Prophet’s List of 2003 Branding Hits Topped by Apple and New Directory Services Number 118 118

Management Consultancy Prophet names 2003 Brand Hits and Misses including hits: Apple, Puma and Mini, and Directory Dervices Number 118 118, and misses: high street chemist Boots and national airline Swiss.

London 5 December 2003 – The insightful brand strategy behind the iPod, iTunes and the latest part of this digital music package, the iTunes Music Store, wins kudos for Apple as one of the clear brand hits of 2003. But high street chemist Boots scores a miss with poorly planned brand extensions Pure Beauty and wellbeing.com, according to Prophet, the management consulting firm specialised in integrating brand, business and marketing strategy.
    
     “We’ve identified a short list of three of this year’s brand hits and two of its brand misses,” says Prophet Managing Partner, Philippe Lebard. “Combined, they provide a succinct lesson in the importance of understanding a brand’s value to customers, how well the organisation delivers on what the brand stands for, and how to make it stretch (or not) into new areas to grow the business.”
     Prophet’s choices for top brand hits and misses include:

·         Hit: Apple has done a stellar job of expanding its brand into the digital music arena with its iPod portable player, iTunes software and this year’s iTunes Music Store, which aims to satisfy both consumers and artists by making downloaded music legal and affordable. Playing off the anti-establishment roots shared by Apple and the digital music scene, the company has underscored its difference as a brand through packaging (the iPod’s signature white serves as a visual differentiator from other MP3 players) and supported it through advertising (the white product against silhouetted profiles of hip users). But Apple is also using its digital music package as a vehicle to extend its brand into previously unoccupied space. Having first taken care of its own community of Mac users in April, in October it launched the Windows version of the iTunes Music Store. “The jury’s still out on how well it will traverse the PC space, but because of the Music Store’s simplicity and ease of use – some of the core elements of Apple’s brand -- we’re betting this will fuel substantial growth for Apple and may even increase the chances of some PC users considering Apple for their next purchase,” said Lebard.

·         Miss: Boots finally admitted defeat in 2003 and closed down its ill conceived Pure Beauty brand extension and wellbeing.com. With high-end cosmetics retail concept Pure Beauty, Boots had tried to extend its reach into the territory increasingly owned by the likes of Pout and Sephora. But they fundamentally overestimated Pure Beauty’s ability to achieve premium pricing in a standalone format. Though businesses often see extensions as a relatively risk free method to increasing either product footprint or additional customer segments; without a deep understanding of the customer’s perceptual license around the brand these extensions are often superficial.

Wellbeing.com was a more aggressive attempt to reposition Boots as a holistic supplier of healthly living products and services. Riding the wave of spa culture and all things homeopathic, Boots tried to become the portal for wellbeing advice, products and services. They attempted to be all things to all people and failed to realise that boutique services require a more specialised approach than the broad brush employed by the mass-market retailer to keep sales and margins buoyant.

Thankfully, under new CEO Richard Baker, Boots is getting back to what is does best -- wholesome middle market healthcare retailing.

·         Hit: PUMA and MINI, in one of the more unusual cross-discipline initiatives, have joined forces to transfer the best of their brands’ signature values into a driving shoe and the PUMA MINI Cooper S car. The driving shoe, part of the automaker’s line of premium clothing and accessories, reinforces both brands’ characteristic innovativeness with features like the removable inner bootie with special traction outsole designed to enhance foot comfort on longer drives. The car also reflects PUMA innovation, using its air mesh footwear technology in the car seats, providing a fresh new look and more comfortable feel to the car’s interior. The PUMA brand is reinforced visually in the classic MINI body with features like the PUMA formstrip from the front to the rear of the car and the leaping PUMA cat. Says Lebard: “Although this was a limited promotion, it is a great example of the collaboration of two strong brands leveraging each other’s strengths to create unique products for their users.”

·         Hit: the Number - 118 118, The new directory enquiries service has used a quirky brand personality to create a highly successful launch, gaining a huge marketshare and beating the national incumbent- BT. The UK recently deregulated its directory enquiries service, allowing new companies to launch their own service. 118 118 used a particularly catchy campaign featuring retro Seventies style running twins with moustaches and old-fashioned singlets. They also used a guerilla campaign with real running singlets strung up all over London, and a couple of highly odd-ball brand sites as teasers (see below). Their fun, taking-life-not-too-seriously approach, has engaged customers on a human level and helped 118 118 achieve almost a 50% marketshare. It is rare that competitors have to compete head-on at the same launch date. But when this happens, it heightens the need to build differentiated and memorable associations that are fully exploited with an integrated and consistent campaign to burn the brand into people’s consciousness.

·         Miss: Swiss, the national airline of Switzerland, has badly miss-stepped in its efforts to rebrand itself as a premium air carrier under the banner of “Destination Excellence.” Like others before it, Swiss is discovering the pitfalls of branding against promises that can’t be fulfilled operationally: Its promise of excellence is denigrated by flight delays and declining levels of customer service due to a reduction of flights and staff. Compounding the problem was its separate, and seemingly contradictory, launch of a “value“ campaign in Europe this Autumn in response to continuing lacklustre business performance. Economy-class customers are now charged for food and drink, while the price of those “value” flights appears unchanged. “If the airline had chosen to rally around one set of brand values, and armed the organisation to deliver on them, it might have had a chance,” says Lebard. “As it is, Swiss hasn’t been able to perform against any of them."

“As our hits and misses show it takes more than a slick ad campaign and empty promises to successfully build a brand,” according to Lebard. “In order to drive growth, these companies need to have a solid understanding of their brand’s licence to pursue new opportunities with new customer groups.”

Prophet , www.prophet.com , is a management consultancy that helps clients achieve competitive advantage by creating and implementing integrated business, brand and marketing strategies. Leveraging the thought leadership of David Aaker and a team of seasoned professionals, Prophet works with companies from strategy to execution to develop, operationalise, grow, and protect one of their most valuable assets: their brand. Prophet has offices in Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.