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Trademark/Branding Strategies-Of Wars Over Consumers' Hearts

Fighting brands can be meant as warnings or deterrents or as shock troops to absorb the brunt of a competitive attack. They are also often introduced with little push or support before any serious attack occurs, thereby serving as a warning.

- Michael Porter31

Equally effective in competitive wars are branding strategies, but the war is of a completely dif­ferent nature. It is not about technological supremacy and patent "lands," but about promises and winning consumers' hearts. Brand loyalty commands higher market share and enables the brand owner to maintain strong entry barriers for the competition, to have higher immunity to market changes, to protect against price erosion and hence to sustain a competitive advantage. The basis of competition here is not the tangible features of the product nor its technological superiority, but rather the promise and emotional value of the brand, which influences first and repeat pur­chase decisions. This is of particular importance in the knowledge economy, where the erosion of product superiority - now that most products are very close in terms of functionality, quality, and price - intensified the effect of brands on purchasing decisions, and hence became recognized as an important source of competitive advantage. The emotional value conveyed by the brand's identity became the final focal point to win the customer. As a result, branding strategies gained more prominence in the knowledge economy even for industries that don't deal directly with the consumers, as seen in the increasing use of ingredient branding.

Using the IP strategies blueprint identified above, branding strategies for competitive position­ing include "design around," "build a fortress," and "value mapping." "Design around" branding strategies involve the introduction of brands to counteract the competitive moves by producing a duplicate in terms of the value proposition (not the trademark, of course). To avoid creating con­fusion in the minds of consumers as to the origin of the product - which is the gist of trademark infringement - the house mark can be used in conjunction with the new brand. An example is Maxwell House's introduction of Horizon, in similar packaging to that of Folgers in markets where Folgers started to gain a stronger position.33 This strategy is also used by Cadbury, Mars, and Nestle to compete in the confectionary market where they match each other brand for brand.

"Building a fortress" brand strategies involve investing heavily in building a brand by extend­ing the line of products horizontally across product categories. In addition the brand is aug­mented by other supporting brands to extend it vertically along different market segments on the value hierarchy, as shown in Exhibit 8.2. This strategy also entails reinforcing the main brand with a number of slogans, aggressive marketing campaigns, trade dress, and licensing widely to a network of partners (customers, suppliers, and distributors) to maximize the penetration of the consumer attention zone. An example of the use of this strategy is Coca-Cola's defense of the

Brand extensions across product categories

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Watches    Sunglasses     Apparel     Jewelry Luxury brand (Las sale)

High priced brand (Seiko Credor) Mid price brand (Seiko Pulsar)

Low price - entry level brand (Pulsar Lorus) Mass-market brand

EXHIBIT 8.2    Use of "Build a Fortress" Branding Strategy

fortress it built around the Coca-Cola brand. First, the brand is supported by a close web of slo­gans, designs, color schemes, and advertising campaigns. Second, litigation is used as a tool to aggressively deter the slightest competitive maneuvers as shown by its major suit to stop Pepsi Cola's subsidiaries from offering Pepsi Cola under the term "Coke" 1

"Value mapping" strategies are used to build a new strong brand or to revitalize an old brand, by mapping the competitive landscape to uncover brand personalities and value propositions available in the market, in search of the brand promise with the strongest emotional impact. Research has shown that the most valuable brands are those that are rich in the emotional pack­age they deliver and invoke in the receiver and have a defined personality that is conveyed con­sistently. With the saturation of the market with brands, and the multiplication of common communication channels, the brands that have the most "loved" personality are the ones that command larger market shares. Branding specialists argue that the most successful brands are those that are loved rather than respected, because the consumers identify with the brands at a personal level.

Value mapping is aimed at discovering a unique brand promise that will enable the organiza­tion to set itself ahead of the rest, one that builds on the organizational history, identity, and core values, and hence can hardly be imitated by the competition. Mapping strategies involve search­ing for and devising the brand promise and value that set the organization ahead of the rest by building on its core ideologies and avoiding those proj ected by others if not rooted in the organi­zation's culture. Value mapping is essential in revitalizing old brands as well. For example, to overcome its brand personality as being "cold and aloof," IBM undertook extensive consumer surveys, consulted its history and culture, and mapped advertising promises in the market to revi­talize its brand's image. These efforts resulted in new advertising campaigns portraying IBM's international reputation with the "Solutions for a Small Planet" campaign showing people in dif­ferent parts of the world discussing IBM computers in their own language.

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