PJL-22

FutureBrand: more value to the brand, more value to the product!

The success of a product passes through the value of its brand. Have you ever wondered what lies behind an amusing promotional campaign or an innovative packaging design? A company! Indeed, the art design of a product represents the final phase of a process that involves the entire company itself.

Maura Leonardi


“Brand Evaluation or ‘Brand Analytics’ is an instrument for analysis created by FutureBrand to measure the value of a brand. In order to do this, precise methodology must be followed, which relates quantative and qualitative brand values through coefficients. Besides attributing a quantifiable value to the brand, this method allows to detect its strong points and weaknesses.

Once brand image support activities are started, brand value can be monitored through a sort of tracking study”, affirms Susanna Bellandi, general manager of the Italian FutureBrand Giò Rossi Associati. Headed for decades since the 1960s by its founder, Giò Rossi, as of 1998 the company is part of the FutureBrand group, a multinational network with headquarters in London and New York, present in 25 countries, whose scope is to supply a wider and more global understanding of branding.


RESEARCH, CURIOSITY AND INNOVATION represent the main focus points also for the Milan branch of the company. And this philosophy finds its origins in the application of art design to the brands, a concept that has given rise to product images that have become veritable status symbols for millions of consumers in the course of the years. For many companies, the creation, development and establishment of their brand represent a top priority in the elaboration of their sales strategy, because brand image expresses a structured result that involves the entire company’s modus operandi.

But restructuring a company’s image does not mean mere aesthetic restructuring, but also carrying out an introspective analysis of the operation of the company itself. At the basis of the work carried out by FutureBrand is the “thought”, that is, what the company – and hence the product – promise consumers. In today’s world where image and appearance often carry more weight than other factors, transmitting strong values, having one’s own style and personality, being visible and recognizable have become of paramount importance. The concept of product must be coherent with its positioning because only in this way is it possible to reorganize harmoniously, both on a visual and on a conceptual level, brands and sub-brands, developing all the potential inherent in the brand itself.


THE PRODUCT UNITES THE FORM AND CONTENTS OF THE COMPANY’S STRATEGY IN A SOLE ENTITY, and even the packaging design assumes great importance, becoming a strategic factor in defining brand marketing. Through the packaging, the brand’s symbols and values are physically transmitted to the consumer. Therefore, “brand equity is given by an ensemble of factors representing the synthetic and unitary expression of the evaluation made by the consumer on the product and on the company that produces and commercializes it.” 1 For this reason, today, companies must be increasingly aware that brand image is one of the most important features they possess, an intangible company heritage that has also an important economic value.


HOW ARE COMPANIES INVOLVED IN TISSUE PRODUCTS CONVERTING MOVING IN THE REALM OF COMMUNICATION? Differently from other fields, companies working in the tissue converting field are today taking the communicative step, approaching the world of marketing and communication, and discovering the value that these instruments have in the company’s strategy. These companies, mainly oriented towards the B2B trade, have for many years adopted product oriented strategies, not taking the needs of consumers into consideration.

Today, the market is substantially changed, and consequently so have the sales strategies of consumers; often, they are having to face different variables, among which market saturation in terms of consumption and a new approach by large retailing, which has become increasingly exigent in terms of product. If up until a few years ago we could speak of branded products and private label products, identifying with this terminology two well defined categories of products, today this is no longer applicable. Indeed, products for domestic use constitute a category where the perception of added value is more difficult to appreciate with respect to other non-grocery categories. •


A NEW BRAND IMAGE FOR COOP


“Coop Italia constitutes a unique example on the Italian market of the increasing affirmation of private label brands and is different from other retail chains in that it focuses strong attention and effort not only to the product but also to innovation and communication,” declares Roger Botti, Creative Director of FutureBrand. Together with Roberto Cernuto, General Manager, he has catered to the re-styling of the Coop brand.

“The re-styling work carried out in Coop was brought about by following the origins of the retail chain, born to guarantee the transparency and quality of the products offered to its members. This is how we conferred new vigor to the Coop brand, creating a system finalized at increasing the degree of brand recognition (from here, the elimination of the name of the producers on the packages), and the creation of eight different “worlds” that define and identify the different realms that the products belong to. For the tissue products, too, we have intervened both in content and packaging with images and symbols that allow the brand to prevail over the product, in favor of a better positioning” concludes Roberto Cernuto.

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