Brand Salience Not Brand Science

Abstract:

Purpose

This article looks at the way companies try to either sell a story or a dialogue to their consumer. Companies try to convey a message to sell their brand/product. It also looks at the way consumers take this information and how they either identify, support or create their own dialogue about the brand.

Salience: Brand prominence in buyer memory, top of mind ability to stand out in consumer’s consideration sets.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Much of the article was centered on looking at campaigns and brand strategies carried out by big companies. The article examined a number of companies and how they executed their strategies, then went on to discuss how consumers reacted to it and how effective/ineffective their efforts were.

They examined how Coca-Cola uses technology to further engage with their users. Coca-Cola performed a huge social media push called Expedition 206 where they sent three adventurers to the 206 countries where Coke products are sold. Users were able to engage and comment along the journey and give suggestions as to how the adventure should go. Through this, Coca-Cola was able to push an image of adventure, fun, curiosity, and worldliness onto their customers and give them a story to tell but also participate in.

The article also examined different brand narratives that companies create for themselves. They looked into how Harley Davidson changed the motorcycle experience by fostering a sense of brand community, how Starbucks builds a “middle-ground” between home and office, and how Corona executes a “cross-cultural” narrative.

Findings

Building a brand strategy used to be about reaching the audience but now it’s about having consumers including the brand in their everyday lives. There is a social and psychological idea that is attached to products and services. In terms of the social nature of media “though its DNA may be digital, the heartbeat is social.”

Consumers now have the power to talk about brands and speak on their opinions about it. Because of this rapidly spreading means of communication, it has created the “Generation C’ phenomenon of Consumer Generated Content. This provides a space for consumers to speak on brands and their products.

A brand narrative is the continuous dialogue between a company and its customers. Brand narratives can be subdivided into primal narratives, cross cultural, metaphysical, philosophical, political, and more. Narratives can create a social significance, such as Starbucks that acts as a middle place between home and work. These narratives ultimately sell a story and belief to a customer when they buy into