Results of my research on Eureopan brands

About 2 weeks ago I carried out a quick research among the community of students and workers of University of Norther Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, about how they are familiar with European brands. I surveyed 11 people where 7 of them were students of different faculties, years and gender.This exploratory research was to help me which brands I should focus on during more in-depth research that I am going to conduct soon. The results were quite surprising: let me share with you what I have discovered.

Below there is the list of all car, clothing and cosmetic brands I asked American respondets with the percentage of their mentions:

1. Puma – 100%   
2. Mercedez-Benz  100% 
3. Axe –73%
4. Adidas – 100 % 
5. BMW – 100% 
6. Garnier – 64%
7. Reebok – 100%  
8. Mini Cooper – 82% 
9. Nivea – 73%
10. Zara –  9 %
11.  Volvo – 100% 
12. Sephora – 45%
13. H&M –  82% 
14. Volkswagen – 100% 
15. The Body Shop 36%
16. Dolce Gabbana – 73% 
17. Fiat –  73% 
18. L’Oreal – 100%
19. Prada – 10 – 91% 
20. Audi – 100%
21.  Lancome – 27%
22. Luis Vuitton 91%   
23. Lamborghini – 100% 
24. Yves Rocher –  9%
25. Versace – 82 % 
26. Bentley – 73 % 
27. Vichy – 9%
28. Fendi – 36% 
29. Porsche –  100% 
30. Rimmel –  9%
31. Armani –  73% 
32. Ferrari – 100%
33.  Burjois – 0%
34. Hugo Boss – 36% 
35. Land Rover – 82% 
36. Timotei – 0%
37. Marks and Spencer – 9% 
38. Peugeot – 27% 
39. L’Occitane – 0%
40. Chanel –  100%
41.  Jaguar – 100% 
42. Oriflamme – 0%
43. Lacoste –  55% 
44. Rolls Royce –  82% 
45. Clarins – 0%
46. Dior – 7 – 64%
47.  Smart – 82% 
48. Laroche-Posay – 0%
49. Burberry – 45% 
50. Saab – 55% 
51. Valentino – 18% 
52. Maserati – 55% 
53. United Colors of Benetton –18%
54.  Bugatti –  45% 
55. Hermes –  9%
56.  Aston Martin – 36% 
57. Furla – 0%
58. Lotus –  55% 
59. Mango – 0%
60. Renault – 27% 
61.  Citroen – 9 % 

 Summary:
 There are few brands that are known for all participants. These brands are as follows: Chanel, Jaguar, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, L’Oreal, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen, Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari - you can see them clearly in a red color.As it can be observed most of them are card brands and what is more interesting: all German vehicle brands were recognized. Also two major sports clothing brands Adidas and Puma that are originally from Germany are known for all surveyed American consumers. Moreover, respondents when asked in the beginning which European brands come to their minds, they usually mentioned car brands and some luxurious clothing brands. Few of them were able to indicate the country of origin in the first place. Almost all of them suggested that there also should be a list of countries – they said that would make it much easier. Therefore, I would like to focus on automobiles, few clothing and cosmetic brands plus few not related but widely known brands with the list of the countries. Here is the list of brands I would like to focus on: Puma, Adidas, Chanel, Reebok, H&M, Dolce Gabbana, Armani, Versace, Dior, Smart, Mercedes- Benz, BMW, Mini Cooper, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Axe, Nivea, Garnier, L’Oreal, Ikea, Red Bull, Lego, Heineken, Guinness, Nokia, Barilla, Lindt, Nestle, Swatch (the last 10 ones are unofficially answered).

I believe these results can be helpful for companies to think of their positioning. Few brands that exist in American market were not even mentioned. However, that could be also influenced by the fact that I have only surveyed collage students that may not be interested in some of the brands. The fact that all German cars were 100% recognized and correcly connected with their country of origin can bring us to one conclusion: how well they are positioned in the consumers' minds. That could be a lesson for other companies to learn. I hope, even if it is just the beggining of my reserach, that this short questionaire and its results might turn to be useful and helpful. I also hope that it will encourige the companies to follow me and benefit from my insights.

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10 brands that will disappear in 2013

What is happening right now in the global market, does not help the brands to develop either. Some of the biggest brands are now even  in danger of disappearing from the market. Dynamically changing environment is a challenge that companies seem not to be able to undertake.

Recently I have come across an interesting article on Yahoo Finance where was posted a list of 10 brands that will disappear in 2013 according to 24/7 WallSt.. Let's have a look which brands are predicted to fail with short description of their inefficiency:

1. American Airlines - will likely to be bought by US Airways
2. Talbots - loss of customers contributed to little earnings and therefore lowering the price of its shares.
3. Current TV - loss of the audience
4. Research in Motion - losing of market share
5. Pacific Sunwear - too little market share
6. Suzuki - poor reputation of its cars
7. Salon.com - loss of good managers
8. The Oakland Raiders - leaving Oakland due to new financial plans of the owners
9. MetroPCS - too tiny to compete with larger competitors - will likely to be taken over
10. Avon - low cost of stock shares

 Further in the article you may find more information why they will vanish from the market. All of those brands are American, none are European. The author mentions Nokia - a Finnish mobile phone business - that should disappear soon as they just fired 20% of their labour.

Unfortunately, some industries are brutal, strongly competitive and if your company cannot keep up the pace, if you cannot afford financing innovations - you may find yourself on that list too.

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European biggest brands failures

We are all do mistakes - we are just human beings, aren't we? We are not perfect and even very experienced people can make wrong decisions. The most important is what we do afterwards - do we leave it behind, with no excuse, or we try make it up, by making a statement " we were wrong, we apologize to all our customers" - anything of that kind would be fine. No business in this world (especially in these turbulent times) can go on without taking a risk and any decision we make, takes risk with it. What I tried to say in other words is - no risk  no fun :) No, I'm joking - But let's have a lesson from the "biggest" players in the market - the more influensive and powerful you are - the more you suffer unfortunately...

But before I start talking about European brands, I would like to bring on one American company's blunders. One I came across was about Harley Davidson trying to launch perfumes.

 Yes perfumes. Legendary Harley Davidson. How come you may ask? Harley, motorcycles and perfumes? Can you imagine the Harley's customers? They just LOVE their motorcycles no matter how they lack technology or if they sometimes leak. What I see when I think of Harley Davidson is the freedom of the open road, the men with no limits and the rumble... So I was pretty amazed, probably like you are right now. I can understand T-shirts, gadgets, kids wear, even socks but not aftershave or perfume and I guess for Harley owner this extensions was far too much as well. The story goes even funnier - the HD launched wine coolers - not impressive at all. This brand is associated with  certain image s like masculinity, rugged values, strength  the smell of oil, freedom. The company went to far with its extensions, too far form its core competency which is motorcycles. Fortunately, they understood they mistake early and withdrew the unfortunate products. My point is - why go further than you actually are able to? Why companies forget about their loyal profitable customers and go for inexplicable extensions? Why do you go for a sector that is not even remotely close to what you represent?

Anyway, let's come back to the European brands - they are not much wiser, however they do mistakes at different levels. Here it is -  a culture blunder example.

"Nothing sucks like an Electorlux' - have you ever heard of this advertisement? No? I think it's now part of the history - you should know it!




Let me present you the story shortly. This slogan appeared to be very famous and gained Electrolux (reminder: a  Swedish household goods producer) lot's of consumers in England. It was so popular over there, the the ad won an award in one of the competitions. The thing is that they didn't like it in America. The Brits sense of humor is one of it's kind. The Americans didn't like the ambiguity of the word "suck" but the Swedish hoped that the double meaning would get them the attention. Partly, they achieved it - they got attention, but not really a good one.

Another mistake that a famous European brand of dried soups -  Knorr, has made while introducing its core products to the US.


The company had even conducted market research and asked American consumers if they would be willing to buy the product. The answer was positive - after testing a soup, the passersby, said they would buy it if the product was available  However, the sales were very low, after the Knorr dried soups appeared on shop shelves. The company started looking for the "root" of the problem, and they found out that during the testing they didn't say that it takes around 15-20 mins to prepare the soup, and that it requires some stirring as well. If the testers have known that before, they would have shown less interest in buying that kind of soup.

I could talk about the blunders all day long but the point is, what can we learn from those mistakes?

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How changing the existing brand image may destroy your brand

Few days ago, at my Digital Advertising class, we had a discussion how the social media response to the changes of brand image may play a significant role in the perception of the product. My teacher, Dr Matthew Wilson  showed us a story of the Tropicana juice changing its package. The CEO of the Arnell Group, Peter Arnell, the company which took care of the advertising of the Tropicana juice decided to change completely the traditional, "old school" package to new "modern" one.

 The decision turned up to be a disaster. 

Here are few comments that appeared all over the social media:

“Ugly”

“Cheap looking 7-11-esque packaging”

“Looks like a generic knock-off”

“This new packaging feels, at best, like a discount store brand”

“The juice’s new packaging was so bland and undistinguished it looked like the low rent made-from-concentrate stuff.”

Ouch..These comments do not look very flattering and pleasant, aren't they? Well I must admit, I do not like the new look of the Tropicana juice either. It is bland, undistinguished, common, looks like a generic brand. 

My question is now why they have changed the packaged that significantly ? People don't like changes, and if changes are inevitable, they cannot be dramatic. Especially if it comes to the everyday goods like orange juice. Consumers want the same things everyday as the routine gives the sense of stability. Were there any market researches conducted? They could have been, but we have to remember to choose appropriate things to measure. 

The thing that amazes me the most is the immediate response in the social media and how powerful the opinion is. After few weeks the new package was replaced by the old, wanted by everyone, familiar Tropicana package, even though Peter Arnell tried to convince the audience to his idea how the juice box should look like. Below you can watch a video with Peter Arnell explaining the failure of the new package. What do you think of it? 

To me he, seems to say to the consumers :" you are not intelligent enough to get the genius idea of the modern new design that shows the product itself or to understand the connection  the new squeeze cap with the family love" (which I think is brilliant, but I don't think of family when I saw it). 
Many people defined that previous logo with their childhood, the orange with the straw has always been a Tropicana juice image. This is what happens when you do not listen to the customers, if you do not put the customer in the centre of your marketing strategy, That's why the Arnell Group failed. That's why I think how the brand image, its logo can be even more important, powerful over the consumers than the product itself.

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brand - what is it? part 2

I have just come across with this great video about what brands are, what branding is, how brands are perceived and why brands are important and how they exist in our everyday lives. I think this short video represents everything a layman should know about brands.

I really like it, because it presents the brand in the easy and understanding way, plus the cartoons are very good and suit the content very well.

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KFC changing brand image in India

Today I would like to talk about the article from the Economic Times I found while searching for brand image definition. It is about KFC changing its menu in India. 

So when you hear of  KFC, you probably think of chicken, right? Well, what KFC stands for? Kentucky Fried Chicken! So the menu there should mostly consist of chicken! But I guess not in India.

However, we should remember why KFC pursue this strategy. In India most of the society is vegetarian and it is not because of leading healthy lifestyle, this is mostly because of religion and Indian philosophy towards food, that they need to eat vegetarian items. Also, there is a huge competition from much stronger global brands like McDonald's, Pizza Hut or Subway and local chains like: Haldiram, Nirula's and Bikanerwala.  

Similarly to the competition, KFC had to tailor its strategy to suit local market and consumer preferences. Turan Lal, general manager at KFC India, says that KFC had little choice, and even if the brand synonymous is with chicken, it had to adapt the menu to survive in this market .

KFC, in its history, has already gone through menu and brand image changes, so it is not a surprise it is trying to match it right now taking into consideration the predominantly vegetarian Indian market. Of course, it could keep the standard menu, but it would not get to that large audience. What is more, vegetarian food plays significant role for non-vegetarians in India. Lal says that "A non-veg user at a KFC will consume a veg item if there is a great offering in that category". However, further in the article  we can find out that only one in five offerings in KFC in vegetarian, and "green" menu represents only 10 % of its revenues. Why then KFC sustains this menu ? The author of the article says that KFC faces the though task as its is mostly linked with fried chicken, but the same we can say about other brands, which are not  not vegetarian -  McDonald's is about burgers and Subway serves panini's. Is that sufficient to just add veg menu and dress the staff in green or using the sperate line at the counters for veg food? General manager of Indian KFC, Lal,  wants to "launch a comprehensive ad campaign focused around the veg products" and he seems to be confident with that.

However, the outcome did not surprise me at all. The line for regular KCF menu was far much  longer than for vegetarian food. I think the KCF case in India gives a good lesson for every brand manager: however you try to position your established product, the existing brand image may surpass your efforts.

I believe it is more important to maintain the image you have already gained that try to totally change it. Few adjustments are indispensable, however, to stay in the market but it is important to to forget where your roots are and how and why you became successful. 

If you would like to see the whole article click here

Source: The Economic Times

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Brand image

Now, when we know what a "brand" is, I would like to go further and present a "brand image" definition.

BusinessDictionary states:

"The impression in the consumers' mind of a brand's total personality (real and imaginary qualities and shortcomings). Brand image is developed over time through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme, and is authenticated through the consumers' direct experience."

source of an image: David Armano

In other words, it is the way consumers perceive a particular brand, what they think about it, what they feel about it and what they associate it with. Thus, it is so vital for firms to work on positive brand image, as it may affcet the whole view of a company. Brand image can be presented somewhat as a corporate "business card", especially if a product is well- known. Companies built their brand images through advertising and recetly more often through social media. However, I am going to focus on how to build a positive brand image later on.

Please, feel free to comment on my view of a brand image and I hope you could share your own opinions.

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Brand - what is it?

When you hear a word "brand" what do you think of first? 

A particular brand name? What would be your first choice? Pepsi, Coca Cola, McDonalds or maybe Apple? I'm pretty sure you know what the brand is. But how many of you know the exact definition? Do not worry, I'm not going to ask you what is it exactly! You don't need to know word by word the definition. My blog is about brands, especially about European brands in America. I would like to make sure that you know what I am going to write about. So if you didn't know that before, you have a chance to get familiar with it :)

Here is how the American Marketing Association proposed to name a " BRAND"

""Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."

Is that answer satisfying? No? I think there is something more than just features that identify products of from another. Let me give you another, more detailed, description. One of the most famous expert on marketing, Philp Kotler, said that a brand is:

"A brand is a complex symbol that can convey up to six levels of meaning:

§  Attributes: A brand brings to mind certain attributes. Mercedes suggests expensive, well-built, well-engineered, durable, high-prestige automobiles.

§  Benefits: Attributes must be translated into functional and emotional benefits. The attribute “durable” could translate into the functional benefit “I won’t have to buy another car for several years.” The attribute “expensive” translates into the emotional benefit “The car makes me feel important and admired.”

§  Values: The brand also says something about the producer’s values. Mercedes stands for high performance, safety and prestige.

§  Culture: The brand may represent a certain culture. The Mercedes represents German culture: organized, efficient, high quality.

§  Personality: The brand can project a certain personality. Mercedes may suggest a no-nonsense [person, for example].

§  User (Primary Target): The brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys or uses the product. We would expect to see a 55-year-old top executive behind the wheel of a Mercedes, not a 20-year-old secretary.

To me, this definition appeal the most. But if you have any suggestions, please, make a comment!

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