The Brand
Tony Tsai

A typical morning for the average North American consumer: We wake up in the morning to the sound of Howard Stern on Q107, the new and old rock station, blaring on out Sony Dream Machine clock radio.

After about 15 minutes of inane chatter, we climb out from under our Duvet and climb into the shower. There, we wash and clean with Zest, the Zestfully clean deodorant bar, then lather our head with Pantene Pro V two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. Stepping out of our shower, we towel off and begin the daily regimen of personal grooming.

For men, it usually begins with a quick shave with the new Gillette Mach 3 razor with triple blade action, then a quick style with a tub of Dep Gel, some underarm deodorant from Mennen and, possibly, some Old Spice aftershave or Calvin Klein’s Eternity cologne.

For women, the morning ritual usually involves 20 minutes of hair care. Starting with multiple mousse applications, Herbal Essence Mousse for hold, Pantene for shine, and Alberto VO5 for style and volume. Then a heat treatment with a Braun hairdryer, or the Braun hair curler. Finishing it all off with spritz of L’Oreals Studio Line hairspray.

For those women with a little more time and patience on their hands (or sense of vanity), it’s off to the vanity and the plethora of make-up. Maybelline for the eyes, Cover Girl for the lips, MAC for the cheeks, Ponds for the face, etc. etc.

Then off we go to the wardrobe for the outfit-du-jour. For those who feel that looking like they just got out of bed is a fashion statement, a pair of Adidas jogging pants with a chic Purple and Gold sweatshirt. For the rest, who feel that leaving the house requires a bit more fashion sensibility, cotton pants from GAP or Levi’s jeans, a shirt or sweater from Club Monaco, Suzy Sheer, Eddie Bauer, etc. (take your pick).

Next is breakfast - Wonderbread, Kraft Creamy peanut butter, Smuckers all natural jam, a glass of Tropicana Pure premium orange juice and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with Sealtest milk. In the short span of one hour, a total of thirteen brand names were consumed in this example. In reality, the typical North American consumer would encounter roughly the same amount of brand names, just for their morning rituals.

So, just what is a brand? By marketing terms brand is most commonly associated with brand equity. A term coined in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but became a major marketing powerhouse during the "Me" generation. The definition of brand equity can be summed up as the power of the brand to create and maintain customer value. More formally, brand equity is a combination of "a set of a brand’s assets and liabilities; is linked to the brand’s name and symbol; can subtract from, as well as add to, the value provided by a product or service, and provides value to customers as well as to a firm." (Aaker, pg.28)

To the consumers, brand equity is the reason why you keep going back to that special brand, questioning it’s value to you less and less every time you buy the brand. That’s the secret of brand equity. It’s supposed to build customer’s expectations of a product so the customer doesn’t have to go through the whole process of evaluating a product every time he/she buys it. It makes shopping predictable and convenient. This is all good to the consumer, provided the brand can ensure that those expectations from the customer are met every time. That’s where most brands are failing these days.

Yet, why do we still flock to these brands? The answer is simple. We’re lazy. "Branding allows people to obtain an identity rather than work for it." (Abramson, pg. 58) Today, brands are more concerned about creating a personality, rather than giving real tangible value. We no longer buy brands because they represent a superior product, we buy brands because they have cool ads, chic spokespersons, and really neat-o packaging.

These brand try to represent something we all would like to say about ourselves, something, we want everyone around us to be able to identify and say, "that’s so you."

Since the "Me" generation, the concept of self-identity has become an obsessive preoccupation in our society. Everyone wanted to become someone, to look a certain way, to smell nice, etc.

This all came about from the turbulent times of the 60’s where the younger generation fought back against the stiff regime of so called "social order" imposed by their elders. When the hippies of the 60’s became the yuppies of the 80’s and 90’s, the noble concept of individual self identity became twisted in a bizarre way. In the 60’s, the emphasis was on the choice to become an individual then, somewhere along the line, it became the choice to be a follower. We convinced ourselves that having the choice was far more important than the consequences of that choice. It was in this paradigm of "choice" that the concept of branding flourished.

Brand personalities made the all important choice that much easier for people to develop a sense of identity. Instead of creating an identity for ourselves through self exploration and discovery, we could simply purchase that identity though a bundle of consumer goods, clothing and services.

We buy GAP clothing because it says something about our taste, our sensibility to be conservative yet fashionable. We buy Nike shoes because people who buy Nikes are go-getters, that they can do anything as long as they "Just Do It". We buy Kraft Dinner because it represents convenience and thrift, that we can’t be bothered with such mundane activities as eating well.

Yet, if we really looked into those brands, and what they really are, we would find something distasteful about buying a $200 pair of sneakers that was made for $10 by South Asian sweatshop laborers. Or a food product from a company that targets young people to become the next generation of nicotine addicts in developing nations.

"Humans are multidimensional, brands aren’t. Their identities can generally be defined in one word. Rebel. Wholesome. Sexy." (Abramson, pg. 58) When we allow brands to define our personalities, we limit ourselves to those simplistic, one word identities. In the future, there may be no concept of the I, just "always Coca Cola."

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Sources
Aaker, David A., "The Value of Brand Equity," Journal of Business Strategy, July- August 1992, 27-32
Abramson, Ruth, "The Uncooling of Brands," Adbusters, Winter 1998, 58