Wolly Olins - On Branding - Key Quotes
Why brands are important to customers?
“Branding these days is larger about involvement and association: the outward and visible demonstration of private and personal affiliation.”
“Branding enables us to define ourselves in terms of a shorthand that is immediately comprehensible to the world around us.”
“Brands were created by marketing people indoor large companies to seduce customers - to sell products by creating and project colourful but simple ideas clearly again, and again. The mechanism of branding was designed for a defined by modern communication techniques”
“Branding is increasingly employed by not-for-profit organisations and charities who compete in the emotional territory of peoples hearts and minds with the commercial brand for the money in consumers’ pockets.”
“Today branding is ubiquitous’ (found everywhere)
“We like brands. If we didn’t like them, we wouldn't buy them. It is consumers who decide which brand will succeed and which will fail.”
“The power of a brand derives from a curious mixture of how it performs and what it stands for. When a brand gets the mix right it makes us, the people who buy it, feel that it adds something to our idea of ourselves.”
“Brands come in all shapes and sizes: they may be specific or general, palpable or impalpable, global or national, expensive or cheap but in most cases, it’s not just what they are, but also what they represent that makes the powerful” PAGE NUMBER
“Their purpose is both functional and symbolic … For him, the shoes themselves are much more symbolic than functional. The brand ideas has made them iconic”
“The direct consequence of the recognition that brand is the real capital of the company. What this means in the longer term is that many successful corporations are shifting their ground from making and selling to being - to representing a set of values”
“Some of the cleverest brands, the ones that are managed by the people with most sensitive antennae, are reaching out to create a relationship with society”
“Charities are the ideal subject for branding. The product at a charity sells is caring for less fortunate. A charity’s success is based entirely on targeting an individuals emotions.”
“Simple because in a world that is bewildering in terms of competitive clamour, un which rational choice has become almost impossible, brans represent clarity, reassurance, consistency, status, membership - everything that enables human beings to help define themselves. Brands represent identity”
Naomi Klien- No Logo Quotes
“For these companies (Nike, Polo, TH), branding was not just a matter of adding value to the product. It was about thirstily soaking up cultural ideas and iconography that their brands could reflect by projecting these ideas and images back on the culture as “extensions of their brands”
“Advertising and sponsorship have always been about using imagery to equate products with positive cultural or social experiences.”
The Hidden Persuaders - Vance Packard
Rational advertising - Pre 60s
Emotional advertising
Hidden Needs -
Emotional security -
We all start out as fragile emotional beings and very few of us achieve deep emotional security, so we all keep seeking it. Adverts play to this when they promise comfort, happiness and banishing of bad feelings. They may also play on the security aspect, emphasizing home, permanence and safety.
Reassurance of worth -
In a connected world, we can lose the sense of who we are and what we are worth. We thus seek reassurance that we are adding value and deserve our place in society. Adverts play to this when they promise that if you buy products you will be doing the right thing, for example in saving the environment or helping others. Charities of course play to this all the time, praising you for helping those less fortunate (and maybe who are worthless).
Ego gratification -
Related to a person's worth in that it is also about a sense of identity, ego-gratification basically highlights a person's need for praise and acknowledgement. For example, when a person does something great at work they want to be congratulated and praised; much like children, they crave praise that encourages them to do more/do better, etc. In digital marketing, marketers can use this need by praising/awarding customers for buying products (perhaps ahead of time), which encourages them to do continue this purchasing behaviour.
Love Objects -
Everyone wants to love and be loved - no matter which way you look at it many decisions in life (purchased or otherwise) come down to love. Children have teddy bears and toys; adults have one another, cars, pets, gadgets, etc. Packard says everyone needs something to love and if they don't have something, they will buy or make it. Adverts sell us things to love and things for our loved ones
Sense of power & control -
There is somewhat a feeling of a hierarchy in society. Packard shared how power and influence can, for many, equate with social status. The newest top-of-the-line cars, large houses...many people feel this is the epitome of lifestyle and contentment. Marketing thus focuses on the power of their brand and the reliability of the products and/or services they sell. They imply that buying these products and/or services will put you in charge and, therefore, satiate your need for power.
A sense of roots -
People identify with their old school, their college, where they were brought up, their country, their employer, their family ties, their religion, etc. All of these are important, and the longer a person stays in one place, and the longer ago they were in touch with those roots, the more important it is.
Immortality and legacy -
Certainly one of the biggest fears we all have is of death. Or perhaps not of death but of ceasing, of nothingness. From this, people seek to create meaning; of life beyond death through having children; writing books; making music; building companies etc. There’s also an obsession with the fountain of youth, of cheating age, striving to look younger and also growing older gracefully. There’s an endless supply of marketing for products and services that play to this emotion-based need; for sure you’ve seen the weight loss/skin tightening/diet to end all diets/age-defying product messages.
