4.5 King Richard II and Branding Strategies

One of the ways the Internet and related technologies are changing how we communicate is the notion of brands. Are brands simply a mechanism to entice consumers to select and purchase a product, or does our sense of who we are drive the selection of the products we buy and the companies we use? The answer is yes to both. How a product is branded influences not only its appeal to customers, but also how an individual feels about himself or herself. Brands are governed by three factors: quality, satisfaction and a meaningful distinction. These three factors must appeal to an individual’s values and beliefs, or be relevant to facilitate a lifestyle. The value of a brand is its ability to comply with the desires, needs and wants of individuals who, in most cases, are similar to other individuals within a demographic group. Technologies such as the Internet, biometrics, PDAs and other ubiquitous devices are redefining not only our perception of brands, but the delivery and composition of products and corporate identities.

In this sense, brands add value when they possess a distinctive value proposition to a customer, fulfilling a customer’s desire at the right price point. That is to say, that the price is reasonable with regard to a customer’s perception of the product meeting his or her needs.

As I have argued elsewhere, the competitive landscape that has come about primarily as a result of technological evolution now demands a re-examination of the composition of brands and their relationship to products and services. Firms can reinforce existing products by developing a dual branding strategy for cyberspace and terraspace.^[129] The Internet can be viewed as a channel to specific market segments in which old products can be recast, new products can be introduced, and new niches can be identified. A brand must incorporate these factors in its strategy, as Clifton and Maughan maintain:

Whichever way you look at it, brands today are the most demonstrably powerful and sustainable wealth creators in the world. The term ‘brand’ and the practice of branding are not only being applied across the full spectrum of businesses; they are now being applied across any type of organization that seeks to create a relationship with its audiences over and above day to day process and cost.^[130]

A click-and-mortar strategy addresses both terraspace and cyberspace, presenting the customer with the perception of a new and exciting product coupled with a stable and established firm. Stability was less important in the early years of the Internet; however, as the channel matures and the value of the goods purchased increases, consumers are more aware of the need to service a product during its lifetime and are showing concern about the increasing number of Internet business failures. Stability can be achieved by creating a strong anchor brand that represents the values expressed by the firm such as high quality, excellent customer service or speedy delivery and reinforced by a physical presence and market awareness at the global and regional levels. The dynamic nature of today’s marketplace demands that brands quickly adapt to reflect changes in customer requirements or market trends. Organizations that are increasing their product offerings, participating in joint ventures or mergers, and transacting business in global eMarketplaces will need a cohesive branding strategy that shapes how global is their reach and how valuable their products are to the local markets which they serve. However, when rebranding a firm or a product, it is important not to alienate customers during the transition period, instead efforts must be made to retain customers.

Contemporary brands that are increasingly dependent on technology for their appeal, development and distribution – or are simply given new access paths to market by technology – often have overcomplicated strategies. Striking the right balance between product/brand and customer/ market does not have to be a complicated process when developing a brand that is technologically enhanced. As I argued elsewhere, insights into the simplicity of a branding strategy can be found in Nigel Saul’s examination of England’s King Richard II, who faced the problem of how to change the perceived loss of royal power after the actions of the Appellants in 1387. During the 1390s, Richard’s reign was a resolute effort to reinstate royal authority not by military action, but by a set of actions that bear a striking resemblance to the elements used in a modern branding strategy. Oversimplifying, it could be argued that King Richard’s methods could easily be employed by any advertising/marketing/public relations firm, because they address the fundamental nature of brand identity and perception management. In the case of Richard II, the use of language, ritual and iconography created the idea of what it meant to be regal, the brand being the sovereign himself. This use of imagery and language are still the fundamental building blocks of branding strategies today, in which the use of logos, images and words define contemporary products and link them to the corporate brands they represent.^[131] Firms embracing the Internet today as a viable channel to market can profit from adopting the same basic methods employed by Richard II.

As Saul said: ‘If he was to re-establish his authority and power, Richard needed not only to build up support and win friends, but also to do something more: to convince his subjects that he was mightier than he was.’^[132] Richard’s method was clearly to create imagery. Iconography, heraldic symbols and, most importantly, the use of language distanced the king from his subjects. In effect, the combination of the royal iconography and the introduction of phrases such as ‘your highness’ and ‘your majesty’ set the king apart from the rest of society. Richard’s commissioning of portraits, heraldry and iconography provided the physical links that individuals could relate to and offered a relationship to the king.

The Image of Value

For most corporations, the branding of services must reflect the overall value proposition to customers and exemplify the values of the organization delivering the service. For example, the new value proposition for financial services is the customer’s relationship with the bank and an advisor who guides customers through the plethora of financial product offerings. In a globally connected business environment, service firms will develop an image of value in three fronts. The first is the Internet or virtual world, which needs integrated service offerings that are easy and convenient to use. The second is the physical or local world, demanding a reinvention of the brand network targeted at all demographic sectors. The last is the interconnected partner network, which requires providing and receiving value from brokering services with affiliated organizations.

As previously said, in each distinct channel, a brand must carry a clear value proposition to customers, that is, a differentiated product that is indigenous to a geography or emerging market opportunity that must be formed in line with the overall objectives of the brand. Advice for developing a strong image of value is best expressed by San Jin Park of Samsung Electronics:

I think a brand is an embodiment of the comprehensive promise made by the company to the outside world. It’s a proposition of the value provided to customers by the company, and it’s all the underlying corporate activities that support that proposition. All these constitute a brand.^[133]

Therefore, traditional local businesses with aspirations of growth are challenged to reinvent themselves locally while engaging global channels and new market entrants. However, image and brand are only the first step in a solid value proposition; delivery technology, driven by a robust infrastructure, is the execution part of the value equation.

Richard II employed a calculated strategy to transform the image of the king. He did not just create a self-centred image by a complete reinvention of the relationship between the sovereign and his/her people; Richard realized that the development of the image of kings was the primary mechanism to improve the power of the monarchy. He was responsible for the creation of the first successful English brand.

Retailers could learn much from Richard II, as they clamour to build gee-whiz websites which often disappoint with a less than expected upturn in purchases by consumers. The introduction of the Internet as a legitimate avenue for facilitating purchases has turned established marketing channels upside down and the traditional lines of branding have become blurred. Establishing a brand based on quality and focused on customer service is the key to branding in the new economy. In the past branding was focused on the product, and good customer service was what separated two similar products. Global Internet shopping is still in its embryonic state with the United States clearly an early adopter of this new purchasing medium. US shoppers initially used the Internet for price comparison. Although price sensitivity has been a brand differentiator, as the market becomes saturated with eTailers, customer service will become the prime differentiator in branding strategies. Features such as free shipping, first time buyers’ incentives, coupons and cash back offers constitute the bulk of the existing brands strategies.

However, firms selling products through a combination of physical retail outlets and virtual cyberstores have a bigger competitive advantage over pure Internet offerings. Retailers embracing this combination of sales channels have been dubbed ‘click-and-mortar eTailers’. Consumers are looking for the best product at the best price and want a combination of offerings that make them feel like they are getting a good deal or saving money. One advantage of click-and-mortar organizations is that they can integrate both retail channels by allowing consumers to return goods purchased online at any one of their retail locations. In many retail organizations, this concept becomes problematic. The new online division gets the sales credit and the local branch’s profit and loss statement reflects the returned merchandize, making them look less profitable. Organizations will need to develop a comprehensive design for their internal business processes, how those processes are measured and how the business operates under a combined digital retail – or eTail – strategy.

After highlighting the positive effects of Internet branding, we must mention a few of the negative aspects of it. One of the problems that companies are finding are those related to cybercriminals, people who abuse a certain aspect of the Internet, such as hacking, passing viruses and, more recently, stealing and abusing brand names. As Kehoe argues, one of the most common practices of the latter type of cybercrime is ‘brand- borrowing’. It is not unusual to be, for example, searching for something on a well-known website (let us say, Nintendo) and be diverted to a pornographic site instead.^[134] Sometimes, just changing the ending dot-com to dot-net may allow an individual or corporation to create a website with the name of a famous brand but offering a completely different content.

Together with the problems of brand-stealing, cybercrimes are the concerns which companies now express regarding the brand names dot-com. With the fall of the dot-com in the year 2000 as a means of doing business, came the fall of the terminology itself. ‘Incubators’ and ‘dot-com’ are no longer favoured when new companies choose their names. This is an important point which shows that no matter what the company’s business is, the company always needs to protect itself and its brand from potential preconceived notions that society will employ when making a choice whether or not to do business with this or that company.

One last aspect of branding which cannot be ignored is the cultural one. As said above, even brands of large multinationals have to indicate a relationship with the local company in order to allow the business to succeed. One example of the poor application of a brand name in a foreign country was Coca-Cola’s foray into the Indian market. Established in India in the early 1990s, Coca-Cola has not been a success, actually coming 41st on a list of customers’ preferred drinks, despite its massive initial investment.^[135] The reasons for this range from a poor evaluation of the actual potential market for the beverage (the largest part of the Indian population is what can be described as ‘rural poor’), dietary issues, income, consumption preferences, and the actual non-existence of something that can be called ‘an Indian market’ because of the existence of several different market segments. McDonald’s, on the other hand, seems to have been much more effective in increasing consumer interest in its products: special sandwiches and a special menu in line with dietary restrictions have made the fast-food brand more acceptable to the Indians. In the end, as we have said, it is not how much you invest that matters, but how wisely you evaluate the potential market and how you brand your product in line with customers’ needs and preferences.

^[129]J. DiVanna, Redefining Financial Services: The New Renaissance in Value Propositions (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) pp. 51–3.

^[130]R. Clifton and E. Maughan (eds) Twenty-five Visions: The Future of Brands (Basingstoke: Macmillan – now Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) p. xiii.

^[131]J. DiVanna, Redefining Financial Services: The New Renaissance in Value Propositions (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) pp. 101–5.

^[132]N. Saul, Richard II (London: Yale University Press, 1997) pp. 238–9.

^[133]S. J. Park, ‘The Future of Brands’. In R. Clifton and E. Maughan (eds), Twenty-five Visions: The Future of Brands (Basingstoke: Macmillan – now Palgrave Macmillan, 2000) p. 47.

^[134]L. Kehoe, ‘Leading Brands on the Run’, Financial Times, October 11 (2000).

^[135]D. Gardner, ‘Slim Pickings for the Global Brand in India’, Financial Times, October 11 (2000).