Twelve months of writing business articles have confirmed that the Americans and the British are divided by more than a common language. Adding or subtracting vowels from a word is easy. Finding suitable brands to illustrate points in an article is hard—not just because the relevant details need to be in the public domain, but also because our experience of brands is still very parochial.
Every now and again I find a great case study, one that illustrates a key point. Usually the most important element of such a case is evidence of a sales effect. While a case study without sales data is nice to know about, a case study with sales data is a compelling demonstration.
But if the example I want to use happens to be from a country other than the one I am writing for, I run into problems. Irrespective of the merits of a particular case study, editors on both sides of the Atlantic consistently ask me to replace “foreign” brands with local examples. This is a constant frustration and a real headache when the case study includes sales data. These examples are just not easy to find.
Here is a case in point. In writing an article on the power of nostalgia for the United States, I referenced a brand from my childhood in the United Kingdom. Hovis, a brand of bread owned by Premier Brands, became a household name in 1973 when “The Boy on the Bike” aired for the first time.
By evoking imagery of simpler times, the ad successfully tapped into people’s concerns that most modern breads were over-processed and unhealthy.
A Brit who was around in the 1970s can probably still remember that ad, and Hovis is not about to let them forget it. Last year the company announced that it was bringing back both the boy on the bike (as part of its new packaging design) and its iconic Little Brown Loaf. New TV advertising featured a young boy running home through various historical scenes while carrying a loaf of Hovis.
The company reports the £15m relaunch increased Hovis’s market share by over 2 percentage points to 24.7 percent. Sales increased 13 percent over the prior year, and helped boost Premier Foods’ revenues by 22.5 percent.
It is a classic example of a brand reaching back in time to rekindle positive memories and reconfirm what a brand stands for. But what was I told? “Nobody in the U.S. knows the brand. Can’t you find a U.S. example instead?”
Assuming that editors really do know their audiences, it would seem that unless people are familiar with a brand, it is difficult for them to appreciate the relevance of the case study. It proves that the world of marketing is a long way from being truly global and is a salutary reminder that brands are experienced locally.
You would think that I know this. After all, I did write a book on the subject. (In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to The Global Brand.) But perhaps I have spent too much time working with the minority of brands that do have global reach. Perhaps I have lost sight of the fundamental truth that a global brand is simply an aggregation of local brands. To create a strong global brand, we must establish that brand’s relevance and emotional connection to consumers in each market around the world.
So what do you think? Do editors know their audiences? Are they right that readers will better understand the relevance of an example if it is local? How do you feel when you read about a brand that you have never seen or heard of? Please let me know.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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May 26th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Hi Nigel, I think your editors are getting hung up on specifics and losing sight of the bigger picture — the universal values that are being reflected. While I am not at all familiar with the Hovis example, I can understand and empathise (empathize) with the concept of nostalgia as a powerful communicator. Trust your audience to make the connection
May 26th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I have to agree with Philip. The emotions and concepts transcend borders and cultures. If I, in Mexico City, can understand and relate people in the US as unfamiliar with the brand as me should. Perhaps it’s also a reflection of trying to hang onto ‘localisms’ as things go more global (the case of Welsh being ressurgent in Wales)? I believe we’ll see more revivals in the days to come, ads and brands from the past do brings us memories of better days.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I concur with Philip
to add to your nostalgia theme
one of my favorites from this side of the pnd
Canadian Tire’s Bicycle Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJlOoqCoYpk
then to mark the retailer’s 75th anniversary - Canada Post issued a stamp depicting the ad…talk about integrated advertsing
back to your point from the last post - give people something they want to watch and guess what…..
May 26th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Maybe the editors think that unless the reader feels the nostalgia, they won’t be swayed? But that’s an argument for this case study (although, being a former Canuck, I know all about the Canadian Tire Tricycle).
There’s a pretty across the board feeling in marketing that people are dumb and things need to be simple. They don’t. They need to be relevant first. Simple might just be the means to the end.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thanks guys, grist to the mill - does that translate?
Matt, don’t get me started on simple. That is a whole different post in its own right. All I will say right now is simple does not equal simplistic, for the person on the street or the person in the corner office.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Based on what we know about trying to involve an audience - which hopefully is at least a little bit - is it not an issue of personal relevance?
As a marketer you may well see and understand the relevance of a particular example from elsewhere on a professional level - but taking your Hovis example, if the cultural significance also resonates with you personally as a consumer then it’s far more likely to engage isn’t it?
Working in India, the clamour for culturally relevant local case studies/examples is an issue fairly close to my heart! Generally speaking, if it isn’t from India, it doesn’t count.
May 29th, 2009 at 10:20 am
If we try to have a look from the side of interaction processes of neuronal networks in human brain, the editors could be probably right.
The principle you describe should be common in the whole world. The human brain, and its processes of memorising never forgett anything it has ones lerned. It stays inside the whole life. How is than possible, that we cant remember something? The pathways, better to say interacting neuronal networks have changed. And the informations are leaved out from the brains communications processesBut it doesn´t mean, that you can´t evoke them. (FOr netref understanding, imagine people with the brain stroke)
We can name it nostalgia, but you have just from outside activated, or stimulated, what is still inside prepared for communication.
Why is it so successfully? Just imagine you meet your former schoolmate, after 25 years you haven’t seen him. You forget already that he even exists. Just imagine your feelings. And now try to imagine, if you will get the same feelings, if somebody else just explains to you that he has met his former school mate. You get completely different picture (without all his feelings, memories, ,,) as he tries to mediate. I think this is the analogous situation, like with editors.
And what, if the global, brand is not an aggregation of the local brands. What if the true is, that the local brands (better to say their marketers and producers) are not able to find out and to make the best of the fine specialties of their local market? Instead of it, they are trying to follow up the values of the global brands? That’s could be the main reason, that the global brand even get the chance for its global “life”.
The people in their brain processes and value systems are very different. It should mean that the “value localized brands” should be much more successful at particular market as the global one. Why the situation is different? The local brand’s marketers don’t know about that? Accessible budgets for communication? Combination of both?
May be, this is another look at this topic, from the point of principles of brain processes.