Article

Creating a brand with a life of its own

Cultivating the customer passion that top brands enjoy.

July 27, 2008

Years ago, a friend launched into a tirade against the junk mail he said was clogging his mailbox. As his argument grew more heated, I looked down and saw a dog-eared catalog on his coffee table. "Junk mail like this?" I asked. He looked at me, aghast. "That's not junk mail," he said indignantly. "That's my Cabela's catalog."

The incident equally could illustrate targeted marketing, but since that day I've been fascinated by hunting and fishing outfitter Cabela's and the loyalty it inspires among outdoors people. Many such stores have excellent products; intelligent, helpful staff and good prices, but few have achieved the brand awareness of Cabela's.

So what has Cabela's — and other brands with a similarly loyal following — done to deserve this devotion?

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Don't dazzle. Talk

Dennis A. Veltre, president and chief executive of Clicks & Mortar Consulting Inc., says a big part of Cabela's nearly cult following is that the brand mirrors its corporate culture. "They are a culture of extraordinary customer service and it goes right up to the top, to Jim Cabela. They offer good value, of course, but they all — every one of them — live the life. They eat, breathe and drink the Cabela's philosophy. They don't dazzle you with glitz; instead, they tell you stories about hunting and fishing. It's a very strong community and they are right in the center of it, and have been for years."

Cabela's doesn't try to be everything to everybody — or even several things to many people. It focuses exclusively on flyfishermen, hunters and outdoors people, and that has paid off with a rock-solid brand for its chosen audience.

In retail, such consistent focus is more the exception than the rule.

"Some retailers change their image so often they're more like pinballs," said Doug Fleener, president and managing partner of retail consultancy Dynamic Experience. "The strongest brands tend to also be very disciplined retailers. They know who their customer is and what their purpose to their customer is and, in their quest to increase revenues, they look for additional ways to be relevant to their customers rather than dilute their brand to attract other customers."

Knowing your own brand, and the audience for that brand, is vital, and not as easy as it sounds.

"Retailers can get very product-centric," said Fleener. "Your products and how they are merchandised are certainly one part of your brand, but it's only one part. What's more important is the actual experience your customer has in your store."

Focus, focus, focus

Fleener points to Williams-Sonoma as another example of a brand done right. "They are clearly focused on a particular segment. They don't chase other markets; they focus on connecting with their own customer base more frequently."

Discount design giant IKEA stumbled on its entry into the U.S. market, losing sight of its core customer. It was able to regain its strength through a concentrated rededication to its audience.

In successful brands, customer focus and brand awareness is a companywide position, said James Chung, president of Reach Advisor, a marketing strategy and research firm specializing in customer behavior.

"One of the common things we've seen among America's very best retail brands is that the brand lives in their staff at all levels more often than not. It's not unusual to see front-line staff and front-line management exuding the brand at some of these places, when it tends to be pretty rare in retail in general," he said.

What is your brand premium?

American Girl Place exhibits the power of a brand focused on its core customer. It has built its brand with a laser-like focus on that core (girls, their mothers and their grandmothers); an amazing insight into that core (which translates into the ability to identify and fill gaps in the market for their customers); and a commitment to connecting with its customers beyond the actual sale.

With this focus, American Girl Place has managed to turn a very specialized toy store into a pilgrimage site for grandparents and little girls — and to transcend the commodity box.

"The average cost of a doll is what — $9?" asked Chung. "The average price of an American Girl doll is $93. That is a 10-time brand premium.

"My definition of 'brand' is an economic one," he said. "We don't care how cool an ad is. The value of the brand is equal to what is collected over an undifferentiated or easier-to-buy purchase. Brands don't matter unless the consumer is willing to pay more for it."

Stumble, don't fall

By 1992, the retailer was discussing whether to shutter its U.S. outlets. What saved the brand was concentrated rededication to its core audience: people who were looking for design on a budget. (For more on Ikea's troubles, see sidebar.)

Today, everything in IKEA, from teapots to tables, meatballs to kitchen cabinets is designed for the core customer. The products are low cost and industrially stylish with clean, modern lines. And the approach has paid off. IKEA, a company whose expansion plans are known for being conservative, expects to add 50 more stores in North America by 2013.

"IKEA's success hinges on the mystique it generates with affordable trendsetting home furnishings styles and a shopping experience unparalleled in the furniture/ home furnishings sector," said Nick McCoy, TNS Retail Forward senior consultant.

"You can spend years building a brand, but if you don't deliver on that brand in every encounter with your customer — on the Web, in the call center, in the store — you can lose that brand cachet very quickly," Clicks & Mortar's Veltre said. "You can't forget your core customers and hang onto a killer brand."

How to Kill a Killer Brand It can take years, or even decades, to build a killer brand. But a carefully cultivated brand can be wounded — or destroyed — in just weeks, or even days. Here are the top five brand challenges: 5. Confuse identity with brand "There were telltale signs that Starbucks' high-flying days were numbered," said Rob Frankel, author of "The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build a Big Time Brand on the Web or Anywhere Else." "Not because they couldn't purchase enough premium beans. It was because Starbucks has no genuine brand." Frankel says that Starbucks, while excellent at creating an identity, has not filled out that identity with a brand. "No amount of marketing or advertising or public relations can sustain a brand's growth if they raise awareness without making people understand why the brand is 'the only solution' to their problem." 4. React slowly, badly or not at all to bad PR Odwalla Juice and Tylenol both faced PR nightmares. Their products were poisoned or tainted and were killing people. But both reacted fast and strong, and both came out of their crises with their brands intact — and with a reputation for caring about their customers. But Wal-Mart didn't respond quickly enough to allegations that its employees were given food stamp applications when hired. The chain lost some brand popularity and became the "star" of a film called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." It still is battling the perception that it has a detrimental effect on local economies and mistreats its employees. 3. Ignore your customers' preferences When IKEA came to the United States, it brought Scandinavian design — and Scandinavian measurements. In addition to some branding trouble, the company struggled with U.S. measurements. For nearly five years, customers complained about kitchen cabinets that were measured in centimeters rather than inches (and thus didn't fit in U.S. kitchens) and beds sized for European linens. But IKEA continued to import European-standard products, although at an increasingly slower rate. It wasn't until IKEA faced closing its U.S. stores that it — very successfully — began making some of its furnishings in the sizes U.S. customers demanded. 2. Make clumsy attempts to attract new markets At its inception, The Gap — short for "generation gap" — catered to teenagers. "This was a classic example of a focused brand using a great name (Levi's) to lead a movement and, in the process, create a new category," said Laura Ries, president of marketing and branding firm Ries & Ries. Although The Gap was the store to supply the uniform of choice to teens in the '70s and '80s, as those teenagers grew up, The Gap expanded, too. Today, the store that was so cool to teens 20 years ago has lost that edge. "What do teenagers least like to do? Look like their parents. If mom and dad are shopping at The Gap, then forget about getting the kids into the store. Both The Gap and Levi Strauss suffered as teens drifted to other brands like American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch. The current problems at The Gap are due primarily to the watering down of the brand," Ries said. 1. Take your brand for granted When you live with your brand vision eight or more hours a day, it's easy to become complacent or even bored with it and to assume your customers know it as well as you do. The sad fact is your customer doesn't think about your stores nearly as much. It's not enough to write up your brand vision in a mission statement or articulate it at an annual employee meeting; a strong brand is built on the cumulative and consistent experiences a customer has with your stores. Constant articulation of your brand may seem repetitive to you, but it's just one of many messages competing for your customers' attention. Articulate your brand, exhibit it, live it. Until you're talking about your brand in your sleep, you haven't taken it too far.   — L.A.M.