The Effects of Brands on Charity Organisations in Australia - Case Study Example

Introduction: In the current period, with the intense competition that is present in almost every industry is branding and brand recognition (Ries & Trout, 1986). The impact and of brands is not only present in profit organisations but is equally an essential element in the non profit making organisations as well. This paper aims at discussing the effects of brands on charity organisations in Australia. The paper will also deal with thorough details of brand personalities. The first half of the paper will deal with an overview of the charity sector in Australia. This will be followed by the meaning of brands and a few essential concepts relating to brands like brand awareness, perceived brand quality, brand association and brand loyalty. This will be followed with a discussion of the concept of brand personalities. These will form a basis for the second half of the paper. The second half of the paper has been based on three advertisements that have been chosen. The three charities that have been selected for discussion are a) Fred Hollows Organisation, b) Boys to men organisation and c) Melbourne Community foundation. The main reason for choice is due to the varying personality and the varying range of marketing efforts by each of these organisations. Overview of Charity Sector: The not – for - profit – sector or the community sector, or charity sector is also referred to as the Philanthropic practice. This sector generally contains organizations which work with a purpose to help the society without the generation of profits or gain for any individual members or directors. The government is generally never referred to as a part of this sector, however, the government hospitals, universities and museums do fall into this category as well. The Australian markets have recorded over 70,000 such not – for – profit organizations and the organizations deal with a range of activities like environment conservation, charities to provide assistance to needy and disadvantaged, special schools, public hospitals, and many more. It is essential to note that organization that are altruistic entities and have been recognized and endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office alone are legal charities. These mainly deal with the care for people who are sick; disabled promote religion, provide educational scholarships, or even help after any disaster has struck. In simple terms they are the ones which work for the benefit of the community as a whole. “Philanthropy is a desire to improve the welfare of humanity through the giving of money, time, information, goods and services, influence and voice for community good” (Philanthropy Australia, 2009). It is essential to understand this term as it has a major impact on the overall charity sector as well. Individuals, Groups, companies and even families can carry out philanthropy and there are several organizations which have been recognized legally by the government and they are referred to as trusts or foundations. Foundations and trusts are the same however the legal term is trusts. These organizations are referred to as trusts as they hold the money from various donators and keep the money safe to provide assistance and for charitable purposes. The foundations on the other hand generally ‘have an asset base known as a corpus, and the income from the corpus is given away in the form of grants’ (Philanthropy Australia, 2009). The not for profit sector is very large and diverse in Australia. The numbers of organizations trying to raise money for these organizations are many and hence each of the organizations try to develop a brand name and image for themselves. The overall list of organizations is very large and it would be impossible to make a comprehensive list of all the organizations in the country. Since this paper aims at understanding how branding is an essential part of these organizations, it is essential to note the importance of being able to categories organizations based on the brand image that they portray. The next section will deal with a brief overview of the concept of branding. The main reason to discuss this is that in the present markets where brands play an important role in the consumer behavior, it is essential that even not for profit organizations develop a brand image and brand recognition for themselves (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). Brands: According to the AMA (1960) brand can be defined as, ‘A name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors’ (Armi – Marketing, 2009). A brand is like the image of a company and it provides companies with a separate recognition of their own. Brand Equity has been defined as ‘the brands assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand’s name and symbol that add to (or subtract from) a product or service’ (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000. p.17). There has been a lot of research that has been conducted on the importance of brand equity as it has been recognised to help improve the profitability of the brand choice and also leading to other benefits like brand loyalty and acting as a protection from the threats of competitors (Bridges, Keller & Sood, 2000). Aaker also went on to divide and categorise this into the following categories: a) Brand Awareness, b) Perceived Quality, c) Brand Association and d) Brand Loyalty. a) Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is a very important element of every business and this is in some manners the recognition that is present for the brand in the markets. It has been defined as, ‘Extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the early months or years of a product's introduction’ (Business Dictionary, 2009). b) Perceived Quality: Every brand has a certain image that it created for its product and the quality that it provides. Perceived Quality has been defined as, ‘Consumer's opinion of a product's (or a brand's) ability to fulfill his or her expectations. It may have little or nothing to do with the actual excellence of the product, and is based on the firm's (or brand's) current public image, consumer's experience with the firm's other products, and the influence of the opinion leaders, consumer's peer group, and others’ (Business Dictionary - Perceived Quality, 2009). c) Brand Association: When we think of taking a photocopy, the first term that comes to our minds is Xerox. This is association of a brand with a product is referred to as Brand association. It has been defined as ‘Extent to which a particular brand calls to mind the attributes of a general product category’ (Business Dictionary - Brand Association, 2009). d) Brand Loyalty: Every single interaction with the customer holds equal importance and a careful note of it can help boost the revenue. According to Salvati (1999, p6), till a customer remains satisfied with the service, there are no major chances that he/she may drop or switch to another service provider (The Interactive Imperative, 1999). Brand Loyalty has been defined as, ‘Extent of the faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases, irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands’ (Business Dictionary - Brand Loyalty, 2009). Brand Personality: Jennifer Aaker has set down the five core dimensions of brand personalities. Aaker has developed a framework to measure the personality of the brands. Aaker expresses that they can be related and understood using analogy with humans. Aaker also explains the importance of brands to be personalised in order to reach out to the target audiences. Aaker has divided the possible dimensions of brands to be classified as follows: Brand Personality (Belovedxp, 2009) If noticed all of the five personalities that have been provided for the brand personalities have a very strong relationship to human personalities. Aaker has classified these as, “a) Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful), b) Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date), c) Competence (reliable, intelligent, successful), d) Sophistication (upper class, charming), and e) Ruggedness (outdoorsy, tough)” (Belovedxp, 2009). This can be applied to brands by rating the brands on a five point scale, (where 1 refers to not at all descriptive and 5 refers to extremely descriptive) which identifies to what extent the brand falls under the categories. Each of the five core competences, have a series of facets. In brief these will be discussed as below. a) Sincerity, which includes all brands which are down to earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful. This simply means that the ads contain either all or most of the following traits, down to earth, family oriented, small town, sincere, honest, real, original, wholesome, sentimental, friendly and cheerful. These in several ways also relate to humans and these are a few of the several traits that humans have when they are sincere. b) Excitement involves being spirited, imaginative, up to date and daring. This simply also means that the brands have portrayed themselves as trendy, exciting, cool, young, imaginative, unique, independent, contemporary and also daring. These ads generally tend to be very young and lively and with a sense of excitement. c) Competence on the other hand refers to brands which portray themselves to be successful, intelligent, and reliable. These brands tend to have traits that are similar to a competent human being and these include being, secure, hard working, and reliable, technical, corporate, intelligent, leaders, confident and successful. d) The next classification that has been included is sophistication. Here the brands show the upper class nature, along with being charming. The main traits of these kind of brands include, good looks, glamour, feminine, smooth, charming and upper class. A few of the best advertisements that fall into these categories are the designer clothing advertisements like Armani and Gucci. e) The last yet not the least class are the ruggedness natured brands. These include traits that are tough, outdoorsy, masculine, western, and very rugged. Charities and Branding: The three charities that have been chosen for this study and their corresponding advertisements include, a) Fred Hollows Foundations – ‘Help Fred’s World Shine On’ b) Boys to Men Charity – ‘Ride-A-Bout Australia’ and c) Melbourne Community Foundation – ‘For Good Forever’. The main reason to choose each of these three advertisements are because of the total different nature and approach that has been taken to convey the message to the public (Bridges, Keller & Sood, 2000). The personality of each of these advertisements is very different and each of these will be described below. Fred Hollows Foundations – ‘Help Fred’s World Shine On’: The advertisement for Fred Hollows Foundation named Fred Hollows Jet Shine on TV, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2opo45uPzk, portrays a personality which is falls into the Sincerity Category. The advertisement show how Fred moves to various villages and towns and assists the people who are blind. It brings out the genuine nature of the attempt being made and also brings out other traits like being wholesome, sentimental, friendly, cheerful and honest. The website of the organization (available at http://www.hollows.org/) also brings out the same traits and the overall brand perception and brand image of the organization falls into the sincerity trait. The attempt by the organization is one which is more towards helping people and giving sight rather than just wasting funds. Although the advertisement also portrays a series of other traits (see Appendix), it is yet more of an honest and down to earth organization which sincerely aims at providing the gift of sight to as many people as possible. The target market for this organization is anyone who understands the seriousness and empathizes with people who cannot see. As a marketing director there are not many changes that I would make to the style of advertisements but would definitely try to make the advertisements more focused on how people can help and support the organization as well. In the case of this organization I would try to build the sincere personality to a much greater extent in the website of the company and will try to bring out the all the hard work, sincerity, honesty and competence of all the people who work for the organization (Bristol, 2002). Boys to Men Charity – ‘Ride-A-Bout Australia’: The advertisements and videos that relate to the Boys to men charity can be categorized into Excitement’. Boys to men charity are an organization which helps young boys learn and develop in the right direction in life. They assist young boys choose the right path in life and to grow up to be responsible men. They also highlight that, ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men’. The videos of the organization (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv7u-r2_NhE), and the website of the organization by itself (http://www.boystomen.org/), has built a brand image of being full of excitement along with being sincere, competent and outdoorsy. The main target for the organization and the brand is clearly the young boys who need help in facing life due to several issues like divorced parents, inability to move on with traumas, or simply those who wish to grow up and become responsible and competent men. As an advertiser, I would try to bring out more advertisements that bring out the true nature of the activities that take place within the organization and also briefly try to highlight how the activities assist the young boys to become responsible citizens and wonderful men (Haynes, Lackman & Guskey, 1999). The main focus of the brand here has been more on the Excitement (see appendix), however as a marketing professional, I would try to bring out the sincerity and honesty of the organization as well in the advertisements and the website itself (Dacin & Smith, 1994). Melbourne Community Foundation – ‘For Good Forever’: The website and the videos that relate to Melbourne community foundation (available at http://www.communityfoundation.org.au/), clearly highlight a brand personality which is a combination of competence and sophistication. The charity deals with social issues and the needs of the community. The website which is a strong marketing tools for the company portrays an image where the organization is competent and has a strong knowledge of how it works. Also the level of marketing for the organization is not as high as it should be. As a marketing director, I would firstly concentrate on building a better and more effective awareness of the organization. To do so, I will aim at developing a brand personality, and brand image which portrays the actual working of the organization i.e. of being a serious, sincere, honest and focused organization which aims at helping the society to the maximum extent (DelVecchio, 2000). Conclusions: Based on the above discussions, it is clear that brands and branding have a major impact on the working and effectiveness of even the not for profit organizations. Hence it is essential that organizations that deal with charities and donations develop and portray themselves in an effective manner and highlight the actual of their personality (Franzen & Bouwman, 2001). Aaker’s theory of brand personality has a major role to play in the effectiveness and success of these organizations. Bibliography Aaker, D. A., & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution. Free Press. Armi - Marketing. (2009). Brand. 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(2009). Perceived Quality . (WebFinance, Inc.) Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/perceived-quality.html Business Dictionary. (2009). Brand Awareness. (Web Finance Inc.) Retrieved December 6, 2009, from Business Dictionary: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brand-awareness.html Dacin, P., & Smith, D. (1994). The effect of brand portfolio characteristics on consumer evaluation of brand extensions. XXXI (May, p. 229 -242). DelVecchio, D. (2000). Moving beyond fit: the role of brand portfolio characteristics in consumer evaluations of brand reliability. 9 (7, p. 457 - 471). FHFvideos, (2009). Fred Hollows Jet Shine On TV ad. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2opo45uPzk Franzen, G., & Bouwman, M. (2001). The Mental World of Brands. World Advertising Research Centre: Henley on Thames Fred Hollows, (2009). Home. Retrieved December 11, 2009, from http://www.hollows.org/ Haynes, A., Lackman, C., & Guskey, A. (1999). Comprehensive brand presentation: ensuring consistent brand image. 8 (4, pp. 286-300.). Melbourne Community Foundation, (2009). Welcome to Melbourne Community Foundation. Retrieved December 9, 2009, from http://www.communityfoundation.org.au/ Philanthropy Australia, (2009). Sector Overview. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.philanthropy.org.au/sector/overview.html RideAbout Australia, (2009). Boys To Men, Ride-A-Bout Australia Charity Fundraising Promo. Retrieved December 14, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv7u-r2_NhE Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1986). Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. McGraw-Hill. Appendix Charity Brands Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Outdoorsy Down to Earth Honest Wholesome Cheerful Daring Spirited Imaginative Up-to-date Reliable Intelligent Successful Upper Class Charming Outdoorsy Tough Fred Hollows Foundations 5 5 5 3 1 5 1 5 4 5 3 1 1 1 1 Boys to Men Charity 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 1 3 5 5 Melbourne Community Foundation 4 4 5 4 2 4 2 2 5 5 4 5 5 2 1 Scale of Rating 1 Not at all Descriptive 2 Not Descriptive 3 Undecided 4 Descriptive 5 Very Descriptive Read More