What Makes Winning Brands Different?: The Hidden Method Behind the World's Most Successful Brands (J-B Ed: Test Prep) - Hardcover

Buchholz, Andreas; Wördemann, Wolfram

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471720259 ISBN 13: 9780471720256

Publisher: Wiley, 2000

Synopsis

This book increases advertising effectiveness through lessons drawn from the bestselling brands of the world. Analyzing over 500 extremely effective campaigns, the authors extract the underlying strategies and psychological approaches which made them successful and combine them into a proven program for readers to apply to their own brands. The result is a practical toolkit featuring 60 precise techniques which systematically help to build winning brands, achieve growth and solve any brand problem. Provides the first ever complete analysis of successful brands to discover what has really driven their success. Enables readers to build for the first time on this global branding experience. Identifies the 'growth codes' consistently applied by successful brands, and isolates them to create a global standard tool that anyone can apply them to sell more product at minimum risk. Based on a six-year study of 1,045 extremely successful brands from all over the world. Includes international case examples from Nestl?, Siemens, Procter and Gamble and many more. Formerly at Procter & Gamble, the authors are among Europe's leading marketers. They run their own agency and have been selected as marketers for the world's first virtual agency.

About this title

Product Description:

What Makes Winning Brands Different This work analyzes over 1000 winning brands in the food, non-food, consumer goods, investment goods, and service industries, which have led to the development of 27 Growth Codes that form a blueprint for brand growth.

From the Author:

How a paper tissue learns a marketing lesson from motor oil

"We've developed a software here, which can solve even tricky brand problems", I told the German Procter&Gamble marketing executive on the phone. "Would you be willing to check it out for us?" The guy on the other end of the line was silent for a moment. But then his curiosity was stronger than his disbelief. "We'll give it one hour", he said.

This brief phone call happened after six years of researching 20,000 brands from all over the world. We had picked 1.045 of the best brands that showed a constant growth of 30%, 50%, 80% per year. The research allowed us to arrive at a radically different approach to branding: by using universal strategic blueprints to systematically boost brand growth. We call them "growth codes". The latest news is, that we have developped a software using these "growth codes" to solve brand problems and pinpoint to the optimum positioning.

Quite frankly, we were nervous, when the P&G executives arrived at our office. We sat down, and one of our guests carefully took a pack of paper tissues from his briefcase. "Here is our challenge", he said. "This brand looks back to a 100 year history. For decades, it was the uncontested market leader - offering superior quality at a significant price premium. Unfortunately, times are changing. Competitors are catching up. Today, consumers are unwilling to pay the price premium any longer. Can your software work out a solution for that problem?" He looked skeptically at us. There are so many methods and models on branding out there, so many books, so much advice. But when you are faced with a real-life problem like this, aren't you invariably thrown back to your personal creativity?

We switched on the computer and surfed to the new branding tool on the Internet. Firstly, we need to go through a dialogue to define the parameters of our branding issue. Then the system rattled through its global database to identify the nearest case study of any brand that ever solved a comparable issue with excellence.

It didn't take too long until the electronic expert came up with a strategic proposal. Deep silence. Our system had thrown up a truly outrageous recommendation: It said our German tissue brand should apply the same strategic blueprint ("growth code") that boosted Mobiloil sales in the USA a few years ago. - Puh, how embarrassing. How can a blossom-white hygiene product apply the same growth strategy as a pitch-black motor oil? Absurd! Preposterous! This electronic system must have utterly confused some things. The P&G managers tried hard not to burst into laughter. "Wait a minute" I said, "let's first take a closer look at the proposal." Suddenly, everything changed. We were all looking at the proposed brand strategy ("growth code") and the outrageous idea surprisingly turned out to make a lot of sense. In fact, we all agreed that our tissue brand could learn a valuable lesson from motor oil indeed! The P&G executive raised an eyebrow. "This is provocative stuff", he murmured. "How come we never thought of that one before?"

Now, you probably want to know what exactly Mobiloils strategy was. They applied a "growth code" that we call "Historical Magnification". Here is the idea behind this principle: "Don't look at your brand as a consumer good any longer. Position it as a cultural good instead, present it as an icon of your culture, that has earned its place in the history books. This will make your competitors look small, plain and negligible."

How did Mobiloil apply this in advertising? They presented themselves as one of the key players during the 20th century of the USA. And they are right to do so, when you think about it: For example, Mobiloil was there when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. Also, Mobil fuels were used when the first space shuttle went to the moon. The big historical moments from the beginning to of the end of the century were very much Mobiloil moments.

Wouldn't you agree that our hygiene brand with its 100 year tradition can apply that same principle? No doubt, our tissue is an icon of the German culture and tradition. It was always around, especially at all grand historical moments. Remember, when the Berlin wall separating East and West was torn to pieces? Can't you vividly remember the torrent of emotions overwhelming the whole nation? And our tissue brand was all over the place drying the tears of happiness. Looking at photo archives and video footage, you'll find even the former federal chancellor Helmut Kohl wiping tears out of his eyes with a white paper tissue. He must have been using our brand, right?

Being a legend, being a "cultural good", our tissue brand can rightfully reinforce its premium pricing. It can afford to reposition competitors as boring consumer goods dedicated to cleaning runny noses. Those competitors are playing in a different league altogether. They are in the league of low-interest commodities.

Now, you are familiar with just one of our "growth codes" that can be applied to brands as diverse as motor oils and paper tissues. From our experience, this kind of strategic "cross-fertilization" between remote categories inspires the most innovative ideas to fuel any brands growth. Imagine, you've got access to the whole array of such powerful principles that have proven to transform the most average products and services to (global) market leaders. They are the blueprints of success for most the world's fastest growing brands.

By Wolfram Wvrdemann, author of 'What Makes Winning Brands Different?'

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0471720259
• ISBN 13: 9780471720256
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 250