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Kellogg and Coca-Cola are just two of the companies that have this year pulled their resources into bolstering their master brand, with experts saying consumer focus on authenticity has made master brand equity more important than ever.
Last week Kellogg unveiled a new digitally-led master brand campaign that aims to push the cereal category as a whole, partnering with YouTuber Zach King to generate content.
Kellogg Australia marketing director Tamara Howe said the campaign, by J. Walter Thompson, aims to both reconnect Australians with cereal and showcase Kellogg’s as a brand with something for everyone.
It follows a Coca-Cola move which, in January this year, made its biggest ever shift to global marketing, unifying its four core brands Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Coke Life and Coca-Cola under a master brand banner.
Speaking to AdNews, The Monkeys executive planning director Fabio Buresti said this type of master brand campaign is becoming more common for brands as consumers vie for authenticity.
“Companies are doing this a lot more,” Buresti said. “We’re in the age of transparency so people buy into authentic companies with real stories. It makes sense that in this day and age corporates are trying to build more meaning than just being a back of the pack label.”
Landor Associates MD Dominic Walsh said this focus on transparency is tied into corporate responsibility.
He said it’s no longer enough for a master brand to be a stamp on the back of packaging, corporate brands need to have a clear purpose and communicate it.
Walsh said the ways consumers “trust in the brand” is different now, with savvy consumers able to research brands rather than accepting what is being said in a big budget TVC.
“The role of master brands is more important than it’s ever been, but I think the way that master brands communicate has changed,” Walsh said.
“The days of the big master brand TVC are dead; just splashing a lot of money on a big campaign isn’t particularly effective anymore, mainly because you need to create a dialogue with the customer and be a lot more personalised.
Buresti pointed to one of The Monkeys’ clients, Blackmores, which last year moved from a product focus to promote its brand with the ‘Be a Well Being’ campaign.
“We started selling the master brand point of view in market to create a halo for all of the products in market,” Buresti said.
“Sometimes clients will take a product, narrow-focused approach to the market rather than laddering back up to a common purpose across all the products.”
“In this case, the results from the campaign are incredible. It’s been very effective to unite the master brand and add real value.”
Behind the news
Whatever you think of YouTube influencers or even cereal for breakfast, it’s clear that in an age of disruption across categories there is merit in rallying the troops beyond products for a master brand campaign.
Kellogg’s isn’t the first or last brand to try to address a category issue by driving efficiencies with a master brand campaign: Coke aimed to conquer decline in soft drink sales with its global push, Unilever and P&G - two of the biggest FMCG brand owners globally - have been ramping it up in recent years.
P&G with its Olympic sponsorship, wrapping all its product brands under its ‘Thank you Mom’ campaign, and Unilever which has been vocal about what it stands for as a business in terms of sustainability and purpose-led marketing began putting its corporate logo prominently on all product advertising.
It’s when building enough brand equity in your master brand creates a product preference and includes consumer behaviour that things become interesting.
As Landor’s Walsh noted, the way brands are investing in master brands are different, no longer is a TVC adequate to communicate brand purpose. In fact, it’s the things brands do around straight advertising – personalisation and product innovation – that really move the needle from a branding perspective. Brands want their corporate brand to stand for more than just a label on a box – having brand equity that can be leveraged into real change certainly accomplishes that.
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