Brand Stewardship Helps Understand Brands Better

Understandably, brands, differentiation, brand values are buzzwords in every advertising agencies as they struggle to offer clients greater value. But how does an ad agency differentiate itself?

In O&M's case, the answer is their brand stewardship model. What is the concept? What triggered it? And how does impact global brands, and of course, global agencies.

The Strategist caught up with Rochelle Lazarus (better known as Shelly), 50, chairperson and CEO of the $8 billion Ogilvy & Mather to get her side of the story. Lazarus, an MBA from Columbia Business School has been with O&M for a quarter of a century and was a part of the group that developed the model.

 

After handling clients like Pepsi and Levers, she moved to managing global brands in 1980 starting with American Express, which she handled for six years. Then came AT&T and probably her biggest success, the Big Blue's (IBM's) global campaign.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. What actually triggered the development of the brand stewardship model?

A. Actually, we have in our history as an agency been through a take-over, besides three changes in chairman in four-five years. So it was that sort of opportunity. and we decided to take the opportunity. Just sit back and think what is that we are all about as an agency, So it was kind of back to the future. We looked back into the past and took stock of what had been our real contribution towards our clients over all those years. and we realised that what we had done more than anything else was help our clients build brands. In fact, if you go back to the early writings of David Ogilvy, he said over and over again that we are in the business of building our client's brand.

So it became obvious place for us to focus, to articulate our mission. And, having articulated this mission -- to be most valued by those who most value brands -- we then decided that this was an easy thing to talk about but a much harder thing to practice. So what we had to do was to develop a point of view, or a model, some tools that actually allowed us to get at the meaning of brands. To figure out for our clients where their brands stood in the hearts and minds of their users. To be able to determine what was it that defined the brand and then go on from there.

That was the most interesting part, developing brand audits, brand prints and then coming out and starting to practice it. It wasn't a new initiative but it was refocused initiative and with that we called this whole process brand stewardship.

Q. But how is it different from what other agencies do?

A: When a brand is being launched, you can position it, and all that. Once a brand has lived for a while, the real task is to find what it is because it is very hard to. I think the clients actually make this mistake. They go out and say, well, let me go out and see how we position the brand this year. The consumers don't allow you to come in fresh, they know too much already. They know what the brand is all about. That's why its so critical, to have the tools which understand where the brand already is, because you can reshape, refine, you can slightly change the direction but you can't go out and position the brand afresh.

Q. But, isn't it something other agencies try as well?

A. I don't think the other agencies have the tools to understand what a brand is and I don't think it is focused. Everything they do in understanding of the brand. We actually have creative people who will not start work on a brand till they get the brand print. We have got that sort of discipline. We have formed the creative council about nine months ago. Its focus is to keep the creative standards for the agency. Its reviews the work that's been done around the world, sort of cajole and inspire. One of the things they do every nine months is produce a new reel of the best advertising being done by Ogilvy offices around the world. And they do not take a submission unless it is accompanied by the brand print. It's this method and focus. It's not so much that we believe in brands and other agencies don't. It's just that we have a method at it. Everything we do is focused on it. We are disciplined about insisting on it. And we have a point of view about how brand builds.

Q. Has the approach evolved over the years?

A. Of course it evolves in the practice. I don't think anything in the theory has changed. What has changed is that we are so much smarter about how to discover a brand. So much is in the listening. Asking the right questions and then to know what to listen for. We have so many examples now. So the next challenge is: once you understand the brand, how does it impact the work? At the beginning, a lot of our creative people will go; well that's interesting, we discovered that about the brand, now let me get along with my real work, which is developing advertising. How they take that brand inside, and use it to drive the development of advertising is what has been the most interesting part recently. And, we continue to learn.

Q. Can you cite some instances?

A. Well, I worked with IBM. That is a great case. that started with brand stewardship. It began with an examination of the brand. No one anticipated the result that we got when we started. And it was only going to, listening to people, users, we discovered the whole issue of the IBM brand was that it was perceived as cold, arrogant, not open to anyone else's point of view, inaccessible, uncaring. I was actually very surprised by the degree of negative feeling about the brand.

Once we had that we knew that all the advertising we had to do was surprise people about how open IBM was, how warm it was, how caring it was. I think all the advertising you have seen, the subtitles, it was all about warming up the brand. So that's the best example we have.

Q. How does the model cope with the globalisation of brand?

A. Actually, brand stewardship allows us to manage global brands better. What we have discovered is that there are some core truths about the brands. These are universal. The interesting part was that IBM said that you have to go to every market and test this because you are going to find a different IBM brand, wherever you go. The truth was it had the same at the core absolutely

everywhere. and we have found this over and over again with all the brands we have studied on a world-wide basis.

So once you discover the core truth, and what the essence is, the next step is to go to an individual market, and say, this is the core, you take it make it relevant for this market, make it powerful for this market. I think the mistake we have made in the past is to assume that global brands should have global execution. Global brands will mean the same thing around the globe and what agencies around the world did was find an answer and develop the global campaign in one country, ship it around the world and say, translate it. That, I don't think is a viable option now. I think it is the process of brand stewardship that allows us to send not the answer but the essence into a market. So I think, the local markets are free to develop advertising.

Q. How does it all impact the local arm of the agency?

A. I think we went through a period. The first chapter in the global brands was that some of the agencies said that we don't need local creative people. All we need is translators. I think, if this is the model then we need better creative people than before. Planning becomes a significant issue now. Because a lot of brand understanding and translation is something that account planners have long been interested in and expert at. But the biggest impact is on the creative.

Q. Is the model applicable to brand launches as well?

A. You have lots of options when you are launching a new brand. Its probably the hardest thing to do. To figure out from the beginning what you want this brand to represent. And there you have to be clever about understanding the existing market. There is almost too much freedom when you are launching a new brand. The model does apply. Look, if you know what drives strong brands, if you understand that its all about this relationship, the intangibles that develop between the brand and the customers, then it becomes easier. Because the hard thing about launching a new brand is that you have to make it all up. So what do you want this brand to be. But before we have the brand in the market, no one would talk about it, no one would say. Is it a cold clinical brand or is it a warm brand with a friendly relationship with the user?

Q. Does brand stewardship in any way envisages moving towards integrated marketing?

A. If we promise our clients that we will be brand stewards for their brands. If you believe, as I do, that a brand is formed by hundred of small interactions, between the brand and the user. Then its almost our responsibility to deliver to clients solutions that touch the consumer at each point. Because of that I need to have public relations, direct marketing, tele-services, design. I need to have people who know how to develop price sticker because I believe that that's apart of the brand impression. So if this is the promise then I have to be able to integrate all disciplines.n

If you go back to the early writings of David Ogilvy, he said over and over again that we are in the business of building our client's brand.

I think the mistake we have made in the past is to assume that global brands should have global execution. Now the local markets are free to develop advertising.