What’s going to happen when things get better?

Theret has been much genuine and anecdotal evidence of buyers, especially consumers, switching their buying habits during the recession. Motivation may have been pragmatic or emotional, or some combination of the two. But it poses the question about what will happen when the recession is over?  Well buyers simply return to their premium or first-choice brands, or will they have developed loyalty to their new lower-budget brands?

The challenge for the premium brands who have currently lost share will be: ‘What must we do to attract those customers back?’

For the budget brands: ‘What can we do now to secure and build loyalty amongst those defectors from premium brands?’

Brand cohorts – we all stand together

In tough times for brands, emotional reaction becomes increasingly important as consumers and customers move into uncharted waters. I’ve spoken before about brand epistemology and the two types of knowledge we have about brands – the declarative knowledge and the emotional knowledge. This latter knowledge is acquired without conscious effort by low involvement processing, and it is for this reason that it is difficult to access and understand.

One useful technique is to use brand cohorts… other unrelated brands that sit comfortably together within a lifestyle or value context.  I often use a set of 50 or so cards with brand logos and ask participants to select no more than 10 that sit comfortably with the brand in question.  For example a participant may group Ford, Marks & Spencer, Timex, Carlsberg, Google and BP with the brand in question… and we can use this to promote further teasing out of more fine-grained insight into the deeper, emotion values the brands share.

Participants may be given specific direction or guidance to help investigate particular dimensions. One technique I have used is similar the the ’six thinking hats’ approach… asking them to make a series of groups.

People who are interested in brand archetypes will already have spotted the similarities. Brand cohorts are often the manifestation of their archetypes.

Second the emotion

Still considering the paradox of the Woolworth brand, I have pointed out a couple of times the warmth and affection people have for the brand.  Often, when doing brand evaluations we delve deeply into the brand values and what they represent, but there is a large emotional storehouse with most well known brands – some we just ‘like’. Going back to the brand-as-person model, we have all met people whose values we disagree with, who are fundamentally at odds with us, yet we rather like as people.

I remember some years ago doing a branding exercise for an NHS trust and something interesting came out of the patient research: they were heavily critical of the NHS, citing many failures in core areas… yet they still had a great affections for the service, describing it as, ‘the best in the world’.

Perhaps in brand assessments we should dig deeper into the emotional sentiment and recognise it as a brand dimension? It may not help the success of the brand but will undoubtedly add to its value – just look at Woolies.

Woolies to go online

Well, I hate to say I told you so, but the Woolworth brand has been snapped up by Shop Direct (see the Telegraph article). It was just too good to be left on the shelf. It is interesting that even though the commercial brand had lost its way and we could say the brand values became fuzzy and confused, there was another dimension… an emotional attachment that many felt. The fund of goodwill the brand carried surely has a substantial value and it has gone to just the place where such warmth and affection is at a premium… on-line.

I shall watch with interest to see what happens to the Wedgwood and Waterford brands, by comparison. It was apparent that despite their far longer histories, these had not the same storehouse of affection that down-market Woolworth enjoyed. Perhaps this is because they were seen more as ‘toffs’ brands whereas our high street retailer was regarded as a brand of the people. Perhaps it is just easier for a retail brand to touch the lives of people directly.