Branding of Business

Updated 8th July 2004 Geoff Stuart The Branding of Business Tracing the extraordinary history of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, Companies, Corporations and Brands. INTRODUCTION Michael, my son started pointing out the window as we were driving and saying “ ee ai, ee ai”, and repeating the sounds. He was less than a year old. At first I couldn’t work it out. “ Ee ai”, what was that? There he was sitting in the back seat of the car in his baby seat, saying “ ee ai”, not “Dad”, “Daddy”, “Da, Da ”, or even “Mummy”! It wasn’t just a gurgle, it was a definite word and he was pointing! And then I got it! There was a McDonalds sign, and he was pointing right at it! He had connected the Nursery Rhyme “Old McDonald had a Farm, ee ai, ee ai, oh “ to McDonalds Restaurants! His very first word was McDonalds, all be it said in Baby talk! Luckily his vocabulary has expanded a lot since then, but his very first word was a brand! As a father I felt cheated that he was saying “McDonalds” before I got a mention, but as a Marketing person, I took it as a sign that brands could have enormous cut through, not just as words but as images as well. So, what was it that made him connect to “McDonalds”? Was it the ads on TV, the Golden Arches, Ronald McDonald or McDonalds colours or combinations of all of these or simply the connection with the word McDonalds from the Nursery Rhyme? Whatever it was, the brand image was very powerful. After all, I had been giving him intensive coaching on the word “ Dad eee”. It hadn’t left an impression! McDonalds had hit the nerve- all be it the desire for food, the toy, or the chance to meet Ronald McDonald! I consoled myself with the thought that he seemed to recognize me pretty fast when I came near him, and he seemed to like me a lot, particularly when I fed him! Maybe I should put a McDonalds sign on my forehead! After all, brands have always had a fascination to me. As a child growing up in the 1950’s, I collected match boxes and cigarette packets, even though I never took up smoking, and I had build up quite a large collection of cigarette packs that I glued into a book. There were brands like Ardath, Capston, Craven A, Peter Stuyvesant, Players Navy Cut, Benson & Hedges and sophisticated overseas brands like Perillys, Black Sobranies and the Cocktail Sobranies which used coloured papers on its cigarettes … plus a host of others. I even had people collecting for me! I discovered New York through the sophisticated international smoking pleasure of Peter Stuyvesant, and the same time the charm of England through Benson & Hedges and later The House of Dunhill. At the same time, brands like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes had plastic toys inside their packs, and as soon as the new Corn Flake pack arrived, we would dig deep inside to find the toy first. The cereal took second place! My early interest in branding led me eventually into marketing, and later into design, and it is this interest in branding which has encouraged me to write this book on branding and the history of its development. Brands are universally developed by companies, individuals and organizations that see the need for a product or service, and seek to develop it at a particular point of time. Over time these brands have changed just as much as the needs of people. Organization of people, money, resources, other companies, and the huge impact of Government have all been factors determining the development of brands and the companies involved. In order to understand this more fully, I have spent a considerable time researching the history of trade, and the impact of Governments, laws and finance on the way companies develop. Wars have had a huge impact on the development of business over the centuries. While it is impossible to discuss every company, and every business, we have tried to cover many of the larger companies and consumer brands as possible. Until the advent of the Internet, this book and its content would have been impossible to research. Only now that companies are publishing details on their websites about themselves for general release has it become possible. Public libraries, even the biggest have never kept information about companies and brands in any detail, other than a few annual reports. Company information has also traditionally been just a set of accounts, and details of share movements. Similarly, when people think of history, they think in terms of politics. There has been little discussion about business, yet business, in all its various forms has been the engine room to drive development, employ people, and provide the money to enable people and politicians to prosper. The history of business and brands is a fascinating one. I hope that you enjoy it. Geoff Stuart Chapter One – Introduction Chapter Two – Understanding the Dynamics of Branding Chapter Three – How did Branding happen? Chapter Four – The Branding Revolution Chapter Five – The Evolution of World Trade Chapter Six – Discovering the New World – how new was it? Chapter Seven – The Development of Money. Chapter Eight – The Industrial Revolution Chapter Nine – Banking and Insurance Chapter Ten – Counting the money – the history of Accountancy and the Law Chapter Eleven – From candles to Power Chapter Twelve – The tobacco trust Chapter Thirteen – Communications Chapter Fourteen – From candles to kerosene, gaslight to gasoline…Penny farthings to cars Chapter Fifteen – Developing the American car Chapter Sixteen – Detroit, Coventry, Stuttgart – a tale of three cities Chapter Seventeen – The World takes flight Chapter Eighteen – Time for a drink Chapter Nineteen – The Twentieth Century – the world changes Chapter Twenty – A flute of champagne, a nip of whisky – a schooner of beer, or a Cognac? Chapter Twenty-one – Off to the movies Chapter Twenty-two – The age of Television Chapter Twenty-three – A healthy life Chapter Twenty-four – Changes on the High Street Chapter Twenty-five – From war to baby boomers Chapter Twenty-six – The age of computers Chapter Twenty-seven – The Final chapter – looking to the future CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Over the last twenty years, as a Design and Marketing Consultant in Europe, Asia and Australia, I have worked with some of many of the world’s great brands, as well as the companies that market them. I have also worked with many smaller brands. In this position I have been able to work across many brands, at the point where they are in the process of change - entering new markets, developing line extensions, being repositioned to meet new market trends, or being revitalized to build their own sales potential. As such, I have been privileged to work with a large number of marketing people, and a diverse range of companies – companies that have been marketing everything from racehorses, real estate, medical diagnostic equipment, computer software, cars and a huge array of different consumer and industrial products. No matter what product or service is being sold, I have yet to see any that could not be improved through better branding. Branding is certainly one of the keys to a company’s success. So, what makes a brand successful? Certainly, there are brands that last through generations. There are also brands that create markets, ones that are a huge hit one year, and disappear the next. Some have huge advertising budgets to launch them, and some are launched with almost no advertising support. While branding is certainly one of the key factors involved in successful marketing, it is not the only one. There are certainly many products and services sold successfully without branding. There are others, which have such poor branding that no one other than owner of the product, or service being sold knows that the brand exists! Many restaurants may have a name, but because there are so many restaurants to choose from, as consumers, we may not even be bothered finding out or remembering the name. We buy simply on the restaurant’s convenience at the time, the look, feel, and presentation of the restaurant, as we perceive it. We may also decide to enter or not based on a menu displayed on the outside, and on the basis that there are people inside, so “it must be good”. All of these factors will influence our decision to enter. These are all parts of the identity, and therefore part of the brand image that is being presented to us, even though we are not interested in finding out the name itself. Certain discos, brothels or illicit casinos may purposely go out of their way not to be identified in an identity sense, and this “hole in the wall”- entry by invitation only also becomes part of the brand identity of these establishments. Their identity may be revealed through a coloured light, or number on a door or simply the look of the door itself, which is known only to those wanting to find it. What was the name of the last fruit shop you visited, or taxi you hailed? What is the brand of bread, or oranges you just bought? Do you still remember the hotel you stayed in last year? The reality is that many of the products and services we buy are in fact unbranded, and we purchase many of these products simply on the basis of their personal convenience to us. There are many businesses like this, and many that are successful without branding in the conventional sense.

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