Word tower model of brand recognition

Brand communication and performance are destined to develop and change. Positioning is the process of linking a certain aspect of a brand with customers' expectations, needs and requirements. When these demands change over time, brands are forced to follow suit. As a result, Coca-Cola began to complain about "thirst", later said "this is the real cola" and finally said "feeling". The commercial appeal of Coca-Cola itself has changed. Coca-Cola's style is very distinctive, easy to identify and quite easy to be imitated by other brands. For a long time, Coca-Cola has become an ideal model in addition to the physical properties of its products, which is obvious to all. Since its birth a century ago, its value system has remained basically unchanged. It seems that the identification of its spiritual source or continuation has never deviated.

To manage the brand into a three-dimensional pyramid, time can also be one of them, as shown in the figure. The top of the pyramid is the core value of the brand, which comes from the activation of the brand, that is, the brand is a living person who can talk and act, forming the genetic code DNA of the brand. We should know the core point of the brand, but at the same time, we should make it different from what others see and say. It is a deep recognition of the brand and the core value of the brand, which can remain unchanged for a long time. For example, the core logo of Bochi racing car is not "fast car" (although this is indeed the theme of Bochi's publicity and a feature of its products), figuratively speaking, Bochi's core logo is "hero". It does not refer to the hero in the modern sense, but embodies the original meaning of "hero". Being involved in dangerous driving will not damage the brand image, because the dangerous situation is the fate of the hero. However, if you publicly claim that Bochi racing cars are made for heroes, you should be aware of the adverse effects. The potential meaning must be trapped in the appearance in order to have a positive effect. The core point of the brand should be hidden under the product appeal.

In the middle of the pyramid is the style, connotation and state of the brand. From a linguistic point of view, it is to record and leave its traces and imprints through a sharp iron pen. Just like a person's signature, style-the meaningful information conveyed by a brand through words or images-is a reflection of the brand's core recognition. Therefore, the style cannot be changed at will, but needs to keep in touch with the brand core logo all the time.

All advertisements of Guinness are tested, and its executives always ask this question in turn: "Is this Guinness? This "weight factor" is used to measure whether the core content of a brand is compatible with its expression. Style will make small adaptive changes with the changes of the times. However, the real problem is that in a series of changes, the brand logo is clear. For example, according to modern fashion, women's fashion is light or soft, bright or bright, long or short, loose or tight. If you want to judge a woman and her characteristics through a fixed clothing pattern, it is equivalent to asking her to wear a light-colored gown for a long time, even if other women are wearing bright shorts at this time. In fact, ladies often follow the fashion trend and reflect their own characteristics in a unique and personalized way. Their selection process from one fashion to another year after year shows that they have a standard and some specific concepts. These are all manifestations of core identity. In order to keep modern (not backward), brands must keep up with fashion, but act in their own way.

The lower layer of the pyramid is the communication theme, that is, the advertising theme of the brand. Consumers know the brand from the bottom of the pyramid. They know the brand through products, communication themes, positioning and communication styles. For brand management, if you want to build an enduring brand, you must clearly understand the core and source of the brand. Top-down operation, the change of style can not violate the core recognition of the brand. The theme and commitment of communication must belong to the scope of brand adaptation.

For international brand management, this three-layer pyramid model is also extremely important. Usually, in different countries, the same brand will be at different stages of development, so its advertising theme and products are different all over the world. As long as the brand's core values and styles are consistent in all countries, this is by no means a problem. Only after a long period of time will product line advertisements tend to be unified.

The six aspects of recognition (recognition prism) have a specific relationship with the pyramid model (see figure). A test of advertising themes shows that they are related to the characteristics of products (physical characteristics), consumers' melons or their relationship with consumers (especially some service brands or children's product brands). They are external aspects of cognition, so they are extroverted. They belong to material things and can be seen. Style, like a person's handwriting, reflects the internal aspects of the brand, that is, its personality and the self-image of consumers. Finally, as the source of brand breeding, genetic code breeds the whole brand structure and cultivates the cultural essence of the brand. Therefore, there is a strong connection between brand style code and recognition. Take volkswagvn/s VN/S as an example, humor has been used in its products and commercial advertisements all over the world for decades. Humor is a coagulant (Volkswagen VN literally means "Volkswagen's car"), because it reflects the hostility to the excessive worship of cars. At that time, the fashion was to judge people's social status according to their level of owning cars.

The focus of a brand's external communication will fluctuate between its different aspects. In fact, there seems to be such an order: first, physical attributes, then consumer reactions, and finally to the cultural level. Benetton first promoted its colorful T-shirts (physical attributes), and soon turned to promote a relationship (the power to unite young people all over the world). Now, it has begun to promote its own culture and world outlook. This stage is normal: brand appeal changes from extroversion and superficiality to introversion.

The pyramid model points out different brand management methods at three levels. Coca-Cola did not go beyond the norm from saying "thirst" to saying "feeling". There are no fundamental changes and differences, but the theme of its brand has changed. Every theme will become outdated and competition will soon follow. When the theme is brand personality and culture, this text coding will be more stable. Because it makes it easier to manage changes from one topic to another. On the other hand, never change its genetic code without authorization. Changing it will only lead to the emergence of another brand. Although it may be creative, it is not consistent with the original brand. Although the advertising positioning of Coca-Cola has changed in different periods, we can find that the basis of its brand recognition has never changed.

Finally, many ideas about the brand should keep the brand flexible (loose) to cover several products. The information conveyed by these products must be their unique advantages, and each product must give different promises-although they seem to represent the same point of view and come from the same spiritual source. In this respect, the function of the brand is advanced. This process is especially suitable for umbrella brands and global brands registered in various countries.

Even the management is seldom aware of the key guiding role of consumers to the brand. In managers' minds, they can reconstruct the visible aspects of the brand and its coding, but they cannot penetrate the essence of the brand. The creator of the brand didn't realize this either-the brand naturally conveyed his behavior and choice. For example, when Ricky 1988 died, his successor entrusted others to analyze Nina Ricky's identification mark (identity) and her most successful perfume product Tait du Temps. Identification analysis is to analyze the origin of the brand and explore its divinity. Analyze and identify the representative products of the brand and find out what kind of unconscious behavior they come from. Why can Nina Rocci successfully extend (cover, involving) to grotesque evening dresses? Why Rvbert Ricci saw the way to show the brand characteristics from the blurred images of British photographer D. Haniton? The problem of the style of Tair du Temps and D. Haniton is not so acute. Knowing the core identity of this style expression, they can establish other expressions that are not just direct imitation. When a brand seeks development in the future, it often needs to conduct internal investigation and study before implementing the plan.

The traditional (typical) mistake of brand management in the past was that the inherent essence of a brand was actually changed when it was polished. Fidji provides a good example. 1966 was introduced to the market, and it became one of the five famous perfume brands in the world together with Aanais-Anais of Cachar and Airclu Temps of Nina Ritchie. After years of pursuing the theme of "Women are an island, and Fergie is its fragrance", Toreal Company believes that they should change the information to make it closer to the times and more in line with the positive and liberated image of women. The new creative concept has changed the brand connection from "escapism to natural instinct". There are advertising posters with the image of a woman and a snake all over the world, accompanied by the advertising slogan "Paradise Perfume", but as a result, their sales volume has dropped from 65,438+7,280,000 units in 0980 to 65,438+0,986,5438,6730,000 units, 65,400 units. Fortunately, the loss of sales volume was made up by the increase in price. When replacing nature with the image of snake, they kept the graphic packaging with peculiar brand style. The concept of this perfume has been born since 1965, and its brand status is supreme. When the theme of the appeal changed from escape to joy, Club Mediteranee became popular, which led to the choice of Fidji as the name. They choose graphic features as the core of recognition, however, this is just a style and an expression. The core of its brand recognition may have deviated from the original intention of the founders themselves: when adding a snake and orchid, their successors unwisely created another brand. This activity of promoting Fidji sales failed, and it also caused the dispersion of connotation. Desert island is the most mysterious symbol, which is widely loved and accepted by the public. Therefore, this brand has achieved worldwide success since its inception. Unfortunately, they turned their attention to the island itself and its external factors, but being conquered was the second most important. As for snakes and orchids-obviously just attractive signs-it means nothing to naked women on a desert island.