What's in a Name? Everything

AN EXASPERATED CHARLES DE GAULLE once exclaimed: "How can you govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?" By the same token, commanding the modern-day market, in which consumers have an avalanche of ever-increasing options, seems near impossible. According to David F. D'Alessandro, president of John Hancock Financial Services and author of Brand Warfare, the key to winning lies in the power of the brand.

Of course, this is no revelation. D'Alessandro himself admits as much. Emphasizing branding to marketing professionals is "preaching to the converted," he writes. But D'Alessandro also underlines the puzzling frequency with which those responsible for establishing a brand repeatedly make mistakes. Among their sins: believing that the weight of a big, traditional business is enough to force a brand on consumer preferences; associating the brand with individuals or entities with a bad reputation or bad image; and failing to pick up on radical changes in market tendencies.

D'Alessandro claims to have grasped the importance of brand since childhood. His grandfather owned a grocery in D'Alessandro's hometown of Utica, N.Y., where young David was assigned an odd but important task on the daily trip to the butcher's. D'Alessandro would lick raw meat. If he felt a tingling in the tongue, the meat was spoiled and would not he bought. Meat that passed the tongue test were stamped "D'Alessandro Store." And that's how his family's grocery store solidified its reputation for selling only the finest meat.

That curious experience left D'Alessandro preoccupied with preserving the brand name, which he felt produced an image in the minds of consumers when they hear or see the name of the company. To protect the brand, it's essential to take into account every aspect of the company: the quality of its product, its business ethics, its work methods, how it treats its employees, its involvement in the community and concern for the environment. Negative aspects of public image, such as disregard for the environment and sexual or racial discrimination, are enjoying increasing importance on the public priority list as consumer sensibilities have profoundly changed over the last half century.

D'Alessandro points out that management should react quickly and effectively to any problem that could potentially affect a brand's image. No scrimping on what it might cost to save the brand, because doing nothing at all will end up costing much more.

That's exactly what happened to Perrier, where sales dropped abruptly in the early 1990s after scientists in North Carolina found traces of benzene in the bottled water. At first, Perrier tried to dismiss the seriousness of the problem. But later, traces of benzene were discovered in bottles of Perrier distributed throughout Europe. The company was accused of trying to hide the problem. At the beginning of 2000, Perrier's revenues were still 40% lower than in 1989.

On the other side of the coin, the author uses the example of Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol disaster to illustrate how a company can deal astutely with a serious problem. In 1982. seven people died after taldng Tylenol pills laced with cyanide. Even though all of the deaths occurred in Chicago, the company immediately recalled all containers of Tylenol throughout the country and asked the public not to consume any of its products until a thorough investigation had been conducted. The message was clear: For Johnson & Johnson, people came first. The recall cost the company about $100 million. But today, Tylenol is the leading pain reliever, dominating with 25% of the North American market.

In Brand Warfare, D'Alessandro shares legions of anecdotes accumulated during the course of his meteoric business career and, from them, draws up a series of rules in the effort to establish a brand. The book lacks theoretical depth, but the list of common mistakes that companies make is both practical and useful. At the same time, the author's language, at times brusque, and his brilliant sense of humor make the book a pleasant read.

Perhaps D'Alessandro overstates the smart moves made by his own company, John Hancock but, undoubtedly, this is someone who knows how to promote and preserve his brand.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Freedom Magazines, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group