Defining brand leaders

Before looking at what brand leader means, it is relevant to discuss the meaning of ‘brand’ first. The term has been and is still subject to a big discussion and a subject of research in academic literature, where marketers are debating how best to build brands to ensure their success. To this day, we are still discussing the true meaning of brands and their importance and influence on the consumers and their purchase decisions. As this is still being discussed, this could also explain why the subject of change and making redesigns for leading brands is described so scantily in the literature.

Traditionally, it has been said that brands are perceived as “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competitors” (The American Marketing Association in Chernatony 2009). This definition focuses mainly on the part of the brand being visible to us and does not take the consumers perspective into account. However, the authors of ‘The three laws of branding’ define a brand as a network of associations grounded in information, meaning, experiences, emotions, images and intentions, all connected in various strengths in consumers memory, which supports Genco et al. (2013)’s notion that a brand has strong ties to consumers memory.

As consumers, of FMCG products, we are exposed to endless brands every day, but despite the many brand alternatives in the supermarket, some brands are top-of-mind or more salient than others - these are termed the brand leaders. Van der Lans, Pieters, and Wedel (2008) suggests that brand salience is “the extent to which a brand visually stands out from its competitor”. This definition emphasise that salience is key in the constant battle for consumer’s attention and to succeed the brand will need strong visual elements and associations to be top-of-mind (Walvis 2007). By being represented more in the consumer’s memory, the brand will have a higher chance of being chosen in the final purchase decision (Genco et al. 2013).

Furthermore, according to Genco et al. (2013), brand leaders are the ones who know how to take advantage of and are successful in fulfilling a range of purposes for the consumers: “They increase familiarity and fluency [… ]They provide shortcuts to choice when alternatives are difficult to compute. They shape expectations that can influence consumption and usage experience. They provide assurance of consistency

34 and quality for future purchase […] they can invoke emotional connections that impact attention, attraction and memory activation” (p. 149)

Another way of defining a brand leader is by looking at the value of the brand. A brand leader is the brand with the highest brand equity compared to its competitors. Brand equity is the value of a brand - both economical and in terms of consumers experienced value of the brand. Aaker (1991) points to associations as one of the basis for brand equity (Matthews et al. 2014), and Klimchuk and Krasovec (2013) states that it is in the combination of consumer association, familiarity and loyalty to the brand, the value of brand equity is found.

4.1.2. Brand leaders and visual identity

Walvis (2007) points to strong visual elements on the packaging as a way for brand leaders to differentiate themselves from other brands. In other words, they point to leading brands as having unique and strong visual elements, which supports the brand identity. One of the definitions of brand identity is made by Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2002). They argue that brand identity is “a set of associations the brand strategist seeks to create or maintain”. Heding et al. (2009) define brand identity as an element, which must convey the vision and uniqueness of the brand. Furthermore, Heding et al. (2009) argues that the brand identity must be consistent over time to create the basis of the brand and insure a solid, coherent and long-lasting brand leader. When looking at the visual elements for FMCG, it can be difficult to separate the consumer’s perception of the brand from their perception of the packaging, which places the packaging in an important position. Further Klimchuk and Krasovec (2013) state that the strength of the brand identity is found by consumers’ visual recall of the brands key visual elements and that the brand identity can create an emotional connection with consumers and is thereby their mental picture and perception of the brand. Brand leaders are characterised being very successful in fulfilling these objectives.

Advantages and disadvantages for brand leaders

One of the advantages of being a brand leader, is that it can be very difficult for competitors to replace them because of their unique placement in consumer’s memory. Further, brand leader is characterized by having a high brand identification and reputation, which is preferred by the consumer because it makes the purchase decision easier, which ultimately leads to a higher level of habitual purchase and brand loyalty. The combination of the visual elements like brand name, colour, image, typography, logo and packaging shape are elements that can be used for brand identification (Klimchunk and Krasovec, 2012)

According to Garber et al. (2000), the key visual elements that the consumers come to identify as key for the specific brand are invaluable and should retain the same message, when redesigning the packaging, as the strength of the brand identification is closely related to the key visual elements. In turn, if consumers have a strong visual recall of the key visual elements, the brand's identity is said to be strong. If the key visual

35 elements are modified too much, the current consumer may have difficulty recognizing and identifying the brand’s packaging and may turn a habitual purchase into a mentally challenging search process. This can lead to sales drop and increase the risk of brand swop (Garber et al. 2000). When Tropicana juice redesigned their packaging, they neglected to maintain the key visual elements, which resulted in their loyal consumers not identifying or recognizing the brand. In their redesign, both logo, typography, slogan, image and the lid we changed (see below picture).

Figure 4: Tropicana

This resulted in a large sales drop and they ended up returning to their original packaging design. Following this example, one of the disadvantages for brand leaders is related to change of the visual elements. When changing the packaging, it is important to keep a consistent visual identity and a core relevant message, as changing the visual elements in an inconvenient way it could change consumer’s associations, emotional connection and disrupt their purchase habits. This can be a difficult task for brand leaders, as Walvis (2007) further stresses, that we have both more specific and higher expectations and associations for leading brands (Walvis 2007). However, we also know (from the introduction) that renewal is key for the brand leader not to be perceived as boring and be left behind. It can be difficult for any brand to find the balance and keep consumers interested while maintaining their brand identity and recognisability. We will go more into the balance between novelty and familiarity in section 4.4.5.

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4.1.3. Associations, expectations and emotions

Associations

We have already noted that the success of a brand has strong ties to our associations build in the memory.

The packaging’s visual elements all communicate and deliver to the consumer's associations. The meaning consumers get from the packaging is by Garber termed ‘Packaging comprehension’. The communication triggers associations in consumers’ brain and create memories about past consumption experience, product quality, usage occasion etc. (Garber et al. 2000). Both personal experiences with a brand and exposure to messages about the brand, for example advertising, print ads, billboards etc. contribute to changing and reinforcing consumers’ association with the brand (Genco et al. 2013). The brand exposure, leave consumers with a very large network of associations, which are either created, strengthened or weakened every time we use the product or see a marketing message for that particular brand (ibid). This can be done by varying, broadening and building on the associations, in a way that still satisfy established memories and associations to the brand. A way to do this is to connect the brand to a specific situation or event, which can broaden and build on the network of associations related to the brand, and be recalled when the consumer is placed in the event or situation or is reminded of it eg. Tuborg beer and Roskilde Festival or summer holiday, Nutella and childhood.

Expectations

Associations and expectations are closely connected; in the way that the associations we have to a brand is shown in the expectations that we form. According to Genco et al. (2013), a successful brand is a brand that

37 manages to satisfy consumers’ expectations for the brand and they suggest that expectations are created through experiences and when developing established brand memories. Genco et al (2013) further stress that it is important for our relation to brands that we experience them regularly. If associations in our memory are not activated regularly, we will simply forget the brand. On the other hand, if we are regularly exposed to the brand and experience the brand, it will update and broaden our associations and expectations for the future and thereby in relation to brand salience be recalled earlier in memory. This is why it is so important for brands to trigger consumers’ attention continuously and where brand leaders have an advantage in terms of loyalty and habitual purchase.

In relations to our thesis, it is relevant to look at associations and expectations because the visual stimuli contribute to forming and updating consumers’ expectations and associations, which will then be stored in memory and retrieved and developed when a new encounter with the brand occurs. If the visuals do not meet consumer expectations or do not fit in this the previous associations with the brand, consumers might reject the brand and choose a competing brand at the moment of purchase. When making changes in the visual elements, it seems important that the new design can live up to the expectations and associations in consumers’ memory.

Walvis (2007) states, that we have both more specific and higher expectations and associations for leading brands. The Coca-Cola/Pepsi blind test is an often used and very good example of strong associations, where Pepsi is chosen in the blind test as the best product, but when respondents are shown the brands packaging while testing the product, they choose Coca-Cola over Pepsi as their favourite. The expectations we build up for the brands, especially leading brands, will affect the experience of consuming the product and the Coca-Cola/Pepsi experiment show the power of strong associations and emotions linked to the preferred brand.

This is in line with Genco et al. (2013), who states that the associations we built up for brands have a large influence on our experience of that product: “when consumers consume a product that lives under a strong brand, they may actually be consuming brand expectations more than they’re consuming the product itself”

(p. 144), thus affecting the physical consumption and the final purchase decision.

Emotions

According to Aaker (1991), associations equal the emotions we have towards a brand. As with associations, it is argued, that we are more likely to purchase a brand we have positive emotions ascribed to (Matthews 2014). This is where brand leaders have an advantage over other brands. According to De Chernatony (2009), how we feel about a brand is the result of emotions stirred by brand communication, packaging design and other things like price, placement etc. Genco al. (2013) agree that it is more sustainable for the brand to focus on emotions in the visual communication on the packaging than to solely focus on communicating the functional benefits of the brand. Positive emotions are an end product of both familiarity and processing fluency of the packaging, as we tend to favour things that are familiar and easy to process. In relation to brand loyalty, emotional connection is very important and it is created through satisfactory

38 experience and usage of the product (Genco et al. 2013). The more positive we feel about a brand, the more the satisfaction from using the product will increase, which in turn will strengthen positive associations and emotions towards the brand. But the satisfaction with the brand can be disrupted in a packaging change and affect the emotional connection, which is something that brand leaders could really suffer from.(Matthews et al. 2014).

According to Plassmann et al. (2012), several studies have shown a link between memory and brand preference and it has been stated, that our emotional connection and preference can be affected by how much we are exposed to the brand. They explain that we prefer brands we are familiar with because we know what we can expect from them, as we have learned through repeated usage with a satisfying experience as a result, this increases the trust and credibility of the brand that will further make our purchase decision more satisfying. Furthermore, these emotions have an impact on what we are attracted to, what we notice and what we remember. According to Genco et al. (2013), ‘Not only are emotions an important drivers of these decisions, but emotions essentially are the decision.’ (page 125). This happens because emotions help us make decisions more effectively and thereby save mental energy.