How can green branding improveto environmental preferable product service in the fast food market?appeal

Brand Identity Management creates brand appeal

Dissertation by Matteo Fabbi BA Global Marketing 2008/2011UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER

Urbanization together with globalization and industrialization has shifted the food system away from simply moving basic staples from the farms to the (local) plate (Maxwell and Slater, 2003)

Food is increasingly produced by commercial growers, feeding long and sophisticated supply chains, and marketing often processed and branded products to mainly urban consumers. (Garrett, 2000).

Due to the great impact of environmental pollution – which is directly linked to industrial manufacturing in the world – consumers have become more willing to buy products perceived as environmentally friendly (Chen, 2009).

Given their size and the enormous amount of resource consumption and waste, also the fast food chains felt the need to change their behavior to comply with society’s environmental concerns (Weinberg and Parss, 2010),

As a consequence, an increasing number of companies have positioned their brand identities based on environmentally friendly characteristics, functions, ingredients and benefits usually encoding their messages with the term or color ‘green’ to communicate this new position (Pundit, 2010).

However, since the the early 90’s too many companies have created green campaigns and claimed themselves to be green in some way or another, even those with questionable green credentials. The type of disinformation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image has led to three main phenomena…

92% European multinational claimed to have changedtheir products in response to green concerns

432% Grow in volume for green print ads between 1989 and 1990

367% Grow in volume for green TV ads

Green w a s h i n g

marketing m y o p i a

consumers disillusionment about

marketing

Greenappeal

Green messages have lost its credential leading consumers to rethink the issue and mounting cynicism and suspicion.

Companies are finding green factors not to be a differentiator

advantage anymore and they are loosing touch with their customers.

? ??

i m p

r o

v e

Green

to environmental preferablep r o d u c t s e r v i c ein the fast food market

branding

How can ?Brand Identity Managementcreates brand appeal.

appeal

The branding process is a way of thinking about how an organization aligns its goals and abilities with the demands of its stakeholders (Aaker, 1997). When a firm manages a brand in such a way that meets stakeholders demand and exceeds expectations in doing so, people benefit and a value is created (Keller, 2007).

x = 2a + 4b

Abc

The question in context 1/3

Currently there is little doubt about the strategic importance of creating a well-defined identity for delivering brand value (Aaker, 2000, Kapferer, 1997), so this research has taken into account the Brand Identity System model by Aaker (1997) to explore the effect of green brands identities management on brand appeal.

The question in context 2/3

Brand Identity modelBrand appeal theories Brand appeal theories

Drawing from Aaker’s findings on brand identity management (1997), a brand value can be represented by functional, experiential, and self-expressive benefits.

Green brand strategists can therefore consider three different brand patterns when enriching and increasing depth for their green identities: the brand as a product, the brand as an organization and the brand as a person.

Models and theor es: Aaker’s Brand Identity model EXPLAINED 1/2

Models and theor es: Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 1/3

The (green) brand as a product

Consumers derive a functional benefitfrom green brands because the

“environmental care” expressed via product usage SA

MPL

E 1

Models and theor es:Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 2/3

Consumer derive a experientialbenefits from green brands because

the feeling of satisfaction for“contributing to social welfare”

The (green) brand as an organization

SAM

PLE

2

Models and theor es:Aaker’s Brand Identity model APPLIED 3/3

Consumer derive a symbolic benefit from green brands because

the “social approval” and “personal expression” feeling

derived via the brand use and display

The (green) brand as a person

SAM

PLE

2

Then the research has taken into account theories of brand appeal: the 23plusone study by Cramer and Koene (2010), which states that the degree by which a brand feels good, brand appeal, has to do with the fundamental human drives, the things people find important in life.

Brand appeal theories Brand Identity model

The question in context 3/3

BAW Brand awareness + BEX Brand expectation + 23plusone brand profile = BAP

Models and theor es:Brand appeal explained 1/2: theories

An extensively literature study revealed that there are 24 (23plusone) fundamental human drives, like for example loyalty, status and sexuality. When they are triggered, we experience a pleasant feeling of wellbeing or happiness.

The better a brand touches on the 24 fundamental human drives, the higher the brand appeal (23plusonestudy, 2010).

Click to see the 24 human drives

The fundamental human drivesidentified by Cramer and Koene (2010)

Models and theor es:Brand appeal explained 2/2: theories

The better a brand simultaneously triggers drives from the five groups, the higher the brand appeal.

Brands which trigger ‘unexpected’ drives’, deviating from category conformity, increase in brand appeal.

There are no universal mixing rules. The most effective ‘drive cocktail’ is category-dependent.

Brand appeal theories Brand Identity model

Cangreen brand identity management really influence brand appeal?

If so which from the Aaker’s models

is the brand identity that will most likely stimulate themost interesting cocktail ofdrivers

The author created a new research framework called the Green Brand Appeal Survey (GBAS) based on brand appeal theories from Cramer and Koene and Aaker’s brand identity model. The objectives of the survey were to reveal the following:

Brand appeal theories Brand Identity model

The GBAP Survey

the main motivations (drivers) for consumers to adopt preferable environmental brands in the fast food industry.

effect of brand identity management on green brand appeal

new insights into the green branding concept

Based on a target population of 120 university students fromthe UK, the online questionnaire measured respondents’ perceptions on three different adverts each representing a different green brand identity.

Brand appeal theories Brand Identity model

The GBAP Survey

The study was created thanks to the adoption of the drivograms a set of 24 visual and verbal stimuli, each representing the human drives, created by branding agency BR-ND to measure brand appeal and used by the author for measuring green brand appeal instead.

Click to see the drivograms

The 24 human drives translated into 24 visual-verbal stimuli, called Drivograms by agency BR-ND, Amsterdam.

In line with the main objective of exploring and measuring the green brand appeal generated by different green brand identities, the questionnaire was divided into two main sections.

• The first part of the questionnaire allowed the author to identify the respondents profile.

• The second part of the questionnaire was dedicated on the perceptional responses from three different advertisements

Brand appeal theories Brand Identity model

The GBAP Survey

Click to see the an example of the survey

Students were asked to express their most important values in lifeby selecting five of the drivograms below.

To find out the level of expectation for a green brand, studentswere also asked to select a max of five the drivograms that they felt would fit an environmentally friendly fast food brand.

1 2 3 4 5

AD1: The Green brand as a product AD2: The Green brand as an organizationAD3: Green brand as a symbol.

Finally students were asked to rate how much each drivograms would fit with the proposed adverts with the aim of measuring perceptions of the different green brand identities.

For example…

Each adverts representing a different green brand identity were assessed against the principles of brand appeal. Brand appeal was calculated for each of the three adverts.

AD1 AD2

AD3

Results showed that AD3 was the ad that generated highest greenbrand appeal among the students. Therefore green self – expressivebenefits are those that are more appealing.

The results have shown that green brand position based on the three different identities perspectives have different effect on the green brand appeal.

x = 2a + 4b

Abc

CONCLUSIONSImplications for managers

Results from the test of the three perspectives have shown that a well-implemented green brand identity based on symbolic and personality green brand attributes and benefits lead to higher green brand appeal than organizational and product brand identity perspectives.

bc

x = 2a + 4b

A

CONCLUSIONSImplications for managers

In order for companies to deliver a consistent and appealing green value, brands need to satisfy consumers’ needs and interests beyond what is “green”. Successful green marketing programs will broaden the consumer appeal of green products by convincing consumers of their “non-green” consumers values.

Mangers need to consider how people want to feel when going green and target the motivations, needs and aspirations of those people outside the green sphere.

bc

x = 2a + 4b

A

CONCLUSIONSImplications for managers

Focusing exclusively on the health functional attributes may lead to green marketing myopia. When targeting consumers with strong green values then such as the case of the target population in the survey, marketers need to focus on the ‘unexpected factor’ if they want to make green to spark.