Iconic Brand analysis - Colgate and Signal examples

According to Douglas Holt (Article about Snapple Juide Drink available on http://knowledge.skema.edu/):

- "for a brand to succeed in a society in which the volume of mass communication far exceeded what consumers could digest, it must own a simple, focused position in the prospect’s mind".

- "This position should be based upon what was important in the product category, usually a valued benefit or aspirational identity."

- "learn the transcendental truth of the brand, and then stay true to the course, consistently communicating these associations in everything the brand does."

- "it’s a one-size-fits-all solution." 

- "For low involvement, functional brands such as Colgate or Gillette, mind share works reasonably well."

 

The author explains that the mind-share branding model is not the ultimate one to build iconic brands today. However, it seems that it can be a convenient one for toothpaste brands for example because it is mainly a functional brand. If you ask a customer about toothpaste and its direct benefits and he says "Colgate", then you have achieved dominance in terms of mindshare.

Source: http://www.peopalove.com/

The website http://www.peopalove.com/ made a very interesting survey to prove that Colgate is now an must brand in the toothpaste market.
Please find below the results:

Have you heard of Colgate?
• 100% respond with a resounding “Yes”.

Is Colgate behind your smile?
• 71% use Colgate.

What the people perceive as Colgate’s Unique Selling Proposition?
• 95% associate Colgate with 12-hour total teeth protection, protection of gum diseases, fresher breath and whiter teeth.

What are the colours of the Colgate logo?
• 91% are aware that red and white are the colours.

Colgate takes advantage of the mind-share branding model. Like the other toothpaste brands, they are really focused on the benefits of the product. They capture category benefits and sometimes grab hold of desired lifestyle imagery. Signal for example won the "Most preferred Brand Award" award during the National Icon Awards in Sri Lanka in 2005 (http://www.island.lk/2005/04/05/business3.html) thanks to its benefits perceived by the population.

The toothpaste market is currently changing a bit and the different brands, evoked before in the blog, try to create "lifestyle" and "identity" categories with the culture-share branding model. Signal for example launched Signaline (http://www.signaline.fr/#/accueil), a club for kids and Colgate launched SmileTalk (http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/OC/SmileTalk/HomePage.cvsp). They try to investigate the cultural side of the oral care market thanks to the community and the social media but it remains a mind-share branding model.

It is quite difficult for toothpaste brands to "Target a cultural contradiction", "Act as a natural activist", "Create original expressive culture" and "Develop an authentic populist voice".
For now, toothpaste brands like Colgate still play on the mind-share branding model. The next challenge for the toothpaste model may be to consider the culture-share branding model which "creates stories that people will identify with and use in their everyday lives" as Douglas Holt says. However, it is really hard for such a product category.

Sources:
http://www.peopalove.com/brandtalk/2005/jul/chat.html
http://www.buzzwordhell.com/mind-share/
http://knowledge.skema.edu/courses/MIBGM145/document/cultural+branding/Snapple.pdf?cidReq=MIBGM145