When Companies Embrace Their Brand Equity

Brands can be funny things sometimes. Companies will spend hours upon hours along with a small fortune to develop, strategize and promote their ideal vision, yet when it comes down to the true brand perception, it is the consumer who gets the final say. As a company, you have the power to lay the groundwork for you brand and guide the consumer down the path that you see as ideal. Companies can preach certain values, choose who they market to, dictate store environments and determine product usage, yet they are always at the mercy of the consumer and whether or not they buy into that brand that is presented to them. When the company and consumer on the same page, it can be bliss. When they are not, it can be fatal.

Sometimes when a company’s branding efforts don’t match up to their brand equity, it is predominantly the organizations fault, whether it is poor customer service, inferior product performance or even an insider trading scandal. Other times an organization has very little control over their brand equity, like if a toxic celebrity personality endorses a product (Lindsay Lohan + Fashion Designers). Or maybe, just maybe a former NFL star wanted for murder chooses to run from the police in a vehicle you make (OJ + Ford). Occasionally, brands experience some quirky association that is neither good nor bad, but connects the brand to some other thought or emotion nonetheless (Diet Coke + Mentos fountains).

The perpetual challenge for companies and brand strategists is identifying the brand equity associated to a company, determining the effects put on the brand, and taking action. Today we are going to look at three recent examples of an organization going through this process and embracing their brand equity (whether it is positive, negative or neutral).

Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s is known for quite a few things, namely fast deliver and terrible pizza (I am partial to their thin crust though). I know this, you know this and now it is apparent that Domino’s definitely knows this. Why is it apparent? Because Domino’s. Says. It. Right. In. Their. Commercials. This may seem like corporate suicide to most (the jury is still out on this one), but what I see and what Domino’s sees is a strategy of honesty, transparency and improvement. They’ve identified a huge part of their brand equity…bad pizza, determined the effect…umm, it’s negative, and took action by changing their principles and approach to pizza making to deliver a better product.

Cornell Law School

Because of Cornell’s history and prestige, people have many differing views of the institution and it’s students. Some are very good, while others are very bad. The Office’s Andy Bernard seems to embody many of the negative and annoying traits that correspond to the Ithaca, NY school whether that is The Nard-Dog’s cheesy personality, pastel wardrobe or his ability to find a way of mentioning Cornell in almost every conversation.

In an effort to show their lighter-side and possibly shed some of the pretentious and serious attitude of Cornell, their law school decided to embrace the Nard-Dog within their marketing campaign by featuring Ed Helms in character representing the school in his usually way. Although there was some student backlash, the tactic has proven to be a hit with the Cornell community.

Volkswagen

We have all played Slug Bug. Most times we were unaware that we were playing until our arm went instantly numb and your friend is screaming “RED ONE!!!” in your ear. You then anxiously and attentively wait for next Bug to drive by so you can retaliate, which of course never comes. Such is life and such is Slug Bug, an unforgiving game.

Now, VW has had nothing to do with the invention of the game, other than selling the VW Bug. No, the game was surely invented by bored children forced on 8 hour long road trips by their parents in the dark days before Walkman’s, iPods and SUV’s with DVD consoles. Nonetheless, Slug Bug was become strongly associated with the VW brand, although not really in a directly positive or negative way.

I think it is a great tactic because it targets an established brand experience in a target audience outside of just VW owners. You see, in order for most companies to successfully play on emotions and memories of a product, they need consumers with direct product usage. However, in this specific instance, VW has identified a huge group of consumers who have had that direct brand experience but may or may not have actually bought or driven a VW car. The question is, can this campaign turn the experience of playing slug bug and the association with the brand into new car purchases?

(Nard-Dog article via @brianjelkins)