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Welcome to Branded.
Corporate Insignia's Newsletter focusing on branding, logos and the effective use of badges, name badges and promotional products to help you get the most for your money.
This includes use and care of to get farther mileage from our products.
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1st October 2010
Taking Advantage of the Underdog Status in your Branding
I was reading through a BNET article and this really appealed to me.
Professor Ana Keinan researched and explored the workings of various underdog brands from Avis to Snapple.
He said, "Underdog brand biographies are effective in the marketplace because consumers identify with the disadvantaged position of the underdog and share their passion and determination to succeed when the odds are against them."
The effectiveness of this is demonstrated as especially effective in difficult economic times such as the Great Depression. Hence the relevance to us today during the credit crunch and how we can make best use of our position in the marketplace.
In the 1960's, Avis, the car rental agency, initiated a campaign with advertising giant DDB to turn the industry around. Their message, "We are No. 2 so we have to try harder," elevated Avis from the position of losing money and market share to industry leader Hertz, to an incredibly strong position. A year after the campaign Avis was in the black and within 3 years, their share price had skyrocketed from 11% to 35%.
So what do we need to understand if we are considering this branding strategy?
According to the Web site, Building Brands, there are three main points.
- Take a good, honest assessment of your products and services before launching a single advert. Then upgrade these: great marketing will not sell a bad product or service.
- Now ask yourself: why should anyone buy from us? For Avis, the answer was, "because we work harder".
- Involve everyone. The change of approach, the campaign and upgrades must be systemic. Avis provided a copy of the each new advert in their pay envelopes before each campaign was launched.
Professor Keinan also offered other insights: such as, underdog branding isn't for everyone i.e. hospitals shouldn't shout about how little resources they have or staffing problems - we see how that has created such a negative view of the NHS, don't we?
The underdog label must also be credible.
"Many brands emphasize their underdog roots, but if they are later acquired by large corporations, it diminishes the credibility of their underdog brand biographies. Brands such as Ben & Jerry's and Snapple have been criticized by consumers once they were acquired by large corporations."
However, when you win the fight of the underdog and reach number 1, remember that your customer's expectations will change.
After all, you are not the underdog anymore.
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