I uploaded my Master’s Thesis, called A CONCEPT ANALYSIS ON MODERN BRANDING – Defining Key Concepts in Mind-Share, Emotional, Viral, and Cultural Branding, to my server. It’s 124 pages all in all, and it received the grade 80/100 from the Helsinki School of Economics’ marketing department (read: a good grade).
Why should you read the thesis? Well…
- if you think brand managers can totally control their brands, then you need to read this thesis
- if you think consumers are in total control of brands, then you need to read this thesis
- if you want to know what should you take into account when your brand matures and why, then you need to read this thesis
- if you want to understand why advertising constantly keeps losing its power and what you can do about it, then you need to read this thesis
- if you want to know why people driven brands seem to succeed where as more resource-rich and bigger brands are faltering, then you need to read this thesis
- if you’re want to know why forgetting about making money for a while might be the best business decision you’ll ever make, then you need to read this thesis
- if you want to know what Viral Branding REALLY means, and what it means for your business, then you need to read this thesis
- and above all, if you think that a “brand” is just “value added to a product”, then you DEFINITELY need to read this thesis
And as a teaser, here is the main finding of my thesis, communicated as shortly as I possibly can in visual format:
Enjoy, and please give feedback and challenge my ideas, if you dare!
I have to read this as soon as possible… Great job!
To continue our conversation from some time ago on how the brand maturity will evolve from cultural branding onwards. I’ve think I’ve found my best guess: Brand Utility. Won’t bore you with my rant, when David Armano has put it a lot better at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i26f1bfd408799a200df1722ea35ccfee
what do you think? Or am I totally missing the point and looking at branding on a too tactical level, where I should look at the strategic level where cultural branding operates.
Ville, I think Armano’s a bit off on what he’s saying. It sounds a bit too akin to what Christensen et al were saying in 2005, and what McCracken had condemned:
http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2005/11/and_stop_callin.html
To me, it boils down to this:
What Christensen and Armano are saying is “build brands that are cool and have a purpose”
What me and McCracken are saying is “understand what makes brands cool (in terms of cultural significance) and where their purpose comes from”
Understand the difference?
Solid points and can’t but agree with McCracken there. Yet, I still see something there in Armano’s argument as well. Maybe it’s time to leave the one-size-fits-all thinking also in the field of branding and admit that world might be too complicated to be explained with only one model. What I mean is that, whereas cultural branding is spot on with many brands, I find it harder to apply to say Amazon.com, PayPal and the likes. And even if you can, it’s not as obvious.
Armano may not have communicated his point clearly but when he says _[...]how to retool Web design into something more engaging, rewarding, useful and valuable. Call it “brand utility” or call it a good experience._ I believe he is emphasizing the world of web and all things digital. In the same manner I think Amazon’s success and brand is much about functionality and easy of use, whereas Apple might have both things going for it and Puccini in turn would have extremely strong link to the culture it represents.
Functionality goes a long way, I’ll give you that. But I don’t think it’s a sustainable advantage. Storytelling is.
And besides, matching your functionality with your storytelling might not as easy as it first might seem. Also, Amazon DEFINITELY is more than a functionality brand, if you look at their upstart mentality, frugality and passion for understanding their consumers, that story in itself is more important than how the site functions.
Yeah. Amazon is a funny example. I still argue that most people that use it have very little idea of the story or passion involved with it, and rather use it only because it has been recommended to them and they’ve found it a good buying experience. Yet, am sure they’ve not been able to build as strong product nor get the early critical mass without the story and the very passion.
Ville, the PDF download link no longer works.
Fixed now.