Brand Nation
by Richard Broadbent
As the World Cup rolls around with its usual fanfare, be sure that brand names the world over will be cashing in on what promises to be the most televised event in world history.
From banks to hardware appliances, the theme right now is to stick a football on it and it will sell. Much of this, of course, is due to the ‘if the competition are doing it we must too’ mentality of advertising, but there are also other more important forces at play.
Many brands are aligning themselves not just to football and the celebration of an exciting sporting event but also to a nation. England flags have cropped up all over an eclectic mix of everyday goods in a bid not just to show support for the home-side but to show that the product is somehow intrinsically linked to ‘Englishness’.
This is a particularly skilled form of branding for two major reasons. Firstly, by identifying a brand with a country, that brand is drawing on a massive reservoir human emotion. Like it or lump it, we all identify ourselves with a particular country or nation and we all in some way know its culture and history and feel a sense of pride in it. By tapping into this a brand is linking a particular good or service to a greater sense of national zeal that goes much further and is felt far more personally than any tagline or jingle.
Secondly, the identification of a brand to a nation is far more long-lasting than a brand that identifies with a particular fashion. Whilst a particular lifestyle or type of music will change in time, a nation is a permanent entity that keeps on going. For this reason, despite the fact that we all know at the back of our minds that England will exit the tournament on penalties or suffer another ‘hand of God’ goal, people will not suddenly reject a product that supported England alongside us. Rather, we appreciate that it too suffered with us and that, like us, it will pick itself up and look to the next major tournament. Therefore, even in defeat, we still identify with the brand on a more personal level than before.
For these reasons the simple slapping of a St George cross on a brand is more than enough to develop consumer loyalty, and opportunities like the World Cup and the hype surrounding it are too precious to be ignored. The best example of national branding this year has been the Mars advertising campaign ‘Believe’. By twinning Mars with psychic Uri Geller it has launched a ‘Believe-athon’ to focus the energy of England fans and bring victory in Germany. For the duration of England’s stint in the World Cup Mars Bars have been renamed ‘Believe’ in the same distinctive red and gold lettering. In the long term, if England wins, Mars will undoubtedly take some of the credit, and if England loses, fans will still love them for trying their best.
Of course this isn’t the first time Mars has associated itself with Englishness. During the Second World War, Mars was advertised as a treat for children who helped out in the war-effort digging gardens for vegetable patches or air raid shelters. Other brands have also seamlessly identified themselves with ‘Englishness’; the most prominent and successful being Mini Cooper which still draws on the success of the1969 cult English move, The Italian Job.
Whilst s.3(1)(c) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (UK) prevents geographical names being used as Trade Marks, brands have always tried to link themselves to our sense of nationalism; (British Beef, HP Sauce etc). A World Cup, with all the media attention and paraphernalia it attracts, is the perfect opportunity to have a prominent advertising campaign which cements future consumer loyalty.
