The most frequently violated law is the law of consistency.
A brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something. But once a brand occupies a position in the mind, the manufacturer often thinks of reasons to change.
“The market is changing,” cries the manufacturer, “change the brand.”
Markets may change, but brands shouldn’t. Ever. They may be bent slightly or given a new slant, but their essential characteristics (once those characteristics are firmly planted in the mind) should never be changed.
If the market swings another way, you have a choice. Follow the fad and destroy the brand. Or hang in there and hope the merry-go-round comes your way again. In our experience, hanging in there is your best approach.
Tanqueray is the leading high-end gin. But Absolut and Stolichnaya have created a trend toward high-end vodkas. So Tanqueray introduces Tanqueray vodka.
Will Tanqueray vodka cut into the Absolut market? Of course not.
Will Tanqueray vodka undermine the Tanqueray gin market? Ultimately, yes.
Tanqueray should stick with gin and hope the market swings in its direction.
Brands are used as personality statements. (Some marketing people call these statements “badges.”) Your choice of a badge is often determined by the statement you want to make to friends, neighbors, coworkers, or relatives. Sometimes it is determined by the statement you want to make to yourself. “I drive a BMW.”
As people grow up, they often want to change their personality statements. When kids grow up, they inevitably want to make a statement about their newfound maturity by changing brands . . . from Coca-Cola to Budweiser, for example. If Coca-Cola decided to try to retain these customers by “moving with the market,” it would then logically introduce a product called Coca-Cola beer.
As foolish as Coca-Cola beer might seem to you, conceptually it’s no different from Tanqueray vodka, Coors water, or Crystal Pepsi. Markets may change, but brands should stay the same.
In the liquor business, bourbon and whiskey are known as brown goods and gin and vodka as white goods. There may be a trend from brown to white (and there is), but should Brown-Forman introduce Jack Daniel’s vodka? We think not.
Of course it did allow the introduction of Jack Daniel’s beer and Jack Daniel’s coolers. The beer went nowhere and was killed. The coolers continue to hang on, but what does a sissy cooler brand do to Jack Daniel’s core image?
There may be a trend to Mexican food (and there is), but should a French restaurant add fajitas to its menu? We think not.
Brand building is boring work. What works best is absolute consistency over an extended period of time. Volvo has been selling safety for thirty-five years. BMW has been the ultimate driving machine for twenty-five years.
When people do boring work, they get bored. So every once in a while, someone at a company like Volvo gets a bright idea. “Why should we limit ourselves to dull, boring, safe sedans? Why don’t we branch out into exciting sports cars?”
So Volvo recently launched a line of sports cars and even a convertible. What will a ragtop do for the Volvo brand? Nothing—except dilute its safety message.
Meanwhile, BMW introduces a station wagon version of the ultimate driving machine. “Hey, why limit ourselves to carefree yuppies? We need to have a vehicle for the young urban professionals when they grow up, get married, and have kids.” (Have you ever driven a station wagon through the cones on a test track?)
What did the station wagon do for BMW? Nothing, except erode the driving image in the mind of the consumer.
Consistency built the Little Caesars brand, and lack of consistency is in the process of destroying the Little Caesars brand.
“Pizza! Pizza!” became the chain’s rallying cry. Where else could you get two pizzas for the price of one? The power of this branding program made Little Caesars the second-largest pizza chain in America.
“Why should we limit ourselves to take-out pizza only?” the bored executives asked. So Little Caesars introduced “Delivery. Delivery.” And promptly fell to third place in sales, after Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza.
It gets worse. In order to turn the chain around, Little Caesars went big. The small pizza became a medium-size pizza. The medium-size pizza became a large pizza. And the large pizza became an extra-large pizza.
Talk about confusion. “I’d like to order a medium-size pizza, please.”
“Do you want a Pizza Hut medium, which is actually our small size? Or do you want a Little Caesars medium, which is actually a Pizza Hut large?”
“Uh . . . do I still get two pizzas for the price of one?”
“Pizza! Pizza!? No, we don’t do that anymore.”
A pity. Little Caesars had one of the best brands in the pizza category. The only brand focused on takeout. The only brand with an identity and a message. (Pizza! Pizza!) And now it has nothing. Another victim of the law of consistency.
Actually, many Little Caesars stores are drifting back to the two-for-one strategy that the company should never have abandoned in the first place.
McDonald’s has been a kid-oriented family hamburger place for decades. “Why should we limit ourselves to kid-oriented products? Why not introduce an adult hamburger to compete with Burger King and Wendy’s?”
So the Arch Deluxe was born. One hundred fifty million dollars’ worth of advertising later, the Arch Deluxe is declared a disaster. And McDonald’s quietly decides to drop it from the menu.
Notice one thing. It’s always the product that is declared a failure, never the branding concept. McDonald’s is a kid-oriented family restaurant. In such a setting, an adult hamburger might taste good in the mouth, but it is not going to taste good in the mind.
Run up a red flag whenever you hear the words: “Why should we limit ourselves?”
You should limit your brand. That’s the essence of branding. Your brand has to stand for something both simple and narrow in the mind. This limitation is the essential part of the branding process.
Limitation combined with consistency (over decades, not years) is what builds a brand.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither is a brand of Romano cheese.