One Day and a Lifetime of Brand Lessons - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

On a recent trip to London in one of the local dailies, on an ordinary spring day, three separate business stories appeared, tied to three powerful brands. These brands have absolutely no connection to one another--except for being in this article--but together their stories provide a road map for any company trying to better understand how to leverage their brand and identify the key principles of successful branding.

First, the bankruptcy of Boo.com in London, arguably the highest profile Internet retailer in Europe, which provided high-end, designer sportswear. Like many dot-com stories flooding the market these days, this appeared on the surface to be another tale of a "sexy" start-up failing to meet expectations, living in the fast lane and ultimately running out of v.c. backing. Boo.com promised a lot--in fact, it promised the ultimate on-line shopping experience around the world. Once it conquered sporting wear, it was to move into other categories, a la Amazon.com.

The real story, though, of the failure of Boo.com was not just about money being spent frivolously Instead Boo.com provided a Web experience that never lived up to expectations. The site was not consistent with the promise, it was difficult to navigate and slow to react to customer requests. The newspaper article stated that Boo.com's Web site was awkward with high tech 3-D graphics that overwhelmed most users and computers in Europe (which could not handle the graphics). The result was that many would-be buyers actually could not get on line to make a purchase.

If they did get all the way through, potential buyers were then shocked at Boo.com's incredibly expensive prices. The Web retail world has been, to-date, about discounting to spur a purchase and then hope that loyalty takes over. Similar to the fundamentals of any product or service--if the quality is terrible, whether it is taste, performance, service or experience, the brand ultimately fails. Brands are about hope, trust and an inherent promise that the product or service housed underneath will perform to expectations. Boo.com was a victim of much more than extravagant spending; it was a victim of not meeting customers' expectations.

Second story: the return of Lacoste and jump-starting the corporate brand into the third millennium. Several new ads all touted the tagline," Become what you wear." Lacoste, the alligator? That outdated icon from the 70s and 80s. C'mon! The alligator was there, along with a new Website and, by the way, the ads were sexy; one showed a bikini worn by a very attractive model with that darn alligator on her bikini bottom.

Bottomline, Brandometer a trend/style indicator for England's Menswear, rated Lacoste as the No. 1 men's brand for 1999. Brandometer also indicated Lacoste had a good chance of repeating in 2000, based upon its hot footwear line (footwear?). Great brands can persevere and reinvent themselves, if given the chance. Furthermore, if managed well, great brands can stand the test of time and transcend the latest and greatest trend.

Harley-Davidson was not always about" that engine sound" and waiting 12 months to get your bike and join the "club." Absolut was not always stylish. Schwinn, which faced Chapter 11 less than a decade ago, was certainly not the leading, irreverent mountain bike brand (remember the Stingray the Varsity and Bing Crosby and his family). Keds used to be just for kids, weren't they? Wasn't it just a few years ago that Continental had the worst service in the air, instead of today's domination of customer-service rankings. Remember how Oldsmobile offended both fathers and their kids with "It's not your father's Oldsmobile" campaign. Aorora and Intrigue have helped to make that campaign just a distant memory.

The third story involved IKEA's incredibly successful opening in Moscow in April, following a trend seen in major cities throughout the world. The store had over 40,000 visitors on its first day with a wait of over an hour to get in and traffic backed up for blocks. A month later, it still packs in 100,000 visitors per week and has to constantly replenish its shelves. Why?

It is the same reason that IKEA sales have doubled every four years for the past three decades and U.S. sales from just 13 stores hit nearly $900 million last year. IKEA has stayed consistent over time. Its stores always occupy large spaces (outside Chicago, the IKEA outlet is the size of seven football fields) offers modern furniture and home goods, provides outstanding service, and is kid-friendly Regardless of the city it enters, IKEA forever changes the furniture-shopping landscape, leading rivals to reinvent themselves to compete.

Like IKEA, the best brands in the world find a formula, perfect it and leverage it to the hilt. Great brands also recognize that the three true signs of brand success are tied to customer satisfaction, repeat business (loyalty) and referrals to other people.

IKEA leverages all three to the extreme. In fact, management has stated their best marketing investment is in satisfied customers who help sell IKEA to others. Its formula is simple--remember what made you successful and make sure to deliver it consistently around the globe.

The summary lessons learned from these three stories are simple. Great brands consistently deliver on a promise, recognize that the power they have has little to do with the current product or service being offered and, if managed well and repositioned, as needed, will stand the test of time.

Scott M. Davis is a managing partner at Prophet Brand Strategy's Chicago office. His book, Brand Asset Management: Driving Profitable Growth Through Your Brands, was published in June 2000 (Jossey-Bass).

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