Branding agency

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A branding agency is a firm that specializes in creating and launching brands and rebranding. The role of a branding agency is to create, plan, measure, and manage branding strategies for clients, including support in advertising and other forms of promotion.

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Branding is the process of developing a company's brand, including name, identity system, brand architecture, and messaging platform. These aspects will lead to the development of a "brand message", applied to marketing campaigns. A brand represents a promise to the customer, reflecting the expectations they can have from the products and services offered, as well as the offering difference amongst the competitors. [1]

A branding agency allows organizations to gain a competitive advantage, to define a coherent brand communication strategy, and to reach the target market and expand it.

Branding agencies vs advertising agencies

Although branding agencies and advertising agencies overlap in some aspects, they have different scopes and focus.

Celebrity endorsement benefits both branding and advertising agencies, promoting them on social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. 'Firms invest significant monies in juxtaposing brands and organizations with endorser qualities such as attractiveness, likeability, and trustworthiness. They trust that these qualities operate in a transferable way, and, will generate desirable campaign outcomes' (Journal of marketing management, volume 15 1999). Examples of celebrities that act as ambassadors for obtaining "likes" for Coca-Cola and L'Oreal are Selena Gomez and Cheryl Cole.

Leading brands and the role of branding agencies

The evolving economy with increasingly competitive markets is creating a greater stress on developing brands that aim at being widely recognized by the public.

Leading brands: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is globally considered as one of the most successful and recognized brand. A survey conducted by Interbrand, an American branding consultancy, found that Coca-Cola's brand equity was valued at $63.5 billion, representing just under half of the company's true market value. [2] An executive at Coca-Cola stated, "If Coca-Cola were to lose all of its production-related assets in a disaster, the company would survive. By contrast, if all consumers were to have a sudden lapse of memory and forget everything related to Coca-Cola, the company would go out of business." [3]

Coca-Cola has collaborated with a number of branding agencies over the years. Most recently, in the light of a new global campaign, Coca-Cola has partnered with ten agencies (including WPP, Wieden+Kennedy and McCann) with the aim, as a Coca-Cola spokesperson stated, "of uncovering the best ideas and marrying those to executional excellence". The spokesperson added, "this approach allows us to harness thinking from some of the best agency minds in the industry and see the great work that comes from collaborating". [4] The statement acknowledges the collaborative and creative process involved in brand management, which is generally an integral concept involved in branding.

Even the most successful brands will seek branding support. This will often be more focused on specific areas, and in particular those related to reaching, attracting and retaining the target market. [5]

Changing trends: Apple

Apple Logo Apple logo black.svg
Apple Logo

Despite having headed Interbrand's list of the 100 most valuable brands for 13 consecutive years, Coca-Cola has now been replaced by Apple, whose surge to the top highlights the dominance of technology today. Three of the top five most valuable brands are technology companies. [6]

This data stresses another key element that must be addressed by branding agencies: the value of innovation and the need to exploit trends. The rise of the technology domain has resulted in the emergence of new channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Google and Twitter.

This change in trends results in new approaches to branding. Agencies must be naturally innovative and flexible in order to survive a fast-paced environment. With branding becoming an increasingly vital element to a firm's success, many organizations believe it is in their best interest to seek external support.

Interbrand's Ranking of the 5 Most Valuable Brands (2015)

RankBrandRegion/CountrySectorBrand Value (in $m)Change in Brand Value (in %)
1 Apple logo black.svg United StatesTechnology170,276+43
2 Google 2015 logo.svg United StatesTechnology120,314+12
3 Coca-Cola logo.svg United StatesBeverages78,423-4
4 Microsoft logo (2012).svg United StatesTechnology67,670+11
5 IBM logo.svg United StatesBusiness Services65,095-10

[7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coca-Cola</span> Carbonated soft drink

Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings each day. Coca-Cola ranked No. 87 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Based on Interbrand's "best global brand" study of 2020, Coca-Cola was the world's sixth most valuable brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepsi</span> Soft drink by PepsiCo

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo. It was originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham in the United States, and became known as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, before shortening to Pepsi in 1961. As of 2023, Pepsi is the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long-standing rivalry in what has been called the "cola wars".

In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives. Developing a good relationship with target markets is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experiences that the target markets share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer's brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cola wars</span> Soft drink marketing rivalry

The Cola Wars are the long-time rivalry between soft drink producers The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, who have engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each company's product lines, especially their flagship colas, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Beginning in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the competition escalated until it became known as the cola wars.

WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thums Up</span> Brand of cola in India

Thums Up is a brand of cola. It was introduced in 1977 to offset the withdrawal of The Coca-Cola Company from India. The brand was later bought by Coca-Cola who re-launched it in order to compete against Pepsi to capture the market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Coca-Cola Company</span> American multinational beverage corporation

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The drink industry company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. The company's stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogilvy (agency)</span> Advertising agency

Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.

J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merged J. Walter Thompson with fellow agency Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson. In October 2023, WPP announced yet another merger in which Wunderman Thompson, along with another group agency VMLY&R, would cease to exist and create a new combined entity named VML. This is to be effective January 1, 2024.

Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy which uses a celebrity's fame or social status to promote a product, brand or service, or to raise awareness about an issue. Marketers use celebrity endorsers in hopes that the positive image of the celebrity endorser will be passed on to the product's or brand's image. Non-profit organizations also use celebrities since a celebrity's frequent mass media coverage reaches a wider audience, thus making celebrities an effective ingredient in fundraising.

Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

Kantar Group is a global data, insights, and consulting company based in London, England. It was founded in 1992, and has approximately 30,000 employees in over 90 countries working in various research disciplines, including brand guidance, brand strategy, social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behaviour, and public opinion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AKQA</span> Digital agency

AKQA is a digital design and communications agency owned by WPP. It was founded in London in 1994 and expanded internationally in 2001 through a merger with agencies based in the United States and Singapore. It operated as an independent agency until 2012, when it was acquired by WPP. Initially the firm focused on technology and digital projects, later broadening its focus on design and innovation to services including product and spatial design. In 2020, WPP announced it was merging Grey Group with AKQA to create the AKQA Group. The resulting agency has around 6,000 employees in 50 countries.

Brand valuation is the process of estimating the total financial value of a brand. A conflict of interest exists if those who value a brand were also involved in its creation. The ISO 10668 standard specifies six key requirements for the process of valuing brands, which are transparency, validity, reliability, sufficiency, objectivity; and financial, behavioral, and legal parameters.

McCann, formerly McCann Erickson, is an American global advertising agency network, with offices in 120 countries. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, along with several other agencies, including direct digital marketing agency MRM//McCann, experiential marketing agency Momentum Worldwide, healthcare marketing group McCann Health, and public-relations and strategic-communications agency Weber Shandwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Cosby in advertising</span>

American comedian and actor Bill Cosby was a popular spokesperson for advertising from the 1960s – before his first starring television role – until the early 2000s. He started with White Owl cigars, and later endorsed the Jell-O frosty ice pop treats Pudding Pop, gelatin, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, American Red Cross, Texas Instruments, E. F. Hutton & Co., Kodak, and the 1990 United States Census. As of 2002, Cosby held the record for being the longest-serving celebrity spokesperson for a product, through his work with Jell-O. In 2011, he won the President's Award for Contributions to Advertising from the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Marcio Moreira was a multi-cultural marketing executive who played an influential role in the globalization of advertising. In a 44-year career at McCann Erickson Worldwide, Moreira headed the agency's InterNational Team—referred to by The New York Times as a "daring experiment in the nascent science of worldwide marketing"—customizing global campaigns to address cultural nuances on a country-by-country basis. Moreira has been credited with accelerating the cross-border, or trans-nationalization, of brands.

VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Y&R , founded in 1923. It is a subsidiary of WPP plc multinational advertising and public relations holding company.

Global advertising or international advertising consists of collecting, processing, analyzing and interpreting information. There are two main purposes of international advertising research: (1) to assist business executives to make profitable international advertising decisions for their specific products and services and (2) to contribute to general knowledge of international advertising that is potentially useful to a variety of business executives, educators, government policy makers, advertising self-regulatory organizations and others interested in understanding the process and effects international advertising.

Rose Creative Strategies, a subsidiary of Rose Marketing Ltd. is an advertising and public relations agency founded in the USSR. The agency originally functioned as a branch of the American agency and offered communication and advertising services to international companies entering the Soviet market.

References

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  3. "The power of branding". Design Council. Archived from the original on 2016-01-16. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  4. "Coca-Cola selects WPP agency team for global campaign". www.campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  5. "Don't Invest in Branding Until You've Done This". About.com Money. Archived from the original on 2015-12-30. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
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  7. "Rankings - 2015 - Best Global Brands - Best Brands - Interbrand". interbrand.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2015-11-03.