Publicis Media's Frank Harrison: Why Branding Is More Important than Ever

Harrison was moved to comment on the study and we delved deeply into the subject of branding from the past amp8212 quotsince people started writing on cave wallsquot as Harrison said amp8212 to the present to the spoiler alert impossibletopredict futureThe Value of BrandingFor Harrison branding is establishing a brand39s presence in the mind of a consumer through a multitude of attributes associated with that brand such as fame trust and saliency ie when a brand comes to mind for a consumer who is in market for a product or a service This includes all the elements of brand equity which relate to the feelings and thoughts consumers have about brands based on their multitude of experiences with that brand through various contact pointsBranding has always been important to establish a product or service but is even more vital today quotbecause of the clutter and the general level of noise which are growing steadily and rapidly amp8212 especially in digitalquot Harrison says quotSo much of digital media is consumed through a small phone screenquotThere is much more competition for attention when you consider all the messaging that comes across these screens including social media feeds Harrison points out Branding becomes that much more important in this environment because quotyou have a real danger of having your brand exposed in that channel but be completely missed or misattributedquotThere39s also the dichotomy of attention spans versus brand volume quotAttention levels are lower than ever and so branding is more important than everquot Harrison says Plus with so many brands currently on the market in nearly every category the need to offer consumers a sense of distinctiveness is critical he notesquotDistinctive brands are vital in the era of low attention and small screensquot he assertsChanging Consumers Change BrandDriving AttributesA core element of the Myers Brand Equity Study is to measure the attributes that most impact overall media brand equity brand love cultural relevance distinctiveness emotional connection social responsibility ability to thrive in the future and viewers39 interest in content For Harrison the level of importance of each of those attributes has to be considered according to the different consumer categories quotYou have to think about which categories are most influenced and affected by changes in consumer behavior The biggest changes are of course the many different ways that you can connect engage and pay attention to brands through the Internetquot he says But quotsome categories are much more affected in terms of their business success than othersquotTo Harrison finance retail and travel are categories that have much more consumer involvement and interaction online quotThere has been a significant shift in behaviors for those categories more than in lessinvolved categories such as packaged goodsquot he says quotAnd in that environment it is so much more important for brands to be established in consumers39 mindsquotA Warning for Media CompaniesBased on Harrison39s review of the study39s findings shared in quotSurvey Says Key to Media Growth Is39 Brand Equity39quot he believes that quottraditional TV brands have not focused as much on brand and on branding as they might have amp8212 and this is probably not in their best interestquot Given the lack of focus on brand he says it39s no surprise that buyers regard media brands as commodities where cost is the dominant factorAdditionally the outreach to the consumer has become more about content as well as more transactional and shortterm rather than longterm and this shift concerns Harrison quotThe observation that TV networks discount the equity of their master brand in favor of promoting their series and programs is in the ever more competitive landscape worth reconsideringquot he explains quotContent needs promotion but a branded 39platform39 is also a vital memory cue for viewers in the evermore clutteredenvironmentquot Netflix does this well he says adding that quotfamousness continues to be vital for growthquotThe risk is the slippery slope towards commoditization for media brands quotThere is a new way of thinking today that is very much around a shortterm promotional sales activation focus which is moving away from longterm brand building towards promotional shorttermist advertising That could lead to commoditization for brands where pricing becomes everything and the sense of brand becomes less and less importantquot Harrison warns That39s another reason branding is more important than ever today he notes especially for traditional media brandsThe Future Is amp8230 PendingLooking forward will all of the media consolidation happening impact branding and the attributes associated with success quotIt depends on the results of these consolidationsquot he says quotDo they result in fewer brands or an evergrowing proliferation of brandsquotConsolidations are happening to reduce costs according to Harrison quotConsumers are stripping brands of their margins to the point where the only position is to consolidate which will probably result in fewer brandsquot Harrison says quotSo we would return to an age where there were fewer brands That makes it easier from a consumer and advertiser perspective to understand what is available in the marketquotOn the other hand quotthe trend is to have more and more brands and more and more choice and from a consumer perspective more and more difficulty in choosing because there is so much choicequot he says The risk there is that the consumer is apt to choose the lowest cost which quotobviously is not good for businessquotWhat39s not so obvious is what the media landscape will look like in the fastchanging future quotIt is really hard to look out even three years That is one of the great issues and why there39s so much shorttermism going on at the momentquot Harrison says quotOne thing is certain however The future of media will not be easy to predictquotClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Publicis Media's Frank Harrison: Why Branding Is More Important than Ever

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Charlene Weisler

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