If you want to make more money you need to get emotional with your brand.
I had what I think of as a “Top Gear moment” the other day. A few years ago on this wonderful television programme, the show’s three automobile-musketeers were driving slowly down a swanky West London street wondering out loud what the most popular small car in the UK was. On either side of the road, for some distance, a rainbow necklace of Fiat 500s were parked end-to end, like a row of coloured beads, to the exclusion of any other make or type of car. It was super TV and no mean feat, as it looked as if they had actually replaced all the cars on the street, but who knows what electronic jiggery-pokkery was used to create that impression. Anyway, that aside, I was standing in Fortnum and Masons (often known as just “Fortnums”) the estimable London grocers to Victorian High Society, the aristocracy, and now tourists, this week and realised, perhaps for the first time, that almost every product on sale was in the characteristic palette and design of the eponymous store: it appeared, from where I was standing, that it only sold own-brand products.
I can’t claim to have carried out a detailed pricing analysis but my best guess would be that the cost to Fortnums of many of these beautifully packaged products was a small fraction of the advertised price. There is little doubt in my mind that I could buy the constituents for much less elsewhere, but as I stood there being barged out of the way by desperate shoppers in search of something – I’m not sure what it was they were after but I doubt it was a bargain – it was evident that whatever Fortnums was selling was not only in demand but people were prepared to pay quite a lot for it. But surely it was Quality, right? Fortnums is clearly positioned at the quality high-end of food retailers, but what exactly do you get for your money? What is this “quality” you are paying so much for?
You really can have no greater demonstration of the power and the value of a brand than popping into Fortnums and buying some Keemun tea or a few Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, but you will pay a premium for buying them in this store rather than elsewhere. This is of course what branding is all about, it communicates a positioning for your product and/or service that is distinctive, ideally unique, and attractive to enough people who are prepared to pay extra for whatever it is, beyond the functional benefit of a nice cup of tea or coffee. The thing that you are buying is even more valuable to a business owner than a Blue Mountain coffee bean, one of the most expensive coffees in the world: it is an emotional benefit.
Without knowing it we buy emotional benefits all the time: we buy fragrances that will make us more attractive; potions, hairdos, or clothes, that make us look our best, or younger; products that make us feel we are helping others, look after our family better, or save the planet. When you buy something from Fortnums you are buying the brand, and what it stands for, as much as anything. I once had to travel to Japan a lot and invariable took gifts for various high-ranking business folk. My gifts almost always came from Harrods and the wealthy men (it was always men in Japan) took noticeably more care of the Harrods bag and packaging than they did the gift.
Whilst I am sure that Fortnums sells good, perhaps even excellent, products, you are paying for both that and for the kudos and prestige of having its brand on it; you are paying for its rather refined provenance too. There are many emotional benefits you get from that, from simple snobbery and ego to showing respect to someone for whom you have bought a Fortnums gift, as it has clearly been expensive, or the simple pleasure of feeling you have bought “the best”. All these more emotional benefits are wonderfully intangible and worth a fortune if you are lucky or wise enough to have them embodied in your brand. I’ve subsequently found out that Fortnums don’t just sell own-brand products: apparently, it not only invented the Scotch Egg but it was the first shop in the UK to sell Heinz Baked Beans.
Mark
