Understanding and Managing the Brand Space A brand can be closely associated with, or independent from, a specific product or service; it can focus on what the product or service can do, or on what it means. Together those two dimensions define a brand space, a conceptual tool for better brand management. Pierre Berthon, Morris B. Holbrook and James M. Hulbert Many companies have made costly mistakes in managing their brands. Arthur Andersen, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Ford Motor Co. and Eirestone are but some of the more infamous examples. Less dramatically, many firms have faltered badly in their attempts to extend their brands by moving them into different product categories, resulting in damage to the parent brands.' The root cause of these kinds of missteps is, at least in part, the lack of a timdamental understanding of brands and their changing nature. Part of the problem is that brands have become increasingly difficult to manage. As they have become more global, for instance, they have come to characterize more than merely the relationship between manufacturers and customers. Tbeir influence now extends to employees, the investment community, the media, suppliers, governments and even competitors. The ineaning oi a brand is no longer tbe result of a dialogue between buyer and seller, but of a intiltilogtie. A company that wishes to extend its brand must therefore negotiate that transition among all the various parties involved. This process has become even more difficult because the widespread availability of information over the Internet and other media has weakened the influence that marketers have over their own hrands. To manage their brands effectively, companies must not only take a much iiKM'e customer-centric view,- they must also have the appropriate tools. To that end, we have developed a theoretical framework based on our proposed concept of a brand space. Two dimensions define the brand space: the degree of abstraction (whether the brand has become independent Irom its associated product) and tbe degree of enactment (whether the brand focuses more on the meaning of a product or its functionality). Companies that understand where their brands are in that space, and where they need them to be, will be more successRii brand managers in an environment of escalating competition and rapidly changing markets. Pierre Berthon is a professor of marketing at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. Morris B. Holbrook is the W. T. Dillard Professor of Marketing and James M. Hulbert is the R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing at the Columbia Business School in New York. They can be reached at pberthon@ bentley.edu. mbh3@columbia.edu and jmh10@columbia.edu. WINTER 2003 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 4 9 Companies have traditionally taken a minimalist view of brands as an effective means of identifying and differentiating their products and services.^ In contrast, we favor the broader view of a brand as a symbol around which a relationship and experiences can evolve.^ Such a symbol both mediates and embodies — rather than merely denoting — the buyer-seller relationship. As such, brands carry connotations and associations tliat are rich with meanings to customers, company managers and employees, and others. They have a life and meaning beyond — and, to some extent, independent of— that intended by their initiators. A high-level approach to conceptualizing brands can be developed on the basis of the three-worlds hypothesis of Karl R. Popper, which distinguishes between three different realms: physical objects, subjective experience and culture.' Using that work as a foundation, we propose the dimensions of abstraction and enactment, which we believe provide a broad and useful perspective on the novel developments taking place in branding today. We define abstraction as the process of moving from the physical, tangible or concrete to the realm of thoughts, ideas or feelings. The term enactment is drawn from the social psychology literature and refers to the process by which individuals create their environments.^ Here, we employ the term to denote the purposeful act of creating or making, rather than the passive process of sensing or receiving. An enacted brand, then, is one for which consumers themselves help construct the customer-braud relationship and experience. Abstraction Originally, brands tlmctioned at a very low level of abstraction. They were simply signifiers of specific products and manufacturers. Over time, however, many manufacturers have attempted to stretch or extend their brands, iiiitially through the introduction of variations (color, flavor or size, for example) within the same product category but later seeking to encompass new categories under the same brand umbrella (Honda's move from motorbikes to automobiles, for example). The arguments in support of that approach were originally driven by the rising costs of establishing new brands.'' But after many brand extensions failed and companies became aware of the approach's full risks and potential costs,** enthusiasm for them waned,'^ Among manufacturers, brands have tended to be product-oriented, partly because such corporations typically have organizational structures that are product-focused. Johnson & Johnson, for instance, has nearly 200 operathig companies for its numerous product brands: Band-Aid, Acuvue, Tylenol, Mylanta, Stayfree and so on. Nevertheless, some brands have clearly made the jump to become product themes. A few have even become virtually product-independent, tending rather to embody an idea, concept or image, and functioning at a high level of abstraction. Value, Specific Group of Product Concept or Product Products Theme Image Low Abstraction High Abstraction The Virgin brand provides an example of a progression along this spectrum. Originally tied to the production of rock music recordings, the brand soon encompassed record shops selling a wide range of popular music products. As the level of abstraction grew, the Virgin brand became entirely uncoupled from its original product-category origins. Indeed, the company recently sold its record business and branched out into Internet services, financial services, mobile-phone services and other businesses. However, although the Virgin brand has become independent from its product-category origins, it still articulates the abstracted characteristics of those origins -— namely, fun, hip and subversive. Virgin Atlantic, for example, has challenged the status quo of British Airways and olher trans-Atlantic carriers, and Virgin Coia has taken on the well- entrenched Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Other brands have progressed along this continuum of abstraction yet remain primarily product-related. For example. Land Rover has successfully broadened the line of products covered by its brand through its thematic accessories program. First launched in the United Kingdom and recently expanded inlo the United States, the program introduced a line of products including rugged outdoor clothes, shoes, car accessories and mountain bikes. In effect. Land Rover moved its brand along the abstract dimension from a specific product to a group of them — while keeping the brand anchored by its core product. U.S. brewing and tobacco industries have used a similar strategy, as witnessed by Miller's Plank Road Brewery (Miller-owned brewers) and R.J. Reynolds' Moonlight Tobacco Co. (innovative tobacco branding for the style conscious}.'" Enactment The second dimension, enactment, deals with functional performance: What a product can do versus what the brand means to consumers or buyers. At tbe low-enactment extreme, a brand can be very strongly linked to purely functional considerations. WD-40, the mechanical lubricant, is a case in point. At the high- enactment extreme, brands can be minimally tied to function but nonetheless carry tremendous meaning for the consumer. Designer brands, such as Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein, and retail brands, like Harrods or Neiman Marcus, fall into that category. Purely Generic Differentiated Enacted Functional- Product Product Product Product Low Enactment High Enactment 50 MIT 5L0AN MANAGEMENT REVIEW WINTER 2003 Our distinction between function and enactment is related to tbe work of several other researchers, and we agree with those who contend that brand concepts may in some cases oiler both functionality (in(/enactment," In such cases, we focus primarily on the relative importance between the two.'" Understanding the Brand Space Together tbe dimensions of abstraction and enactment lorm a two-dimensional matrix called a brand space. (See "Tbe Brand Space.") All brands may exhibit different shades o[ meaning in different contexts; however, some cautious generalizations can be made when discussing relatively homogeneous groups ot consumers. I'here are four archetypal positions in the space: The Reified-Functional Brand This low abstraction, function- focused position is the typical starting point for a hrand manager at a packaged-goods nianufacturer, and the rules of this game are generally helieved to be well understood. Nevertheless, many companies have made costly mistakes in managing such brands, and as a result a number of them have been busy repairing tbe subsequent damage.'"' Procter & Gamble, tor instance, has reportedly adopted the marketing mantra of "Make It Simple" in an effort to reduce confusion among its customers. A few years ago, a Business Week article on P&C asked the pointed questions, "Does the world really need 31 varieties of Head & Shoulders shampoo? Or 52 versions of Crest?"''* The advantage of a reified-functional position is that, because the brand is closely tied to a product, marketers have a relatively high degree of control. They can change a hrand by iiltering some of the cbaracteristics of tbe product, sucb as its quality, design, packaging and so on. Nonetbeless, tbere are disiidvantages. For example, one attribute of brands is that they have traditionally reduced a consumer's search costs, but today that function can he performed by Web-based recommendation systems sucb as Fpinions, Tbus, a highly fimctional brand is more susceptible to substitution by alternative products.'-'' The Reified-Enacted Brand This is the position that a fortunate few product manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson, laguar, Ferrari and Rolex have attained and that many others envy. The marketer still retains a relatively high degree of control, but because the brand is enacted, it can command a premium price, over and above its functional worth. The Ahstract-Functional Brand Increasing numbers of packaged- goods companies have tried to attain this position. They wish to move beyond reified brands and extend them to new categories of products. But, as mentioned earlier, many of those leveraging attempts have failed, leading companies to rethink their strategies. Subsequently, one approach that has gained favor is the use of an encompassing brand architecture that describes an explicit set of relationships within a fomily of products. For example, most consumers recogni/e the Walkman and Discman as the offspring of the parent brand Sony, The architecture helps minimize confusion among the suhbrands in a market. By understanding and capitalizing on such associations, companies can attain a significantly higher batting jverage on brand extensions than has traditionally been the case. The functional aspect of an abstract-functional brand provides companies with some degree of control over the brand, Fiowever, the logistics are more complex than in the reified case, Beciuise the brand is abstracted over a number of product categories, poor quality in one product class can easily taint the reputations of other offerings under the brand's umbrella. For example, the spillover effect of the problems with the Ford Explorer SUV is likely to have affected consumers' perception of Ford and its suhbrands. The Abstract-Enacted Brand This position might appear to offer companies the greatest llexibility, hut abstract-enacted brands have their own dniwhacks because consLimers feel greater "ownership," There is perhaps no better illustration of the hazards posed by sucb a position than the experience of Coca-Cola when it tried to launch "new Coke." "Don't mess with our Coke" became the imiversal battle cry ot outraged loyal consumers, who eventually forced the company lo back down in a clear demonstration of proprietorship. Despite SLich difficulties, the world's most valuahle brands will likely continue to occupy this quadrant of the brand space. That said, companies that manage these hrands — such as IBVl, Disney The Brand Space The brand space has four quadrants that are defined by two axes: The horizontal axis represents the degree to which a brand is associated with a product, and the vertical axis denotes vuhether the brand focuses on functionality or meaning. ENACTED (focus on what it means rather than wtiat it can do) REIFIED ABSTRACT (brand closely (brand almost identified product- with product) independent) FUNCTIONAL (tccus on what it can do rather than what it means) WINTER 2003 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REViFW 51 stakeholders in a wide community with certain lin- Archetypal Brand Positions guistic and cultural characteristics. Consequently, companies cannot so much manage a stable brand The current locations of a number of well-known brands are shown in the image as negotiate an evolving one. Moreover, the brand space, but these positions could — and probably w\\\ — change in negotiation must involve the relevant internal and the future. external stakeholders. Stakeholders' perceptions of a brand arise from information they receive about it THE REIFIEDTHE ABSTRACT-from the company, other customers and third parties ENACTED BRAND • Harley-Davidson • Ben and terry's (brand is strongly linked to the material product/ service and is used to generate meaning and identity) ENACTED (focus on what it means rather than what it can do) ENACTED BRAND • Tiffany • Virgin • Harrods (brand is independent of product, or even groups of products, and is used to generate meaning and identitv) (brand communications} and from direct interactions they have with it (brand embodiments) — in- chiding myriad interactions among the product, consumers, employees, suppliers, intermediaries and other ihird parties. Some of these factors are directly under an organization's control (internal), whereas others are not (external). REIFIED (brand closely ABSTRACT (brand almost Negotiating the meaning of a hrand has become identified with product) product- independent) more complex because contemporary marketers have a variety of constituents. Brands have hecome THE REIFIEDTHE ABSTRACT- more visible internationally, and their role has ex- FuNCTioNAL BRAND FUNCTIONAL BRAND panded far beyond the interface between company • WD40 • Crest and customer, encompassing other parties such as • Life Savers • Copperslip (brand is strongly linked to the material product/ FUNCTIONAL (focus on what it can do rather than what it means) independent of prod even groups of products the investment community, governments, suppliers and employees around the world. All these stakeholders have differing motives and interests that service and is primarily utilized for its functionality} vastly compiicale brand management. For every brand there is an existing pattern of associations that constitutes its heritage. Any company and Sony —- must continue to nurture them witb great delicacy, trying to evolve its brand must ensure that it retains some of that remaining always sensitive and responsive to consumer concerns. heritage or else risk losing its existing customer hase. The com- The same is true for brands aspiring to the abstract-enacted posi-pany has to find ways to interpret the brand's future in terms of tion. For example, Harley-Davidson bas a fairly extensive licens-its past or reinterpret its past in terms of its future. Consider the ing program, offering the manufacturers and sellers of noncom-brilliant marketing maneuver of Guinness. When the company peting products (clothing, accoutrements and even cafes) the wanted to hroadeii its appeal to reach younger international con- opportunity to utilize the Harley brand name. If successful, that sumers, it did so by evoking the brand's rich legacy. Specifically, maneuver would move Harley from the reified-enacted classifica-Guinness helped set up more than 2,000 drinking establishments tion into the abstract-enacted category. At the same time, it would around the world, all replicating the Irish pub experience. gready complicate the company's brand management because of Volvo's recent repositioning is another case in point. Tradi the wide range of offerings. tionally, the Volvo hrand was associated with safety, but during Each quadrant of the brand space is occupied by many of the 1990s tbe company placed a greater emphasis on sportiness today's well-known brands. (See "Archetypal Brand Positions.") and attractive appearance. It did so, however, by building on the As noted earlier, however, the positions of those brands could — brand's traditional heritage, designing cars that combined speed and probably will — change in the future. and elegance wilh safety. This raises an important point. As addi tional associations are created with a brand, the brand necessa- Managing the Dynamics of the Brand Space rily becomes more abstract. Brands take their embodied meanings from a dialogue among Trying to migrate a brand from reified-functional to higher customers and various other stakeholders. Because language and levels of abstraction may not be the easiest way for companies to meaning are continuously evolving, what a brand signifies can minimize the entry costs of future brand extensions and leveragchange over time. That has two important implications. First, the ing. British retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury's have employed meaning of a brand can never be static. Second, a brand is never a different strategy, investing considerably in developing their unilaterally created; it always arises from the interactions of corporate hrands, which have enabled them to more easily ex 52 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW WINTER 2003 pand the range of products they sell from food items to consumer electronics and fmancial services. Another reason for the growing potency of abstract brands is the 21st century consumer's shrinking handwidth. Today's consumers are incomparably rich in the numbers and types of products available to them, hut that abundance places limitations on the number of additional branding associations they can store and access in their long-term memories. y\bstract brands belp U) streamline the number ol brand associations that people must process. After a brand has been established, its managers may wish to move it across the brand space along one of the migration paths. (See ''Dynamics of the Brand Space.") CMioices among the alternatives depend greatly on managers' obiectives and strategies. Nonetheless, a few generalizations are in order. Eirst, any repositioning must be considered very carefully because of the risk ol alienating core users and the difflcnlty of altering positions in consumers' minds. The days when a new brand manager felt tree to change a marketing campaign or ad agency at whim are long gone. Second, movement along a single dimension is usually much easier to accomplish than diagonal moves, which are more complex and likely to confuse customers, not to mention salespeople and intermediaries. Third, reifying an abstract brand or functionalizing an enacted one is much easier than the reverse. Consider [ell-0, which appears to be descending in the brand space, hi the past, Jell-O could have been considered a reifledenacted hrand, but today it may be moving toward becoming a reified-fmictional brand, as Kraft Foods repositions it away from the concept of "family fun" and toward the more heaithconscious message of "no fat, no cholesterol." |ell-O's example shows how a brand's link with a physical product can remain strong while the consumer's level of enactment changes. Often societal changes cause brands to move in the brand space. Eor the househonnd female of the ]95Us who had few career prospects, keeping house carried a very different connotation than it does for either adult member of a busy two-earner household in the 21st century. Thus, the brands of many household products that previously played an important role in consumers' lives, whether they were detergents, shoe polishes or instant coifee, are becoming solely functional brands, rather than retaining the enacted aspects that their promoters might prefer. Examples here include such brands as Kiwi Shoe Polish, Clorox and Tide. Demographic changes are another factor. Such familiar brands as Old Spice, Cadillac, Guinness and Club Med have all faced the aging demographics of their customers with mixed results. Perhaps one of the most dramatic changes is exemplified by the Web site oldspice.com, which Procter & Ciamble established after it acquired the brand. In a clear attempt to reach a much yoLuiger audience, the Weh site invites visitors to "spice it up" with Red Zone. Similarly, such traditional beaciins of retail Dynamics of the Brand Space Brands can migrate across the brand space over various pathv\/ ays. Vertical or horizontal movement is typically easier to accomplish than diagonal moves. Also, the paths are asymmetric: Migration downward (or to the right) is generally less difficult than movement upward (or to the left). ENACTED (focus on what it means rather than what Jt can do) REIFIED ABSTRACT (brand closely (brand almost identified product- with product) independent] FUNCTIONAL (focus on what it can do rather than what it means) snccess as Marks & Spencer, Sears, Dillard's and Kmart have faced comparable challenges as the expectations, aspirations and affluence of their core markets have changed. 'I he introduction of Sears Brand Central was in response to the growing affluence and sophistication of the company's customers in Middle America, who were increasingly seeking designer labels such as Pierre C^ardin, Seiko, Cnisinart and V'idal Sassoon instead of tbe safe and familiar Sears brand. Technology has also had an impact. Specifically, the Internet, search engines and intelligent software agents have given consumers alternative ways to access the kind of information traditionally provided by brands.'*" A prospective buyer of a name- brand product can now tise the Web lo llnd a comparable item that is cheaper. 'I'hat ability of sophisticated customers to trade down in this way is far greater lor hrands located in the lower left quadrant of the brand space. But when brands become enacted and abstract, they are much more likely to weather the effects of the VVeb-hased information explosion that enahles consumers to access multiple sources of data about products.''' But enacted and abstract brands face a different problem. As brand meanings and associations increasingly become the products of an ongoing multilogue amt)ng consumers, employees, the media, suppHers, competitors and other parties, they are moving beyond the sole control oi the marketers. The more enacted and ahstract the brand, the more pronounced the phenomenon. Thus, the ability of marketers to control the meaning of brands that have successfully become enacted and abstract is limited — WINTER 200.3 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMFNT REVIEW 5 3 a paradox with a pleasing if somewiiat perverse symmetry in that the reward lor success is the diminished control over the "property" that has been created. Perhaps that is why many managers now approach brand repositioning with great trepidation. Brands in the 21st Century Certainly, to derive commercial benefit from attempts at mass customization, a company must integrate a sophisticated understanding of its customers witb its operations and overall way of doing business. As that goal of achieving consumer insight and i iitimacy has eluded traditional approaches, companies have begun to focus on the wider realm of consumption experiences'^ and have turned increasingly to ethnographic and other qualitative research to get a better sense of tbe complete lives of tbeir consumers. Traditional market research may become even less useful as customer-brand relationships and consumer-constructed brand meanings become more inscrutable. Companies that want to make their brands more enacted will face a difficult dilemtna: Although an organization is much more likely to attain competitive advantages from highly enacted brands, such brands also require much greater eftbrt and resources — for one thing, a deeper understanding on the part of marketers — than do functional brands. The concept of brand spaces can help companies understand and manage their brands more effectively in a number of ways, providing a framework, for instance, within which to consider tbe potential impact of brand extensions. Specifically, as brands move to tbe upper rigbt quadrant of tbe brand space, they can encompass an inclusive set of products and services, but that transition means that multiple stakeholders will then link additional meanings and associations to tbe brand. Managers must therefore attain a sophisticated understanding of their brands in order to extend them successfully witbout damaging them in the process. Similarly, when companies are faced witb adverse events, whether initiated by competitors or by other external factors, they could consider repositioning tbeir brands in the space. Sometimes, for instance, a company facing a crisis might be wise to emphasize the heritage of its brand, even if that means moving from an abstract to a reified position in the brand space. Ford and Firestone might have mitigated some of tbe damage suffered by their brands during the crises invoiving tires on tbe Explorer had they implemented such a defensive maneuver. WTiether Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia will adopt tbat strategy to distance itself from its beleaguered founder remains to be seen, but tbe company has reportedly been developing a new magazine called Everyday Food — its first pubhcation without her name in the title. Indeed, marketing in tbe 21st century will take place in a world where so many of the rules have changed that traditional approacbes may prove limited at best and, quite possibly, downright misleading. In such an environment, brand management will become an increasingly complex and difficult undertaking. REFERENCES 1. V. Swaminathan, R.J. Fox and S.K. 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