"The holistic staging of the brand promise will gain in importance"

Baumeisterhaus" is written in large letters on the facade of the architecturally stylish building at Sempacherstrasse 15 in Zurich - the residence of Brandpulse, one of Switzerland's leading branding agencies. The building is called "Baumeisterhaus" because, in addition to Brandpulse, the Association of Master Builders also has its headquarters here.

WW: The vocabulary "master builder's house " spontaneously leads to the metaphor "master builder " when entering the house, then to the question whether branding agencies are the "master builders of the brand". Mr. Ramseier, to start with - what constitutes good branding in the first place, in a nutshell?
Thomas Ramseier: Branding plays an increasingly important role in modern brand management. This is because branding helps - taking customer needs into account - to differentiate a brand holistically strategically and formally in the competitive environment. The challenge for a brand today is to successfully hold its own in a market environment with increasing competitive pressure, while maintaining similar performance quality and decreasing margins. And so our agency brochure clearly and unmistakably states: "Undifferentiated market cultivation and vague communication are the cause of the interchangeability of brands. And: 'Me-too concepts' are the killers of stand-alone brand values. "

The Swiss poet Gottfried Keller wrote a novella called "Clothes make the man". It is about a journeyman tailor who, despite poverty, dresses very well and stacks up. What about brands - is well packaged (dressed) also well sold? Is branding as simple as getting tailor-made clothes?
In my opinion, identity-oriented brand management is not about the question of whether the brand is well dressed. Rather, it is about the question: Is the brand properly dressed - occasion-related: tuxedo, suit, jeans? Brands stand for values with the goal of being attractive to certain target groups. For some, jeans are more attractive than a tuxedo. That's exactly the point. Good branding is comparable to tailor-made clothing. Branding is about creating an individual, unique look for the brand. Something off the rack is interchangeable. However, successful branding differs from tailoring in one respect: we can't just focus on the brand, its stature and body shape in the manufacturing process. It's about relevant differentiation. Therefore, we must also know the stature and body shape of competitors in order to clearly differentiate ourselves from them. And we need to know the needs of customers to achieve relevance.

A brand is like a personality, as the textbooks say. More than ever, brands need a brand core, an identity, a soul. But for brands to prevail, they must first meet a few fundamental requirements: consistently high quality and guaranteed quantity. That is an old truism. But what else is there to consider?
Today's understanding of brands goes much further: brands are unmistakable images that have to be anchored in the customer's mind. We live in an age of supply explosion. More and more offers at constant demand. Strong brands manage to provide the potential customer with an argumentation why he should buy a certain brand and not the competitor's product. This argumentation is mainly based on a differentiating brand idea and a differentiating brand appearance. In my opinion, purely value-based concepts are passé. Differentiation can only be created through a clear brand promise that is relevant to customers and a unique, attractive brand appearance - in my view, the mere listing of values that leave room for interpretation is no longer sufficient today. 

We live in a world of abundance and me-too products. Does that make your agency's service even more significant? In the past, brand owners created their brands on their own. Mr. Maggi, for example. And Henri Nestlé and so many others ...
Branding agencies have the ability to support the client in strategic and formal differentiation. It's all about positioning in this interchangeable competitive environment they address. Positioning always means focusing on a few things and leaving out many things - even important ones. Sometimes an external partner can do this better - due to a more objective distance towards markets and brands.

How do you have to address today's consumers? Do different "rules" apply than in the past? Has the consumer become emancipated?
A paradigm shift has taken place in the last ten years. In contrast to the past, consumers today are globally networked. They have unlimited options in their buying behavior. They check out and compare different offers in both local stationary stores and online stores. Authenticity is therefore becoming more important. However, digitization also leads to more anonymous relationships with brands; these become less tangible. In the future, brands will have to be showcased more strongly at non-digital touchpoints. Experiential consumption is in the foreground today. Customers want to be entertained before, during and after shopping. This situation is leading to an aestheticization trend even in mass markets. Or how else do you explain concepts like Apple or Nespresso stores?

Today we often speak of the schizophrenic or hybrid consumer. Sometimes a luxury good, then again cheap fast food ...
True. But that's nothing new. Modern marketing has been talking about this for twenty-five years. Today, we've already moved on; we're seeing an increase in the intrinsic benefit dimension: the brand triggers hedonistic enjoyment and stands for lifestyle and self-expression. People want to do something good for themselves; the brand is no longer an exclusive symbol of prestige and distinction. What has happened? A blending of premium and discount offerings is taking place: Concepts like Migros Selection, Lagerfeld for H&M or Massimo Dutti, etc. are available to all. Massimo Dutti, for example, offers average, low-priced clothing (similar to H&M or Benetton). Massimo Dutti's retail stores, on the other hand, embody high quality in the style of an English tailor. There are exciting times ahead for brand manufacturers.

The "young old" target group - does it even exist? Isn't there rather an age discrepancy?
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones will be 71 in July. A twenty-year-old can be more conservative than a seventy-year-old. In my opinion, sociodemographic criteria in segmentation have done their duty. Today, it's all about value-oriented attitudes. Modern brand management is about aligning the brand for a value-oriented group. Regardless of age or school education.

The unpredictability of lifestyles - how do you deal with it? SPIEGEL recently published a cover story on the subject of "Consumption renunciation - have less, live happier". But that doesn't make a branding agency happy?
The theme of "going back" to sustainable living is the logical consequence of the consumerist excesses of the past twenty years and the growing awareness of resource scarcity. The pendulum is swinging back. But I don't believe that total consumerism will become a conflagration. There have always been dropouts: Diogenes, Niklaus von der Flüe, Martin Heidegger or the hippies. But don't worry, consumption will continue in the future, just in a different way. Brands are challenged to deal with this issue. It's about creating attractive concepts for people with a sustainable value orientation. As the owner of a branding agency, I don't have to worry about that. Because for these kinds of concepts, it will still be necessary to create strong, differentiating brands in the future.

Now to the subject of "packaging" and the clothes that seem to make people or brands. Is it really the case that around two-thirds of consumers make their purchasing decisions on the basis of the packaging - and shortly, in front of the shelf? Personally, I have my doubts about that ...
The ultimate goal of any brand is customer loyalty. This presupposes familiarity and trust. If brands are neither known nor trusted, then, yes, packaging would be the only factor in the purchase decision - which would then account for two-thirds of purchase decisions. But hand on heart: is that really the case? Just think about the contents of your refrigerator - there are more or less always the same brands in there ... A much more interesting finding is: We know from empirical studies that touchpoints at the point of sale in retail contribute more than half to the brand experience. If the brand has no other opportunities to stage experiences at the POS - for example, via displays, shop-in-shop concepts, etc. - the packaging assumes an immensely important role in the success or failure of a brand. In this case, the brand must be optimally staged via the packaging and be perceived in an almost ideal way. The key words here are: Form, brand design, haptics, ergonomics, handling, aesthetics, etc.

"Information overload" - a fact that carries weight. What does this mean for a branding agency?
The central goal is a holistic staging of the brand. Information overload now means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make oneself heard as a brand. The same content and formal messages - promise, logo, colors, image style, typography, symbols, etc. - must be applied as consistently as possible. And this in all manifestations of the brand, on the web, in online advertising - film, print advertising, store, etc., on vehicles and, of course, on packaging. This creates recognizability and helps to be perceived as a brand in the thicket of the information explosion.

Your range of services covers a large number of segments. What distinguishes your agency from an "ordinary" advertising and design agency?
Brandpulse stands for strategic branding. We focus on the competencies of brand strategy (brand positioning and brand structures), brand conception (such as name development and brand design) and 3-D design (such as store and product design). We are also active in corporate communications consulting. The combination of these competencies makes us unique in the Swiss market. We are able to develop and implement holistic brand concepts for our clients, nationally and internationally. www.brandpulse.ch

Interview: Claude Bürki
 
 
In a nutshell
 
Overview: Business areas of Brandpulse

Brand strategy - Brand conception - 3-D design - Corporate communications

Consisting of three companies specializing in the aforementioned disciplines, the Brandpulse Group also offers individual solutions within the respective core competencies or holistic, integrated brand and communication solutions, depending on requirements. The group works on brand development and brand vitalization projects for clients in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Recently realized brand projects in Switzerland: Migrol, Victorinox, Amavita, Turmix, Weleda, Spirella, Sanitas Krankenversicherung and Migrolino.