things or do they
just think they do?’ (Work, 2014) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs answers these
perfectly in a pyramid with five stages (Figure
9).
‘Biological and
Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep. Safety
needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from
fear. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, trust and
acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of
a group (family, friends, work). Esteem needs - achievement, mastery,
independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.
Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment,
seeking personal growth and peak experiences.’ (Mcleod, 2007)
These needs can be related to our need and desire for
brands. “Notice as you travel up the
hierarchy, each need becomes less essential for survival and more emotional.” (Work,
2014) The need for love and belonging are a big need in our lives and a
need that pushes us to become obsessed with a brand. It is human nature to want to be
a part of something and looking to be friends with people who are interested
the same things. Normative conformity,
ingratiated conformity, informational conformity and internalized conformity
are very similar to Maslow’s idea into love and belonging. The young
generations today are buying to brands and becoming
obsessed with them in aiming to ‘fit in’ with their
peers and be socially acceptance through wearing and buying a curtain brand.
Street wear giant Supreme is globally known throughout
the street wear community and has become very popular over the last 5 years due
to celebrities wearing the clothing in music videos or in photos posted on
Instagram. Supreme has become a powerful brand, a brand that entices the fans
of Supreme to queue up on a Thursday from early morning just to get an item of
clothing and to feel part of the Supreme brands social circle. Many of these
costumers walk up and down the street with their friend in groups covered head
to toe in Supreme items.
‘When you walk down the street people
look you up and down to see if your worthy of getting something limited edition
on sale. They stare at you to see what you’re wearing. You almost have to wear
something, preferably everything, Supreme to feel like you fit in here.’ (Macleod, 2016)
Thousands of Supreme
customers feel the need to wear something Supreme just to fit in, be able to
queue and walk down the street with their peers. The customers I interviewed
admitted that they may no feel accepted or as part of the group, they are queuing
for hours to be part of, if they did not wear Supreme clothing to the Supreme
shop. This is internalized conformity ‘to publicly changing behavior to comply with the group, the consumer
directly agrees with such behaviors’ (Gabay, 2015. P.168) This reflects the
assertion that the customers are buying the brand rather than the clothing
itself. ‘I got T-shirts that don’t say Supreme
on them, the quality is decent and the prints are good so I will buy it but if
it’s something I don’t like I won’t buy.’ (Laing, 2016) It would seem that sometimes it’s not just the brand encouraging us to wear
a brand it’s also our feelings our needs to be a part of something and feel
accepted. However, brands manipulate these desires to fit in by owning their
clothing and attempt to enhance them. Brands, including Supreme, use a range of
methods and marketing techniques in an attempt to make their clothing
ultra-desirable. By making clothing limited edition or having limited stock
promotes desire.
‘Consumers
might change the way they like to do things, make purchases, gather
information, and spend their time, but their basic psychological needs and
philosophical causes of action are the constants that marketers can always
count on.’ (Work, 2014)
Brands use a range of techniques in order to ensure
their products are sold to their loyal customers, but it does seem that these
techniques, if successful, play on innate human emotion leaving the customer
with almost no choice but to want to be a part of the brand. Promoting the
feeling of inclusion, to be a part of a wider society seen as ‘popular’ ensures
that a steady flow of customers purchase products because they feel they need
to. Thus, brands have control over the customers and whilst the customer is
wearing the brand, the brand has embedded them within the customers mind,
controlling their choices and influencing their decisions. If the brand uses
these marketing methods well, as represented by Supreme, they are wearing the
customer, as the customer wears nothing but the brand.
Do
We Wear The Brand or Does The Brand Wear Us?
Conclusion
After
investigating the main components that create a brand, it transpires that
brands that successfully encompasses all elements are able to wear its
customer. A brand with a strong identity combined with a clever product design
has the ability to become recognizable, often on a global scale, firmly placing
the brand in the customers mind as a reference for that product. The perfect
example of this would be Nike, the Nike ‘swoosh’ can be found on all its
products, thus all of its customers, reminding everyone whom that sees the clothing or customer of the
brand. This shrewdly turns the customer
into a walking advertisement, essentially, the customer is paying to promote
the brand.
In chapter two
the importance of the customers perception of the brand is highlighted, as this
brand image directly impacts a brands equity and without a positive brand
equity the brand cannot be successful. Gaining a positive brand image and thus
positive equity can be established in a range of ways, but the stand out factors
are seen to be; the quality of the products, the brands values and publicity and who is wearing the brand.
Apple is a prime example of good brand image and equity leading to excessive
sales of often unnecessary products. The company is viewed as sleek, state of
the art and modern as
they improve and develop products each year and providing solutions to problems
that help their customers, creating a blindly loyal relationship between brand
and costumer. Apple, as it seems, is ‘wearing’ billions of customers across the
globe. On the other hand, Abercrombie
and Fitch, represent how a negative image impacts the sales of products,
without the sale of products the company is unable to engross the consumer and
as such the client is just wearing the brand.
Whilst a
focused brand indemnity and image are fundamental for a brands success, it
would be naive to assume that
these elements just happen to become successful. Chapter Three explored the
fact that a company will
spend thousands to millions, depending on their size, investing in consumer
research to gain an understanding of a customer’s product selection. Once a
brand understands this, they can enhance our feelings towards products,
ensuring their products are selected, by using strategies boosting sales and turning
the first time customer into a loyal customer. Loyal customers are ultimately
customers that are paying to be worn by the brand.
At the
start of this question ‘Do we wear the brand, or does the brand wear us?’ I
personally always thought the brand wore us but I didn’t quite understand why.
From the research I can finally understand why costumers buy into a brand, they
are manipulated to do so. Going to the Supreme box logo release, in London, was
a real eye opener in to how people become obsessed with and loyal to a brand.
This affirmed to me that the brand is wears its customers and that we are all controlled
by the brands. It is clear that our own natural feelings encourage us to wear a
company’s logo to fit in with our peers and feel accepted providing the perfect
platform for a brand. One could argue that the customer is making their own
decision and only purchasing a product because they like it, however the
reasons as to why a costumer likes an item has been influenced and manipulated
by the brands elements. It does seem that we are all walking mannequins, living
in a giant store.
List of Images
Figure 1: IBM
(2012) Available at: http://www.famouslogos.us/ibm-logo/ (Accessed: 8
January 2017).
Figure 2: Supreme (clothing) (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_(clothing)#/media/File:Supreme_logo.gif
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 3: Supreme box logo (no date) Available at: http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-p7ww7/products/393/images/803/boxlogogrey__42680.1418318336.500.750.jpg?c=2
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 4: Scout, H. (2016) The psychology of color in marketing
and Branding. Available at: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 5: Coca-cola life (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Life#/media/File:Coca-Cola_Life_Logo.png
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 6: Admin (2014) Tech packaging that adds value to your
product. Available at: http://www.trendingpackaging.com/tech-that-adds-value-to-your-product/
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 7: Nike leggings (no date) Available at: http://media.very.co.uk/i/very/6P9PD_SQ1_0000000019_BLACK_WHITE_MDe?$266x354_standard$
(Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 8: Supreme box logo (no date) Available at: http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-p7ww7/products/393/images/803/boxlogogrey__42680.1418318336.500.750.jpg?c=2 (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
Figure 9: McLeod, S. (2007) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html (Accessed: 8
January 2017).
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