September 12, 2012 Brand Latency: How to know if your brand has staying power? Marketing Share this post: Few are the brands that have true staying power. Some keep on thanks to favorable market conditions (Standard Oil, but then woe betide the authorities!), an ongoing ability to pivot when necessary (IBM, Peugeot), or state protection (Boeing, Airbus…). Others still survive because of a lack of strong competition (e.g very narrow niche business). Some very unique brands seem to manage magically to perpetuate boundless love. The forces that enable a brand to live on through the ages are a thing of mystery in that it is neither easy to predict or replicate. There are many books written on the topic and this post is not designed to address what makes a brand endure. The aspect I am curious to explore is the notion of momentum or latency. The Burberry Renaissance Some brands actually manage to live on despite themselves. A good example might be Burberry. After years of fatigue during the 1980s and 1990s, the brand experienced a renaissance. Not to take anything away from the creativity and ingenuity of the parties responsible for the rebranding, the brand clearly had a latent power. This got me to thinking about a new form of brand measurement: brand latency or perhaps better yet brand love latency. [See here how Burberry is doing a nice job on Pinterest.] What is brand latency? Brand [Love] Latency would be the time it takes for a loyal user to wake up and switch to newer and better products by the competitors. Even if Burberry had an underground following in the 80’s and 90’s, surviving thanks to its iconic macintosh, I would argue that it had a strong underlying brand latency in the collective memory. What characterizes and/or helps perpetuate brand latency obviously depends on the category and the competitive offer. Some categories are much more cyclical, prone to competitive incursions and rampant innovation. Others have high barriers to entry or heavily guarded access (e.g. aeronautics). Whatever the reasons, I was thinking it would be awfully interesting to evaluate brands according to a brand latency index. Nielsen, it appears, has explored the space, stating in this “Media Mix Modeling” article that brand “[l]atency measures the degree to which the content sticks or how it appears in search results or other critical places in the online consumer purchase funnel.” I also found the term used by Sam Swaminathan in a 2008 Slideshare presentation, “Leadership in the Retail Industry“. I have two questions for you: Have you ever seen anything similar to a Brand Latency Index? What do you think of such a concept? Which brands do you see around you today that have an evident high brand latency? Please do leave me your thoughts or comments! Post Scriptum (14 Sept 2012): Ironic that right after publishing this post, Burberry Group warns about lower than expected 2Q results and the stock plummets (-20%). It appears the problem is China’s new government will no longer encourage Burberry buying, but I am going to have suggest that there is more beneath the plaid veneer. This will surely put Burberry’s brand latency to the test! NEWSletter Subscribe to Minter’s Bi-Weekly NEWSletter and receive a free copy of the exclusive and updated 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation Your Gift For Signing Up 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed! brand latency, brand love, brand love latency, branding, Burberry, IBM, marketing, Media Mix Marketing, peugeot, standard oil Minter Dial Minter Dial is an international professional speaker, author & consultant on Leadership, Branding and Digital Strategy. After a successful international career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial returned to his entrepreneurial roots and has spent the last ten years helping senior management teams and Boards to adapt to the new exigencies of the digitally enhanced marketplace. He has worked with world-class organisations to help activate their brand strategies, and figure out how best to integrate new technologies, digital tools, devices and platforms. Above all, Minter works to catalyse a change in mindset and dial up transformation. Minter received his BA in Trilingual Literature from Yale University (1987) and gained his MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1993). His newest book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, bowed in December 2018 and won the Book Excellence Award 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. It's available in Audiobook, Kindle and Paperback. He is also co-author of Futureproof (Pearson, Sep 2017) and sole author of The Last Ring Home (Myndset Press, Nov 2016), a book and documentary film, both of which have won awards and critical acclaim. Minter has a new book on leadership, You Lead, How being yourself makes you a better leader, published by Kogan Page, that released January 2021. It's easy to inquire about booking Minter Dial here. View all posts by Minter Dial Previous post Next post
Nikki Parkins November 21, 2012 at 8:54 pm To stay on top of the list, we came up with the idea that we include win free prizes online in our advertisements. Surely, this would add a little spice in our campaigns and attract more customers.