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[Music]
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I'm here today to speak with Barbara
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Khan regarding her new book Global Brand
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Power barbar currently serves as the
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Patty and J Baker professor of marketing
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and director of the JH Baker retailing
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Center at the Wharton School at the
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University of Pennsylvania so Barbara
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I'm curious as to what inspired you to
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write a book on global Brand Power well
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I although there are plenty of books on
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on branding out there I did think that
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there was a few advantages of this one
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first of all it's short which I really
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think is a big Advantage for bu busy bus
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business people but second of all I
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think things have changed in that
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branding it's much more important to
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understand the global imp ations of your
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brand and many people today started with
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a brand that was in their local market
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or for a particular product and didn't
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consider the implications of the global
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Marketplace so that's one thing and
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secondly in this world of social media
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and internet uh what it means to be a
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brand is different because of those
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different mediums and different types of
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communication so throughout your
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research uh were there anything in
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particular that surprised you uh any
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findings as you were writing the book or
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anything that Sur surprised you I don't
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know if it surprised me but if I had to
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think of the thing that I think is most
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important or that you really should
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think about is how to use the global
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brand as a mechanism for growth and to
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think about that even when you're
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starting out you know as a very small
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startup or wherever you are in your
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business cycle to think about the
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implications of a global brand as a way
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to grow into new markets across
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different products and has serious
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implications when you start planning the
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positioning of your brand can you give
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me some examples maybe of great Global
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Brands who have leveraged themselves in
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the way that you just
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mentioned well I mean the biggest brands
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you know cocacola or Toyota or any of
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those global brands are certainly a
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brand that means the same basic brand
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positioning and messaging world over um
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where it used to be Brands me might mean
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one thing in the US and something
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different in Europe now because of of
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the internet and because the The World
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is Flat um that you really have to think
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about what the message is across the
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different markets and there still exists
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differences cultural differences
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Geographic differences uh differences in
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distribution and so to understand how a
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brand Works in different markets is
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complicated it's kind of an easy concept
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but it's hard to implement so can you
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talk a little bit more maybe about how
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social media and the internet is playing
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a role in global Brands and specifically
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how a coola is using uh social media to
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strengthen its brand or if it's using it
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um as a detriment well the interesting
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thing and one of the big changes in
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branding 100 years ago Brands were very
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product focused then Brands became very
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much customer focused so you really
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talked about a brand in terms of what it
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meant or what value it had to the
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customers in the world of social media
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the reason why it's really different is
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it's customers talking to other
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customers about the brand so you lose
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control of the message unless you have a
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very strong DNA and a strong brand brand
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community so the customers are
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transferring the message the way you
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want that that's very hard to do and a
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lot of the um what the brand means is
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communicated through discussions in
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social media through chats through blogs
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through things that the manufacturer the
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brand owner doesn't control so much and
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so unless you really position the brand
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in a very strong way and people
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understand its DNA you run the risk of
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detrimental things being said about your
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brand or vague things lack of
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consistency so it's a very hard world to
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control um and then maybe if you could
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also talk a little bit about um how
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companies can sustain a long-term
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competitive Advantage leveraging um you
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know key components of brand power yeah
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so that is what you're going to try to
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look for you know you don't want to just
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do it for the short term you want to
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think about it for the long term but
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that's difficult because it's hard to
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predict what the world is going to look
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like it's hard to predict how
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competitors are going to react to you
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and your constantly having to change and
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adaptt so what it suggests is that you
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try as hard as you can to think somewhat
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into the future about what your brand is
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going to mean but you constantly have to
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monitor your positioning monitor what
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customers are saying what your
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competition's doing keeping your brand
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fresh keeping it relevant and responding
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well to the competition and what they're
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doing and are there key strategies for
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keeping your brand fresh and
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relevant well you know I guess the
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biggest import the most important thing
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is to be Market aware um and that's
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another thing by the way that I tried to
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put in the book was different ways of
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getting um market research or
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understanding the voice of the customer
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so there's a lot of metrics that are out
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there there's a lot of brand valuation
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you have to defend to the Finance and
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Accounting types in your organization
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why it's worth spending so much money on
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building a brand or marketing and to do
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that you need to understand the brand
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value you also need to understand what
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the customers are thinking about the
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product or the brand and um that's you
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can't always just ask them so there's
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some there are techniques described in
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the book that you can kind of figure out
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from the way the customers respond or
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you know there's one thing called the
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zat where you let them take pictures
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they may not be able to verbally tell
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you what they think about the brand but
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they can kind of show you their emotions
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and their metaphors that they're using
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for the brand and in order to keep the
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brand fresh you have to constantly
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Monitor and measure brand
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activity and could you maybe also uh
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discuss a little bit about um key
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components that make up a strong Global
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brand uh you know that you kind of talk
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about throughout the book yeah well the
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key components are the brand positioning
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that that's the most important thing and
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so you have to figure out who's your
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frame of reference what brands are
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what's your competitive set so if you're
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a luxury brand or if you're a brand for
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the masses or what are the brands that
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you're competing with and then relative
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to that frame of reference what's your
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point of difference so that's
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fundamental to a brand positioning to
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understand who your competitive set is
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and why you are better than that
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competition the other thing that I think
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really helps and thinking about a brand
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is to think about the emotional
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characteristics and the person
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characteristics so frequently you want
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to think of a Target user for your brand
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now your brand may be broader than that
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Target user but if you have a Target
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user in mind and thinking about the
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brand positioning it comes up with a
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much sharper brand so for example while
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everyone might own an apple the Target
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user tends to be someone who's
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designning or creative you know a young
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design kind of person might be who you
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would think of as a Target user for
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Apple it doesn't limit who might buy the
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brand but it gives you a clearer vision
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of what that brand is and a very clear
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consistent image and positioning for the
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brand is fundamental so do you recommend
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All Brands have sort of a brand
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personality of what you referred to in
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the book and can you give an example of
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of a great brand that has a great brand
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Personality yeah so brand personality
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refers to like traits of a brand and you
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kind of think of a brand like a person
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um and so uh sincerity is a brand
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personality treat so Hallmark is a
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sincere brand um or other kinds of brand
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personality things might be um rugged is
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one of them traditional um and what they
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really are the and and you can measure
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them there there's a set that I describe
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in the book that's about seven
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personality traits um that come from one
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particular research study that Jennifer
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AER did she's a Stanford Professor but
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the idea really is to think about the
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personality of the of the brand the
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voice of the brand going back to social
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media a lot of the discussion nowadays
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like we were talking about in that
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Facebook meeting that we were at um is
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if you have a brand a a brand Voice
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Within Facebook what's the voice of that
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brand and is it a consistent voice
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that's going over and that's another way
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of thinking about the personality of the
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brand thinking about the the voice of
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the brand what are some of the the
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challenges that you see companies today
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facing in building Brands and what
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advice can you give them to overcome
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these challenges well the first one is
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it's expensive so you really do have to
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justify that's another reason why I
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think thinking of it as brand as a
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mechanism for growth is so important
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because it costs so much money to build
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a strong reliable consistent brand that
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you want to be able to leverage that
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investment and so one of the things is
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this notion of justifying the expense
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the other thing is as you were as you
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were alluding to the competition changes
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the market changes and the brand has to
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continue to be relevant and so if you
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don't think in terms of a brand as a
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global brand and and you start out with
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a brand that's too limited it's very
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hard to let it keep going and changing
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with changing times and changing
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strategic directions so keeping the
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brand modern keeping it relevant
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responding to customer needs responding
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to changes in the marketplace and
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justifying the investment that you have
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to put into building a brand all of
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those things I think are the challenges
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for a brand brand and how do you see
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social media playing out in terms of a
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challenge or the internet for uh
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building brands do you think it will
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help them moving forward or um what do
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you see them you know leveraging it even
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further going forward in the future well
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you know social media is here so you
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kind of have to play along with it it
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can be a great Advantage because there's
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no stronger um recommendation for a
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brand and one customer to another so if
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I tell you I love this brand that's a
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very authentic message and when those
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messages are carried through through
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social media they're quite compelling on
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the other hand the problem is you don't
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always control it and so it's kind of a
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LoveHate relationship that you have with
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social media but I I don't think it's
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going away so it's a function really
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more of how to leverage it and how to
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how to keep it together and keep it as a
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positive influence for the brand and
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what is maybe the one or two key brand
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management tools that you want the
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business Community or or just companies
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in general to take away from um your
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book I think I mean I I I kind of lines
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up the way I I did the chapters in some
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sense the first thing the first message
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is if you want to have a strong brand
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today it's got to be customer focused so
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you have to understand the customer and
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how do the customer think about the
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brand on the path to purchase so that's
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one message the second message is you
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have to think about your brand relative
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to the competition so what's the brand
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positioning it has to be a positioning
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that's simple quick that the customers
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get immediately and that it's a
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compelling up positioning so that's two
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the third one is measurement so you have
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to in order to constantly monitoring the
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brand and justifying the investment you
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need to monitor what customers think
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about the brand over time and you need
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to measure all sorts of different brand
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metrics that tell you the health of the
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brand kind of like a brand report card
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and then the last thing is this brand
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for growth um so how can you leverage
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once you have a strong brand how can you
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leverage it across other products into
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different markets
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and I guess the last piece is what are
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the brand communication mechanisms how
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do you use logo how do you use color how
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do you use advertising how what are the
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tactics for keeping a brand fresh and
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growing the brand over time great and
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then I guess what are the key
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differences that you see in a strong
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that a strong Global brand have has
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versus um maybe a brand that's trying to
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to grow or trying to go Global well a
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global brand is incredibly powerful we
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know from the valuation mechanisms a
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brand like a Coca-Cola is worth $70
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billion do you know a very strong brand
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is worth millions and millions of
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dollars why is it worth so much because
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people recognize it instantly you can
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bring out new brands under that it it
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has very high brand awareness when
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people are thinking about what brand to
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use they think about brands that they
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can recall easily it's very clear what
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the brand means you don't have to do a
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lot of advertising once you have that
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brand message in a customer's head so
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you keep you can keep your customers
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very loyal once you really have a strong
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brand you can have an emotional tie so a
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strong brand gives you an incredible
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Advantage great thank you thank you
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