LIC and Fair & Lovely: Understanding Brand Identity the Kapferer’s way

J. Kapferer in 1986 introduced the Brand Identity Prism to explain the facets of a brand’s identity that play an important role in defining a brand. However, like many theoretical concepts in Marketing, this interesting and multi-faceted model too has been reduced to just another model to read up and then forget. This post tries simplify the model to make it easy to apply Kapferer’s model on any given brand.

But before that we need to understand the difference between two much misunderstood terms – Brand Identity and Brand Positioning. Simply put, Brand Identity specifies a brand’s uniqueness and value, in isolation from competition, while Brand positioning is with respect to the competition (reflecting differentiation vis a vis competition). It is hence safe to say that while Brand Identity is inward-looking (having influence on, and is influenced by, external factors), Brand Positioning is an outward looking concept. So while Brand Identity explains – “Who I am”, Brand Positioning tries to answer – “Why pick me?”.

Coming back to Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism, It can be understood using two important perspectives. First, from the sender’s side (Brand), it is Identity, which is put forth by the Brand as – “Who I am?”. Second, from the receiver’s side (Customer), it is Brand Image, which is basically, what do the customers feel about the brand. Obviously, Identity precedes Image. The Brand Identity Prism represents six facets of a Brand’s Identity which shows the brand’s tangible as well as intangible characteristics, and draws upon, on the brand’s roots and heritage.

Fig 1: Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism

Brand Identity Prism (Fig 1) is based on the concept that for a brand to become “intimate” to a customer, it must have a unique and impressionable appearance, and a strong character that stems out of inner inspiration and values. The brand should be able to seamlessly bond with the customers, offering them a sense of belongingness, oneness and inspiration. These facet need a little more explanation to set the tone of the applicability –

The first two facets of the prism, Physique and Personality, forms the identity that the brands conveys.

• Physique

Physique is both the brand’s backbone and its tangible value. For example, the colour red and the shape of the bottle contributes to the physique of Brand Coke.

• Personality

A brand, just like humans has a character. It is built over time and reflected in what the brand does. Communication, its tone, its promise and the perceived quality, all contribute to the brand’s personality. Kapferer defines 15 personality traits that could be attributed to a brand as – Dynamic, Creative, Optimistic, Prudent, Hard, Cold, Caring, Rational, Generous, Empathetic, Close, Elegant, Class, Serene, Calm. Coke can be attributed as Caring and Generous due to its ‘Share Happiness’

The next two, or the central facets of the prism, Culture and Relationship, connect the identity (what does the brand want to project) and image (what perception does the customer has about the brand).

• Culture

A brand is born of a culture. Culture essentially means the set of values that creates the ambition and aspiration of the brand.  It can be understood as a set of basic principles governing the brand and its communication. Coca-Cola, for example, stands for the American culture and lifestyle. .

• Relationship

The strength of a brand basically reflects the strength of a relationship between the brand and its customer. Relationship as a facet of Brand Identity prism reflects the relationship which the brand has with its customers. So when coke says “open happiness”, the brand is communicating about happiness and the relationship it conveys to its customers is to be happy. It does that by cleverly placing Coke in those happy moments.

Finally, the Brand Image is the customer’s view about the brand. This is represented by the Reflection and Self-image.

• Reflection

This shows who the people think are the brand’s client. Essentially, who the people think, is the brand for? So Reflection for Brand Coke means who do people think are the customers of coke or who follow coke? This means that consumers use the brand identity propagated by the brand, to associate it with people, who they think are most likely to be using this brand. So for Coke, people would think that the Coke’s customers will be young, cheerful and adventurous people.

• Self-image

It is what customers believe the brand would make them feel upon using it. Unlike Reflection, which is about “People who use this brand are…” self-image is about “This brand makes ME feel…” It essentially is juxtaposition of the brand on yourself and how does it make you feel.

In the prism, the flow is from top to bottom, where the proposed identity (Physique (Tangible & Exterior) and Personality (Personified Brand) is cascaded down to Brand-image (Reflection (“Those who use this brand are…”) and Self-image (“When I use this brand I feel like…)), with the help of a link created through Relationship (Bond between brand and customer) and Culture (Values and Principles that built the brand).

Below is the representation of two brands in the Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism (Fig 2- LIC, Fig 3 - Fair & Lovely).

Fig 2: Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism for LIC

Fig 3: Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism for Fair & Lovely

Kapferer's Prism can help in identifying what is self-image the brand is able to create for the customer and is that in line with what the brands wants to convey? In case of gap, the brand will need to rework on its physique and personality while keeping close touch with its culture and improving relationship with its customers.

The utility of Kapferer’s model can be many, but it is restricted because the model is not clearly understood by many. Once the model is formed by appropriately mapping the aspects of brands (through facets of Brand Identity Prism), it can lead to further analysis like –

• Consumer Perception Analysis
• Consumer Motivation Analysis
• Communication strength and effectiveness
• Product attribute acceptance among customers
• Brand Identity up-gradation and Brand Positioning

Finally, Kapferer’s Prism was made with specific objectives of creating, managing and leveraging Brand Identities, and leading to the right Brand Positioning for the brands, and remains relevant even today after three decades since it was proposed first by the author.

Inner-circle counter branding- Ear and eyes open!

I recently came across a print-ad for Nasaka water purifier from Okaya group, and in no time a peculiar fact hit me. Veteran actress Shabana Azmi is seen endorsing the water purifier in the ad. The peculiar fact was that her son (from Javed Akhtar’s first wife, Honey Irani) is also seen endorsing the same category product, Pureit from HUL.

While, it is understandable that Farhan Akhtar is not Shabana Azmi's own son, and this conflict can very well be no conflict, an important question to ask here is, how credible does a product endorsement come across, when close family members, with equally strong brand image and credibility, endorse or anti-endorse products that are in direct competition or even substitution of that product or category.

The context and its implications of such a situation, also makes it imperative to judge if it is critical now to extend the boundary of due diligence and selection process for a brand ambassador beyond the individual to his closest set of people? Simply put, how pertinent it is to given to the individual’s image, appeal, relevance and credibility, should or shouldn’t the inner-circle deserves some notes and thinking, before inking  that million dollar deal?

Coming back to the first example cited, Both Shabana Azmi and Farhan Akhtar are known to be thinking actors and have associated themselves to a social cause every now and then. They have also managed to stay away from any major controversy adeptly, while being known for speaking their mind up. Crafty! Such attributes make them very attractive brand ambassadors for food and health category. Hence, Okaya and HUL were both bang on with the choice of their endorsers. However,  Okaya recently got Shabana Azmi to promote their Nasaka brand of water purifier, while it was well known that Farhan Akhtar promotes Pureit.

This can be a clean overlooking or may even be a thoughtful move. As Jack Trout and Al Reis suggest, in order to build a positioning in customer’s mind, try manipulating what is already there, instead of trying to create something new altogether. People know Farhan Akhtar and that he promotes pureit. So when Shabana Azmi comes up with an ad for another purifier, it helps than remember Nasaka since they would quickly relate Shabana Azmi to Farhan Akhtar, who is related to Pureit, and in the process will remember Nasak water purifier. Or at least the Nasaka marketers would hope for that.

Now, it is quite possible that people don’t fret much about how endorsements by members of a a particular star family cut, overlap or even counter each other, and they are able to remember them individually only attached to their respective endorsements. However, going by the argument in the last paragraph, connections are the easiest way to remember things, for example, Network maps, and hence it cannot be completely ignored that people may notice that while a male actor is promoting a tobacco brand, his star wife is busy educating people about ill-effects of Tobacco. This will not affect the Tobacco consumers but will definitely raise eyebrows on the sincerity of the star wife, and hence can mar the anti-tobacco campaign.

In order to ensure that such confusions and complexities are never allowed to find their way in the prospects’ mind, it is important that the due-diligence which is a regular exercise, post personality-alignment between the brand and the prospective endorser, is not just restricted to the prospective endorser but also to his or her inner-circle ie, the closest family members. The due diligence must along with other things (acceptability, appeal, relevance, credibility, social status, legal baggage etc) include a possibility of prospective endorsements and a contingency plan in case the family member’s brand endorsement interferes directly or indirectly with the primary brand endorsement. While this is a internal preventive technique, marketers can also adopt a regulated preventive technique where contracts pertaining to brand endorsements can be made to extend the exclusivity and non-compete clauses to family members. These of course will be difficult to draft as well as implement, and beyond doubt much more expensive.

There are of course various factors to consider before choosing one of the two techniques and a risk-impact analysis is a must before making a final call. These techniques can help marketers avoid losing their sleep over a challenger brand piggy-backing on their brand ambassador’s family member (and hence manipulating an already established positioning of their brand in the prospect’s mind!).

Brand Building Series #1

CPM – Three Pillars of Brand Building 

Branding is everywhere. And hence, it has gone through what everything that is everywhere has – for ever and ever. Overburdened! Cliched!Confused!

Unfortunately, definitions and explanations sought on branding are more likely to confuse the seeker than clarify. The reason is the vicious mumbo jumbo everyone chooses to rattle rather than KISS-ing (Keep-ing it simple!)

This short piece is to make things really simple for everyone.

Brand is not the name of a company or a logo or a colour its mnemonics carry. Instead, these are part of the brand identity.

Brand, simply put is – What people perceive in their mind about 

• A person
• A company
• A product/service

Obviously when we perceive something good about apple or amazon – It means that these companies have been successful in creating an effective and beneficial brand image for themselves. In broader terms they have been able to create a brand for themselves.

But how have they been able to do that while others either failed or were not so successful?

It takes more than just pumping money in campaigns and promotions to create a brand. It is generally a slower process and hence demands utmost discipline and patience.

In this piece, we only invoke the three pillars of brand building while keeping details on how a brand is built, for the next parts of the series. These pillars must be closely analyzed in order to move in the right direction to build a brand that lasts!

The three pillars of Brand Building are, CPM –

·    

• Customer
• Who is my customer 
• Target Group and traits
• What delights him
• Know what they expect and exceed it
• What influences him 
• Decision-making and influencers 
• Product
• What is my product type
• High/Low Involvement              
• Mass/Niche catering
• Innovative/Me-too
• Where does it fit in
• Need
• Comfort
• Aspiration
• What is its UVP  
• Unique Value Proposition
• Market
• Competition
• Acknowledge
• Observe
• Study
• PoSs and PoDs
• Points of Similarities
• Points of Differences within products available in the market
• Industry trends/Norms
• Fundamentals of the Industry
• Influencing factors

These pillars must be thoroughly understood by every marketer who wishes to build a brand.  Each parameter/question/factor mentioned under the pillar and sections under the pillar requires deep analysis which leads to certain answers.

Based upon these answers, a strategy is devised to help in building a brand. More on this, in the sequel to the series.

Cheers,