Making the most of a POLARIZING

brand

Article analysis..

Every brand wants to be on the top hence it’s important to play strategic

role in the market

Miracle whip is a polarizing product.People hate it and also they love it.

This Hate factor lead this product to its heights.

The campaign using love-’em-or-hate-’em celebrities experienced a 63.1% surge in social media postings and a 14% increase in sales.

In the market, polarizing brands have always been able to hold a good promising business career for marketers

To thrive in this environment, brand managers need new strategies.

This start with using a new metric, which we call brand dispersion, that measures polarization.

Managers also need to realize that having a group of consumers who hate your brand can be a good thing.

This is the list of some selected prominent companies which have their big share of lovers and haters.

How

Capitalize ONTO

POLARIZATION?

Placate the haters

CalmThemDown

Poke the haters

GrabThere

Attention

Amplify the Polarizing attribute

MakeThemHearYou

Betty Crocker brand, best known for cake mixes, icing

and other cook-at-home products, was suffering

because of rising concern of obesity, a consumer shift

towards low-carb products and criticism of food marketing

techniques.

Try to change the haters’ mind when confronted to reduce POLARIZATION

At the beginning of 2008, 4.5% of consumers could be classified as

Betty Crocker haters.

General Mills took steps which resulted in starting of a social

network MyBlogSpark promoting Betty Crocker.

Also, in collaboration with Celiac disease foundations, Betty Crocker started a website liveglutenfreely.com for

consumers.By May 2011, these action

resulted in drop of haters to 2.8%.

Ryanir, a pioneering European discount airline announced charging for access to toilets, removal of toilets, creating

standing room-only section and imposing ‘fat-tax’ on overweight passengers.

Each of the provocative announcements put the

company in the headlines and antagonized brand

detractors

Marmite, the distinctive salty British condiment since its inception in 1902 has been

a polarizing product.

Its Tagline..

HATE it OR LOVE it

Amplifying the enthusiasm among its most ardent fans

It introduced Marmite XO in 2010- an extra-strength version.

The promotions garnered more than 54,000 visits to company’s website and 300,000 Facebook page views and Marmite XO was sold out as soon as it arrived in

the market.

In 2006, sales of Magners, a popular brand, soared after a promotional campaign touted it as a refreshing

iced summer beverage.

The serve-it-over-ice campaign had turned Magners into a seasonal drink, and as a result, sales dropped during cooler months and working-class consumers distanced themselves.

The leading brand of cider, Strongbow, observed this success with some envy.

In 2009, using the images featuring working-class

drinkers hoisting glasses of Strongbow as a reward for a

hard day on the job.It launched a campaign named..

The strategy succeeded. Its appeal among

traditional cider drinkers intensified and as polarization increased , so did

sales.Strongbow has maintained its leading position in bars and

pubs. Its sales in fast-growing off-trade market rose by 23% beating sales in overall cider market by 6%.

BRANDwars

Helps in playing a Referee for Polarizing Brands

Animal rights ‘PETA’ organization pulled down KFC for its daily slaughter on birds

Then also, KFC emerged as a leading chicken loving fast food brand

Some companies gain good publicity from negative

BRANDCAT-FIGHTS

Examples..

Pepsodent challenging Colgate head-on with this advertisement

Tide making the claim of being the better product at lower

price

Coke and Pepsi’s long running duel for supremacy

Brand fights bring brand lovers and haters both out to buy their products in a way to

support their belief on that product.

Launching a provocative AD helps in creating

Polarizing effect

Advertisements featuring a cartoon character for endorsing a Brand is the Best Idea to create

Polarizing effect

And the Brand perfectly

adopting this formula is none other

than..

AmulThe Taste of India

Conclusion-

If your brand is polarizing, embracing this truth can work

to your advantage.Make your brand lovers even more devoted to your brand

by antagonizing brand haters.

Aayush NayakUIT-RGPV, Bhopal, during

an internship by

Created By-

Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.

www.IIMInternship.com