A super-brand is one which has been around for years and is a favourite in each and every household. That status is not determined by its rating by any organisation or poll.
WHAT is a super-brand?
The word is being bandied around in our commercial lives by every Tom, Dick and Harish! Everyone out there in the great marketplace for brands seems to have his or her own version of a definition to offer. It is time to sit up and take stock.
A super-brand is a brand that has made it big. A brand that has been around for a long number of years and has survived the upheavals of a tumultuous marketplace. A brand that has very large volumes that makes it to the top-of-the-pops chart in every consumer home. A brand that is very profitable. One that rakes in the moolah without much of advertising and marketing spends even. A brand that has arrived. A brand that is a consumer favourite. A brand that causes goose bumps in you when you hear the name uttered. A brand that is a rage. A brand that has cult following. A brand that is a product no more.
All of this and much more for sure. At the same time, none of these on its own as a point of precise definition!
The super-brand is a complicated entity. More complicated than the concept of a simple brand. The super-brand in reality is a passion. A brand that has scaled the highest peak in the passion-scale of brands and their respective consumers.
Let us also establish what a super-brand is not. Let us categorically say that a super-brand is not what is proclaimed in a broad-spectrum list of 100 brand names in a country, across categories. It is not what an organisation rates. It is most certainly not what is awarded the super-brand logo by a poll of executive opinion!
A super-brand is then a very different entity. An entity that deserves some attention. Some respect.
Let me start at the level of the commodity. A commodity is that much less of a brand than a quasi-brand is. The quasi-brand is a more recognisable form of the commodity but a wee peg lower in the hierarchy of the brand. And the brand is a thought. A thought that resides in a consumer's mind.
The super-brand is right at the top of the pecking order of brands. The super-brand status is indeed that status which a brand enjoys as its sets of consumers self-actualise in the joy of the brand. To understand this statement, one needs to visualise Maslowe's hierarchy of needs.
Right at the bottom of the pyramid is the broadest segment of them all. This is the segment that lies in the food, clothing and shelter domain of utility. Largely utilitarian in nature. This is indeed the mass of space where the commodity sits.
Just above this segment, a little higher in the pyramid sits the quasi-brand. This is a smaller segment. Consumers sit at higher-end needs in this category. The consumer has had his basic needs met. It is time to now look for the finer things in day-to-day life. Time to look for that bit of differentiation that sets apart the commodity from the quasi-brand.
And just above this segment of brand-wannabes is the brand itself. This is an arena of distinct thought. This is higher up in the hierarchy. The brand is a distinction. A distinction that sets apart standards of craving and want. The brand is a craving. A desire even.
Climb higher then. Right at the peak sits the super-brand. If the brand is a craving and a desire, the super-brand is a madness! It is a passion of passions!
The super-brand is that status which a brand acquires when the product offering is irrelevant even! Harley Davidson is not a motorcycle at all! It is a cult-statement! Nescafe is not a coffee at all! It is a lifestyle!
Imagine and assess the passion that a super-brand can command in its set of most loyal consumers, and you have the answer whether what you behold is a super-brand in reality or a fake bestowed with a label for commercial purpose.
What would you do to get the last available Harley Davidson in the world? Would you lie for it? Would you rob for it? Would you kill others for it?
Quantify and evaluate the passion that a brand evokes in its sets of consumers, and you might have the tinge of an answer that tells you what a super brand really is. It is indeed quite possible to build what I would call a Brand Passion Scale, which tells you where the brand in question sits on its evolution scale, from commodity to super-brand status.
The super-brand has normally a cult following that will not sway too easily from the format of the brand on offer. Many a time, the entire brand offering is controlled by sets of these cults. The Harley Davidson is a movement. A movement that is spurred by specific free-form Harley owner groups (Hogs). They will meet. They will debate. They will spread the Harley movement around, much as a cult would spread its tentacles all across potential sets of consumers.
The question again then is, what is a super-brand?
In many ways the answer is a difficult one. A super-brand in many ways is a specific offering that has distanced itself from its product utility to emerge as a passion and a craving. A brand that has for itself a cult following that will even kill for the brand if the need arises. The brand in question is in many ways a part of the life of the consumer. Any hurt or slur on the brand is taken as an insult to the consumer in question herself!
As I close this piece on the quintessential question, there is a point to note. A point I make with passion. Just as a brand is a thought that is owned in the consumer's mind, so is the super-brand a property in the mind of a consumer. Every consumer is likely to have a different super-brand of his or her own. In the case of comely Sumati Raman of Mylapore, superstar Rajnikanth is a super-brand. Her neighbour believes Mr Honest Raj (a popular Tamil film character) is a super-brand. And her neighbour believes Cuticura talcum powder is! And her neighbour will kill for a copy of The Hindu! One day without her favourite super brand is enough to set off withdrawal symptoms!
In short, to each their own. Each of us has our very own super-brand. There are just too many of these around. At the other end of the specific domain of the super-brand that is recognised by one and all, there are too few. There might just be eight super-brands in the world that are real and are able to stick to the tight definition of the super-brand I believe we must weave!
Therefore, let's respect the super-brand for what it is. It is an exclusive club. Not too many members in this league. Let us not clutter it with the confusion of our lack of understanding. There are only eight super-brands in the world at one end of the spectrum. And at the other, your mom and mine are all super-brands for each of us!
(The author is a brand-domain specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.)
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