David. Ogilvy - Brand Image Theory

When it comes to David Ogilvy and his ideological theory, we must first think of the "Brand Image" he advocated. This view has a great influence. Large, making "building a brand image" a fashion and strategic genre in the advertising world.

David Ogilvy put forward many famous sayings or maxims about branding and advertising in his books and on many other occasions, which contain his image theory. As early as 1955, he told the American Advertising Association: Every advertisement should be viewed as a contribution to a complex symbol—the brand image. He claimed to be the world's greatest ad man, he added, because the other great ad men were dead. However, several surveys conducted by some professional organizations in the United States show that he is indeed considered the greatest advertiser of the 20th century.

He believes that advertising plays a huge role in selling products. He used an analogy: A product may require hundreds of scientists to work hard for two years to successfully develop it, but it only takes me 30 days to create a personality for this product and develop an advertising plan. If my work is good enough, my contribution to the success of the product will be no less than the contribution of hundreds of scientists. It can be seen that he believes that it is very important to establish a personality for brand products and launch a successful advertising campaign. He believes that (enterprises) must now decide what image they want for their brands. Image is personality. A product is like a person, it must have its own personality. It is this image that determines its position in the market: success or failure. .

Image design for sales

The 1950s, despite the often annoying imitation trend, can still be said to be the golden age of the American advertising industry. At that time, the manufacturing industry in developed countries had shifted its focus from the production of war supplies to the production of a large number of daily consumer goods. Along with this, the advertising industry needed to adapt to this mass production situation. As products from cars to washing machines continue to roll off the production lines, advertisers must find new sales techniques in the face of these mountains of merchandise.

The most effective way to sell this kind of mass product is to highlight its difference. Of course, it is not the difference in production equipment or production process, but the difference in its linguistic meaning. It’s true that you can’t change the way products look, but you can change their meaning with a few tweaks. Just follow what Adam did in the Garden of Eden and change the name of the product to change the atmosphere.

Advertising creativity can take advantage of some laws of human psychology. For example, if you change the name of a rose, you won't seem to feel its sweetness; if you name it glacial spring water, it will taste better than tap water; a wild horse must run faster than a rambler; if you wear Zordano Naturally, it's a step further than Cadillacs; you prefer Marlboro cigarettes to Big Bertha, which is popular in golf clubs.

In marketing, naming is to mark a product, that is, to create a brand.

In 1949, David Ogilvy opened his own store on Madison Avenue. At the time, he was a maverick in the relatively boring practice of advertising. Ogilvy explained: "I am a classicist when it comes to advertising. I think advertising once had its glory, and I want to rediscover that glory."

In the 1950s, brands gained Extremely prosperous development. At the same time, some signs are gradually emerging. First, the branding of goods does not serve production, but serves the end user; second, users appear irrational due to their pursuit of brands. People will wear shirts with crocodile logos embroidered on them; drive cars with chrome hoods; and maybe one day wear shoes with giant swooshing logos. It’s all incomprehensible and they are willing to pay extra for these incredible things. There was a joke about brands 30 years ago: "What is a brand? It means paying several times more."

David Ogilvy first discovered this important consumer psychology of people. As a producer who had done investigative work, Ogilvy learned from the scientific theories of Hopkins and Raymond. Find inspiration in Rubicam's iconic heritage.

From these theories and legends, David Ogilvy gradually realized that people buy a certain product not because of the product itself, but because they associate the product with a special image. Therefore, regarding the brand image, he explained: "It is necessary to give each advertisement a commensurate style and create its normal personality. This is the secret of the greatest success."

This The theory proposed by him became popular in the advertising industry in the 1960s and quickly became an important school in advertising creative strategy theory. It advocates that advertising should create brand image and increase perceptual awareness, thereby attracting consumers to purchase. For example, Lux soap can increase the image charm of Lux and drive the popularity of the brand by showing its extensive use by top celebrities. Under the influence of this strategy theory, a large number of excellent and successful advertisements have appeared.

The basic points of brand image theory are:

(1) Serving the brand is the main goal of advertising. Advertising is to strive to make the brand have and maintain a high-profile brand image;

(2) Any advertisement is a long-term investment in the brand. From a long-term perspective, advertising must try its best to maintain a good brand image without sacrificing the focus of pursuing short-term benefits.

(3) As the differences between similar products decrease and the homogeneity between brands increases, consumers will use less rationality when choosing brands. Therefore, it is more important to depict the brand image than to emphasize The specific functionality of the product is much more important.

(4) What consumers pursue when purchasing is "substantial benefits + psychological benefits." For some consumer groups, advertising should pay special attention to the use of images to satisfy their psychological needs.

Most manufacturers are unwilling to accept the limitations of their brand image; they want a universal brand that belongs to both men and women; a brand that can be used by both the upper class and the common people. This kind of mentality of trying to please everyone will only cause the brand to completely lose its personality and become a bland, sexless product. This is the same reason that a eunuch cannot be an emperor. Advertisers are under intense pressure to do something new every six months, on average. In this case, it is easy to adapt to change, but it takes a lot of courage to insist on maintaining a consistent form. However, the rewards are wonderful for advertisers who work hard to create a consistent image and stay true to that image.

On the issue of how to build an image. David. Ogilvy believed that advertising is not entertainment, but to provide information. What prompts customers to buy is not the form of advertising, but the content of advertising. What is the content of this advertisement? According to the image theory, this content is a personal image containing creativity.

Therefore, image theory believes that a good advertisement should not make people think it is an advertisement and should not force sell, but should allow customers to buy your product unconsciously. This idea is completely different from the USP point of view.

However, as far as creativity is concerned, it is consistent with Reeves's idea of ??uniqueness. It’s just a name for creativity, which is essentially uniqueness. According to Reeves, uniqueness is something that competitors do not have or have not said. In fact, something that has never been proposed before is now proposed (a unique proposition), which is creativity. However, due to the different thinking of the two theoretical experts, David Ogilvy focuses on the art and image of creativity, while Reeves mainly refers to the unique product benefit points.

After advertising master Ogilvy pointed out that "every advertisement is a long-term investment in brand image", he created an important school of advertising creative strategy theory, and his outstanding ideas are respected by countless companies. not consciously applied in practice. Thanks to David. Ogilvy's personal success has made brand image theory widely recognized. However, because it is very difficult to obtain ideas, David Ogilvy did not propose specific sources of ideas. His strategy was to find the best people, who were the sources of ideas. He believes that in the actual advertising world, real creativity is very rare, only one in a few hundred.

Ogilvy discovered another form of the brand that USP had not noticed, the emotional value of the brand, the associations consumers give to the brand, and things that belong to personal experience. The impact on Chinese enterprises is also profound. Sun Gods and Season 5 suffered greatly from this. The most famous example of foreign success is Marlboro.

Marlboro was the first cigarette to use filter tips. In the era of cigar smoking, it could only be a women's cigarette, and its sales for 17 consecutive years showed no results. Then Marlboro changed its image to that of a rough western cowboy. Such an image with deep American spirit immediately made Marlboro popular all over the world. Times have changed. It is no longer feasible to rely solely on image and concept. Today's consumers find it difficult to accept a pure concept. Brand image theory emerged in the United States after World War II, when products were completely homogeneous. On the basis of completely homogeneous products, whoever has more unique temperament will stand out. The theory has changed from the manufacturer's perspective to the consumer's perspective. So brand image theorists usually forget about the product, and test what kind of goods consumers need. What if the product is a person?

Marlboro’s cowboy image gives brand image theory a chance to be recognized, but in a sense, brand image theory can only serve as the icing on the cake. The biggest problem with brand image is that it plays a role in identifying , inspirational effect, and does not have direct promotional power. In some cases, it is especially suitable for making concepts and products that are difficult to spread intuitive and familiar. For example, many tobacco advertisements are restricted and have to use another image to replace the product itself. Show off, such as "Marlboro - Cowboy", "Red Gold Dragon - Red Gold Dragon", "White Sand - Crane", etc. Or it is necessary to make complex concepts or overly technical things intuitive, humane and visual, such as "Michelon - the tire giant", "Global Communication - the hair carving master"; or to enhance the brand's affinity. , use specific images to convey specific values ??and tones, such as "Beautiful Bear", "Hulk", and "Benny the Tiger". In fact, from the perspective of these companies that have achieved results by using brand image, they are all companies with deep pockets and spend a lot of money. There is no doubt that it requires a lot of investment to create an image that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Those who advocate using brand image to break through homogeneous competition The formulation is dangerous, especially for new and small brands.

In more cases, brand image is used as an additional attribute of advertising communication to subtly occupy the "limited sensibility" of consumers.

Therefore, image theory puts forward the importance of brand image and brand personality, but how to obtain this creative personality is left to advertising creative experts, relying on personal talent. Therefore, this theory is essentially just an idea and has no practical guidance.

The realistic development of brand image theory

The proposal of brand image theory reveals to some extent that the purpose of advertising is to create brands and serve sales. But what exactly is brand image? What does the brand image include? What is the secret of its eternal charm?

People's understanding of brand image is a process from perceptual to rational. So far, there is no complete and unified definition of brand image in the theoretical circles. Levy, an early marketing expert, believes that brand image is a collection of images and concepts about the various elements of the brand that exist in people's psychology, mainly brand knowledge and people's main attitudes towards the brand. Sizi believes that: Brands should have a personality image like people. This personality image is not determined solely by the substantive content of the brand product, but should also include other content...

These views come from different levels. Describes people's understanding of brand image. However, brand image should be a comprehensive concept. It is a psychological collection that brand marketers are eager to establish and is affected by the subjective feelings, perception methods, and perception background of the image perception subject.

According to the form of brand image expression, brand image can be divided into internal image and external image. Internal image mainly includes product image and cultural image; external image includes brand identity system image and brand in the market and consumption. credibility among the participants.

Product image is the basis of brand image and is an image linked to the functional characteristics of the brand. Potential consumers' awareness of the brand is first reflected through their awareness of its product functions. A brand is not nihilistic, but because it can meet the material or psychological needs of consumers, and this satisfaction is closely related to its products. The luxurious and noble brand image of Mercedes-Benz cars first comes from its safe, comfortable and first-class quality cars. When potential consumers have a high evaluation of the product and have strong trust, they will transfer this trust to the abstract brand and have a higher evaluation of the brand, thereby forming a good brand image.

Brand cultural image refers to the public and users’ recognition and evaluation of the brand culture or the overall corporate culture embodied by the brand. Corporate culture is the concentrated expression of corporate business philosophy, values, ethics, codes of conduct and other corporate behaviors. It also embodies the spiritual outlook of an enterprise and exerts a subtle influence on its consumer groups and employees. Brand culture, together with the company's environmental image, employee image, entrepreneurial image, etc., constitute a complete corporate culture. Behind the brand is culture. Behind every successful brand is its profound cultural soil and a story that conveys truth, goodness and beauty. The three words "McDonald's" include not only crispy French fries, delicious hamburgers and fresh and refreshing ice cream, nor is it just a comfortable environment and meticulous service, but also what it represents. American fast food culture and the modern lifestyle it embodies.

Brand identity system refers to the perception and evaluation of brand identity system by consumers and the public. The brand identity system includes the brand name, trademark pattern, logo word, standard color, packaging and decoration and other product and brand appearance. The public's initial evaluation of a brand comes from its visual image, whether it is delicate or rough, warm and bright, or noble and mysterious... The most direct and fastest way to convey the brand image to consumers is through the brand identity system. Especially in modern society, there are a huge variety of products and the introduction of new products is dizzying. Only by first grabbing the attention of consumers can a brand further capture their wallets and hearts. When you walk into a shopping mall, you will be greeted by a dazzling array of products with different colors and attractive patterns. The era of not paying attention to the appearance of the brand has passed.

Brand reputation refers to the perception and evaluation of consumers and the public's trust in a brand. Its essence comes from the credibility of the product. The establishment of brand reputation requires the joint efforts of all aspects of the enterprise, including products, services, and technology. It also pays attention to delivery according to the delivery date stipulated in the contract and timely transfer of accounts payable. A consumer of a "Mercedes-Benz" car crashed a part on the car one month after purchasing the car. Mercedes-Benz replaced the part for free. They said: the easily-crashable part is not a part of the Mercedes-Benz car; What makes these famous brand companies "make a fuss out of a molehill"? The answer is brand credibility. Brand reputation is a magic weapon for maintaining customer brand loyalty and an important weapon for a brand to maintain its charm.

David Ogilvy believed that all activities of products and enterprises are to establish their own brands and make their own brands form an image different from other products in the minds of consumers. He once said at the end of an American Association of Advertising Agencies luncheon: "Let us remember that it is the characteristics of the brand that determine a product's ultimate position in the market, not the small differences between products."

Hathaway shirt - an immortal work of the advertising giant

David Ogilvy was the first advertiser to apply the concept of "brand image" to advertising practice. He asked his subordinates to "remember to create a heroic image of the product in the advertisement at all times. There are no ordinary products in the world, only ordinary copywriting." Ogilvy combined the ideas of "rationalism" and "emotionalism" Strengths, resulting in a unique Ogilvy advertising style that is both attractive and sales-promoting.

In the early 1950s, David Ogilvy began planning product advertising for the Hathaway Shirt Company. These ads were popular from 1951 to 1990, almost all over New York City, and the shirt company also made a fortune.

The first thing to consider is that it is difficult to create a brand for shirts. A white shirt seems to have no characteristics, especially the kind required by social etiquette in the 1950s. The style, color, and long sleeves are all stylized. What can you say about advertising a shirt? Nothing more than the material, sleeves, cuffs, collar, buttons - yet every piece is like this.

Therefore, if you want to highlight new ideas, you can only make a fuss about the collar, cuffs and pockets. The Wrigley-collared man of the 1930s is perhaps the earliest and most recognizable popular image. Their elaborate, flashy turtlenecks became a symbol of America's well-dressed men. During the time when French cuffs were popular, cuffs became a sign of class. Men, like women, also display their status with jewelry on their wrists. Therefore, selling cuff trousers has become the most profitable business item for clothing stores.

However, since the 1930s, the Duke of Wenze criticized the "soldier" cuffs as too formal and did not meet his taste, and the French cuffs began to decline. Although they introduced models with buttonable pocket flaps on the chest, all their efforts could not save the life of the brand.

David Ogilvy had a better idea. He wants to create a brand with the people wearing the shirts, not the shirts! The current advertising thinking of selling people wearing shirts instead of shirts has actually been tried a long time ago. They chose Ronald Reagan, a second-rate Hollywood actor, and boasted that the shirt was more durable. But the campaign had little effect. Women may swoon over the glamor of movie stars, but what do Hollywood stars have to do with shirts?

Things are not that simple. Since most women buy clothes for men, men's shirts must also appeal to women. It also has to appeal to those who are a little older because they also wear shirts. At this time, Ogilvy met a Russian friend George Rangel, and the Baron planned to let him be a model. But Ogilvy didn't know what image would be more appropriate for him to appear in, so he said he tried about 18 images.

How to finalize the image? There are two different versions of what happened next. If you ask the Hathaway Shirt Company, they will tell you that the president's wife happened to see a man wearing an eye patch and told her husband that the eye patch made the man look very different. The president himself, an imaginative man and a foresighted collector, told the advertising agency this information. The president's wife was also the initiator of a poorly conceived advertisement, such as "Don't wear a white shirt before sunset" and an advertiser for madras shirts. Of course Ogilvy noticed his eyepatch and came up with the idea for future advertising.

But Ogilvy tells a different story. The following is an excerpt from his autobiography "Confessions of an Advertising Man":

Initially, we rejected the idea of ??blindfolds. It wasn't until one day when I bought a pair of eye masks for $1.50 in a store on the way to the studio that I changed my mind. I don't know how the blindfold was so successful, it put this little-known little place in Hathaway on the map. What inspired me on a wet Tuesday morning to make me famous? I know fame comes from hard work.

Ogilvy always believed that the eyepatch was no more attractive than the shirt itself, it was just a decoy. This is undoubtedly true. However, in any case, the eye patch has become Hathaway's independent brand mark that distinguishes him from other independent brands, just like the tattoo in the Marlboro advertisement. Even though the man was openly putting on an act, it didn't look like he was acting that way. As Schwepp said, the distinctive red beard made Barron (and his successors, because the real Barron returned to his hometown a few years later) gradually falling into the quagmire of imitation. Ogilvy knew this, so he often placed Barron in his daydreams. In this ad, we see Barron conducting the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, imitating Goya driving a tractor in a rice field, and imagining the upcoming cocktail party. The most eye-catching thing about this incident is Barron's well-fitting clothes. He proudly bent his arms on his waist and arrogantly stared at the crowd approaching him with his other eye that was not covered by the blindfold.

This was a common advertising style in the 1950s. Barron's image takes up three-quarters of the frame, beneath which is the inane title "Hathaway Shirt, the Finest Shirt Since 1837." Or "Really, although Hathaway's shirts are cheap, they are always of the best quality, and no one can surpass Hathaway."

Ogilvy liked to write advertising slogans, and he always wrote the best ones. We can forget “13 Reasons to Buy a Rolls-Royce”, “9 Reasons Why HSS Makes Cars the Best Performance”, “25 Facts You Should Know About KLM”, but not Ogilvy Leading us into his jingle so quickly.

These paragraphs are the theme words of Hathaway's advertisement:

Americans are beginning to realize that it is very funny to wear a high-end suit with an ordinary, mass-produced shirt. . Therefore, the booming Hathaway shirt is a sign of your class. The exquisite collar of the Hathaway shirt makes you look younger and more noble.

The loose tailoring makes it more comfortable for you to wear. The slightly longer back piece can be tucked into trousers. The collar button is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and the stitching looks particularly elegant.

How elegant is the stitching? What does it mean? Regardless of this, let’s take a look at the following list of ostentatious items that only connoisseurs can appreciate. This is the most important thing:

First of all, Hathaway’s materials are extremely sophisticated and include almost all parts of the world. High-end fabrics - Vielle flannel and Airtax from England, plain crepe silk from Scotland, island cotton from the West Indies, hand-woven madras from India, broadcloth from Manchester, Paris Linen muslin, cotton woven by America's finest weavers. You may feel satisfied wearing a shirt of such perfect taste.

After these long remarks, Ogilvy concluded that even if the above is not true, it is true for the recipient, because the reader has become tired from looking at the long and detailed descriptions. . Ogilvy summed it up timely, "This shirt is made with artistic emotion...it has been sewn by male workers for 125 years." Now, I can believe that Hathaway was an artist, and that the shirts had been produced since 1837, but Ogilvy also knew for a fact that in the 20th century, they would never have been sewn by male workers, only men. It is done by countless female workers. Because 95% of Hathaway’s employees are women. As Picasso said, tell a little lie to tell the truth, or tell a little lie to enhance the impression? Maybe saying this can better show the masculinity of the shirt.

Success is Xiao He, failure is also Xiao He. It is precisely because of Ogilvy that branding has developed into irresponsible exaggeration in modern marketing. Within a day, advertisers no longer promised that they could "manage brands," "rescue brands," "protect brands," or "create brands," or even claim to truly understand the inner essence of brands, all of which These are all extremely selfish behaviors. There are more than 30 words used by Eskimos to describe the crystals of frozen water. Building a brand also shows the power of words.

If you look at professional magazines such as the International Journal of Advertising Research, you will learn more about the terms deconstructionists call for aid. In 1955, Ogilvy's ideas were classified as pseudo-theoretical terms by Burley Gardner and Sidney Levy in the Cambridge Business Review. They believed that when creating a brand, one must have brand personality and brand charm. Brand boundaries, brand characteristics and wealth, respect, charisma. It is said that customers have irreplaceable “brand expectations” for products that are suitable for them.

We now live in a golden age of branding. If someone doesn't know a certain brand, they will ask others to think about the brand's products and learn about the brand's extension (for example, Coke - Diet Coke - Diet Cherry Coke). In modern society, world-famous brands are not only the activating force for bullish market trends, but also the basis for corporate mergers in the past 20 years. Nike, for example, associates its trademark with other manufacturers' products.

Ogilvy's intelligence had a great influence on Hathaway. But it could no longer maintain its dominance. The president bought the company to a private inventor from Maine, Warner Bros., and the company slowly lost its share of the market. They also made some efforts to revive Shichang, advertising "After 25 years of absence, Hathaway comes back into your life...", but all to no avail. Maybe this is what happens when creating a brand. Bar.

Next, another obstacle appeared in brand creation. At least in the apparel world, the focus of brands has shifted from the image of the mysterious man in the shirt to the image of the designer. The Hathaway shirt has its own unique personality, such as it has the largest pockets, a three-hole granny button, and an embroidered "H" on the cover. Modern consumers want to place the brand's iconic words in a conspicuous place. For example, some smart brands place their trademark names and terms everywhere on their products. In this way, what we use is not the product itself, but the trademark. In the latest logo design, we have other hot names stamped on us.

Now, Hathaway has completely become a thing of the past and has no ability to compete with other emerging brands. In a recent ad, we see a bearded guy smirking affectionately at us, with the caption "Keep it up" next to it.

What a waste of the brand! If David Ogilvy had designed it, he would have looked at the vineyards in the clouds with longing eyes.

Reference materials:

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First edition, January 2003

4. Written by Wyatt, written by Xia Huiyanma "Subversion of Advertising" translated by Hong Zhang Jianqing, Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House, first edition, May 2005

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