Prodrive’s Brand& helps develop some of the potential in a vehicle manufacturer’s brand and distribution by creating carefully-positioned non-automotive ranges (mainly clothing and lifestyle accessories) and the retailing support that make them successful. To find out more, Matthew Beecham talked with Carl Ball, managing director of Brand& about its expertise and how social media is changing the ways in which dealers and OEMs should engage with their customers and potential customers, making cross-channel communications more cost-effective as long as it is cunningly implemented.
Could you tell us a little about Brand& and what you offer?
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One of a company’s most valuable single assets is its brand. Aston Martin is the second coolest brand of 2013 (according to the CoolBrands survey), just one place behind the massive global marketing power of Apple. The rapid growth of Mini and the proliferation of vehicles carrying Fiat’s successful 500 brand show that it isn’t only at the top that powerful brands are intimately linked with success.
Now look at the vast global distribution infrastructures and astonishing customer databases owned by vehicle manufacturers. Both of these considerable assets would be highly prized by retailers in other sectors but, as with the brand itself, in the car industry there are many undeveloped opportunities for making them work harder.
That’s what Brand& does: we help develop some of the potential in a vehicle manufacturer’s brand and distribution by creating carefully-positioned non-automotive ranges (mainly clothing and lifestyle accessories) and the retailing support that make them successful. It would be easy to dismiss this as simply merchandising, but we believe that by taking a top-down approach that is routed in asking challenging questions about the wider objectives, Brand& can help meet strategic objectives like increasing dealership footfall and accelerating changes to a brands positioning.
In 15 years, we have learnt a vast amount about how to get more value from brands and have continued to build on that expertise. We have also learnt the practicalities of producing items that really work irrespective of the brand attribute: work wear that protects, increases performance and meets regulations, sourcing that is cost-effective without compromising quality or timescales, detail that is affordable but of high value to the customer, plus operational areas such as online retailing, fulfilment, social media and much more. All this expertise is now available through Brand&, which operates as an independent company within the Prodrive group, supporting vehicle manufacturers in 40 countries.
In what ways have you helped your customers and what makes you different?
We understand that collections must reflect the defined qualities of the brand and support the vehicle manufacturer’s value growth. As a part of the Prodrive Group, we also have extensive automotive experience that gives us a deep understanding of the requirements of dealerships, retailers and other distribution channels. These collections have to make money at every point in the chain or they won’t succeed. There must be stakeholder motivation at every level.
A good example is our recent work with a major European vehicle manufacturer who already has an outstanding understanding of their brand. They wanted a range of clothing to sell online and through dealerships, partly as a profitable upsell with a vehicle or a service, but also because it would engage with new customers. This is not a luxury brand, but it has values of style, quality and success. Brand& designed each item to reflect these values. Materials were carefully selected to ensure consistency of look and feel, down to the sheen of every surface. It’s a simple trick that Prada, D&G and others are good at, not expensive but it makes a huge difference to the look of ‘the collection’. We then sourced manufacturing, arranged global distribution and established a dedicated website where dealers could order the products direct from us, making the whole process as simple as possible for the client and avoiding the difficulties of trying to integrate this range into their own parts ordering system. Finally, we liaised with their marketing and social media teams to ensure that the availability of the clothing range was well known and would help to drive footfall.
Other clients include Aston Martin and McLaren as well as premium and volume vehicle manufacturers. We have placed collections with Harrods and other major non-automotive retailers, bringing these brands to carefully chosen new audiences worldwide.
There is a belief that automakers place too much emphasis on cars and not enough on extracting value from their brand. What’s your view?
Some vehicle manufacturers already do this very well, while others are only just beginning to look at how they can extract more value. Porsche, for example, controls all references to its brand extremely tightly, giving it space to build value and additional revenue. But we can probably all think of one prestige vehicle manufacturer that has devalued its brand and poured cash away through inappropriate licensing and other retail activities. A brand is not a style; it is a promise of a set of values that must be nurtured. It is interesting that Bentley is taking this strategy into new markets with its Bentley Home Collection furniture range that although still very expensive, helps take the brand and its values into the homes of (and the retail outlets frequented by and the non-motoring publications read by) many new potential customers. Rather cleverly, these customers are from the rather more avant-garde niche into which Bentley would like to position its vehicles.
That’s the right way to do it. There is always a temptation to maximise revenues from non-automotive branded products, but it isn’t worth compromising the bigger picture. In fact, it is usually worth looking at the benefit of a few extra Euros spent on ‘surprise and delight’ features like beautifully shaped, machined metal zip pulls that are a frequent reminder that the brand delivers superb design and engineering. Some vehicle manufacturers are very good at engineering these exquisite but affordable ‘touch points’ into their cars. All branded products should receive equal attention to detail.
There are also more strategic objectives. In addition to increasing dealership footfall, building brand engagement and delivering additional revenue, branded product can accelerate shifts in brand recognition and perceptions. We are working with one global manufacturer of luxury vehicles to support the repositioning of their brand towards a younger demographic, particularly in developing markets (notably Russia and China) where much of the wealth is in the hands of younger people. Their branded product lines can be adapted much more quickly than the cars and can be retailed more prominently within a limited budget, often through partnerships with carefully-chosen high-end retailers whose own brands reflect where our client would like to be.
For some time, we have seen major automakers and tier one suppliers engage in football sponsorship. At the dealership level, how can they maximise revenue from football?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE research service
