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Articles - Publication Date 3.6.2000
A Brand New Pitch
Companies that once sold only to business are learning from master brand-builders how to reach consumer markets.
By Weld Royal
In Times Square, just below the spot where the ball dropped to mark the new millennium, the world's best-known brands now battle for the attention of anyone willing to lend an ear or an eye. As music from the Lion King soundtrack drifts out of the Disney Store, giant billboards stacked vertically proffer Pokémon monsters, Budweiser beer, and Jaguar cars.
For those interested in checking the stock market, playing interactive market games, or watching financial reporters conduct live market updates, the National Assn. of Securities Dealers Inc. opened its Nasdaq MarketSite broadcast facility in January. The kiosk is capped by an eight-story-tall video screen that provides news, global market information, and ads.
On a winter afternoon, the name Cisco Systems Inc., one of Nasdaq's high fliers, appears on the towering screen. If executives at the $8.4 billion San Jose computer-networking giant have their way, consumers walking through Times Square will glance up at the Nasdaq screen and recognize the Cisco name.
Thanks to a series of converging forces, Cisco and other corporations that have grown powerful through business-to-business sales are seeking to build brands that tug at the purse strings of consumers. They're turning to a range of strategies, including approaches developed by service companies and dot.com ventures, as well as classic branding tactics invented by stalwarts such as Procter & Gamble Co.
Corporations that have relied on industrial sales are now using television, the Web, and retail outlets to gain attention. "Experience branding-feeding on all the senses: scent, sight, sound, texture -- is the wave of the future," points out Marian Salzman, director of the Brand Futures Group, a division of advertising conglomerate Young & Rubicam Inc. Speed is another critical element, particularly as the Internet spawns online competitors. "The best launch I've seen in the last year is Pets.com. They created a brand overnight," says Salzman.
The Internet plays a role in many corporate decisions to introduce consumer brands, and not just because it creates new competitors. Manufacturers that have thrived by selling through distributors now have a chance to interact directly with consumers, and want to take advantage of the opportunity.
Going to the public also presents new challenges. The same companies that are eager to approach consumers for the first time often don't have the in-house skills to do so.
A new breed of intermediary, the dot.com retailer, offers one route, but many traditional companies lack experience in collaborating with these online distributors. "Manufacturers need to strike up a relationship where they can control the presentation of their brand. Some have used affiliate programs or special alliances to secure a dominant position," observes Kevin Rowe, president, North America, of online marketing firm Agency.com Ltd.
When it comes to benchmarking the best, the successes of megabrand builders such as Disney Corp. and Nike Inc. offer industrial companies models for taking their message to undiscovered niches.
These corporations have turned commodities into hot sellers. Nike evolved from a sneaker seller into a purveyor of the athletic experience, thanks to three guiding but controversial principles, writes Naomi Klein, author of No Logo (2000, Picador USA), a critical evaluation of some of the strategies used by corporations to build the world's best-known brands.
Nike fashioned its "swoosh" into a mythical symbol through these steps: "First, turn a select group of athletes into Hollywood-style superstars. Second, pit Nike's 'Pure Sports' and its team of athletic superstars against the rule-obsessed, established sporting world. Third, and most important, brand like mad," Klein writes.
Not only did the Beaverton, Oreg., company put its swoosh on athletic gear and athletes, but that branding success enabled the corporation to push into new areas. For instance,<
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Choosing the right spokesperson is one of several classic branding practices.
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