At a time when our businesses are being disrupted by currency fluctuations and Britain’s withdrawal from Europe, it was appropriate that ‘disruption’ was the overall theme for the recent Brand Forum event.
The event began with an overview of the new media landscape in Ireland by Aidan Greene of Core Media. The marketing communications business has been subjected to massive disruption from the digital revolution in recent years and Aidan graphically illustrated this showing that digital platforms now account for over one-third of all media expenditure. However, he also pointed out the remarkable resilience of TV which remains the most effective overall channel. One obvious effect of the proliferation of new media platforms is clutter with Irish people being bombarded with almost 400 ads every day. This, in turn, emphasises the need for greater creative distinctiveness in marketing communications in order to break through the incessant noise. In making this point Aidan introduced Byron Sharp’s seminal work How Brands Grow, and summarised the main findings; the need to communicate to a mass audience because growth is more dependent on continually attracting new users and occasional users, the need for continuous presence in the market rather than relying on short bursts and the need to be distinctive rather than striving for difference in markets where consumers regard product quality as fairly similar for all leading brands. He concluded by reminding us of Sharp’s two golden rules for brand success; physical availability; maximising distribution, and mental availability, ensuring that consumers have a clear picture of your brand and what it stands for in their minds.
The second speaker was Damien Heary who is in charge of Global Innovation and Strategy & Insight at William Grant & Sons the independent family distillers with an impressive collection of global brands in their portfolio including Glenfiddich, Sailor Jerry, Monkey Shoulder and one of the great spirit brand success stories of recent years; Hendricks’s Gin. Damien took us through a fascinating range of different strategies for creating successful brands by disrupting existing market structures and norms. The strategy behind Monkey Shoulder was a good example. The Scotch Whisky market is characterised by very familiar, very long established conventions especially in marketing communications; male, elderly, reverential, upper class and conservative. Monkey Shoulder’s strategy was to simply overturn them all and create a brash, rebellious informal, light-hearted approach designed to appeal to a younger generation bored by convention and more than ready to create their own rules.
The Hendrick’s case study is now an acknowledged classic and has many lessons for brand owners. Twenty years ago the gin category was in decline and Vodka was the preeminent white spirit. Gin was tired and looked in terminal decline but Grant’s anthropological research approach to the spirit sector showed that gin had been the fashionable spirit in the not so distant past and realising that there has been a return to ‘heritage’ in recent years and that fashion is constantly ransacking the past for new ideas they decided to invest in a stylish marketing communications package committing themselves to a long-term approach. It was ten years before it started to pay off but the investment was amply justified. The implications of this approach should be carefully studied. Two additional lessons from this presentation should also be considered. Damien emphasised the potential of using carefully chosen brand ambassadors or ‘maverick collaborators’, as a part of the marketing communications strategy; people whose distinctive lifestyle and personality can be aligned with the brand to add an additional layer of distinctiveness. A second route that might usefully be explored is the semiotic approach; a detailed study of visual styles, the tone of voice, interior design, wardrobe, music and other aspects of a market sector that can inspire new ways of bringing a brand to life.
The final presentation was from Patrick Criteser, CEO of the successful American disruptive dairy brand Tillamook County Creamery Association. The business is a co-op of around ninety farming families in Oregon who have created a highly distinctive dairy brand of cheese, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream and butter using disruptive marketing communication strategies including highly distinctive advertising messages. Up to 2012 when Patrick has hired the brand was strong in the local area but primarily based on volume growth leading to more retail promotions than was healthy for long-term development. Patrick re-focussed the strategy concentrating on the development of a strong brand based on a family farmer story selling at a premium price with reduced retailer promotions. A key element of the strategy was to weave a delicate line between ignoring the consumer and the retailer and being controlled by the consumer and the retailer. In devising the strategy the company also navigated a middle way between assuming that consumers don’t really know what they want and accepting everything they say in favour of a more nuanced approach balancing the integrity of the Tillamook offering with insights gained from a wide variety formal and informal market research drawing their own conclusions from close listening to people. This resulted in the realisation that food had become a political battleground not just in relation to health but also the environment, the economy, animal welfare and human rights. This led to the brand claiming leadership of a movement challenging the dominance of ‘big food’ and championing real food with integrity.
Using money saved from reduced retailer promotions the brand invested in a marketing communications campaign extolling the superior nutritional taste and quality benefits of family farm produce, casting aspersions on big food; ‘goodbye big food’, but communicated in an amusing tongue-in-cheek rather than an earnest or aggressive tone all underpinned by a memorable and neatly encapsulated copy line ‘Dairy Done Right’. Another aspect of the communications material, online and offline, is that employees and farmer shareholders appear regularly, not as featured ‘stars’ but casually introduced.
Tillamook have also invested heavily in consumer and retail data which enables them to engage with retailers in a mutually beneficial way educating them about the advantages for both retailer and supplier in stocking premium quality brands.
The Core media presentation concluded with a plea to invest in high quality creatively distinctive marketing communications material. Grant’s and Tillamook both demonstrated the wisdom of this advice.
From the Brand Forum team
For more information on Bord Bia’s Brand Forum contact Niamh.MacHale@BordBia.ie
