HOW BRANDS BECOME
ICONS
The Principles of Cultural Branding
Douglas B. Holt
HBS Press
Boston, Massachusetts
Anubhav Acharya
Abhimanyu Bhasin
Arnab Bose
Atin Vats
Vanshaj Anand
Contents
Chapters
1. What is an Iconic Brand?
2. How is Cultural Branding Different?
3. Target Myth Markets
4. Composing the Cultural Brief
5. Leveraging Cultural and Political Authority
6. Managing Brand Loyalty as a Social Network
7. Coauthoring the Myth
8. Branding as Cultural Activism
What is an Iconic Brand?
The author very fondly starts with the Oxford dictionary meaning of the phrase
Cultural icon i.e., “a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol,
especially of a culture or a movement; a person or an institution worthy of
admiration or respect.” It shows his conviction to stay true to the basic and exact
meaning of the phrase and how he fluently blends his ideas to the basic meaning
and offers a very historical (literally) approach to how brands carved a niche in the
various points in the time-line that stretches a little over half a century.
Since we are quite familiar with what an Identity brand is, Holt shows the
relevance of an identity brand becoming an iconic brand. He states that brands
having a certain amount of identity value and cultural relevance depending on the
culture, preference, and socio-economic scenario, political and demographic setup
tend to become Iconic brands. His belief is that brands have long been treated in a
rather standard- one size fits all manner. And to take forward this new approach he
mentions a few axioms:
Iconic brands address Acute Contradictions in Society
Iconic brands Perform Identity Myths that address these desires and Myths
Identity myths reside in the brand, which consumers experience and share
via ritual action
These identity myths are set in populist worlds
Iconic brands perform as activists, leading culture
Iconic brands rely on breakthrough performances, rather than consistent
communications
Iconic brands enjoy a cultural Halo effect
Names of some old and famous brands, such as VW, Mountain Dew, Corona,
Budweiser etc., have been sighted to examine and validate each of the given
axioms. The following chapters are a step further in such direction.
How is Cultural Branding different?
In this chapter the author is trying to make the reader understand the difference
between cultural branding from all other forms, shapes, sizes and models of
branding, namely viral branding, mind-share branding and emotional branding.
Sighting examples of brands like corona and coke he explains how a brand of
cheap Mexican beer rose to become a world famous brand. Corona’s iconic value
resided in the particulars of its distinctive myths, not in the abstractions that mind
share advocates emphasize. And one comes to understand why Mind share
branding works only for utilitarian low involvement products. Over a period of
time Corona beer had to change its identity from a story about partying in Mexico
to one about relaxing in isolation on a quiet beach. Both the representations
happened in a different eras.
The author further moves to advocate why emotional branding is not so useful to
give and enlarge a certain identity brand an iconic status. Emotional attachment is
the consequence of a great myth which is spun around a brand, which further
provides the customers with – moments of recognition that puts images, sounds
and feelings on barely perceptible desires. Coke didn’t compel its customers to
form an emotional bond by airing emotional communications.
Another model that the author thinks needs to be clearly disassociated with
Cultural branding is viral branding. A short genealogy of Snapple drink is put forth
to explains this concept. He clearly admits that the buzz and hype created by
Snapple was very important and necessary. But these viral effects were the artifacts
of the brands success and not its causes. Snapple earned these desirable qualities
because the brand pushed a compelling new identity myth. For without it, Snapple
wouldn’t have reached a status of an iconic brand. But the era in which it was
launched and how it was placed in front of the customers played an equally
important part. Its amateurishness, underground coolness, not to be bogged by the
big “corporate honchos” of cola and so on and so forth. For advertising the
company hired a celebrities it could afford and similarly they were resounding a
generation of people who loved this way of life. Not afraid to be cool, idiotic,
idiosyncratic and unorthodox. Snapple was a non carbonated iced tea drink which
could also be used to create several weird concoctions and people (customers)
liked them for it. The buzz that Snapple created was the consequence of the power
of its myth. Simply getting people to talk about a catchy phrase is not a note
worthy event. But what really sticks are stories that affect how people think about
themselves in the world.
Brands need to be seen by the consumers as the role model in what they want to
see and achieve in this society. For Snapple it was a critique of the corporate life of
the 1990s.
Cultural branding goes beyond the realm of experience by the 5 senses; on the
contrary it leverages on the identity myths to sell the product. Communications
plays a very big part in visualization and conceptualization of the myth and the
accompanying stories/ experience. A culture that dominates or is in the minority or
in the sub-conscious of the consumer becomes the corner stone of the brands
meteoric rise and appeal. Such sub cultures existed in each of the above mentioned
brands’ time. Consistency in communicating the abstract and visible benefits of the
brand is also something that these brands didn’t follow. But from what the other
mentions, it is quite apparent that brands don’t hesitate in shifting from one
identity myth to another. For e.g. Coke celebrated America’s triumphs against the
Nazi, then shifted to dramatize the ways to heal internal strife around was in the
1970s, and then shifted again to attend to racial divisions in the early 1980s.
Targeting Myth Markets
Pepsi co built Mountain dew into an extraordinary financial success because they
twice reinvented the brands myth. Locating the prevailing cultural contradiction of
the day was the key to its success. From masculine conformity, to the celebration
of yuppies as America’s heroes, to the preposterous ideals of hyper aggressive
masculinity in a dreadful labour market, Mountain Dew had identified and
associated with each one.
It is very interesting how the author tries to signify the role played by Mountain
dew in disassociating itself with the national ideology and contradicting some of
the cultures. It takes various myths and stories to be woven around a brand to make
it culturally acceptable and applauded. Also the brand needs to associate with such
stories (manhood, rebel, success and fearlessness in case of MD) to get a myth
attached to it.
Another phrase used by Holt in explaining this very precarious and rare event is
Populist worlds. Populist worlds are groups that express a distinctive ideology
through their activities. They are potent cultural sites because the public perceives
that populist world ideologies are authentic. It is the utopian world where one does
what one wants to do. It is created artificially and sometimes exists independently.
And myths that help brands rope consumers that want such experience usually
originate from such populist world but to become its very own anti-thesis.
Myth markets are contradictions in national ideology. It is quite possible to have a
number of contradictions in the society as of today, and each such contradiction
provides a brand with an opportunity to spawn a myth market. Myth markets
crumble when cultural upheaval strikes. This leaves the iconic brand iconic only if
they abandon their old myth and invent a revised version that taps into a new myth
market.
Composing the Cultural Brief
There are 3 elements of the cultural brief that one needs to understand before
moving on to how to composing it. The cultural analogue to the positioning
statement is the cultural brief. Following are its key components:
Myth Treatment
Populist authenticity
Charismatic aesthetic
The author explains each of them with respect to how Volkswagen reached iconic
status in the midst of Detroit heavy weights in a highly muscle and style driven
1970s market. The VW Beetle was considered one of the ugliest and least reliable
cars. While it was cheap, maneuverable and durable, it also broke down regularly
and was very small and Spartan. The Beetle’s ads explicitly mentioned the quality
control and functional benefits of the car, which quite opposite to what other
American manufacturers did. It created a world in which customers are intelligent
and creative people who can define for themselves what is style and beautiful.
Beetle was the smart ass friend, saying things straight and simple without much
hoopla. To be perceived as authentic the campaign adopted the art world’s disdain
for mass culture and its advertising. It conveyed the message that it “one of us” to
the bohemian art world enthusiasts who attained a disliking for the mass culture of
commoditized association to cars in general.
Volkswagen never tried to stretch its point of view a broader mass audience. Its
mantra encompassed an array of beliefs and feelings, such as “live below your
means”. And what is more admirable is the fact that it did not shy away from
defending such beliefs. This hippie sub-culture that VW associated itself with
didn’t benefit the company monetarily. But the time it became mainstream and on
the fringe of populist activity in coastal and college towns, its sales exploded. As
far as the charismatic aesthetic of the brand is concerned, VW offered an anti-
thesis to the prevailing set of typical ads. An aesthetic that combined a cutting
sense of humor with the minimalist aesthetic of the modern design. These print ads
took Detroit head on. While other cars made use of flashy designs, glossy artwork
and fashion magazines, Beetle used exactly the opposite of that.
The author has manufactured a very sound path to understanding why VW and
other brands did so well by merely composing a culture that was not very popular.
The brand managers of Beetle had the ability to foresee a cultural shift in the minds
of the customer. The right nodes of the minds of the people were touched.
Leveraging Cultural and Political Authority
In this chapter the author asks us to step back to view the brand as a strategic asset.
The economic value of the brand as we all know is based on the future earning
stream of the brand. It is expected to generate this from customers who are loyal
and relate to the brand’s stories and prior myths. Certain kinds of stories and social
desires are associated to a brand’s success and ability to encompass them under
their halo. An example of Budweiser is used to explain how to develop a cultural
brand equity model.
With “this bud’s for you” campaign Budweiser delivered one of the most powerful
brand myths of the 1980s. The artisans were working hard behind the scenes to
keep the bud season alive by constantly changing the myth along side conventional
brand strategies, mind share to cool-hunt to buzz.
Other campaigns such as “lizard” and “Whassup” combined to deliver a new myth
after the earlier one died. Bud always championed the sub-urban working class
man who could be masculine, fierce and man-of-action heroes. Movies like John
Rambo, Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone were the rage of the time. The
working class man responded to this call effectively. “Buy American” was the
underlying sentiment as the jobs were being lost to other countries and cheap
imports from other countries was also on the rise. Adopting this persona of Ronal
Reagan who was the president during this period, Bud lauded workers for their
efforts and exhorted them to approach their jobs with right values. It saluted the
American workforce for their gung-ho spirit and painting portraits of their industry
and skill to advance the economic supremacy of America.
Brands that author a cultural myth earn the right to come back later with new
myths. American stories of brotherhood and camaraderie were in Anheuser-Busch
pocket as far as a myth contradicting the society was concerned. Americans looked
at bud to tell new stories about how guys create fraternity and find respect.
In the later ad campaigns Bud realized its loss in shrugging the earlier myth. The
whassup guys seemed like losers, slickers who mostly hung out, drank beer and
watched television. Viewed from this lens of mind share, it looked as if Bud not
only abandoned its hard-earned equity, but actually subverted its former self.
Budweiser’s fortune returned when it finally delivered on its historic political
commitments. America responded in turn, treating the whassup and lizard guys as
heroes and celebrities.
Brand Loyalty as a Social Network
Explaining this afore mentioned topic and taking the cultural branding tide further,
the author stumbles upon what he calls three constituencies. The genealogy of
ESPN is described to see how a network television program reached phenomenal
height and success. Touching upon the right chords with the underlying sentiment
and cultural of the decade can really do wonders for a brand.
The sports media has three interdependent constituencies –the customer segments
that are called followers, insiders and feeders. ESPN’s man of action athlete myth
began to exert enormous influence on American men’s lives during the late 1980s
and hit its stride beginning in the early 1990s, as the new free agent frontier
ideology and its man of action ideal took hold. The brand performed a national
myth based on a new kind of athletic achievement. American society demanded
myths that made it desirable and intrinsically worthwhile to work in the intensive
labor markets. Individual athletes who were successful in the most competitive
sports were the perfect cultural source materials.
ESPN’s flagship program and an immense crowd puller on a daily basis was Sports
Center. One thing different about ESPN was that it was a service and quite
different from Bud, VW and MD. While its bread and butter offerings were the
major team sports, the network continually showed that pure athletes could be
found everywhere if only one looked hard enough. ESPN was interested in
showing its viewers the sportsman hidden inside each one of us. They regularly
showcased stories about everyday men and women indulging in sport activity of a
different kind and feeling alive and good about it.
Followers: they strongly associate with the brand. ESPN’s followers were mostly
men, often fathers with children. They ritually abided by the pure-athlete ethos
preached by the network. They displayed a type of dependency that is
characteristic of people who identify with charismatic leaders. They do not feel shy
or ashamed of learning from the network how to view and enjoy sports.
Insiders: Small factions of the audience are men who have a significant history in
competitive sports and continue to self identify as competitive athletes. As adults
they are driven to compete and to the extent that they’re able, they play in very
competitive amateur leagues. They are singularly concerned with achievement and
winning.
Feeders: they have superficial connection to the values propagated by the icon
though its myth. Attracted to the status and social ties that the brand produces, they
use the brand as a vehicle to build social solidarity with friends and colleagues, as
an interaction lubricant, and as a status symbol.
ESPN’s three constituencies together form a social network around the brand.
Brand loyalty is held together by the relationship of these three. There are multiple
causes of brand loyalty, which vary across product categories. Customers of iconic
brands are loyal because they’re interlocked into a social network. Much of the
value of the brand is imparted by the other constituents. Once the brand has
inserted itself as the performer of the myths for a network of followers, insiders
and feeders, individual customers find it very difficult to walk away from the brand
to competitive offerings because they lose the social effects of this network.
The constituencies of an iconic brand are quite interdependent. The value that each
constituency finds in the brand partly depends on the other constituencies.
Managing an iconic brand becomes a juggling act. Managers must draw and
construct myths from a populist world in a way that rings true with followers.
Co-Authoring the Myth
Iconic brands are usually built with advertisements: films produced by the brand
owner. But two other potential coauthors- culture and populist worlds – also
contribute significantly to the myth. Harley’s astounding rise in identity value in
the early 1990s followed the same path as other iconic brands. HD became a
convincing symbol for a myth about manhood and america’s gunfighter. The myth
felt authentic because it was well grounded in the most credible populist world for
championing gunfighter values – the outlaw motorcycle clubs. Its authors cannot
be sourced as they were too diffuse and because usual suspect – the manufacturer
was only peripherally involved. Later film-makers, journalists and politicians
picked up these bikers as raw cultural materials for their own varied agendas.
Without this helping hand from the co-authors Harley management would still be
struggling to sell bikes to working class guys.
The source material for harley’s initial outlaw myth was created by the outlaw
motorcycle clubs of the 1950s. However good the viral branding may be, brands
alone cannot cultivate a myth. Earlier the HD family tried to distance itself away
from the outlaw bikers and the surrounding myth. It portrayed the sub-urban
setting of a nuclear family and adventurous and holidaying gentlemen touring their
bikes. But, finally when the company decided to play along, it let lose the myth
that got built around the brand. No points for guessing that Harley was fortunate
that relinquishing control turned out so well, but this was pure luck.
In the 1990s Harley became more sophisticated at cultural branding. Instead of
fighting the influential cultural texts, the company began to elaborate on and tweak
these texts to shape the myth to best suit its customers.
Branding Cultural Activism
The penultimate chapter of this book, the author gives a gist of what he wants
future mangers to understand when they take important roles in big MNCs.
Systematic building of brands, organizations must reinvent their marketing
function. They must strategize according to various branding principles discussed
here and beyond. And they must hire cultural activists and not stewards of brand
essence. Iconic brands build reputations, but not in the typical economic sense.
Rather, successful brands develop reputations for telling a certain kind of story that
addresses the identity desires of a particular constituency. Specifying the brand’s
cultural and political authority provides managers direction to develop appropriate
myths for the brand, and allows them to rule out the myths that are a poor fit.
Cultural knowledge is critical for building iconic brands, yet is sorely lacking in
most managers’ arsenals. Such knowledge requires managers to develop new
skills. This means looking far beyond consumers they are known today.
Cultural branding is a plan that directs the brand toward a particular kind of myth
and also specidies how that myth should be composed. It must identify the most
valuable type of myth for the brand to perform at a particular historical juncture,
and then provide specific direction to creative partners on how to compose the
myth. Even the most compelling identity myths would falter, not because
competitors attack, but because societal changes drain their value. These cultural
disruptions create extraordinary opportunities for innovative new identity brands
while also presenting treacherous hazards for incumbents.
