The word „crisis“ would be too strong, but brand marketing is close to it.

Over a long period of time, basically over the last three decades of the past century, often a whole lot of money was spent on marketing without having or wanting any control over how efficiently these funds were applied. Over night, previously unknown words had been stylized into brands, everything and everyone focused on luxury, consumption seemed to grow more and more opulently, the sales figures rose and rose.

Then, in the beginning of the 90’s the consumer’s insecurity grew slowly, whether or not material consumption really is the main meaning of life. Those in charge did not want to see these changes and so came the inevitable: Sales and earnings of consumer goods manufacturers remained static and started to crumble.

Thinking that price was the all determining instrument, an all out price war started in retail and the empty public purse added another step to the general uncertainty. The comprehension of marketing, having come of age during those years of continuous economic growth, had no answers.

Neither the Italians, nor the French or the British, nor the Spanish or the Germans could imagine that there could be marketing not purely focused on price, even in times when business wasn’t doing quite as well. Of course this marketing is fundamentally different from that of the so-called ‘fat years’.

I think the time is ripe for taking the big step; not simply continuing. We can’t just wait until consumption revs up and a new economic high is heralded. If we look back and ahead we will realize that there can’t be a departure into the same old pattern.

A marketing magazine recently made the suggestion to simplify marketing. And one of the seven drawn up rules stated to have “distribution” take over marketing. Aside from the currently raging price wars, ruined margins, the problem with placement costs and many other catastrophic measures to boost sales are the result of marketing measures, which sales staff in marketing functions brought under way. It cannot be considered target-oriented action to put a new piano player on the piano to play better music, if the piano is submerged in water up to the keyboard.

We are at the turn of an era and what we need is a new brand marketing thinking.

I would like to name five important articles which are essential for a new marketing thinking:

• We have to newly define the term brand. Only because a word is a registered trademark does not make it a brand. And the old definition, whereas a product is a brand product if it is marked, packaged, available everywhere and at the same price, does not have anything to do with the profile of a brand and what we think of a brand today.
  
  For me, it is a brand if it rests upon the 7-elements: origin, history, profile, positioning, image, awareness and protection.
  
  We are dealing with a brand product, if brand and product are one. This excludes offering products under different brands. He who offers a brand product under the own name and that of a private label, forfeits the right to exist for this brand product. Aside from that, he destroys his brand.
  
  Brands have to be lead and not managed. Brand leadership is ahead of brand management. It is becoming far too expensive to question the brand strategy of marketing with each change of staff. And a change of advertising agency should not be tantamount with a change of concept. It is true that consumers have turned away from brands in many branches, or have revoked the confidential relationship. Not because consumers wanted to revoke this confidential relationship, but because they had been disappointed by brands.
  
  More than ever, it is essential to create trust through qualified brand leadership and continuity in the communications process.

• Economizing should not occur in the wrong place. Saving is honorable, but in principle it is a matter of course. Anyone under the impression he could save, should first clarify where the red ink should be applied without causing long-term detriments. For instance, he who is saving on communication in order to have money for rebates, thinking this is where it would be noticed the least, will not even be able to pay for his own funeral in the end.

• In order to be better equipped to finance new brand marketing, a paradigm shift is required. So far, marketing budgets mostly complied with sales and earnings results. If business was going well, the budgets were stocked up abundantly, if business results left something to be desired, cuts were made. One time the brand was praised, the next time it was degraded as a simple means to an end.
  
  A new brand marketing needs to orient itself on the brand value and it needs to bear interest on this value. Only than will there be enough money in the future to finance brand marketing. Brands should no longer be seen as “secret reserve”, especially since they are the most important asset of a business centered around brands.
  
• We have to ask the question about the future quality of growth. To simply sell more in order to make more profit, this formula is no longer timely. Generally, consolidation of the business has to come before the question of new growth. Shifting from the quantitative to the qualitative, refining, concentration on the original, taking back everything under suspicion of being a ‘me-too’ product, collection and verification of all the knowledge within a company, a strict evaluation of the value of resources and a clear new objective, all this is necessary before you can pose the question about growth.

Summary:

After decades of storming more and more new peaks of consumption, the consumer has brought about a break with the past, against the powers of the economy. The consumer has instituted the change of values. The consumer society has turned into a knowledge society, where there are no conventional target groups, where the individual sets the tone. We are at the turn of an era and brand marketing has to adjust to it. In order to get brand marketing on the right track, amongst many measures those five measures listed are of special importance to me: Introduce a new brand definition; substitute brand management with brand leadership; give the right quality to economization; discover the brand value; and approach the question of what kind of growth and how much of it, with a keen sense of responsibility.