Daniel.Hjelmtorp.com

In an (as usual) post on the Lefsetz Letter, he talks about Starbucks, and traffic is down for the first time at Starbuckscafés. Therefore, Starbucks has started a national tv campain, to strengthen its brand. He starts the post by talking about Google, and how its brand have grown. It didn’t became as it did by advertise, its just a fucking good product!! It strained out the web search engine industry by changing the rules and setting a new standard. It did what people wanted, and people told other about this great product! I remember when I first heard of and started to use Google, when my friend Douglas used it all the time when he where here many years ago.

Anyhow… the point is that Google as brand didn’t have to do much, except being a great service and work internally to be the best on the market. I have never seen a Google ad about there own brand, even searching youtube or Google video I still can’t find a damn ad! They don’t have to, cause everybody know of Google, it the best search engine out there. Their service is so good that the users are the ads and messenger. Okey, many brands don’t have that luxury, but the point is that their nr 1, not cause they spend the most money on ads or hired the best ads bureau. There simply the best.

And Starbucks is one of the worlds most knowned brands. Just cause Starbucks don’t exist in Sweden, we when a lot to Starbucks in Japan. Still I’m confused why they haven’t open a Starbucks in Sweden, I can do it for you Starbucks! And at the same time, many people here may be happy with absence of the big café brand. One brand have many faces, depending on whom you ask. A news in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (article in Swedish) , spoke of how brands owner can’t control who the consumer will be, and represented. That brands don’t always reach the audience they intended, or reach the kind of status they worked towards. For example a jacket that where marketed and thought towards sports active people instead is associated with Hip hop ganstas.

Then, who owns the brands, the companies, or the “user”, the consumers? The brands concept is being developed by the companies that “owns” the brand, but it wouldn’t be a successful brand if the “small-people” didn’t buy it. Without the consumer, there is no brand, like their would be no God without believers. The creators of brands often have an idea of what they want their brand to represend, an image or feeling they define to be felt. Its really the consumer that take the brand, and redefine it. The “face” of the brand is also different, depending on the view of the individual person. Depending on sex, social status and culture, a brand is views different. So its really the consumer that decides what the brand should represent, and they get smarter and know not to just buy a million dollar fictional ads campaign that promises a feeling that isn’t real. They own the brand, and they decide what it should represent. And they like to talk about it to, like how the words about Google spread.

Another example is the development in the music industry where the importance of a artist/group brand is declining. I’ve discussed this with my dad, and we both agree. With the Internet, iTunes and possibilities to choose individual songs, the brands of a single artist or band is irrelevant. But not totally. When it comes to music, as with games and everything else, a brand/band/publisher/developers or artist, isn’t guarantee for an excellent or even average end-product. But helps to a certain degree, but not in the long run. And even how much money you spend on marketing a crappy product, an excellent product can prevail, even with a marketing budget of zero!