Branding Will Make Your Marketing More Effective

Copyright 2006 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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Subject: What's Their Secret? Author: B.J.

Hi,
I read what you wrote about Victoria's Secret owner Leslie Wexner in Marketing Nuggets. At first, it seemed like you mistakenly wrote "he" instead of "she."
I'm not doubting what you wrote since Victoria's Secret is highly successful.
How can a man - anyone who's not a member of a target market successfully sell what they need or want?
Does this show big box stores don't have to have "intimate" (pun intended) knowledge about their target markets?
If so, that makes it harder for us to compete with them.
Or does it show people will buy when they think they don't have much other choice?
I mean big retailers can outspend us in advertising, so it's almost like our advertising or stores don't even exist. We're lost in the clutter. People probably think they can't afford to buy from a better quality store or they don't see us past the fog of the big retailers.

Subject: Part 1- Branding Will Make Your Marketing More Effective Author: Dennis S. Vogel
In reply to: B.J. 's message, "What's Their Secret?"

Hi B. J.,

Thanks for joining us.
First a disclaimer- This is a controversial topic. I know some prefer lingerie not be made for displaying female beauty. Since some of it is, I'm dealing with reality. This isn't meant to offend or insult anybody. I think I understand why some are defensive about this. Even those, who don't agree with this gender issue, can still learn something valuable.
I hope I answered your questions & implied questions among the rest of what I wrote in this multi-part post. I didn't answer them individually because other issues relate to the issues you submitted.

According to Stephen R. Covey, breakthroughs are usually break-withs, somebody breaks with conventional wisdom & does something different.
Many times those who step around conventional wisdom find better ways to do things. Often those are outsiders or people in the field who aren't accepted by other insiders.
Victoria's Secret was started by Roy Raymond, another man.
Let's think about who is a target market.
Raymond shopped for lingerie as gifts for his wife. The body-language of female shoppers & store salespeople seemed to suggest he was an intruder.
I experienced some of this when I passed through a Montgomery Ward lingerie department (as an employee) to get to a store room of men's clothing.
Raymond thinks those stores were either excessively frilly or blandly conservative. Wexner figured lingerie should be displayed better than department stores did it. Though neither invented lingerie, they both innovated. Innovations don't have to be major changes. Major changes can be harder to market.
Was Roy Raymond part of the lingerie target market? Yes, as a gift buyer & I suppose as somebody who appreciated beauty. Since lingerie is more than underwear, some of it is made for more than female physical comfort. A wife can guess what her husband would like her to wear. A husband hopes to buy things his wife likes & is willing of wear. Lingerie is for both of them.

Reality- Other than basic, functional underwear, what's the purpose of lingerie? It's not all for the women wearing it.
A lingerie store owned by a man doesn't seem so farfetched. He can still have input from women (employees & customers). For women who want lingerie appealing to men, a male company owner can represent part of the male side of the issue.

Leslie Wexner rarely used advertising when he started his clothing businesses. He used exposure to customer traffic in malls. I've seen Victoria's Secret advertising lately. Wexner used to think his stores were too specialized to justify advertising. He figured the big anchor stores, with many product lines, needed to advertise to bring in enough people to buy things from the multiple store departments.
If you read between the lines, you may think Wexner relied on other mall tenants to advertise & attract customers. But some of those other tenants also offer lingerie.
Apparently, relying on general customer traffic wasn't enough. Just because people walk past a store in a mall or drive past a free standing store, it doesn't mean they'll notice. Even if they notice, it doesn't mean they'll automatically know what the store sells, unless they take a closer look. But how would they know if it's worth looking at?

Branding requires matching a name & identity with product/service line. It requires sufficient exposure. This is a simplistic model but it fits -
Product/Service + Brand Name + Promise/Benefit Statement + Sufficient Exposure = Branding
Whether it's a specialty or department store, its success depends on enough members of a target market knowing what it sells. It's easier for a specialty store to establish this, because stocking "anything" or "everything" to sell to "anybody" or "everybody" is a hard identity/brand to establish & maintain. It's also hard to keep enough of "everything" in stock to sell enough "anything" to be profitable. It's too expensive to reach "everybody" with a message that has enough meaning for each person to make an impact on "anybody".
This begs the question - What does Sufficient Exposure =? That's something to test. For a national brand in the USA, it could mean billions of dollars &/or many years. It depends on how much desire & perceived need there is for the product/service. The level & sophistication of competitors matter also. The number of competitors doesn't matter as much as ability & willingness to market.

Victoria's Secret is so specialized, it needs the exposure of consistent marketing messages. Examples- 1) When a wife shops for lingerie in lingerie specialty store, she's not apt to tell her husband, "I'll meet you in the men's wear department when I'm finished." 2) Somebody, who goes to a store to buy a vacuum cleaner, probably won't see lavish night gown displayed in a lingerie store.

If Victoria's Secret owned the top spot in lingerie, it could afford to promote lingerie to build the category. If it was done well, it would increase VS's profits even if it didn't increase market share. 40% of the lingerie market is more profitable when total sales of the category increase.

I think this could be a good basis for promoting the category- "Lingerie is make-up for your body & a lot easier than make-up to put on the right way." A possible double entendre (controversy) could be added - "It's also easier to take off."
This could be adapted to promote a brand or a locally-based store.
Smaller companies can't afford to promote a category as much because their share & profits aren't big enough. Others, in a category, end up promoting themselves as alternatives (better for some consumers) to the top company(ies).

Subject: Part 2- Branding Is A Lot More Than A Name & A Logo Author: Dennis S. Vogel

After absorbing my thoughts on branding, let's consider another angle. Branding authority, Rob Frankel defines branding as marks put on cows to show ownership. He said after he's paid to raise the cow -- food, medicines, etc. -- he doesn't want it to be mistaken for somebody else's cow.
As much as I dislike the thought of burning an animal, I admit it's a valid opinion.
I take it further - it's not enough to make a mark on your product/service, you need to make a mark in the target market's minds. Your ultimate goal should to make your business name (if you sell directly to end-users), product/service brand name & in some cases your name a consistent part of your target market's lives. That can be a challenge if what you offer is used or purchased infrequently.
Considering how quickly people get distracted & forget what they bought, from whom they bought it, why they bought it & might not care about brands, it's critical to remind them.
Even if your business doesn't depend on repeat purchases, after you've developed trust & value as part of the mark you made in people's minds, you can recommend products/services of other businesses. In return for that, you can get access to other businesses' customers or a percentage of sales revenue.
Branding is important, even if your business has done well without it. Many businesses did well without a lot of improvements - until a business using available improvements displaced them.

It's so easy for business owners to think when customers bought them, customers will automatically return. Yet, those same business owners don't automatically buy from the same businesses. One reason is many other businesses are reaching them. It's like Tracy Lawrence sings in "Somebody Paints the Wall" -- "Seems every time I make my mark somebody paints the wall."
There are a lot of businesses painting the walls of consumers' minds. There are a lot of demands, on people, chipping the pain off.
Rude Awakening/Reality Check- Your message isn't a high enough priority, your offer isn't exclusive enough for them to automatically remember every (if any) detail.
Remember AIDA? You attract to get attention, you intrigue to incite interest, you develop their desire,
you ask for action, but it doesn't mean you've made a deep enough impression for them to remember.

Back to Victoria's Secret
Wexner preferred to adapt what others started, instead of taking the risk of pioneering a totally new innovation. Top companies in categories tend to be the former pioneers, but some later entrants took top positions. Some business pioneers started well, but later closed down.
Raymond started Victoria's Secret well. Wexner had a different vision for the stores & took it to the next level. It's common for companies to slow or stop until somebody else with different ability gets involved.
Wexner had the option of starting a new business, as he did with his others, but when he found VS, he knew his ideas could lift the company higher.
Lingerie is a controversial product line. Even those, who approve of it, may reject it completely if it goes beyond their mental or moral threshold.
Beneath a conservative image, may be somebody who likes to wear or see others who wear lingerie. This hypocritical trait can be true of customers of any product/service. Some customers might become very vocal critics. So, don't count on all of your customers to support you.
I'm not trying to dissuade you from owning a business, I just want you not to be overwhelmed if controversies arise.
Some controversy can help a business. Controversy gets attention & those on each side of the issue have emotions & reputations invested in it. That'll definitely make a mark in people's minds. That's the topic for the next post.

Subject: Last Part- Controversy -- Who Needs It? Maybe You! But Be Very Careful! Author: Dennis S. Vogel

Some brands are formed to be controversial (start a controversy), others are adapted to take advantage of controversies, somewhat like trying to cash in on fads. Sometimes controversies are started because somebody starts a rumor or somebody wants attention & latches onto an issue to increase their popularity & to show they're needed. About as bad as starting rumors, some look for evil in good or neutral things.
Examples- Religious & political leaders -- or those who want to be leaders -- spark things to gain or regain popularity.

Don't be surprised if some unpopular national & religious leader says a book was written against a religion & tries to get religious zealots to kill the author & anybody who sells the book. Never mind the obvious ploy to divert attention from the country's problems & the fact the religion's members aren't allowed to read the book to confirm or reject the leader's claims.
How about this? Viewership is low & donations are even lower. A preacher needs more media attention & the image of actually doing something (to warrant asking for more money to do even more work). He latches onto a children's TV show character & exploits it as further evidence of the decadence of a minority group.

Back to Victoria's Secret
Some lingerie advertising is controversial, so people talk about it. But that doesn't mean controversy is enough to attract the target market. Talking about a controversy is a lot different than making a referral.

Negative controversy can hurt, but unfortunately the Wal-Mart scandals & problems haven't brought W-M down yet. There are PDF's available for downloading. You can use Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 &/or 7 to search for documents & web pages about W-M.
Controversy definitely increases attention, but nobody buys a product/service just because they know it exists. Controversy increases positive & negative interest. Though controversy inspires desire in those who want to rebel, except for very inexpensive things, rebels aren't apt to buy something only to rebel. Controversy won't produce or increase enough purchasing action to sustain a business category.
Conflict, created by the older generations in the USA during 1950s & 1960s, + peer pressure + curiosity helped rock 'n' rollers get & maintain attention & interest, but many teenagers liked the music.
Controversy doesn't necessarily communicate product/service value or benefits. Some substance is needed, like explaining advantages of owning something.

Controversy fades if it's not "fed" & marketing is an effective way to "feed" it. This is especially true because the opposition usually realize their criticism reminds others about the controversial things & helps the producers feed the issue. Many producers escalate the controversy to nudge the opposition back into action so the controversy will be sustained.
But some on the other side of controversies use them for exposure, like I wrote above.
Escalation tends to strengthen the opposition's resolve & polarizes more people, so more join each side of the issue.

Dave Thomas used Wendy's "Ain't No Reason to Go Anyplace Else" campaign to get attention. People, who apparently didn't have enough real problems to keep themselves busy, complained about Wendy's using "Ain't No" because "Ain't" ain't uh, isn't a word, plus it's a double negative.
But if "ain't" ain't a word, then how could "ain't no" be a double negative?
Dave wrote in "Dave's Way"- "Some groups threatened to boycott us until we cleaned up our grammar."
This is my interpretation of the situation, not Dave's (so don't blame the late R. David Thomas) - When Dave reminded people about popular songs including "Ain't" he softened the issue for some. He spread the blame/flack, but it also caused more rage in the self-righteous & probably inspired fundamentalists to join in. They wouldn't want such evil songs to be legitimized.
Dave also declared: "Dave Thomas has 2 words for people who don't like the campaign: 'Too bad!'"
Sure, some might figure "It's no use, they won't change." But Dave's response probably ticked more people off.
But the campaign was successful, partly because of the controversy.
So, people are bound to be more upset about a real controversy. If you start something unfavorable some might think "You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog" though they'll be the ones howling.
In 1984, some had a cow because they claimed Wendy's was demeaning to senior citizens. Remember Clara Peller & 2 other elderly women? The "exploited" Clara Peller earned at least $500,000 from that campaign & related merchandising (T-shirts, baseball caps, records, greeting cards & other items bearing her picture).
I don't know how much Elizabeth Shaw & Mildred Lane profited from their parts.
That was before Clara was featured in a commercial for another business.

The rumor is false- She wasn't fired by Wendy's because she appeared in a dog food ad. She said, "I finally found it!" in Prego spaghetti sauce advertising. (Dave Thomas avoided this part of the issue in "Dave's Way.") Clara heavily implied she didn't need to ask or look for "the beef" anymore because she got it from a different company.

Using other people/characters in marketing messages is useful, but it can backfire. They might be hired by a different company & interfere with the branding of their former employer. They might be involved in a past, current or future scandal.
Ronald McDonald can be portrayed by just about anyone. But when somebody is recognizable, even when portraying a character, it can cause problems.
Spokespersons & others perceived as part of a company can become embroiled in controversy.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2006 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
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