Strategic branding

Employer branding: your secret weapon to attract talent and improve diversity & inclusion at work

Freddie March 6, 2023 Blog, Gender Equality, Strategic branding employer branding, inclusion, KNOWTHYBRAND

In an age where employees are reconsidering their relationship with work, companies may find themselves struggling to attract and retain the best talent. This is particularly true in Luxembourg were this shortage of talent is a recognised challenge amongst most businesses.

Today, when choosing an employer, traditional benefits like job stability and high salaries are no longer the only aspects taken into consideration by job seekers. Instead, a company’s culture, the flexibility offered, work-life balance, career and personal growth opportunities are taking an ever more important role in the decision to join or stay in an organisation for employees, regardless of age and experience.

In addition to this, (un)intentional roadblocks for underrepresented talent (women and minorities), significantly reduce the pool that companies have access to.

For instance, according to McKinsey the shortage of tech talent in Europe, a big component of the European tech weakness that translates into lack of competitiveness, could be solved if companies could tap into female tech talent. Unfortunately, that’s easier to said than done.

This is just one example where employer branding can make the real difference between companies.

What is employer branding?

In a very nutshell, employer branding is the reputation that your company has as an employer.

Employer branding relates to the perceptions that current and potential employees have of working for your company and, naturally, it influences the choices that job seekers and employees make.

However, a dangerous misconception about employer branding is that this should simply be about the process of “influencing and managing perceptions about your organisation”. A quick search on Google will show just how many articles are written offering this approach.

While the ultimate goal of an effective employer branding is to make a company more attractive to talent, businesses that limit their efforts to working on external impressions miss an important opportunity to significantly improve their internal culture, with all the proven benefits that come with having a positive company culture.

How do you develop a strong employer brand?

1. Define your value proposition

The very first thing that a company that is serious about employer branding
should do is to take a sober look at itself.

Those famous mission statements, the values of the companies that are so fervently advertised, do they really resonate with the employees? Do employees know, understand and, most importantly, believe in what the company stands for?

Whether the company’s positioning, its values, mission, vision etc are already formalised or not yet, it’s critical to work on your value proposition before launching into any employer branding exercise

Importantly, reviewing or defining a brand positioning and value proposition is not something that can be done by a department in isolation. All levels of the organization need to be involved, from the C-suite to the most junior employees.

2. Define your target audience

Two areas in particular should be explored:

->What workforce the company needs to succeed: Who are they and what matters to them (i.e. what they are looking for when they apply for a job with the company, what the company offers in return for their talent)

-> Gauge employees feeling towards the company’s brand:

Feelings about their journey with the company
Do they feel like an active part of the company results?
Do they understand what is their role in making the company successful?
Is the company recognizing their efforts in a way that resonates with them?

3. Develop your EVP (Employee Value Proposition)

Once your external and internal value proposition is defined and your audience defined, you will be in a good place to create an EVP. This is a formal document that clearly articulates expectations and rewards, complementing and enhancing the company’s values in order to help aligning the company’s and the employees’
goals and expectations.

However, creating documents like the EVP and believing that the job is done is not enough. The EVP is only as good as its implementation. Only by fully embracing the EVP will you, your managers, your employees, and ultimately your company succeed. The EVP and its key elements must impact on the whole employee journey, from recruiting advertising, to induction, training, quarterly and yearly review through to the alumni phase.

4. Communicate your brand

Based on the EVP you can then create a strong employer brand message: Develop a clear and concise message that communicates your value proposition and resonates with your target audience. Your message should be consistent across all communication channels and reflect your company’s culture and values.

Additionally, leverage social media and digital channels to showcase your company culture and share employee stories. This can include blogs, videos, podcasts, and social media posts.

Finally, encourage your employees to participate in your employer branding efforts. This can include employee advocacy programs, social media campaigns, and employee referral programs.

5. Measure your results

Track your progress and measure the success of your employer branding efforts. This can include metrics such as employee retention rates, employee engagement, and candidate conversion rates.

Also ensure to create two-way communication channels with your employees to ensure that the company’s value proposition and culture are working as expected and that yours is in affect an inclusive company where everyone can grow and thrive.

Creating a strong employer brand takes time and effort, but it can pay off in attracting and retaining top talent and building a strong company culture.

At KnowThyBrand we have over 10 years of experience working with organisations to help them develop an effective and strong employer brand. Contact us at hi@knowthybrand.com to find out how we can help your business.

Unilever drops the ‘normal’ from its products and that is for a greater good

Supergiu89433 January 6, 2022 Blog, Gender Equality, Strategic branding BRAND VISION STATEMENT, BRANDING, BRANDS WITH PURPOSE, KNOWTHYBRAND, PURPOSE

Learning from the successful repositioning of its sub-brand Dove, Unilever is changing its approach to beauty. A bold move, and a very much welcome one.

Unilever drops the normal from its beauty products
Looking at the commercial perspective, the greater majority of woman that we see in the adverts have been modified or ‘photoshopped’ to fulfil the fake idea of ‘’beauty’’.

However this year brought some positive news: Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods manufacturers and the owner of well-known brands such as Simple, Sunsilk and Dove committed to removing the word ‘’normal’’ from the whole range of its beauty and personal care brands’ packaging and advertising.

The move comes after a new research conducted by Unilever among Millennials revealed that 74% of people want the beauty and personal care industry to reflect a boarder definition of beauty.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic shaped new consumer and market trends: according to Global Beauty & Personal Care Trends 2021, beauty routines are now also used to combat stress and anxiety by bringing normality during uncertain times. Considering this factor, the appearance of “normal” is likely to become a contradiction of the impending era of self-acceptance. A result? A shake in the future strategic planning for many brands.

The report also highlighted that a brand value proposition is becoming measured by quality, meaning the impact of the purchase is seeing as a decisive factor. Consumers are directing their loyalty towards brands which can reflect on their individual lifestyle needs.

While this is a welcome movement,the question that comes to mind is ‘Why so late Unilever?’

In 2004, Dove launched a revolutionary campaign: The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The company decided to tackle the unrealistic interpretation of beauty after findings of major global study, The Real Truth About Beauty, revealed that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. As a result, their primary message of Dove campaign was to celebrate woman’s uniqueness by creating ads that feature real woman and change their perception of beauty.

The well-developed campaign led to serious conversations on an international level about beauty, stimulating one of the most powerful marketing forms: world of mouth. It led to enormous media exposure, resulting in 700% uplift in sales but most importantly, it created a very clear place for Dove in consumers’ hearts.

Previously seen as unchanging and boring, Dove successfully repositioned itself from beauty brand to a personal care brand. Further, it formed a perfect platform on which they launched a number of new products such as hair care and shower gels.

Over the years, Unilever shifted its strategy from a silent parent-brand to an endorsed parent-brand, implying a stronger association of their own image with its sub-brands. This allowed them to build endorsement credibility for its individual brands and supported the process of their differentiation. So-called ‘’adding vitality to life’’ strategy began through a simple process of adding Unilever new logo design to every product followed by the restructure of their recruitment processes and employee trainings.

In other words, Unilever has logically planted a “vitality” seed in their operations which is slowly starting to flourish under the evolving era of unrealistic beauty standards.

To determinate the strength of a parent-brand it is worth to consider its brand equity through the impact on customer’s interaction and loyalty with its sub-brands. Dove was the one that efficiently detected and exploited potential market niches which gave their purpose a real meaning. They achieve this by building their consumers’ trust and a sense of a community that aims to fight for every individual self-acceptance. They continue to add value not just to the lives of its customers but to the whole society following their cutting-edge campaigns such as “Evolution” and “Real beauty sketches”.

Therefore, should their ability to learn be seen as a critical resource that enhances the effectiveness of the whole group performance?

Undeniably!

Unilever has also been undertaking an advancing growth strategy by acquiring more brands, particularly in the premium beauty sector. With the expansion of their business comes the incredible market opportunities, allowing companies to share and obtain their knowledge. But more importantly, with expansion comes the power of predominance. And just like some plants that produce structure to outcompete other species for dominance in order to adapt to life on land, Unilever have the potential to change lives of many people.

Understanding and pursuing our own purpose has never been so crucial as nowadays and this also strongly relates to brands. Since their future strategic approaches concerning the era of “normal” beauty are bound to grant us either empathy or relentless fantasy.

At the end of the day, we all should ask ourselves one question:

What does real beauty mean to me?

WRITTEN BY DOROTA RUBAZEWICZ

Dorota is a Council Development Associate at GLG and a member of KnowThyBrand advisory board where she brings her dedication and support as well as her contributions to the company’s efforts for gender equality.

Profit with purpose

Supergiu89433 September 9, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRAND VISION STATEMENT, BRANDING, BRANDS WITH PURPOSE, KNOWTHYBRAND, POSITIONING, PURPOSE, PURPOSE-LED BRANDS

In this video, I explain the importance of purpose, how purpose supports the bottom line, how to find your purpose and the importance of having a positive impact.
Simon Sinek famously said: it all starts with WHY. I encourage you, as a company, a CEO, a decision-maker, even as an individual, to look for your purpose, the WHY you do what you do.
Study after study has shown that brands with a clear purpose are more successful, they are able to attract and retain talent as well as clients. Society expects companies to have a purpose beyond making money and today companies have an opportunity to use their purpose to have a positive impact on the society and communities they operate in.

Brand mood board: what it is, why you need it, how to build it.

giulia July 25, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRAND VISION STATEMENT, BRANDING, BRANDS WITH PURPOSE, KNOWTHYBRAND

Often used by brand designers, a mood board is a tool to define and communicate the essence of a brand. In a nutshell, a mood board comprises of a collage of images, text, font types, colours that represents the key elements of a brand.

However, in recent times, more and more often brand mood boards are also used by brand strategists to go beyond the brand’s visual identity and identify the essence of a brand and what the brands stands for.

Why do I need one?

Brand mood boards have various applications:

Visual identity: your logo, colours, imagery, texture, typography, and creative designs. Going through the exercise of researching and selecting what truly represents your brand will help you with the design of your logo, the selection of the right font type for your communication, and the creation of a visual story for your brand. Importantly, it will also help guide graphic designers when working for your brand to understand it and deliver designs that are fully on-brand.

Strategic Identity: brand mood boards are also essential in helping you define what your brand stands for: visually displaying the values and purpose of your brand, beyond the carefully crafted words of your brand positioning, can elevate the message your brand carries. And at times, it can bring interesting surprises!

Case study: I was recently working with a team of managers and I asked them to write down what their brand stands for. Only technical words and professional sentences were provided by all participants; if we had stopped at that we would have ended up with an almost soulless brand. But when I then asked them to visually represent that same brand, all of a sudden the true purpose of the brand came to life, well beyond the technical benefits that the company offers. Why? Because humans are visually-oriented: we understand and process images faster and better than words.

Brand alignment: Your brand is only as good as they way it is delivered. It’s easy enough to state what your brand stands for, but how do you ensure that when your audience interacts with your brand, they truly experience what you promised? Getting together your teams and asking them to create mood boards that represent what they perceive your brand to be will help bring to the surface and address misalignments to ensure that your brand will be truly delivered at any touch point.

How to I build one?

The are several steps that you should follow before starting to work on your brand mood board, from understanding your audience, to market analysis, to brand positioning. Once you have done that, you can choose between several approaches. You could go old-fashioned with a physical board made with images and text from magazines, or go digital using programs like Canva and Pinterest. You can also choose to use existing images or to take pictures yourself.

Personally, my preferred approach is the old fashion physical board but with a slight twist: I provide only a certain number of magazines for the clients to use. In my experience this encourages creative thinking and really helps participants to think about the meaning of the brand.

Importantly, unless you are a sole entrepreneur, I would strongly encourage you to work on your brand mood board with your team, as this can spark conversations about your brand and can really help distill your brand essence.

To help you set up a mood brand session (and keep my kids entertained while I try to work from home!) I created the following step by step guide. Enjoy!

How to build a brand mood board.

giulia July 24, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRAND VISION STATEMENT, BRANDING, BRANDS WITH PURPOSE, KNOWTHYBRAND

Brand mood boards are incredibly powerful tools to distil the unique essence of your brand, and working on them with your team is essential to ensure brand alignment.

For this step-by-step guide we will use a fictional brand: summer. What is summer? We asked 3 children to help us distil the essence of what summer truly is… for them!

Don’t let the current emergency stop you: invest in your brand and secure the future of your business

giulia April 6, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRAND, BUSINESS STRATEGY, COVID

In these extraordinary times, businesses across the globe are struggling to keep afloat. In the best case scenario, they have to learn how to operate with the vast majority of their employees working remotely, and in the worst case scenario they are forced to close operations all together.

While the future can look grim and frightening, there are steps that companies can take today to improve their chances of success tomorrow. Investing in developing and reinforcing their brand and positioning is one of them.

I have recently been asked what entrepreneurs could do to bootstrap their brand, and my response is two-fold:

A) Put your skills to use for good causes. If you can’t, or are limited in using your skills to make a profit, is there anything that you could do to use them to help your community?

These are tough times for everyone, and brands can make a real difference.

Famous brands have converted their production to make facial masks, hand sanitisers, and ventilators, and while small brands might not have the resources for such an investment, there are still things that smaller businesses can do.

For instance, if you are a restaurant and are still delivering, could you deliver free meals for the healthcare people who are working so hard to save lives? If you are a vet, could you devise a way to keep pets healthy when they are not allowed out? And, if you are an architect firm, could you devise a way for households with healthcare members to go back home after their shift safely without the risk of infecting their relatives?

None of the above ideas will generate large amounts of money (if any at all), but remember, people do take notice of how brands behave in these difficult times and will remember who took advantage and who instead lent a hand.

B) Take this time as an opportunity to work on your positioning.

In these extraordinary times, it would be normal to think that businesses should stop investing in growth and focus on limiting damage; however that might not be the most effective solution.

As previous financial crisis have shown, companies that keep investing in their business are not only more likely to get a head start once the situation improves, but they can actually beat recession.

The key element for any business success is the right positioning, but too often companies focus on features and assets and forget that their real differentiator relies on their brand. Why? Because branding gives your audience a clear sense of purpose and direction– a credible voice that people want to listen to.

Ultimately, it’s the brand that inspires trust and, especially in these uncertain times, businesses need to make sure that they build trust with their target audience.

Think of it this way: your brand is a superpower.

How to build it can be tricky and it does require time. However, as we are in a period of ‘slow work’ this is also the perfect opportunity to invest time in some strategic thinking about your brand.

These are a few key steps that you can undertake in this time of ‘slow work’:
1. Understand your audience, for real -> create a compelling brand that connects with your audience on an emotional level (emotions are stronger than logic) and remember that your audience is not just your ideal customer, but also your own employees, your suppliers, etc.

Key tactics: Online focus groups, surveys, interviews, feedback.

While you can’t organise face-to-face meetings at this stage, it will actually give people things to do if they need to take part in an online meeting, a survey or similar. Be smart about what rewards you offer, something that can make this time less stressful could be really appreciated.

2. Market analysis -> Deep dive into primary and secondary market research. Study what your competitors do, analyse gaps in the market, look for new and uncovered opportunities. Do some soul searching, too. What are your weaknesses? What are your unique strengths? Also consider the threat of substitution and power of influence that your target audience have.

Key Tactics: SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, PORTER 5 FORCES

3. Define your Brand Positioning -> create a clear roadmap. It needs to include:

Value proposition (WHO you are – as a company)

Purpose (WHY your company exists – think of the difference with your competitors, you probably offer a similar product/service, but your purpose can be vastly different.)

Vision (WHAT you want to achieve – should be inspirational and aspirational)

Mission (HOW you get there)

Values (that influence every action, they must be lived and breathed through every part of the business, from you, your employees and any other key stakeholders.)

Essence (what makes you unique)

Personality (to influence your visual identity and tone of voice)

-> At the end of this exercise, your staff as well as customers should be able to clearly summarise what your company stands for <- Key tactics: brand mood boards, interactive live surveys, world cloud creations etc. 4. Embedding -> Ensuring that your brand lives in every aspects of your business

Take an honest and deep look at how your brand is brought to life through:

Look and feel -> visual identity

Tone of voice -> any aspects of your communication strategy

Employer brand -> hiring, managing, rewarding staff based on what your brand stands for

Customer experience -> Delivering your brand promise, at every touch point

Technology -> User experience first

Key tactics -> engage all levels of your organisation. Ask them to invest their newfound time to share their ideas, suggestions and criticism too. Consider creating an anonymous suggestion box.

5. Leverage your brand -> A strong brand creates focus. It’s like a North Star that helps leaders cajole their teams towards a common and shared goal. Particularly in these times, focusing your people around a common purpose can be extremely effective to ensure that they stay positive and continue to work at the best of their abilities despite the challenges imposed by the Coronavirus. The benefit won’t only be for your brand but for your people too.

Key tactics: organise online townhalls, ask your people to create and share videos and posts of what your brand means to them (they can be fun!), and reach out to them in a personal and genuine way (digitally though).

Ultimately, these are challenging times. Yet, businesses can come out of this stronger and better than before by taking positive advantage of ‘slow work’ and investing in creative thinking.

KnowThyBrand has always believed in the importance of giving back to the community, from offering free services to young entrepreneurs to signing up for good causes. Today, more than ever, we want to make our expertise available for use by other businesses. This is why, from next week onwards, we are going to share free masterclasses on all the five points above.

You can sign up for our newsletter to receive them in your inbox, but you don’t have to. The purpose of these classes is truly to help you, which is why they will be posted on social media for everybody to see.

Keep well and don’t lose hope, if you stay focused this period might turn up to only be a speed bump on your journey to entrepreneurial success.

Brand disaster stories, can having a purpose actually harm your brand?

giulia February 24, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRAND VISION STATEMENT, BRANDING, BRANDS WITH PURPOSE, KNOWTHYBRAND

A few weeks ago I attended a business development meeting and, to my pleasant surprise, a significant portion of the session was dedicated to the critical importance for businesses to focus on their brand positioning before trying to sell their product/ service to anyone. Obviously, as a brand strategist and strong advocate of the pivotal role of branding as key to business success, I could not have agreed more.

And that’s when one of the participants bluntly shared his view on branding: ‘I work with an insurance company that is all about their purpose, mission etc, but obviously that’s just bull**it, because they are an insurance company, what is this nonsense about having a purpose? That’s not what sells policies!’

Having started my journey in branding within an insurance company and having experienced first-hand how actually having a strong purpose and sticking to the company’s value does sell policies, I simply couldn’t let this comment pass. So, at the break, I approached the participant to talk about his view. That’s when I realised that he was 100% right. All the money that this insurance company is investing in its brand purpose, values etc, is nonsense! But not for the reason you might think.

It is not because insurance, or any type of business for the matter, shouldn’t have a strong brand; it’s because branding is not just about saying that you have a purpose, it’s about actually living and breathing your brand and ensuring a 360 brand experience. Specifically, that insurance company says that they do have a brand purpose but their products, client service, and the every-day interaction with customers do not support their supposed purpose.

You can shout your mission as a company as loud as you wish, but if your employees, your customers, and the community at large don’t experience it, you are seriously wasting your money. Not only that, but promising something that you don’t deliver, is worse than not promising it in the first place.

Here are a few brands that had to learn that the hard way:

The Chipotle debacle

The American fast food chain Chipotle has always been committed to making food with integrity, serving fresh food that is sourced locally. But that becomes a problem when hundreds of your customers from all over the US get infected with the same bacteria and you can’t even determine what part of the recipe was the cause. That’s exactly what happened in 2016 to Chipotle, when, despite their brand promise, they ended up outsourcing to a supply chain and contaminating over 500 people with E.coli. The result? Uproar on social media that brought to a fall of 40% of their stock. Not only was there contamination, but the company suffered reputational damage as they failed to live up to their promise (not to mention the 100 out-of-court settlements with the victims of the contamination).

HSBC, not so local after all

Do you remember HSBC’s old brand promise? ‘The world’s local bank’. This motto was launched in 2002 but in 2011 the Bank had to recall it. The reason? Officially it was because the Bank had to cut operations in several countries following the 2008 financial crisis, so they couldn’t claim to be everywhere in the world. But that is not all. By choosing the term ‘local’ HSBC positioned itself as that trusted bank that knows and values local customers, in the same way smaller local banks do, in addition to offering the weight of an international brand. However, when you think that HSBC has had a below average customer score since 2013, it’s easy to see that the bank is missing that local touch that would have brought the brand promise to life.

Volkswagen and the ‘diesel dupe’

After hugely promoting their ‘low emission cars’ in the states, the German car manufacture was found guilty of intentionally cheating the system to make it look like their cars were less polluting than they were actually were. The result for the brand was seismic, with significantly damages in market share, sales and brand reputation. As a result, VW had to move away from their ‘Das Auto’ branding because, as Reuters explains “[it] was pretentious—it suggested that Volkswagen alone defined the modern car”. This is a very important lesson that brands need to learn: In an age in which more and more brands correctly look for meaning beyond purely financial gain, it is critical to be true and to ensure that your commitment is genuine, relevant, and that all segments of your company are determined to bring it to life.

Giulia Iannucci is a brand strategist and digital marketing consultant with over 16 years of experience gained across the EU, Australia, Asia and the UK. Founder of her own business, KnowThyBrand, Giulia helps her clients position their brand as the cornerstone of their company, and guide them in creating professional and compelling digital marketing campaigns.

Brand with purpose

giulia February 1, 2020 Blog, Strategic branding BRANDING, BUSINESS STRATEGY, PURPOSE

According to Harvard Business Review ‘When employees experience a sense of purpose at their company and they believe their leaders set a clear direction and expectations (purpose + clarity), companies outperformed the stock market, achieving returns 6.9% higher than the market.’

The question is, how does a brand find its purpose? And not just that, but how do companies ensure that they live up to their purpose? Surprisingly, while the benefits of being in business with a clear purpose are becoming more and more recognised, companies are still slow in taking up the challenge.

But actually, finding your true purpose and living up to it is not as challenging as it may seem. The following infographic shows the basic key steps to conquering the ‘brand with purpose’ challenge, the challenge that can put you at the front of the race against your competitors, and most importantly, the challenge that your target audience is waiting for you to take!

The elusive meaning of Brand and Branding

giulia November 14, 2019 Blog, Strategic branding BRANDING, BUSINESS STRATEGY

Every month in the UK alone, ‘Brand’ as a term has an average of over 20k searches. The three most popular results are:

Brand – Wikipedia
Defining Brand: Why Is It So Hard To Find A Perfect Definition?
BRAND | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

(Source: Moz)

Another interesting statistic is that the term ‘Branding’ – which has been around since for the past 2 centuries, when it was used predominantly to mark the property of animals by burning or “branding” a mark into your cattle to make sure that they couldn’t be rustled– has seen a steep increase over the past 20 years.

(source: google)

This seem to indicate that as individuals, as well as businesses, we are interested in branding, but we are not quite sure of what a brand truly is, let alone what branding means.

While it might seem surprising, in actual fact this is not a new finding. Even amongst brand experts there are discrepancies in what these terms mean, as we assessed a few years ago when writing the piece: Brand is everything… or is it?

The reason is that brand and branding are quite elusive concepts: are we talking about a logo, a promise, a perception…? And the list could go on.

And yet, this elusive concept of brand carries a real financial value, if you think that Apple – the world most powerful brand, according to Forbes – has a brand value of $205.5 Billions!

Even in my daily work I’m often asked what I ‘actually’ do for living. What does a brand strategist do? Is it marketing? Is it communication? HR? Or maybe Business strategy?

My reply is… I do branding, which encompass a little of all the above. But before HR professionals and business coaches (understandably) jump at me, let me rewind a little.

When I founded KnowThyBrand 5 years ago I was determined to change the way the world perceived branding, from a branch of marketing to an entity in its own rights. My vision hasn’t changed, but the focus has: it is not a question of separating branding from marketing, it is about understanding that businesses (as well as individuals) need to be unique in order to stand out and be noticed, and they need to optimise the experience their target audience (internal and external) has with them in order to be chosen. In a nutshell:

Brand is the unique identifying essence of your business

It encompasses your Unique Value Proposition, your positioning, your mission, your values, your purpose, what you offer to your target audience that is so unique that they would choose you over your competitors.

Branding is the process of optimising the associations, feeling and impressions that your intended target audience experiences as a result of interacting with your brand.

This is a complex process because it encompasses customer experience, employer branding, internal and external brand alignment, communication, decisions about suppliers and partnerships, recruitment, and marketing, of course.

This is also a critical process, because it is ultimately positive outcomes that will bring the success to your business.

Not convinced yet? Here is an infographic that I created a few years ago, with all stats now updated, that explains the importance of branding. And if even professionals with the calibre of Neil Patel agree that this is something worthy of notice (check the bottom of the article https://neilpatel.com/blog/bootstrap-startup/ where part of the infographic is displayed), it is critical that your business doesn’t underestimate it:

Brand wars: Schweppes Vs Fever-Tree

giulia June 26, 2019 Blog, Strategic branding BRANDING, BUSINESS STRATEGY

How the brand that almost held the monopoly of drink mixers failed to see the rise of a dangerous competitor.

Schweppes and Fever Tree are both brands that produce and sell similar products (drink mixers) such as lemonade, tonic water and ginger ale. Schweppes was founded in 1783 by Jacob Schweppe as he perfected the process of carbonation and made artificial mineral waters; on the other hand, Fever Tree is a much newer brand founded in 2005 by Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow as they explored various countries such as Congo, Tanzania and Sicily in search of ingredients to make the ‘best-tasting’ beverages.

Despite Schweppes being around much longer than Fever Tree, statistics show that Fever Tree had a very successful year in 2018 with revenue growing 52% within the UK. Previous figures showed that towards the end of December 2018, Fever Tree was the number one mixer brand as it overtook Schweppes with a market share of 39%, compared to Schweppes’ share of 31%, highlighting the dominance of the brand. So, what is the reason behind Fever Tree’s dominance over well-established Schweppes?

A fundamental factor as to why Schweppes is no longer the leading drink mixer brand is due to the failure in recognising the change towards premiumisation of mixers. This meant that the brand ignored consumer trends and dismissed competitors that found a niche within the market. Prior to Fever-Tree, mixers were of poor quality and made with cheap, artificial ingredients. However, Fever-Tree aimed to created mixers with enhanced taste while appealing to the mass market by not being overpriced. The premiumisation of the mixers was achieved by sourcing high-quality ingredients as Fever-Tree recognised the shift in consumer interest away from mass markets and heading towards products known for their quality. In order to capitalise on this market trend, on top of sourcing the finest ingredients to create a premium product, Fever-Tree implemented various marketing strategies to help establish the new, premium and modern brand.

Fever-Tree’s successful marketing strategy includes selling on-trade and off-trade in order to appeal to the mass market and not only those who can afford it. The brand targets dominant leaders in the restaurant and bar industry to gain support e.g. Waitrose and The Ritz. Fever-Tree work collaboratively alongside premium spirit companies to increase on-trade sales and allow bars to experiment with flavours but this is also beneficial for them off-trade; Fever-Tree get to promote their products and create consumer demand for premium products at off-trade retailers. Their mixers are readily available at off-trade stores such as Tesco and Carrefour for only 30p more than other brands such as Schweppes.

Another useful marketing technique was the use of Fever-Tree’s pop-up bars. In 2014, they launched a Gin & Tonic bar, providing 160 gins from international distilleries. Consumers could sample different gins and tonic waters to find their favourite combination. This clever method of advertising allowed Fever-Tree to entice consumers by giving them a taste of what to expect while also being honest as to how products are made.

Furthermore, Fever-Tree used strategic distribution to ensure products were not only sold within the UK but also internationally. The tonics are now sold in seven of the world’s top ten restaurants and reach an incredible number of consumers. Fever-Tree have four main areas of distribution: UK, Europe, USA and the rest of the world. This effective marketing strategy is a strong advantage as a clear allocation allows the company to closely monitor trends and results. The UK mainly distributes products in off-sale methods such as Waitrose and Tesco. Within the USA, products are sold on-trade and off-trade by a sales agent, therefore, all markets are covered and the product reaches different audiences. Fever-Tree continue to expand in multiple continents and have recently made an agreement within North America’s dominant distributor – Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits to exclusively distribute on-trade across 29 US states. Fever-Tree also work with Spanish gin connoisseurs who have been one of the largest consumers and invested £1m promoting the partnership between their gin and Fever-Tree.

On the other hand, Schweppes have found it difficult to implement a stable marketing plan. One reason for this is due to the lack of clarity of the brand’s ownership and poor brand management. In some markets within Europe Schweppes is owned by Coke, however, it is also its competitor within other European markets such as Nordic Mist in Spain. Schweppes lacks the marketing support that Fever-Tree strongly possess which makes it more difficult to grow within the tonic market.

However, in recent years, Schweppes re-launched with their biggest ever marketing campaign costing them £6.6m and included major changes to boost sales, regain position within the European market and reach new strategic targets. Some aspects of the campaign include TV and cinema advertising, a sponsorship of the Jonathan Ross show and a new digital campaign. Schweppes also partnered with a number of premium venues within the UK such as the Royal Albert Hall and the O2 Arena and similar to Fever-Tree, stand-up bars were put in these venues’ events to provide a premium mixing experience for consumers. Furthermore, to strengthen off-trade sales, different ranges of the tonics were made available at Rick Stein’s restaurants – allowing Schweppes to regain popularity and attract new consumers.

Schweppes’ inability to recognise new threats fueled by ambitious competitors has resulted in the decline of the brand. This serves as a lesson that no matter how established a brand is, it is imperative that they continue to adapt to the changes within the market, re-establish target audiences and enforce a well-planned strategy.

About The author

Fatma Al-Ameri is a second year Accounting and Finance student at Kingston University. Prior to this degree, she completed a-levels in Maths, Psychology and Film Studies. In her free time, Fatma enjoys watching football, playing the piano, and eating burgers. Currently, Fatma is completing a Consultancy in Practice module and in this role she has started blogging about branding and marketing.

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Strategic branding

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