Brands ride the ‘aspirational’ wave

The last five years have witnessed a number of upscale luxury brands making their way to the Indian market. Consistent growth rates in their product category have fuelled the demand for more aspirational brands. With their ‘elevated’ distinctive positioning, aspirational brands inspire (or woo) discerning consumers to upgrade themselves by ‘indulging’ in the upscale imagery, price, taste and preference. Aspirational brand build their ‘sublime equity’ on the cornerstone of intangible qualities such as ‘self worth’ and ‘personal success’ rather than the ‘dime-a-dozen’ proposition of ‘value-for-money’. The psyche of an aspirational brand (as well as that of its buyer) is: “I am different, sophisticated and belong right up there.” As a dealer of luxury cars in Mumbai points out, “Growth rates in the luxury car segment have been registering growth rates upwards of 18 per cent per annum.”

The ‘millionaire turning into billionaire’ culture continues to patronise aspirational brands. The relatively small but significant coterie of wealthy people in India will be close to one million by Year 2008. Researcher Datamonitor’s recent report, ‘Tapping The Indian Wealth Market’, claims that the wealth of India’s elite has shot up to $177 billion (up 123 per cent from 1998). In fact, 618,000 individuals in the sub-continent have been termed as ‘affluent’ in 2003 and the figure is growing by 17.6 per cent every year since the last five years.

Customer Connect

Customer projection describes the relationship that a user shares with the brand. The process behind creating an aspirational brand’s exclusive positioning is an amalgamation of a number of intangible factors including customer reflection and projection. For instance, brand users help slot their users: be it ‘cool’ or ‘contemporary’ or ‘attitude of a modern global citizen’. Brands like Armani signify ‘a symbol of success’ whereas others brands like Next and Esprit imply ‘stylish yet at affordable prices’. Culture is another valuable pointer. Burberry’s, for example, stands for British class, elegance and an aristocratic lifestyle.

Value proposition

The product features, benefits, quality and the retail ambience are the brand’s physical attributes that marketers try to convey. A mixture of the imagery, range, visual merchandising and style (all elements that epitomise the brand) create a value proposition in the consumer’s mind. Mercedes Benz stands for understated class, combined with superior technology and safety values. As a Daimler Chrysler spokesperson explains, “In the initial stages of the brand’s relationship with the consumer, brand equity plays an important role as a buying motivator. Post the initial ‘brand experience’, intangibles like ‘brand value’ come into play. A brand like Mercedes is defined by intangibles far more powerfully than just the three pointed star.”

Creating an aspirational brand

Speaking on the creative process involved in creating the persona of aspirational brands, David Zimmerman, among the world’s foremost names in advertising photography (brands like IBM, Coke and Mercedes Benz on his showreel), says, “The target audience (demographics and psychographics) is always the focus. So, it is critical to address all the style issues whether it is clothing, background or environment. We make sure of incorporating the requisite imagery to suit the group’s tastes as broadly as possible. Also, such brands have a very clear understanding of their target markets; so we need to be bang on with the imagery we want to project, an input that comes through extensive research.”

….. To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated April 4-10, 2005