Ask a professional marketer to name their favourite brands and you’ll get a fairly predictable round up of suspects: Virgin, Innocent, Jimmy Choo, Apple, Absolut etc. It’s unlikely, even at this time of the year, that their list will include a morbidly obese philanthropist with a penchant for breaking and entering. But (to coin a phrase), they better watch out, they better beware, because when it comes to brand role models, there are few that match up to ‘Brand Santa’.
The key to any successful brand is consistency; both in promise and delivery. Here, despite being a curious hybrid of ancient folklore and modern myth and despite his many guises around the world Santa’s single-minded approach to making kids happy is never diluted. Whether as Swiety Mikolaj in Poland or Baba Chaghaloo in Afghanistan, he is firmly embedded in national childhood culture. To act global he thinks local.
With a customer base that requires him to bend the laws of physics every Christmas Eve, you’d expect a phenomenal marketing spend. On the contrary, that budget is zero. Instead he licenses his image to other companies to use in their Christmas promotions, piggy backing their brands to keep his message alive. A classic example was the Coca-Cola advertising in the 1930s that established the white bearded, red-suited icon we know today. Interestingly, this was not an invention of the Coke marketing team. It was based on Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast’s classic illustration for Harper’s Weekly in 1862.
But by and large, Santa doesn’t need above the line advertising. His power lies in word of mouth: simple storytelling that passes his magic from one generation to the next. It’s viral marketing in its purest form. What’s more his brand was interactive before the concept was invented – encouraging regular correspondence from his customers to ensure he always delivers exactly what they want.
With current marketing trends focused on dialogue not monologue and customer ownership rather than centralised control, Brand Santa is clearly ahead of its time. Today, the smart companies trust their customers to help shape their brand image and in doing so, build communities of loyal fans.
Perhaps in 100 years or so, Santa’s image will have changed beyond recognition. Public health initiatives may force him to get fit and cut out the mince pies. He might have to ditch his sleigh to avoid punitive carbon tax.
He may even have to lay-off the elves and outsource toy production to China. But whatever form he takes, however he plans and operates his business, as long as his customers believe and trust in him, his brand future will always look merry.
Ho Ho Ho and a Happy Christmas to all.
For further information please contact Paula Morris. T: 029 2047 4401 E: p.morris@capitallaw.co.uk
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