What price continuity in a short-term world?

Demands for change, newness and freshness are constant in business, and balancing the short term and long term is a difficult trick. Chris Baker looks at brands that have managed to dominate in their field, and explores how consistency can be fused with innovation to produce a potent and enduring property.

1990 saw the addition of a new 'longer and broader' category to the IPA Effectiveness Awards, opening up a rich seam of knowledge about the longer-term effects of advertising and its broader benefits to a business. As a result the 1990s yield many great examples of the commercial value of continuity, both across time and across different elements of the brand mix.

Of course, most people involved in brand marketing would agree that an element of continuity is generally a good thing. But look around and you see an awful lot of examples of a lack of continuity in the way many brands are behaving and communicating.

And, as we all know, the business and marketing communications environment we face today is increasingly short term in its pressures, with a faster pace of innovation and a more complex, often co-created communications palette. The clamour for change and innovation can easily drown out the quieter, less sexy voice of continuity – especially as change and continuity tend to be regarded as polar opposites.

So what is the relevance of these case histories from the 1990s, great examples that they were in their time? The question I set myself was, 'Is continuity as valuable today as it was in the 1990s, and if it is what learnings are there about how to deliver it in today's dynamic environment?'

Starting at the end, several things led me to the conclusion that creating and maintaining a meaningful and explicit element of continuity in consumers' experience of a brand remains hugely important today – if anything, more so than in the past.

HOW THE BRAIN WORKS

One reason for this relates to the human brain and how it works. Thanks to neuroscience we know a lot more about this than we did in the 1990s. In particular we now have a scientific explanation for the importance of repetition (although you obviously need to repeat things that resonate emotionally in the first place).

Neurons in our brain fire together when an association is made – and when this happens over and over again neurons eventually wire together to form semi-permanent, resilient networks that remain for a long time, sometimes forever.

Thus red buses came to symbolise London, red roses became a symbol of love, a red telephone came to symbolise Direct Line coming to your rescue, and Orange came to stand for optimism.

Neuroscientists estimate that hardwired associations take up to six months to create, and a minimum of two years to erase, so a brand wanting to establish a fresh positioning has a difficult task.

Arguably the most important task for marketing and communications is the creation, maintenance and commercial exploitation of hardwired associations that are the basis of brand meaning (and continuity benefits). Brands still need fresh news and innovation to stay relevant and interesting, but while doing this it's critical that a brand identifies and maintains its 'golden thread' of continuity.

BRANDS ARE VEHICLES FOR INNOVATION

This fusion of consistency and innovation has long been at the heart of brand marketing, but it's something that's easily forgotten.

Back in 1994 Sir Michael Perry, then chairman of Unilever, made the case that the continuity that brands – and related communications – provide makes them an effective vehicle for successful innovation.

'In a dynamic economy, brands are … the vehicle whereby the manufacturer can turn around innovation … to the customer … Advertising is at its best, and most effective, when it communicates new information that consumers actually want to hear – and when its impact is cumulative and coherent.'

As in any valued relationship we don't expect to have the same conversation every day, but we do reward brands that behave in a consistent way that we can rely on.

The more dynamic the marketing environment we face, the more important brands are to both their owners and consumers to help successfully navigate change.

Examples from the IPA Effectiveness Databank provide concrete proof of this. I have focused on five of the many great stories first documented in the 1990s – Felix, Direct Line, Tesco, VW and Peperami. I could just as easily have selected Stella Artois (2000), PG Tips (1990), Andrex (1992), Orange (1998), Marmite (1998) or BMW (1994).

The most significant point is that these are brands that are still going strong today, each benefiting from continuity, but showing that it can be delivered in different ways. They have prospered by following a dynamic model of continuity that accommodates innovation.

The old model of continuity – the good old-fashioned, long-running campaign – tended to rely simply on repetition of an overall idea, albeit often in a very engaging way.

Examples of this were the original Heineken campaign and other famous beer campaigns such as Castlemaine XXXX. Old model 'pure repetition' campaigns still work but have a finite life as they struggle to adapt to changes in the marketplace, or simply wear out.

CONTINUITY WORKS

The great thing about these 1990s cases is that we don't just have to look back, we can also look forward at continuing effects, often helped by later IPA case histories updating us on the next chapters in the story.

All five of my selected cases have sustained long-term profitability, and often substantial growth, based on a golden thread of continuity – not just in the distant past – right up to the present day.

All have in common a very strong sense of their brand and its role in their consumers' lives. This is more than having a brand pyramid in the bottom drawer; it's about making continuity explicit in terms of brand execution, and what consumers experience and feel.

All have been a vehicle for innovation, sufficiently flexible in approach to accommodate new information and adapt to the changing world about them – if they hadn't been they wouldn't have continued to prosper.

But the way that they approached continuity differs considerably:

• Felix – via a character, identity and creating its own brand world
• Direct Line – via an icon, sonic logo and brand metaphor
• Tesco – a total business philosophy encapsulated in a consistent line and tone of voice
• VW – via the role of the product, a tone of voice, shared consumer values and attitude to life

Peperami – by turning its product into an iconic brand spokesman.

WHAT'S YOUR CONTINUITY STRATEGY?

Every brand needs its own 'continuity strategy' and, more importantly, a way of executing it that consumers actually connect with and feel.

Continuity is more important than it has ever been – it's an essential tool in navigating ever-accelerating change.

Without continuity, you don't have a brand or a vehicle for innovation. Without a strong brand you don't have sustainability, and innovation is harder to deliver.

For sustainable success every brand needs to identify its own 'golden thread' of continuity to create, maintain and benefit from hardwired associations in people's brains.

There are many ways of delivering continuity in a dynamic, flexible way. In helping to do this, the IPA Effectiveness Databank provides learning and inspiration, beyond the five examples summarised here. The IdOL analysis tool (http://idol.ipa.co.uk) makes it easier to interrogate the 1,000-plus cases now held, and identify examples with close parallels to your particular situation.

• Felix: how continuity wins over discontinuity.
• Continuity via a character, identity and creating its own brand world.
• First documented in the 1996 IPA Awards, and subsequently in 2000 and 2006.

On the back of a single campaign, Felix has grown from a 5% brand in 1989 to brand leader over the past 10-plus years, despite often lagging competitors in terms of innovation.

Felix shows not just the benefits of continuity but also the cost of discontinuity. While Felix has run a single campaign, Whiskas has run more than ten different ones and lost half its share. Continuity also brings huge efficiency benefits – Whiskas still outspends Felix by 2:1.

The campaign has also been a vehicle for innovation for Felix, succesfully launching the single-serve pouch and the premium 'As Good As It Looks' range. Proof that you don't need a completely new campaign to launch innovation.

If, like Whiskas, you think every new product needs a new campaign, you'll never build the hardwired connections in people's brains that so strongly influence brand choice.

By rooting its communications in a deep consumer insight, in this case the relationship between cat lovers and their cat, Felix has reaped the value-creating rewards of continuity.

Direct Line

• Direct Line: no other insurer converts traffic into sales with the same success.
• Continuity via an icon, sonic logo and brand metaphor.
• Grand Prix-winning paper from the 2000 Awards covering the period 1990-1999.

The Direct Line Red Phone first featured in the 1992 Awards, then again In 2004.

This case shows that a brand mindset is not an alternative to a direct response one – in fact it highlights the response benefits of creating and maintaining a brand (with TV a critical part of Direct Line's initial, and continued, success).

The continuity and coherence (as well as cut-through) provided by the Red Phone device has been central to success in a highly competitive, response-driven marketplace for 20 years. It is much more than just a simple branding device: it projects Direct Line as a consumer champion and has helped create the loyalty that has made it the most successful cross-seller in the business.

The market has changed hugely since the Red Phone was first introduced. But it continues to drive the business forward because it has hardwired meaning that can be flexibly applied to different products, ways of responding, different types of message, and indeed different styles of creative.

Direct Line has maintained continuity as the role of communications has evolved from just communicating low price, to adding service credentials, to building stature, to adding warmth.

• Tesco: a business philosophy that informs everything it does.
• Continuity via a total business philosophy encapsulated in a consistent line and tone of voice.
• Grand Prix-winning paper from the 2000 Awards covering the period 1990-1999.

In the first chapters of the continuing 'Every Little Helps' story, Tesco's turnover more than doubled from £8 billion to £17 billion between 1990 and 1999. It is now close to £60 billion.

In 1990 Tesco was a good business but a relatively weak brand, known mainly for low prices and basic groceries. By 1999 it had a brand with the credibility to sell almost anything.

The original 'Every Little Helps' campaign (1993-95) focused on service but quickly evolved to communicate a wide range of messages – service, quality, range, value for money and Clubcard.

Soon 'Every Little Helps' became a total business philosophy, a touchstone for everything Tesco does.

Over the past 17 years Tesco has run thousands of ads for different products and services, with different messages across many different creative approaches.

All of this has been made cumulative because everything it does has been informed by this philosophy, anchored by the 'Every Little Helps' line and a related tone of voice.

• VW: an undefined but enduring 'sense of Golf'.
• Continuity via the role of the product, a tone of voice, shared consumer values and attitude to life.
• Documented by IPA cases in 1992, 1998, 2002 and 2006.

The VW communications story, starring the VW Golf, goes back to 1974 and continues today.

VW via the Golf has become an iconic brand that has steadily built its UK market share while maintaining a price premium over more than 30 years.

It has done this, in its own words, by 'never defining the brand too rigidly … with no one creative idea, no single end-line, no brand onions or pyramid … communications have been unusually free … able to reflect their time, without getting trapped in any one time'. But nevertheless there is a strong sense of continuity and coherence.

They put this down to never losing sight of the product … an embodiment of continuity in design terms … and keeping true to the inimitable Golf tone of voice, always understated but somehow knowingly reflective of its iconic status and paying into the territory of emotional reliability.

All this is summarised as 'an enduring sense of Golf'. Their approach relies a huge amount on the people involved 'getting' the brand. It's a looseness that wouldn't work for many companies, but for VW and DDB it does.

• Peperami: making the product the idea.
• Continuity via turning its unique product into an iconic (and viral) brand spokesman.
• Documented in the 1994 IPA Awards.

Peperami ('It's a bit of an animal!') is a niche product with a natural ceiling to its usage. But in 1993 it found a way of cost-effectively maximising its potential that it has used ever since, including promoting new variants.

The Peperami animal's powerful emotional appeal to generation upon generation of young male snackers seems to get it hardwired almost instantly as well as making it highly viral.

A little bit of Peperami goes a long way and it continues to maximise sales potential very cost-effectively by reprising old TV ads and increasingly online.

When a brand icon is so strongly hardwired into people's brains, and the brand idea so intrinsic to the product, it's not difficult to maintain a high level of continuity.

When the idea and golden thread of continuity is so explicit a product, anyone can create a Peperami ad, as witnessed by its recent move into crowd sourcing its advertising.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Baker is a partner of Bacon Strategy & Research.

[email protected]