Branding

While living in the country where you were born, sometimes the brands you choose and the reasons you choose them become subconscious. You pick what you've always seen at home, or what your friends have, or what commercials you've seen. When you stroll into a grocery store for some snacks you pretty much recognize all the brands you see on the shelf - because you've been there many times before.

What happens when you move to a new country, with new brands, and new powerplayers for the products you buy everyday.

Example # 1 - Shampoo

Before I left I stocked up on shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. My favourite kind - Herbal Essences. The stuff that leaves my hair silky smooth all the time. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't left in the dust once I arrived to my new home in Tuscany. Although they do have the brand here, (comon its P & G) its not everywhere you can buy shampoo. When you think about the reasons why we stick to one brand, or the reason why I felt I needed to bring three months worth to Italy, it makes those marketing classes seem a lot more valuable. When I had one suitcase to bring, I chose to fill it with products I knew and trusted, rather than pack something else and buy what was *available* in my new country.

Example #2 - Cookies

I had the great opportunity to go to Roma with Jared and his parents in November. We stopped on the Autostrada for some gas, snacks, and a caffè. While we stared at the wall of cookies and wafers the a couple of main brands stand out.

Kinder is everywhere here, with so many products that I haven't seen before. However, my past experiences with Kinder have always been Suprises, and they tend to be fun, but somewhat unhealthy options. The other main brand here is Mulino Bianco, a company that has been around here since 1971. Its products are simply branded and represent healthy breakfast, caffè, and anytime snacks. This brand is present in many houses here in Italy and I chose the Cuor di Mela for the trip.

Eample #3 - Facial Wash

Italians consumer more olive oil in a week than I think I did in a year at home. I am also working in a commercial kitchen on occasion that cooks with a lot of splashy oil. Long story short, I didn't have my Clean & Clear with me (The one thing I should have brought). So, one day in Firenze, we stopped into a specialty store (I think every store in Italy, maybe Europe is specialty. Cheese, meat, pharmacies, they are all separate stores and most locally owned.) to buy some facial wash. I searched the entire store for my tried and true product - to no avail. I was shown various other European products that I'm sure would have done the job. But guess which product I went home with. An eight or nine Euro squeeze bottle of Garnier. And I love it. Even though every bottle in that store was written in only Italian, I relied on past experiences, brand identity, and a colourful container to make my choice. Exactly as the textbooks said I would.


These examples made me ponder about the stimulii that entice people to buy one brand over another. Numerous business articles have been written about this subject, and my specialization happens to be in finance, not marketing. However, I think as I stay longer here I'm beginning to realize what topics interest me more than others. Below is an excerpt of a Harvard Business Review Article on Brand Identity.

*In the June 2009 issue of McKinsey Quarterly, my colleague David Court and three coauthors introduced a more nuanced view of how consumers engage with brands: the “consumer decision journey” (CDJ). They developed their model from a study of the purchase decisions of nearly 20,000 consumers across five industries—automobiles, skin care, insurance, consumer electronics, and mobile telecom—and three continents. Their research revealed that far from systematically narrowing their choices, today’s consumers take a much more iterative and less reductive journey of four stages: consider, evaluate, buy, and enjoy, advocate, bond.*

When we get into our daily habits at home this process is often quick, subconscious, and without too much thought - especially for low cost items that are not complicated. But throw yourself into a new culture of brands and traditions and you regret shaking your head saying *but this is all common sense!* It might be common sense, but it still takes strategic thinking for the company to put all the marketing steps together in syncrony.