Relapse.

All-in-all my brand-aholic ways probably will not ever go away. Brand marketers have the ability of positioning their brand exactly how they want to be seen in the eyes of their target audience by creating a brand personality through tone of voice and images. As long as these brands are targeting me then I will be a sucker.
A clothing brand that has a string brand personality is LuluLemon. They are the athletic, green brand that is trendy and fashionable. The logo is large on most of their products so people can wear this personality on their sleeves. When you think of LuluLemon you immediately think Yoga, female, active, green, 25-40. This means that Lulu has successfully given themselves brand personality traits that are strongly associated with their brand. Consumers, like me, will subconsciously or consciously buy this brand in order to be a part of this personality association. Another thing that builds Lulu's brand personality is its brand symbol. This symbol is meant to associate everything that the brand stands for just by seeing it.

Even more ways for a brand to reel us in...

As I discussed in the last post, brands are constantly coming up with ways to expand themselves and grow under the assumption that people will recognize their brand and associate it positively. Brand architecture is another example of this, where an organization will have sub-brands beneath it that all maintain the brands image but help that brand to remain present in a competitive environment. Brand architecture can be small scale or big scale and lets a brand have specialized sectors beneath it in an umbrella formation.
As a horse rider I travel a lot and a brand that comes to mind that has a well structured brand architecture is the Marriott hotel brand.

By having multiple sub-brands beneath the Marriott name, they are giving customers an option. This is effective in the hotel business as there are so many brands and many of them are in the same areas. By having these sub-brands they are covering all aspects of the market because every hotel line has its own strengths to match each person's needs. The Marriott hotel is known to be fancy and expensive so they are allowing people a less expensive choice, or more specialized choice with different hotel lines. Regardless customers will associate these sub-brands as classy, quality and luxurious regardless of the differences in prices.
Above are only some of the different Marriott sub-brands. They describe the Courtyard Marriott's as traveller oriented where there are many different types of rooms to choose from in order to suit the busy traveller lifestyle. These hotels offer on the go breakfasts for busy people who are up early and on the move. Residence Inn Marriott's are designed for travellers who are intending to stay for a long time. They provide kitchens, fridges and everything you may need if you are planning on making the hotel your home for a while. Finally, the Fairfield Marriott hotels are designed for great value for all travellers.
For me it is comforting to be able to stay within a brand when I travel as you know exactly what to expect. It is also nice that a brand cares enough about the variety of customers that it supports to develop different options for them that will truly suit their needs and wants.

Natalie

Extensions work on brand-aholics.

Brand extensions are great for brand-aholics like me. By extending a brand they are allowing customers to remain loyal to their brand without limiting these customers to a single product line. When a customer walks into a store and sees a preferred brand they feel a sense of relief because they have positive experience with this brand and it makes their choice easier. Brand marketers are banking on this familiarity and association to make a brand extension successful. An example of a good brand extension is Polo Ralph Lauren. This brand created a linens and bedding brand extension. I enjoy wearing their clothing and associate them with quality and style so when I walk into a store and see their products I am instantly drawn to continue buying them.

I believe that not all brand extensions are a success. Some brand extensions seem desperate and greedy, like the brand is trying anything they can to make money and forgetting what they stand for and what their main brand positioning is. I think that a good example of negative brand extensions are brand extensions of singers. Take the brand of Hannah Montanna for example. This actress/singer is not just that, she's a brand who has clothing lines, pens, mugs, shoes, etc. All of these extensions seem desperate like they are trying to extract every dollar from her fans that they can. This saturation of the tween market has been over done, and the tweens will find someone more interesting to look up to.

All hail the brand character!

Some of the most recognizable figures in society are the characters that brands have created to promote their products. Some of the first of these that come to mind are Snap, Crackle and Pop (Rice Crispies), the Geiko Gecko and the Energizer Bunny.

A good brand character can build powerful brand associations and brand personality for a company. It takes lots of marketing efforts and dollars to create a good brand character that will be recognizable for the target audience. The goal of creating a brand character for a company is to be able to have their audience make simple associations with their products just by showing an image. For a cereal company like Rice Crispies, kids feel an attachment to the silly characters who are always getting into mischief and therefore feel a certain connection with the cereal. Characters give the product a face, so that it is not just a product it is a friend.

Forbes.com did a poll of 1,500 survey participants to find out who their favourite brand characters were in terms of likability, coolness and sincerity. In the top spot was M&M's characters Blue, Yellow, Red and Green. These characters have been featured in many humourous, sexy, and serious ads for years. Their image is not just a product, it is a household staple as many people have stuffed versions, t-shirts, boxers, etc. with their faces on them. M&M's has made a valiant effort to have their brand characters faces in every home across America by having M&M stores all over that sell figures, candy and everything you could dream of whether you're a child or adult alike. In addition, there is rarely a sponsored event that you visit without seeing an appearance by one of the M&M's characters.

Coming to terms with being a brand-aholic...

There are different types of shoppers in the world- the shoppers who don't care about which brand they buy, the shoppers who are making a statement by not caring about the brands that they buy and the brand-aholics who are obsessive about the brands that they buy. The latter is a description of my own shopping patterns. If I am to come to terms with this obsession that one must look at what I am trying to achieve by being a brand-aholic. One main factor is brand positioning, and the desired image that is being created by wearing a certain brand. For example, I am a horse rider and in the horse world there are many popular brands of tack, equipment, and clothing. Some of these brands are Helly Hansen and North Face. These brand are viewed as athletic and higher-end. Especially in the horse world you are seen as cool, trendy and active if you wear them. Therefore in buying products made by these companies I am supporting their positioning by wanting to be seen as so. A brand will position itself with its target market in mind. Certain brands position themselves as preppy such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren whereas others will position themselves as sexy such as Guess by Marciano.

The first step is admitting you have a problem

Yes, it is true. I am a brand-aholic. What is a brand-aholic you ask? Well to me it means that I am obsessive about purchasing brands that are well known and highly viewed amongst my peers. Most of my clothes adorn the signature label of their maker, proudly displaying where they are from. 
I am also brand loyal. Among my collections of material possessions you will see a pattern of those that I remain loyal to. For example, I am extremely loyal to Shopper's Drug Mart. I will go out of my way to shop at Shoppers because of their points rewards program. Often brands develop these programs in order to establish brand loyalty amongst their customers.
There are tiers to the brand loyalty system: brand awareness, brand acceptance, brand preference and brand insistence. The leaders of brand loyalty actually drive their customers to insisting on using their brand and no others. This is much like my insistance on shopping at Shopper's. Getting brand awareness and acceptance is a difficult process for new brands, especially in a competitive field such as drug stores when there are highly competitive chains like Rexall, PharmaPlus and Shoppers. It seems like these three brands have succeeded through loyalty rewards programs (i.e Rexall has AirMiles points) and by delivering weekly and daily flyers highlighting savings.
When it comes to brand loyalty in clothing I am split loyal- I have several brands that I am loyal to. Among these brands are Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, and Mavi. I am the type of person that appreciates when a brand fits me well and returns this appreciation by giving them my business. I would not define myself as exclusively loyal to any brand but I am not a brand switcher. Brand switchers are those who are not loyal to any brand and continue to switch brands depending on their price, availability, etc.

Thanks for reading,
Natalie