International Brand Management

What exactly is a trend???
Instead of a complicated, scientific definition that wont get the creative juices going anyway, I would like to use the following, short but on-point definition:

"A manifestation of something that has unlocked or newly serviced an existing (and hardly ever changing) consumer need, desire, want, or value." (www.trendwatching.com)

Basically this statement assumes that consumers (human beings in general) dont change that much. Deep needs remain the same, but they can be newly serviced, advertised or "unlocked". The question now is: What are the "unlocking" factors?

Anything from breakthroughs in technology to changes in consumers values to a rise in prosperity. Just give it a try: apply the above mentioned trend definition to the success stories of many companies. Here are just a few: Apple, Starbucks and 01THE ONE.
Successful innovations often satisfy existing, dormant needs in new and attractive ways.

Communication through brands
The desire of the "creative class" is to be individual with everything they do and of course -everything they wear.

"A men`s self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his phisic power, but his clothes and house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputations and works, his land and yacht and bank account. All these things give him the same emotions." (William James, 1890)

What William James decribed in 1890 became an important advertising strategy later. Brands are a special way to communicate personality and individualism. The consumer communicates a certain lifestyle in his social environment through the brand (watch) he is wearing. 01THE ONE`s slogan "join the evolution" connects the product with the next level - the slogan communicates a development and asks the customer to join it. At the same time it is a wordplay that makes the reader think about "join the revolution".
Revolutionary, "Evolutionary" - connected to the customers desire to be the first one to join.

"Knowing the roots of a person, place, or firm can help create interest and a bond. The same is true for a brand." (Aaker/Joachimsthaler 2000)
With other words it is important for a brand (or person) to have an identity, in order to be evaluated by others. It is impossible to trust a person without identity. The strenght of an identity depends on the consistence of self-perceiption and perceiption through others. In this context the perceiption of others can be defined as brand image. The development of identity for a brand (and person) is only possible over a longer period and involves developments in brandvision, brandperformance, core competences and brandvalues.

Another basic part of a brand identity is the brandorigin. Brandorigin can be an important part of a brand orientated communication style. Among many other industries in Germany the car industry is one of the strongest examples. Germany as origin of production stands for high quality standards and good engineering skills. Country-of-origin studies show that many consumers evaluate products by country or region of origin. Switzerland as country of origin for example is part of many communication concepts of leading brands in the watch industry. Another crucial part of a brands origin can be the cultural background.

Besides brand origin the core competences of a company are a decisive part of brand identity. Older approaches (Meffert, Burmann, Koers, 2005) suggested competences mainly as product quality. However this is a limited definition since organizational developments and the right combination of a firms resources are an important part of core competences. Competences and core competences of a brand are competitive edges at a certain period of time and therefore only temporary (Meffert, Burmann, Koers, 2005)
A brandvision sets a timeframe (5-10 years) and an exact category definition, e.g. to be the number 1 on a certain field. Brandvisions also define the advantage the brand offers to customers. THE ONE`s patented LED- time-reading systems are a unique selling point. This is why the performance in creating watches with LED based time-reading systems needs to at a high standard.The brand vision coordinates company-internal activities that are conform with the companies objectives (Meffert, Burmann, Koers, 2005)

Brandvisions can also define if a brand follows a "points-of-difference" strategy or a "points-of-parity" strategy. If the brand vision is orientated on a competitor the strategy in most cases is "points-of-parity", which means the imitation of a stronger competitor. (Markenmanagement)
Brandvision and brand performance are the base for brandvalues. Brandvalues are the strongest beliefs of employees of what the brand stands for. Meffert (2005, p. 62) suggests that the values are the emotional part of brand identity meant to express the wishes of the relevant target group. The involvement of management and employees is necessary in order to create a strong brandvision they can follow over a longer period of time.

Mefferts definition supported the views of Azoulay and Kapferer (2003, S.151) when specifying brand identity as %u201Ethe set of human personality traits that are both applicable and relevant for brands". Brand identity can be influenced and defined by the target consumer group of a brand. Good examples are Harley Davidson or the product brand Opel Manta. Lifestyle brands in the fashion industry are aiming to transfer their "human traits" using a young, modern style of brand communication. A good example is the communication strategy of H&M during the cooperation with famous brands like Lagerfeld or Jimmy Choo. During a limited period of time H&M communicates high brandvalue in combination with affordable prices and trend-oriented products. Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000, p. 57) suggest to answer five questions in order to identify applicable components of brand identity:
1. Does it capture an element important to the brand and its ability to provide the customer value or support customer relationships?
2. Does it help differentiate the brand from its competitors?
3. Does it resonate with the customer?
4. Does it energize employees?
5. Is it believable?

According to Insa Matthiesen the process of branding itself is generally considered as building, implementing, maintaining and enhancing strong brands. According to her study "The Hugo Boss connection", which also captures the importance of branding in an international context strong brands are thought to differentiate themselves from unknown brands, resulting in favourable brand images that show the brand`s identity.
In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target markets for its brand, product or organization.
A brand can be "positioned" by identifying a market niche using traditional marketing placement strategies such as distribution, promotion and price.