Perspective
ADDICTION 2 BRANDS
by Ishaan Prasad
MBA (IT), IIIT
Allahabad
‘A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.’1
Historically, a brand was any visible mark created for identification. Today, a brand includes any identifiable or subconscious characteristic, including the many qualities and emotions contained in a consumer’s relationship with an entity, be it a company, product, service or individual. Therefore, the term ‘branding’ is now synonymous with relationship-building. Branding has been used by its promoters as a way of etching into the minds of the consumer the attributes of their products. A brand is more than an identifiable form for the product, it’s a whole relationship.
Marketers engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique.
"A great brand raises the bar -- it adds a greater sense of purpose to the experience, whether it's the challenge to do your best in sports and fitness, or the affirmation that the cup of coffee you're drinking really matters." - Howard Schultz (CEO, Starbucks Corp.)
The topic might be misleading in a few ways .It’s not the substance addiction that is being talked about but the same concept of ‘addiction’ applicable to the marketing scenario. It’s the so called concept of brand loyalty and that too from a consumer’s perspective. Brand Loyalty is the consumer’s conscious or unconscious decision, expressed through intention or behavior to repurchase a brand continually. It occurs because the consumer perceives that the brand offers the right product features, image, or level of quality at the right price. Consumer behavior is habitual because habits are safe and familiar 2.
Doesn’t it sound like a person addicted to narcotics, purchasing it again & again till he discovers a new better value for money drug.
Marketers are always trying to find out reasons as to what propels consumers to pickup the same brand name they purchased earlier, from a display shelf housing rival products offering value of a similar or the same nature. It maybe (from a marketer’s point of view) that the customer realizes the monetary value he gets from the purchase. But the reasons need more investigation.
The factor of nostalgia also plays an important factor. Please let me establish a small example from my own side. I have grown up seeing the same variety of ‘Colgate’ (the white coloured tube in a red colored box oozing the plain flavored paste upon squeezing) being brought into my home from time immemorial or till my synapses fail me to recall otherwise. Now was it the sense of ‘Safety’ associated with the Colgate brand that my parents banked upon or was it the ‘Risk’ factor involved in trying another product with different name ? …I guess the true answer lies with their trial and error judgment.
Coming to a more personal note; I begin to realize I have become ‘addicted’ to the five rupee ‘Linc’ brand pen. It has successfully managed to become a part of writing paraphernalia and while buying this brand from the shop I don’t even question the seller for other alternatives in existence, alternatives that could have substituted my shelling out of money in a more justifiable way. Maybe that’s ignorance on my part, but it could also be that I am sure of the end result of my transaction. But that’s just me; it could be some other type of product for you.
However this ‘brand addiction’ maybe related to products from certain categories. A consumer purchasing the same brand of footwear for years (again in my case I owe my loyalty to the omnipresent ‘Bata’), may not necessarily pursue the same loyalty while purchasing a new washing machine. Considering example of Colgate, the company has tried to provide variations within the ‘Close-Up’ brand; still it found that only particular flavors sold well and it was able to sustain those only. This might be sufficient to illustrate the degree of attachment a consumer might have.
Of course these attachments are for a duration and the companies are always looking to maximize the duration they can reap benefits. They find that satisfying loyal customers is important than grabbing new ones.
Consumer Dogmatism - This refers to a trait which is responsible for the individual's resistance whenever the stimuli he receives are not in sync with his or her beliefs. This ambiguity in consumers results in less receptiveness to new products. Dogmatism is another reason to be investigated for consumer attachment to particular brands. Information overload occurring due to the blitzkrieg like advertising campaigns by many companies may prove harmful as such dogmatic consumers will fell they are being forced upon. Their probability of reverting back to their previous brand during the next purchase becomes high.
Its not surprising to find that a survey by the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) found that almost 49% of American consumers look for a familiar brand name while purchasing in a super market. Even surprising was that 67% would ‘chase’ the brand to a different store if it wasn’t available 3
Well I cannot comment about the Americans, but I can say for sure that my family has been successfully able to shield ourselves from the barrage of advertisements popping up on Televisions and billboards all proclaiming that we be loyal patrons of their offerings. But little do they know we are already ‘hooked’ to others.
Sources:
1 All text taken from http://en.wikipedia.org is under GNU Free Documentation License.
2 PageWise, Inc. http://il.essortment.com/brandloyalty_pqk.htm
3 Grocery Manufacturers of America press release June 13, 2002
Disclaimer : The views
expressed in the articles are author’s own views B’Cognizance or
IIITA is not liable for any objections arising out of the same.
The matter here is solely for academic use only.
http://www.gmabrands.com/news/docs/NewsRelease.cfm?DocID=971&