The Power of Emotional, Attitudinal Brands

I recently spoke at The Conference Board's Corporate Identity and Branding Summit, and had the opportunity to listen to a Landor presentation on brand extensions. Below are some insights.

From this leading brand firm's point of view, there are two primary ways to look at extending brands: (1) line extensions, where you are moving your brand footprint in your existing product or market category - think new beverages from Pepsi or Coke; and (2) brand extensions, where you are moving into new product and market categories outside of the current ones your company operates in - think Google who is known for search moving into Google docs, Google+, Android, etc.

In either types of situation the question to answer is: what is the locus of the brand that you are extending? That is, is your brand based on attitudinal or functional values/attributes? Understanding this orientation, informs the development of the brand architecture/tools that support the development and marketing of brand extensions.

Attitudinal brands are grounded by brand attributes/values that revolve around the company's/products' attitude, ethos, and aesthetic. According to Landor, attitudinal brands have strong, enduring emotional connections with customers and markets; examples include Disney, Virgin, or Apple. Conversely, functional brands center on the company's/products' functions, capabilities, price, and quality; those that fall  into this definition could be Walmart or BMW.

So, why does one brand extension fail and another succeed? To determine when an extension will add meaningful value to the existing brand - a fundamental requirement to success - these questions must be answered:

• Will the brand extension run counter to customer expectations?
• Does the new brand extension provide competitive advantage in new categories?
• Will the brand extension positively reinforce the existing brand's positioning?
• Will the brand extension make money or defend market share?
• Will the brand extension open up a meaningful new market in terms of audience or category?

Landor believes that creating emotional brand experiences are the most effective ways to reach and impact markets. Always start with a simple, clear brand idea. Then, if you have successfully answered the above questions, make sure you have framed your brand idea in emotional/attitudinal ways and extend into new brand categories.