LECTURE 1: HATCH & SHULTZ, (2008) (CHAPTER 1)
Most of this chapter is discussed in Lecture 1. This summary just displays some
other interesting things from the chapter:
Where Corporate Brands Differ from Product Brands:
- It can be easy to confuse corporate with product brands due to similarities in their
use of imagery
Ex.: Nike’s swoosh and the golden crest on a packet of Marlboros are both
graphic symbols bound together with a familiar name and associated with
various emotions, ideas, and memories.
Both have become significant in popular culture, partly as the result of all
manner of marketing, communication, and sales efforts
Yet these similarities mask important differences.
- Nike is a corporate brand that symbolically integrates the wide-ranging activities
of an enterprise that not only provides consumers with sporting goods but also
influences how sports are played and shapes the identities of those who play
them.
- Marlboro, even given its global iconic stature and enormous equity, is but one of
many products in the Philip Morris empire.
The concept of brand architecture:
- Explains how multiple product
brands owned by a single
company relate to one another.
- This can help some people
understand the relationship
between a product and a
corporate brand
- Product brands typically lavish
all their attention on customers
and consumers
- Corporate brands address all
the company’s stakeholders— so
also investors, suppliers,
distributors, partners,
governments, and local, national,
and international community
groups, as well as employees—in
other words, the entire enterprise.
LECTURE 1: HATCH & SHULTZ, (2008) (CHAPTER 2)
Most of this chapter is discussed in Lecture 1. This summary just displays some other
interesting things from the chapter:
,Corporate brands like Nike’s represent
- the way a company differs from its competitors, but they also welcome investors,
potential employees, and customers into the enterprise and make them feel like they
belong
Differentiation and the benefit of belonging that corporate branding brings are the root
sources of brand value.
Two benefits of Branding: Differentiation and Belonging
- When a brand positions itself, it is both creating differentiation for some and
belonging for others
Sociological and psychological evidence shows that successful corporate differentiation
derives from the sense of belonging that brand symbolism enables in its users.
- Successful corporate brands like the one BMW built mark boundaries and claim
territories that indicate inclusion and exclusion
- this creates the dual benefits of differentiation and belonging.
Brands are Symbols:
- Atkin claims that symbols work best when they are part of meaning systems in which
various symbols are connected and support each other.
Sidney J. Levy was the first to describe:
- People buy things not only for what they can do, but also for what they mean
We don’t buy products only for what they ARE: a car as a means of transportation
or a watch as a way to measure time.
We don’t buy products only for what they HAVE: a car with five seats and a 200
HP engine or a watch with 99.999 percent precision.
We buy products for what they MEAN: a Volvo (safety) or a BMW (driving
pleasure), a Swatch (informal, youthful) or a Rolex (lavish luxury).
Corporate brand combines:
- Names, symbols, and experiences
- A central idea or set of ideas
- Qualities, emotions, attitudes, and style
David Aaker’s Brand Equity Model: proposes five different ways customers and consumers
affect a brand’s strength and thereby the value it will have in the marketplace:
- Market behavior
- Awareness
- Association & Differentiation
, - Quality
- Loyalty
Consumer behavior has become an important part of branding:
- As with almost everything, this has sort of become a data driven undertaking
- Knowledge about what you can influence in customers is just too valuable not to use
The Symbolic Value of Branding
- The symbolic perspective adds consideration of how brands are interpreted,
including what brands mean in a variety of spiritual, social, and cultural contexts.