Brand personality is key element in marketing expensive cars

Brand personality is key element in marketing expensive cars

Agus W. Soehadi, Contributor, Jakarta

Though not exactly crowding the streets of Jakarta or several
other major cities in Indonesia, a number of luxury cars, such as
Jaguar, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Ferrari, are often found to be
cruising the city.

This indicates that a demand for these extremely expensive
cars exists. Although the country's economic situation is yet to
recover, the sales number of luxury items, including cars, has
grown over the past few years.

The buyers of these enviable items are but a fraction of the
population, the super-rich and the VVIPs. With little thought to
the opinions of those who cannot afford such expensive items,
they make the purchases with the notion that they have every
right to do so. Plus, all the expensive cars, some costing as
much as Rp 7 billion (about US$823,500) , suit their requirement
to "expose" or emanate their image and lifestyle.

At first impression, based on the premium prices, the luxury
car segment may seem attractive. However, to enter this segment
and survive there is far more difficult in comparison with lesser
priced cars. Among the difficulties encountered by marketers is
to communicate the right brand personality of their product and
make it stick in the consumers' minds.

Brand personality is undoubtedly one of the key elements in
marketing luxurious cars successfully. Here, it is a combination
of both the personality of the product as well as the targeted
customer. In fact it is a kind of a positive symbiotic
relationship. Hence, the endorsers -- celebrities, like artists,
sportsmen and so forth -- used for advertisements have to exude
the appropriate brand personality to further strengthen it in the
minds of the customers. Ferrari cars, for example, uses the world
famous racer Michael Schumacher. Obviously, his numerous
victories contribute immensely to the car's image.

Creating a product's personality, or brand personality, is
very much akin to developing a relationship with someone very
close, your friend, wife, children and so on. The emotional links
produced by a brand through its tangible features and intangible
or abstract image is similar to ones that occur in the above
intimate relationships. This way the consumer has great empathy
for the brand and thus remains loyal for a long time.

The first step in deciding upon the right personality of a
brand is for the marketer to hit on the brand's appropriate
character. This process is similar to categorizing the brand
within qualities that sound like positive human qualities:
dependability, trustworthiness, friendliness, caring, fun-loving,
helpful, sexy, rebellious, easy-going and so on. The process
includes focusing on the target segment, identifying their needs
and desires and finally matching the brand personality with the
target profile.

Step number two is building the right brand positioning for
the targeted segment. For example, when a marketer decides that
their product is masculine, powerful and fast, then they should
realize that they have narrowed down their potential customers.
Of course, while their decision will make their product appealing
to "machos" or "racers", they have knowingly not targeted those
who prefer to "play it safe" or to be more precise, drive at
safer speeds.

The third step, which is no less important, is constant post
assessment or evaluation of brand performance. Take for example
the results of a survey on two major banks in the country. The
question in the survey went something like this: "If the bank was
a person, how will you describe their character?" The answers
from the respondents boiled down to a very conclusive image of
each bank. Bank A was thought to be sophisticated, arrogant,
efficient, self-centered, distant and disinterested. Bank B,
meanwhile, was seen as being easy-going, modest, helpful, caring,
approachable and interested. To the question: "Which person
(meaning bank) will you choose to be your friend?" came the
expected answer. More than 90 percent of the respondents
preferred Bank B.

A valuable lesson from all this, especially the continuous
evaluation of a brand's personality, is that this special
combination of the concrete and intangible aspects of a brand
must completely fulfill the requirements of targeted customers.

From the chosen and well-maintained brand personality all
sorts of communications paraphernalia are then born in one
positive synergy, such as the endorser and message theme,
including logo, slogan, jingle and so on. Indeed, it also
includes the careful selection of the fitting advertising agency
who can translate the marketer's vision for communications.

The correct implementation of brand personality is even more
crucial for extremely expensive items, like luxury cars. --
The writer is chairman of the marketing faculty at Prasetiya
Mulya Business School