British brand: a significant brand for the world

Introduction

With the development of society, self- improvement for a country becomes more and more important. A country will fall behind its competitors if it does not possess particular characteristics and strength to obtain a better developing. As one of the developed countries, Britain shows a very positive attitude to make progress. During the fore period of the London Olympics in 2012, the British Council has held a campaign since 2012. It is the GREAT, which is to show the best of UK from different aspects, such as culture, education and tourism, and to promote the British brand. This essay analyzes the GREAT campaign to get the understanding of the British brand, and shows the connection among brand meaning, brand strength and brand values according to the meaning-based model of brand equity, the model helps understand a strong brand meaning creates strong brand strength, and strong brand strength with the drive of the organizational resonance generates brand value (Fournier et al.,2008).

The British brand

A brand is not useful and noticeable for consumers if it is short of significance in people’s lives, it just cannot trigger consumers’ need , then it will go to an end. In contrast, a brand that is with particular meaning for a person’s life can become a strong brand. Kahn( 2013) proposed four stages of the consumers’ purchasing process—living, planning, shopping and experiencing, which does not only emphasize the brand’s meaning is important for a person’s life, but also indicates that a brand with strong meaning acts well at every stage of the four stages, because relationship between brand’s meaning and consumers is quite important for a brand. The term 'brand' refers to a branded product, service, company, person, group or a place (MacInnis et al.,2008). Therefore, A brand as Britain with its own special characteristics has particular meaning for people’s lives, and makes UK become one of the major countries in the world. We can learn about the brand meaning from the GREAT campaign which shows the British brand’s characteristics from different aspects.

First, knowledge is very important in Britain, and fosters a lot of successful people for different field. Actually, Britain possesses a great reputation for education, due to its famous English schools and the four top ten universities around the world, such as Oxford, Cambridge and University College London, etc. It is claimed that Oxford is the home for most of the successful people. Most of the England Prime Ministers were Oxford students after World War II. David Cameron who was elected as a Prime Minister in 2010 was also one of the Oxford students, his politic idea has affected Britain and has acted as a kind of political guide for domestic politics or politics abroad( Beech,2009). Nowadays Britain is a popular place for most of the learners from all over the world including the underage and adult. Report ( VisitBritain,2013) shows that there are 31,000 visitors for study visit in Oxford in 2012, 26 ,000 visitors in Poole, and 24,000 visitors in Cambridge mentioned by the Foresight Issue 121. The figures show a huge group who came for UK’s education. Thus, Britain education is one of the useful resources for the world, which proves that it is qualified to attract the world’s special attention on the international stage.

Second, it is claimed that Britain is a good place for business, where you can set up your business easily, because Britain is a place for both of the entrepreneurs and consumers. Some of the oversea businessmen are attracted to invest and do business in UK, which creates working opportunities for employees to solve the society’s old problems, and benefit the tourism a lot. On one hand, from commercial, retail to tourism, there are a lot of big department stores and small shops around the countries, some are owned by the local people, others are invested by oversea business people. Jess from Rock’N Rose said they got a lot of informations, help and advices from business advisor from Business Link, the government organization and websites when they built their business (British Council,2013). One the other hand, Shopping is always popular with consumers. As a tourist in UK for your vacation, you may find your favorite brand which is a kind of luxury, or even get some small and rare accessories with bling items, which make your experiences more wonderful in UK.

Third, with most of the famous department stores, over 500 world-class museum (British Council,2013.), some of the greatest music, most of the dramatic landscape and beautiful mountains, Britain is favorable destination for travelling. Most of the visitors feel Britain culture is wonderful, which make them to make the decision to visit UK. Therefore, Britain is well-known for its culture and makes great achievement. For the international cultural events in the past few years, for example, it seems that UK is popular with the Oscars and Grammies. Actually, it is normal to see that they got rewarded in the fast few years on the stage of the party. As every visitor knows that Britain is not just a paradise for shopping, it is also an amazing place for travelling. Take the museums for an example, the museums are always tied to the culture, you can discover arts, music and file-making there. You can find your childhood hero like batman in the museum, who is from one of the popular movies. Moreover, some of the largest culture events are taken place in Britain. Such as one of the world’s largest cultural events-- the Edinburgh Festival is hosted by Great Britain in London, the Festival takes place each year in August and attracts performers and visitors from all over the world.

Finally, as a great platform, the GREAT campaign offered good chances for students, visitors, employees and investor from all around the world, when their interest for UK is created, they would like to visit the country. And the campaign also provides chance for us to understand the characteristics of the UK from different aspects. All of the aspects are managed well by the country’s systems, so there is no doubt that Britain possesses the quality that attracts people’s attention and creates value. It is quite sure that that the British brand is with strong meaning according to the above remarkable features.

Fournier et al.(2008) ´s meaning-based model of brand equity

As we know, a strong brand is with strong brand meaning. Brand meaning with resonance sparks consumers’ interest, which creates brand strength. And the organizational resonance is the drive for the brand strength to generate brand value. Resonance plays a significant part for the brand equity. The brand meaning resonance includes the personal resonance, cultural resonance and organizational resonance (Fournier et al,2008). It is essential to possess some resonance for a brand, or the brand meaning will fail to generate brand strength and brand value in the market.

First of all, what the consumers need in their personal life is exactly what the brand can offer, this reflects the personal resonance (Fournier et al., 2008). A brand with eloquent meaning resonates with the consumers, is able to attract to buy and use it, and plays an important part in a person’s life. Consumers who keen on its useful characteristics, then do purchasing, which means that a person’s interest and attachment can be recalled by a brand with the characteristic of personal resonance. Moreover, a brand that is with higher personal resonance will be stronger than a brand whose personal resonance is low. The British brand offers various chances for people around the world from the young to the old, it is meaningful to people’s life. Before the Olympic Games in 2012, the GREAT campaign had promoted the brand overseas and offers effective information for the visitors, which makes the countries more popular with oversea students, tourists and investors. Moreover, a lot of oversea people visited UK for the Olympic Games which is not only the spiritual important thing for people, but also mechanism for them, because except the Games, they also came for UK. It is not the first time for Britain to hold the Games, they could do a good job during the Games. We can see that visitors were interest in what UK could offer for their trip, this means visitors resonates with UK. We also can get this related information from survey. Research carried out by Ipsos MORI among 8000 grown-ups in eleven major countries around the world demonstrated that 36% keen on visiting UK more after the 2012 Olympic Games, while 35% feel that UK is an attractive place for investigation and education( British Council,2012).

Next is the cultural resonance. It is indicated that cultural resonance concerns an expression of meanings from the shared language system that permits communication and understanding among community members, so it can be seen from the cultural resonance that there are different meaning fabrics for the socio-culture world, and a brand with low cultural resonance cannot beat a brand with high cultural resonance. ( Fournier et al.,2008). Firstly, strong brand meaning invents powerful strength to engage more consumers, which makes the brand can emerge into cultural world with its own characteristic by different methods. British brand is formed by its education, tourism, music, arts, etc., all of them are related to its culture. Through the GREAT campaign, we can see that British brand presents different aspects of ‘great’ as its characteristics. For example, knowledge is treated as a kind of treasure in UK. Moreover, entrepreneurship is also valuable for the country’s businessmen, both of them are tied to the culture in the society and are great for people’s lives. Therefore, British brand is related to its culture. Secondly, although ‘great’ is the important core value for British brand according to the GREAT campaign, but it has diversity of interpretations. Such as ‘shopping is great’( British Council,2013), it shows it is enjoyable and valuable experience for individuals; it also demonstrates there are valuable investigating opportunities for investors. Additionally, a brand’s meaning from diverse cultural categories is stronger than a brand who only concentrates on a meaning base and gets restricted( Fournier et al.,2008). For example, as it was mentioned before, the London Olympics in 2012 attracted visitors and essential visitors. Two thirds of the 8000 adults are interested in doing business or studying in UK, which is from the Ipos MORI research for the British Council in 2012( British Council,2013). Because UK is not only a good choice for study, but also correct choices for traveling and investigation. Eventually, since cultural resonance is multiple, it creates community for British brand. Opportunities can be offered by domestic community for consumers to connect with each other. For example, British Council held the campaign to offer opportunities for visitors. Moreover, a strong brand can be built by good connections between brand admires, which makes to create community abroad. For example, Besides Elgar, the Beatle, and the Queen and so on, Adele is also a UK artist and a popular star in the world. She is popular with young people, her voice, her dressing style and her songs become a fashionable topic for the teenagers. There is a big group of fans abroad loving her, and then more songs are exported abroad. 44% of respondents felt that ‘music’ was a cultural activity that they would like it to be made in Britain basing on the 2011 Nation Brand Index (VisitBritain,2012). With a large music fans community, Britain has obtained a good reputation for its music and makes great contribution to the world’s music fans for exporting a lot of popular and excellent music.

While personal resonance and cultural resonance play significant parts for the brand strength, organizational resonance is also very necessary. It is about a brand meaning resonates inside the organization, which requires the employees’ understanding and correctly delivering the brand’s meaning and value, a kind of brand that is with organizational resonance is much more valuable than those who are not with it( Fournier et al.,2008). Nowadays, a successful brand must be closely related to its firm, because a firm is a kind of business model which can help to promote the brand well and capture great value. In contrast, lacking of business model slows down the developing of the brand, or stops its development and then dies. There is also no exception for British brand, whose internal systems do to act it out. Actually, the brand gets promoted and become popular with the world, it is due to its knowledge, opened mind, people and its market function. On one hand, with the promotion strategy like the GREAT campaign, sponsors like Britain Council, self-improvement of UK, all of these show the function of a business model, which enable British brand to obtain excellent achievement. On the other hand, the strength of the British brand attracts oversea visitors go to Britain for education, business and tourism, and gets self-improvement. A brand as Great Britain, it shows a powerful relationship between its systems and the brand itself, which generates organizational resonance, and the organizational resonance evokes the awareness to improve the brand, and acts as a motor for a brand strength to bring brand value in marketplace ( Fournier et al.,2008). According to the research mentioned in the Foresight issue 112 in 2013, It is 58% of visitors involving shopping, and it is estimated that oversea visitors spent around £4.5 billion on shopping. Additionally, the amount of £261million spent by day trippers in 2012 surpassed the amount of £223millons for the best year of 2004 which is indicated by Foresight Issue 119( VisitBritian,2013). The figures show that British brand benefit from its business model by improving its monetary value. All in all, with the support of the country systems, the overall nation brand got improved and increased one place to the fourth out of the 50 major countries around the world following the Olympics which is indicated on Foresight Issue 111(VisitBritain,2013), its culture moved one place to the fourth, while the people who make visitors feel welcome ranked ninth by increasing three places, and the tourism keep staying on the fourth place. British brand obtains good promotion from the GREAT campaign by its internal systems after the year of 2012, as it resonates well with the world. See the sheet below, it shows that the nation brand ranking pre and post Gams out of 50 countries in 2012.

British brand’s ranking pre and post Games( out of 50 countrires)
|Measure |Pre Games |Post Games |Improvement |
|Tourism |4 |4 | |
|Culture |5 |4 |+1 |
|People( make feel welcome) |12 |9 |+3 |
|Overall nation brand |5 |4 |+1 |

Source: Adapted from Foresight Issue 111 January 2013

Conclusion

From Fournier et al.(2008)’s meaning-model of brand equity, resonance among brand meaning, brand strength and brand value is very significant for a strong brand. British brand with its strong meaning resonates with consumers, consumers shows particular interests to its education, landscapes, arts, music, film-making, etc. Moreover, the brand creates monetary value to improve the country’s economic with the help of country’s structure and the consumers. It is just as what MacInnis et al.(2008) mentioned, a strong brand makes the customers want to keep good relationship with it like purchasing, and scarify their own resources for the brand like paying.

References
Beech M. and Lee,S.(2009) The Conservatives under David Cameron: built to last? Palgrave Macmillan.

British Council (2013) Entrepreneurs are great[www]British Council.Available from: http://learnFournierh.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-episodes/entrepreneurs-are-great [Accessed 30/12/2013]

British Council (2013) Creativity is great[www]British Council.Available from: http://learnFournierh.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-episodes/creativity-great
[Accessed 30/12/2013]

British Council(2012) British Council research shows 2012’s strong overseas impact for the UK[www] British Council. Available from: http://www.visitbritain.org/press/research-2012-overseas-impact [Accessed 30/12/2013]

British Council(2013) The GREAT Campaign[www]British Council.Available from:http://www.britishcouncil.org/about/great-campaign [Accessed 30/12/2013]

British Council (2013) Shopping is great[www]British Council.Available from: http://learnFournierh.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-episodes/shopping-great
[Accessed 30/12/2013]

Fournier, S., Englis,B.G and Solomon B.G.(2008) When brands resonate.In: Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L.,Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing.pp.39-40.

Fournier, S., Englis,B.G and Solomon B.G.(2008) When brands resonate.In: Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L.,Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing.pp.35-38.

Fournier, S., Englis,B.G and Solomon B.G.(2008) When brands resonate.In: Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L.,Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing.pp.41-43.

Fournier, S., Englis,B.G and Solomon B.G.(2008) When brands resonate.In: Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L.,Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing.pp.44-47.

Fournier, S., Englis,B.G and Solomon B.G.(2008) When brands resonate.In: Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L.,Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing.pp.48-50.

Kahn,B.E.(2013)Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth Pennsylvania:Wharton Digital Press, pp.9-28.

MacInnis,D.J.,Park,C.W. and Priester,J.(2008)Brand attachment and a strategic brand exemplar.In:Schmitt,B.H. and Rogers,D.L., Handbook on Brand and Experience Management.Cheltenham:Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.3-4.

VisitBritain(2013) Regional spread of inbound tourism[www]VisitBritain.Available from:http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Foresight%20-%20issue%20121_tcm29-39322.pdf [Accessed 30/12/2013]

VisitBritain(2013) Importance of music to inbound tourism[www]VisitBritain.Available from:http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Foresight%20Issue%2099_tcm29-29678.pdf [Accessed 30/12/2013]

VisitBritain(2013)Shopping[www]VisitBritain.Availablefrom: http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Foresight%20112_tcm29-36531.pdf[Accessed 30/12/2013]

VisitBritain(2013) Inbound Day Visits [www]VisitBritain.Available http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Foresight%20-%20issue%20119_tcm29-38743.pdf VisitBritain(2013) Image of Britain-Post Olympics [www]VisitBritain.Available
http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Foresight%20-%20issue%20111_tcm29-36008.pdf