Differences between brand differentiator and brand energizer roles in brand portfolio management (article 3 of 4)
All brands have a clear role in the brand portfolio. These roles are determined both from brand’s audience point of view (Product-Defining Roles) as well as internal and managerial point of view (Portfolio Role). Looking at brand roles (See Dimensions Of Brand Portfolio Management), we will find out that it is important to pay attention to two roles of “Brand Energizer” and “Brand Differentiator” and understand their differences.
Competitive situations have become difficult for many brands. Many industries are facing excess capacities, high pressures to keep lower prices, reduced profitability, etc. Each field of activity, one after another, has reached the stage of maturity and sooner or later they need to be revived. The development of products and services also often does not lead to real or significant improvement. Therefore, from a logical point of view, many brands may be completely identical and undifferentiated with lacking of news value from the audience’s point of view. In other words, brands suffer from lack energy. In such a situation, one of the goals of branding for companies will be to try to add differentiation and energy.
Brand Differentiator: Creating differentiation is always a serrious issue in branding. Looking at Young & Rubicam’s famous Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) model, the role of differentiation in building a strong brand is clear. If brands have trouble in creation of differentiation, after a while all brands will become the same for the audience and price will play a critical role in brand choices. Therefore, some brands appear in brand portfolio specifically with the aim of creating differentiation. Such brands can be completely owned and managed by the company or added to the brand portfolio through partnerships with others.
A Brand Differentiator is the brand of a feature, ingredient, service or program that creates a point of differentiation for a specific product or service. Let’s take a look at some examples:
A branded feature such as BMW iDrive, which includes a dashboard and interactive mechanism through which many car systems can be controlled. We can also mention the branded Zoom Air technology in Nike shoes.
A branded ingredient such as highlighting the use of Intel micro processors in Asus laptops or highlighting the use of Dolby Digital audio technologies in some audio systems provided by Sony.
A branded service, such as the American Express Platinum Card, which provides special services to the audience, such as airport VIP services or hotel and plane ticket reservations, etc.
A branded programs, such as the Harley-Davidson Ride Planner, help the brand’s audience identify and join group riding programs. Also, many brand loyalty programs are included in this group of brands. For example, we can mention Pampers Club, which gives audience points that can be converted into discount coupons in exchange for purchasing Pampers products from various stores such as Amazon and paying through its QR Code.
A brand differentiator is not necessarily created by just giving a name to a specific feature. Rather, this feature should be meaningful from the brand audience’s point of view, related to the product or service, and from the customer’s point of view, it should promote and differentiate the brand’s product and service. It is also worth noting that brand differentiator must be part of the product or service offered by the brand.
Brand Energizer: Many old successful brands are authentic, trustworthy, reliable, accessible and sometimes creative. But many of them often face the challenge of looking old and outdated. As a result, they may not be considered suitable for some market segments. Meanwhile, successful brands must be vivid and have energy. Therefore, such brands need an injection of energy and vitality. Such a problem is mainly seen in relation to market segments that consist of younger audiences.
If a brand loses its energy, it will become a graveyard brand in the long term. Such brands have a low level of unaided brand recall and a high level of aided brand recall. In other words, they are famous brands that are not considered in decision making.
Brand energizer is a branded product, promotion, sponsorship, symbol, program or other things (such as CEO or founder of the brand, product or service applications, etc. that gives energy to the target brand. Lets see some examples:
New branded products such as the new Beatle, which again created a strong interest in the Volkswagen brand among the audience.
Branded sponsorships such as Adidas’s sponsorship in local three-person basketball tournaments called Adidas Streetball Challenge.
Memorable branded symbols such as the Michelin man mascot or the Energizer’ brand’s rabbit.
Branded programs such as Ronald McDonald House Charities, founded by McDonald’s, aim to create, identify and support children’s health promotion programs.
Branded CEOs like Bill Gates in the Microsoft brand or Steve Jobs in the Apple brand.
There are several important points regarding the brand energizers. First, the brand energizer itself must be energetic. Therefore, in its definition, it should be specified where it should be positioned related to the following questions:
· New versus old
· Young versus mature or old
· Fascinating vs boring
· Dynamic and full of movement versus static and unchanged
· Contemporary versus traditional
· Assertive and active versus passive
· Involving versus separated Brand
The second point is that the brand energizer must be connected to the master brand in order to energize it. While unlike the brand differentiators, it is not part of the product or service provided by that brand and is not functionally related to the products and services. Rather, such a relationship may be formed through a sub-brand (such as Ronald McDonald’s House) or their juxtaposition over time.
