The Culture in Brands
[The first part of this research can be found here]
When a brand is capable of mastering the art of tapping into consumers’ feelings and evoking great emotion is priceless. Which brings me to the first and greatest MasterCard ‘Priceless’ ad that ran during the 1997 World Series: ‘Two tickets: $28. Two hotdogs, two popcorns, two sodas: $18. One autographed baseball: $45. A real conversation with your 11-year-old son: Priceless.’ The tagline has been heard and reheard a couple hundred times and yet it still manages to remain fresh to the ear and provoke strong feelings, in other words: it is timeless. Like any great brand-building effort, this campaign touched on a fundamental human truth, which is that some things in life are simply priceless. The campaign has created a platform on which people can relate and reflect to what are their priorities in life that no amount of money simply cannot buy. More importantly, for this research, what made the campaign so successful is that it can communicate globally. Even though it is the most translated campaign in the corporate history when it comes to expressing themselves, no translation is needed—it is the imagery and the way you relate to the campaign that does the job so effortlessly. It is easier said than done, but any brand can do that when you are working with a global human truth.
Today, brands need to look more actively and purposefully at the culture buzzing around them—in entertainment, in fashion, in the news, on social media—and use that awareness to inform how they should best position and integrate themselves into the world. To reach the hearts and minds of consumers is now harder than ever (Brooks, 2018). Power is shifting from sender to receiver, which means that companies have no choice but to play on consumers’ terms. The way brands connect with consumers has changed drastically over the years. It used to be that companies would develop their brand positionings largely through introspection—by identifying what they saw as the defining attributes and benefits of their brand, then pushing that version to the market, being in complete control (Quora, 2018). Peter Grossman, an entrepreneur and former advertising executive stated, ‘Your brand must be part of the culture, because consumers are part of that culture. Consumers trust brands now, to act almost as cultural barometers. And they will leave brands behind if they do not feel like they can trust them to represent and stand for their values.’ (Quora, 2018) This is a more powerful form of branding, because by engaging with culture more directly, brands in effect can become a part of that culture, thereby deepening their relevance and connection with customers. And that has never been more prescient or necessary.
When it comes to travel, what people are unaware of is that a city itself or a location can be or already is branded. City branding or place branding plays a massive role in creating popular destinations around the world. Creating a single brand for a city can help communicate their offerings and interactions for both the tourist and their residents. A city’s brand is the same as a company’s brand. It is a promise of value. It is how it wants to present itself to the world (Hardy, 2019). Take Amsterdam for example. In 2004, the city was on the receiving end of a rebrand. This idea of rebranding was to show people that Amsterdam is not just a city that revolves around sex, drugs, and canals, but that it is a great place to live and work. The city’s previous slogans, ‘Amsterdam Has It’ and ‘Small City, Big Business’, were all a bit too vague and not too creative. The ‘I amsterdam’ concept and identity completely refocused the city’s branding pushing it to a new modern direction.
This simple text-based logo is super effective and as reported by the Smithsonian Magazine: ‘Tourism numbers are up, business is good, and Amsterdam has once again cemented its position in the top five European cities based on brand strength and cultural “assets”’. In fact, according to Saffron, Amsterdam’s brand is actually better than their assets predicted. To those who visit the city, the letters make an indelible impression and nearly every single one of them has a photo with the city’s red and white logo. ‘I amsterdam’ has become not only a part of the cultural identity, but a landmark.
Power users, also famously known as influencers, who create a lot of content and amass thousands, even millions, of fans on a platform are in a unique position for brands. All eyes, or in this case, likes are going towards them and those likes are becoming worth some coins. Over 70 percent of brands indicate they are using influencer marketing, and brands will be spending an estimated $2.3 billion on it by 2019 (Routley, 2017). Some campaigns have taken advantage of the trust users have in the people they follow when it comes to influencer marketing. One great example is a very infamous festival that never happened, the Fyre Festival. ‘Fyre was basically like Instagram coming to life’, stated DJ/producer Jillonaire. (Kleinman, 2019) Basically, the organisers spent great sums on an extravagant launch campaign with ten of the world’s top supermodels. They all shared sneak-peaks via Instagram of what will soon be this out-of-this-world festival on a deserted island in the Bahamas. Kendall Jenner was one of them, reportedly paid $250,000 for one single Instagram post announcing the launch of the ticket sales, offering her followers a discount code.
This festival that never happened, all because of bad planning and execution burned out the influencers and negatively impacted influencer marketing. However, Rohan Midha, managing director of the PMYB influencer agency says that ‘while Fyre itself was a disaster, the marketing choices behind it were not’, the festival sold out thanks to the celebrities promoting it. ‘Influencers can reproduce the largest return on investment’, Midha says. This is proof of how one campaign can make us buy a $1,500 ticket to take us to paradise and imitate these models’ experiences that were shared on their accounts.
Our emotional connections to brands often have much larger impact on whether or not we buy something than the actual experience it brings us. For years brands have been part of our lives—part of our culture. Even though the MasterCard ‘Priceless’ ad disrupted society, there are companies that as a whole that have disrupted the world. Kodak, like stated before, is a great example of how it turned a product into a global pastime so important to everyday life. Another example is that of McDonalds and their concept of ‘fast-food’, the way they were able to spread their golden arches around the world to reach all types of consumers looking for the same taste at a low price. Today, three great examples of companies completely disrupting mass markets are Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon. Airbnb disrupted the way we travel, Uber in the way we utilise transportation, and Amazon in the way we buy. Instagram, however, has disrupted our contemporary culture, in the way we interact, express, and identify ourselves with our incredible love for sharing.
References
Brooks, A. (2018). 7 Unexpected Ways Instagram Has Changed the World. [online] Social Media Today. Available at: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/7-unexpected-ways-instagram-has-changed-the-world/539032/ [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
Hardy, T. (2019) The Best City Branding Examples from Around The World. [online] Canny Creative. Available at: https://www.canny-creative.com/city-branding-examples [Accessed August 27, 2019].
Kleinman, Z. (2019). Has Fyre Festival Burned Influencers? [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/46945662 [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
Quora. (2018). How Do Brands Become Part of Our Culture? [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/08/10/how-do-brands-become-part-of-our-culture/#69f333937935 [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
Routley, N. (2017). The Influence of Instagram. [online] Visual Capitalist. Available at: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/influence-of-instagram/ [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].