Where can I buy a Coke, just ‘google’ it !

Substituting a brand name in our daily language now days is just a common thing. Hearing ‘can I have a Coke?’ or ‘ if you want to know this, just ‘google’ it’ has become a part of our life. Being a brand, this means big success and power as well as awareness.
As a powerful brand, being able to adapt to a new culture is a huge step forward to success on the local market. Understanding culture has therefore become very important for companies and brands.
Very often we see brands doing well un their home country, but failing when they need to adapt to local cultures and traditions. For example Wall Mart having huge success in the US, but a complete failure on the German market, and the reason is simple, not being able to adapt to the local German everyday discount shopper.

On the other side we have the influence of those brands to our culture. Fashion brands are the best example for culture influence. They tell us how to dress, what is acceptable to wear and what isn’t, how to shape our values and norms even sometimes our culture. But not only fashion brands influence our life, Apple and Google for example, can be seen as being revolutionary in the way we work online. It seems logical for brands to want to be a part in our culture aiming, for further success.
But before you can set a culture, you should be able to adapt to it.

Hristov D.

http://m-cause.com/brands-and-culture-symbiotic/

When cereals meet India

The popularity of a brand and its might doesn’t mean a guaranteed success. A good example is Kellogg’s.
Kellogg’s is one of the best known cereal producers in the world, with its sub-brands it commanded in the 1980’s, 40 per cent of the US ready-to-eat market from cereal products alone. Began of the 90’s was the period when Kellogg’s  started to struggle as the nearest competitor increased the pressure on the market. Expansion was the only solution.
Already controlling the both US and European markets, the best option for Kellogg’s seemed India. After all India is a country with over 950 million inhabitants, with a very large middle class. In 1994 Kellogg’s decided to invest 65 million dollar and launch its number one brand Corn Flakes. The news was welcomed as a success by the Indian economic experts, but not by the locals. Eating cereals was a brand new experiences after being used to start your day with a bowl of hot vegetables. The first sales figures were optimistic, the cereal breakfast consumption was on the rise. However it soon became clear that many people had bought Corn Flakes as a one-off, novelty purchase. After research on local Indian market cereal buyers were introduced to many new sub-brands and flavors but without any success. The only solution for Kellogg’s was to launch an alternative biscuit brand and cover the Indian market.
Because changing  a culture is harder than launching a brand.

Hristov D.

http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/marketing-management-rm-im/201501-brand-culture-failure-kellogg-s-india.html

Why India can't produce cult brands

Most of the experts in the article felt that India is simply incapable of producing a cult brand in the near future, because India is a very diverse nation. Cult following happens when a country has a large proportion of people following a common lifestyle or group behaviour. The psychosocial aspect of this argument is that Indians are encouraged since childhood to “fit in” rather than “stand out”, and cult brands draw their consumers with propositions that go against the mainstream.
India is fantastically diverse in its linguistic customs and sharply differentiated in its socioeconomic classes. Because of this, it will be invariably difficult to slice across all the jumble of Indian strata to attract people from each section to form a cohesive and loyal consumer fan base.
Another reason India may not be able to produce cult brands is because of its global status. Today, India is equal parts software-genius and bounding economy, and equal parts snake-charming, elephant-riding turbaned showman.
Also, cult brands are essentially driven by niche segmentation, and big and/or profitable niches do not exist in India. It is far too chaotic to have intense subculture movements.

Wouter Bouman

source: http://www.themarketers.in/?p=2114

The "Made in America" Harley-Davidson Culture

If you’re thinking of buying a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and fitting in with the custom Harley-Davidson crowd, you might want to adapt to their culture.
Owning a Harley-Davidson bring you into a tight brotherhood with a culture of its own. The Harley culture is a very proud one where there are traditions, expectations and unwritten rules that each biker must follow.
First of all, every Harley should be unique, customized by the biker, to be a reflection of himself, and therefore no two Harleys should be alike. An “of the shelf” Harley bike is out of the question.
Secondly, all your custom parts are made by American companies. Otherwise you co counter to the made-in-America attitudes of the Harley culture and fail to show the pride, sophistication and attention to detail that went into its creation
And when it comes to the helmet that you wear, forget the face mask. Those are for wimps!

Wouter Bouman

Source: http://contentdig.com/culture-and-society/the-made-in-america-harley-davidson-culture.html

How to market your cultural brand

Developing a cultural brand doesn’t happen by itself. Therefore you need people in your company: management. For these people the article shows some general rules to market a cultural brand.

First of all the management needs to understand the actual culture. This is not the same as the vision you have as a company, as many managers think. You have to follow up what consumers want and what they expect of a product. They are the ones who make your brand.
Secondly you have to develop a culture you respect. This will make it easier for you and your management team to work on the project.
After that it’s important you identify the personality on your team that represents your company and the brand. This is what we call your personal brand and will be your target market.
The last thing you need is people to accomplish your plans. Recruiting the right people is important. They need to understand perfectly which way you want to go.

If you respected these general rules and have a team that succeeds to transform your plans into reality, you will have your own successful cultural brand on the market.

Thaïsa Van Haesebroeck

http://hireeducated.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/how-to-market-your-culture-brand/

People brands?

Snoop Dogg was one of the first rappers, who represented the idea of ‘artist as brand’. Next to selling his records, he also thought about selling himself. When sales of his newest record were disappointing, he realised that the only way to stay relevant, was to be noticed for something else. Because of many public appearances and the right publicity, Snoop became an iconic figure. People not only associated him with rap music, but also with a certain way of living.  The ‘Snoop Dogg brand’ was born. In this context, I find it important to reflect on the so-called ‘people brands’. I agree with the fact that people are not brands. Celebrities are not products that we can buy and consume, they only embody certain ideas and believes that we can relate with. Those believes are not limited to one product. George Clooney for example is not only the face of Martini, but also appears in the Nespresso adds. Therefore I find celebrity endorsement a more appropriate term instead of  a ‘people brand’.

Eline Van Lombeek

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/30/snoop-dogg-branding-image/

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2009/05/branding-debate-are-people-brands-.html

The magic of the cultural brand

According to Harvey Hartman, a brand needs five elements to be named a cultural brand: social context, experience, community, products and services, and infrastructure sensibility. But the main element is actually observing how people change in the way they live, buy products, etc. so your product represents these changing values.

A good example is mentioned in the answer of question 4. Let’s take the Yankees. They are considered a cultural brand whether some other baseball clubs are not. This is because the Yankees have social context, experience, community (the first three elements of a cultural brand) but also traditions. One of them is their uniforms (white, blue and the NY symbol), which aren’t changed in the past 60 years and don’t have the names of the players on the back to symbolize they are one team.

Which is also interesting in the interview is that it’s easier for a small company to improve the attributes of a cultural brand. Big companies have traditions like the methods they use for branding.

Although you see in every article about branding the characteristics of a cultural brand mentioned, I think the main key to develop these brands is looking at the way consumers act and change their way of living so producers can adapt their product to the needs of the consumers.

Thaïsa Van Haesebroeck

http://www.hartman-group.com/hartbeat/the-magic-of-the-cultural-brand-an-interview-with-harvey-hartman

Starbucks takes over the world

Starbucks is known to be a typically American brand, as it can be found on every corner of every street of every city in the United States. Nowadays, because of globalization, Starbucks is exploring new foreign markets and coffee shops pop up all around the globe. However, many people find this expansion intrusive and are scared of the Americanization of their culture. To counter these negative feelings towards their brand, Starbucks needs to tell a story which foreign customers will find more appealing. The story of the coffee bean, grown on an exotic island is the most attractive one. In order to distance themselves more and more from their American roots, they are taking on local aspects, like specific flavours and cultural habits, for example green tea frappuccinos in Asia. Also by recruiting locals they are getting rid of the negative image that American chains put local stores out of business.  

Eline Van Lombeek

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=259

Gazprom accused of branding fail

Nigaz logo

The join venture between Gazprom and the Nigerian firm NNPC is considered as a failure. The reason is the name of the venture called “Niggaz”. While the explanation of the name is quite simple, a conjunction of the words “Nigeria” and “gaz”, English speakers seeing the name written down associate it with different meaning.
Although it’s not the first time creating a new brand name has failed, for example the name that Mitsubishi gave to the new SUV “Pajero” in Spain, meaning ‘wanker’ or the term ‘latte’ that Starbucks preferred during the introduction of the brand in Germany. While the word means ‘milk’ in Italian, it means ‘erection’ in German. 
Branding consultant Simon Anholt admitted that the name could be seen as offensive and a blunder, but said as well that changing names for companies is not a common thing. “People will soon forget that the name sounds bad,” he says.
The primary objective of Nigaz will be to build pipelines, refineries and gas power stations in Nigeria.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/916373/Gazprom-accused-branding-fail-Nigerian-joint-venture-Nigaz/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8130334.stm

Hristov D.