My reflection among 3 brands
Mont Blanc is a well-known mountain in Europe. Although Mont Blanc is a generic word, many people are aware of it as a luxurious fountain pen. In 1902, the company directly took the meaning of the mountain in order to establish a strong and powerful image of the brand. For example, the mountain rises 4,810 meters above the sea level so that there is a carved seal with the number of 4810 on the nip of each fountain pen. Moreover, their symbol is a white star that represents on top of the Mont Blanc Mountain when it is covered by snow. These meanings give the company elegant and prestige brand identity. In order to maintain its brand image, the company has used only two colors for packaging: the black-colored box with white-colored letters. Mont Blanc also takes an advantage of brand extensions; there are several sub-brand names such as Meisterstuck, Starwalker, Bohème, and Scenium under the brand of Mont Blanc. In early 90s, the company also diversified its brand equity into other product categories, such as a wristwatch, a wallet, a planner, a belt, sun-grasses, and etc, so that its highly qualified brand equity carries on and allows other products to categorize into a luxurious prestige brand, too.
There is no doubtful that Google is the most well-known search-engine provider on Internet. Actually, google was not a first search-engine provider that established this category, but the firm is apparently a leader of the Internet portal industry. Moreover, the name itself was a simple word without a certain meaning, yet today many people take the word as a verb, “search.” This phenomenon is directly reflected by one of the important criteria naming a brand in the Internet market; the name should be simple and easy to memorize. In fact, Google is consisting of two syllables and five different alphabets. The symbol is also flexible to promote its brand equity. For example, the six letters, google, can be designed by unique shapes in order to celebrate public characters or special events. In addition to design its symbol, Google also extends its business categories and creates sub-brands, such as Google Blogger, Google Earth, Google Picasa, Google Talk, and etc. This expounds on its well-defined brand equity.
The name, Starbucks, is the name of a character from the Herman Melvile’s novel, Moby Dick, which is a classical way to name a brand. The most differentiation Starbucks has pursed is the preemptive strategy in order to build strong brand equity: one-to-one communication between a barista and a customer. Starbucks also positions its brand image with a cultural marketing concept; they are not only selling a cup of coffee, but they are actually establishing coffee culture in customers’ minds. This enhances its brand awareness. In general, most companies do not want to break the rule to show their brand names at their stores. For example, Starbucks always keep displaying its name in English at the stores in the world, but there is only one store that displays its name in Korean due to the local traditional culture. The adaptability of customers’ desire and needs is what its brand, Starbucks, stands for.