Article Review: The Brand Core and its Management Over Time

Shopping trends change on a consistent basis which sparked my interest in the subject of a company's brand. What does it mean? How do you have a successful one? I decided to review an article that speaks on this subject.

The text, “The Brand Core and its Management Over Time” is an academic article published in the Journal of Product and Brand Management. This article was published in March 2016 and was written by Mats Urde, professor at Lund University School of Economics and Management. The purpose of this article is to “develop a framework for managing the core of a brand for continuity and change”. The goal is to find a framework that preserves the brand while enabling a firm to continue to grow and develop with the times. The audience of this article would be firms looking to understand the complexities of brand development over time.

The course of the article analyzes the brand management of Volvo while also studying terms related to brand development. In this introduction section, Urde introduces questions surrounding the concept of brand core. How to stay true to the brand core while adapting as well as how to use the brand core as a point of reference in all branding efforts. He has broken up his paper into four sections. The first section covers the definitions and concepts currently in brand marketing, the second section covers criteria for a new framework, the third explores rhetoric in the perspective of logos, ethos, and pathos, and the final section applies the studies of Volvo with the new framework.

One of the first terms discussed is brand core. Brand core represents an idea that will perpetuate over the course of the company’s future. Likewise, brand statements such as “Welcome to Marlboro country” are examples of what it means to create image associations that integrate themselves with the core. These values summarize and relate to the brand.

The “new framework” includes the extended brand core and consists of brand values and customer needs and benefits. The brand image is able to adapt and change over time based on the customer needs and desires. Customer value represents how the ideas of the brand translate to the people. Urde states that there is no one way firms should use a universal brand plan and that it is a firm by firm decision giving the variety of definitions and emphasis of importance. The criteria for a new brand framework include applicability to different brands, a point of reference, and inability of changes over time.

Urde speaks in the third section about rhetoric and its importance in brand marketing. Rhetoric must make an audience want to obtain or reach a goal. Through logos, ethos, and pathos, this becomes possible. Building trust (ethos) and playing to the emotions (pathos) of the audience are essential for brand success.

The last major section of the article discusses the evolution of Volvo’s brand. The company’s first emphasis was on the quality of its Swedish engineering and its ability to hold up in durability. The branding then shifted from product to corporate. Making the brand seem environmental and “safe” were ways to market it to a general audience. They were able to accomplish this by having advertising campaign slogans based on the environment as well as being one of the first cars to mandate seat belts in their production line. Volvo was able to dip into the pathos of their audience and develop their brand core.

The theme of this article was to examine brand core and its development over time. Urthe uses theories and frameworks to define what a successful brand can look like when developed properly through a strong core value. The brand core framework allows for an interactive process between the consumer and the firm that perpetuates positive growth. Urthe adds to his conclusion that the brand core exemplifies the changing of mindsets overtime. Urthe is able to synthesize his claims through the Volvo case study. For example, Volvo made a serious push to advertise their car as safe by way of seatbelts. This was controversial at a time when seatbelts were not mandated. The brand core shall always be a beacon for the company to fall back on when controversial changes are made which is a representation of the “continuity and change paradox”. Because Volvo stuck by their decision, they were able to prove that safety was a part of their core branding. The article addresses the limitations of having a “hollow” brand core from the start and how that would fail to jumpstart any sort of brand mindset. Likewise, the research only studied one brand in one industry. More research would need to be conducted to see how a multitude of brands develop their core over time.

This article clarifies that the brand core of a firm has a trickle down effect to how the general public perceive the firm. By emotionally connecting the firm to certain ideologies, a firm is able to reach an audience that believes in its core values because they have remained consistent. It is also possible to change those values, as long as actions of the firm back up those newly transitioned values. As stated in the limitations, it would be necessary to look at other firms in other industries aside from Volvo to see if these same brand implications apply. It is also important to assess what else draw’s the consumer to a particular brand. As mentioned in the article, logos, pathos, and ethos draw people in, but what else is out there that can ignite an audience? Further research must be done but this article provided a foundation as to what companies are capable of if developed and groomed the correct way. When looking at the bigger picture of how companies can influence socio-political climates, this article details the ways companies can ingrain values from their conception that ultimately make it easier to support them.