Did you know that Proctor & Gamble has licensed its hair care brand "Pantene" to Japanese appliance manufacturer Panasonic for branding their hair driers?

That the venerable 'Economist' magazine had declared 1988 as "the year of the brand" because it was the 1st year when record sums were paid to transfer "ownership" of brands ?

And that probably in the next fiscal year, Air France, KLM & Alitalia will lose their individual identities to a new (as yet undecided) brand ?

The past few decades have seen consistently high valuation of brands. Since brand value must reflect the long term profit expected from a brand, power brands command prices which are significantly in excess of their asset value. A brand is created, bequeathed a personality (which it develops further) & provides an experience (to fill the ever-increasing need for entertainment). And finally, a brand may be retired gracefully. Or 'killed' in one fell sweep, typically after a merger.

Brand Influence
Let's look at a few leading brands and list down their individual personalities -
   George Bush (political leader) - Immensely powerful, war-monger, relies too much on advisers
   Amitabh Bachchan (film star) - Ageing, graceful, smart, charming, acting record
   Sachin Tendulkar (sports star) - Young, consistent run scorer, non-controversial
   Pepsi (cola) - Trendy, young, default drink, pesticides (!)
   Microsoft (software) - Omnipresent, ambitious, powerful, sinister indispensable or just a habit?

Successful brands influence the way in which people perceive the company or product, by appealing to the four mind functions *
     Rational thinking
     Sensation
     Feelings
     Intuition

While some brands appeal to ration (cholesterol-free butter substitute) others offer their customers a chance to 'be' what they never can in real life. For example, Marlboro appeals to the outdoor-type of males who are perhaps unable to spend as much time camping in the "Wild West" as they would like to! Just as Harley Davidson offers an opportunity for its rider to pretend that he is still a biker in his twenties!! While others like Versace appeal to their customers' aspirations to a certain lifestyle.

Humans being what they are, they actually end up relating to brands in the same way as they do to other living beings. A successful brand establishes & re-inforces a perceived value and then influences consumers to buy at a price which matches the value.

This is probably why people prefer to buy (successful) brands by paying a premium.

Vanaprastha
"Vanaprastha" is a Sanskrit word which defines the final stage in a human being's finite life. During this stage, he deliberately retires from public view to make his peace with his Creator. Continuing the analogy to persons, there comes a time in the life of a brand when it has to retire from public view.

A brand can retire in one of 2 ways -
Graceful Retirement as is expected in the case of the Kodak film brand since the product will have little utility in the digital world
Sacrificial Lamb which was the case of Hewlett Packard Computer brand which was killed to promote the Compaq brand, subsequent to the merger of the 2 companies. (The loss of brand value built up with years of effort & investment Is more than compensated many times over by the savings due to merging of common operations.)


* Based on Carl Jung's description of the functions of the mind.