The Secret of Brands that Last
A few years ago, I asked my mother, who’d seen a lot of changes over her lifetime, what technology or product she thought changed her life the most. I expected she would say the telephone, automatic transmission or Pampers. But, after a minute of thoughtful consideration she went to our kitchen cupboard and pulled out an expired box of Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake Mix, a product constituted entirely of ingredients that she and most other homemakers already have in their pantries: flour, sugar and chocolate. The eggs? You had to supply them yourself. “So, what made this product so special,” I asked.

“It was so easy, we could all do it together,” she said.
“We all?” That would be my brother and I, which means that the few times that we sat around licking the spoons were some of my mother’s happiest memories. Clearly, the Duncan Hines brand was tapping into something other than the absence of ingredients. It seems that it wasn’t so much about the cake than the symbolic meaning: good mothering means you can bake a cake with your kids.

It turned out she felt the same way about the Campbell’s soup she prepared on most days we came home for lunch from school. She acknowledged as much in admitting, “It gave me confidence that I could be a good mom when you liked the soup.” Good soup—Good mom? Sounds superficial, but the reason many people buy and use products have little to do with the underlying premise.

Duncan Hines cake mixes and Campbell’s soup aren’t just products. They’re brands that have associations with values to which parents and kids can connect: good mothering, sharing and, if I daresay, love. When you think about the ‘benefits’ these products fulfill, it’s easy to jump platitudes like convenience or simplicity. But the real value isn’t in the convenience. It’s in the associations that are important to the people that buy and use these products. That bowl of soup was a symbol of connection and consistency and was associated with something that was important to her…giving my brother and me food we liked. Of course, the product itself had nothing to do with being a good mother. But that’s what it meant to her.

We all have both simple and more complex needs. Cars are far more than transportation and the fashion industry provides a lot more than clothes. Products and the brands they constitute are symbols and to the extent that products can address some of the deeper more complex issues that customers deal with, the greater the chance you’ll have stronger associations and possibly a strong brand.

For more information on brands, contact Dan Droz ddroz@droz.com or visit www.droz.com