Navigating Brand Challenges - Thinkhouse

• Published date: 16 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Consumer Protection, Intellectual Property, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Consumer Law, Trademark, Advertising, Marketing & Branding
• Law Firm: Gowling WLG
• Author: Ms Kate Swaine and John Coldham

Kate Swaine and John Coldham discuss the latest issues in-house counsel need to consider when implementing brand strategy.

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Transcript

John Coldham: Good afternoon, and welcome to the second in our series of webinars focused on advertising, brands, copyright and designs. Last month's one was on advertising in the current environment, from the growth of digital marketing through to coping with the pandemic. If you missed it, we will include a link to the recording in our follow up email.

As last time, I'm sorry that we have not been able to offer you any lunch or coffee and that we can't offer you a view of the Thames. You never know, next year might be the year we come blinking into the sunlight. In the meantime, we will continue with our webinar series, and this month we are focusing on brands.

We have decided to take a slightly different approach to this year's event. Instead of giving you an update on a key case, which may or may not affect your day to day life, we have decided to discuss various issues of the day affecting brands, and we hope that you will find it useful. Particularly because we are using the discussion format for the webinar, we'd love more than ever your input into the event today. There are so many different types of businesses, large and small, signed up to today's event, and it would be great to get your input on your own perspectives on the issues we are talking about.

To get involved, please provide your comments and questions as we go along using the Q&A box, which should be at the bottom of your screen. We will either try to cover the point as we go along, or at the end, when we have allowed some time for questions. We may not be able to get to every question and/or comment and, if we don't get to yours, we will get in touch with you afterwards.

We are recording this webinar, and will send you a link next week so that you can share it with any colleagues who might like to see it.

Finally, I should mention that at the end, a feedback form should pop up. I'd be very grateful if you could fill that in, as we really do take account of all comments, good and bad, to help us tailor future events to what you would like to hear about.

So let's start as we mean to go on. The word disruption has been a cliché for some time, but we are certainly living in an era of change. Social change takes a long time, but some of the more positive things we have seen from this crazy year are that social change is in some ways moving more quickly than might otherwise have been the case. Every business has a brand, and how brands align themselves with change is a question that they should each be asking themselves. Brands might be tempted to ignore it, but that should be a positive decision that is taken. And there are many good reasons to respond to social change.

Kate, perhaps we can start by consider how brands are responding to social change?

Kate Swaine: Thanks John. Consumers are increasingly drawn to brands for their authenticity, genuineness and values. Brand owners know that a name or logo has to be so much more than that if it is to attract and retain brand loyalty. Huge amounts are invested in brand identity - consumer focus groups, the tone of communications, the associations made between brands and celebrities (as mentioned in the last webinar run by Dan Smith and Kate Hawkins) the underlying messaging and values that are conveyed - so that when the consumer buys an item or service that bears that brand they know that they are buying something that makes them feel good about the purchase because they share its values, image, associations.

If you get it right then it can be brand enhancing but getting it wrong can be disastrous and so the current political and social climate presents a real challenge to brands. The conversations around issues including race, gender, sexuality, environment, culture etc. are ones that are important to consumers but around which there are divergences of views and complex socio-economic factors at play. Just look at the last week. So you are an in-house brands team, or in-house counsel with a marketing team that wants to take a stand on an issue - should your brand be part of the conversation and, if so, how?

The starting point has to be to ask questions. Who are your consumers? What are the values associated with your brand? Are these issues important to your consumers and ones that resonate or impact on the value imbued in the brand? Can the brand...