Brandenstein - The Brand Doppelgänger

This young girl Mary Shelley, published her novel in 1818, having worked for two years on the manuscript - a novel that talked of an eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. This scientist who attempts to create life, is horrified by what he ends up making. Over time, the monster of the creature itself came to be dubbed Frankenstein.

Scene change. Modern corporate firms with their products, ideas and offerings in the economy. They set out to create brands, strong brands. Akin to Victor creating life, fostering an identity. And lo! a scary eventuality happens, events turn up in such a weird manner, that the brand actually becomes a demon, a fiend, a monster, a persona non gratia. A Brandenstein.

Scary? Improbable? Perplexing?

Not really. No economic science fiction this. The market landscape is littered with instances of this happening. Well intentioned brand creation and nurturing is at times, yielding mortifying outcomes - an occurrence that is emerging more frequently now than ever before.

Look at a specific brand like Indian Premier League (IPL), a globally recognized cricket extravaganza hosted by India. Studies have explored IPL as a global brand, valued at $3.2 billion in 2014. Brand IPL is a hybrid of cricket and entertainment - a model that was successful and instrumental in India's control over world cricket. But look further, and we become aware of problems therein (financial irregularities, match fixing scandals, nepotism, off-the-field conduct of players etc.). Interestingly, cricket was historically noted as a gentleman's game; however, IPL is mired in controversies of match-fixing and misgovernance, bringing to fore uglier aspects of the commercial event. The mind map fans, players, and society at large carry about IPL has a brandenstein feel. Is this what IPL was supposed to be? Its strongest aficionados feel embittered.

Again, look at Congress - a party with legendary past, towering high and mighty on Indian political scene even half a century post independence. And yet, what a drubbing the brand has taken in the recent elections. What a stark antithesis has come up to its earlier greatness and stature. Microsoft, the pioneer in personal computer operating systems and office utility software, having given to the world a steady top 1 or 2 richest man, is accused of ruthless capitalism, the founder slapped and having shoes thrown at him, saddled with numerous censures and litigations on anti-trust.

Pepsi, the icon for youth, enjoying a leading market share, is implicated in harmful ingredients debate, and charged with inflicting harm to water tables. The delicious serves by McDonalds are painted as anti-health and obesity promoting. Goldman Sachs, the world leader in consulting and advisory, is portrayed in diabolical cold inhuman like hues. The list goes on. Nike got embroiled in sweatshop practices controversy and sales dropped. Tiger Woods himself and his endorsed brands got rubbed negatively.

The positive evocation of a brand gets clouded by its villainish imagery. In today's hypercompetitive world, faced with hostile competition, ever intolerant and demanding customers, the brand managers are stressed - the whiplash of negative aura enveloping brands is gaining ascendancy. Academic circles call this the Doppelgänger Brand Image.

Doppel (double) Gänger (walker or goer) is a paranormal double of a living person, and is deemed harbinger of bad luck. Abraham Lincoln is fabled to have seen his Doppelgänger. Seeing one's own doppelgänger is said to be an omen of death.

Doppelgänger Brand Image, comprising negative perceptions, creates a compelling set of motifs that influence the impact of a brand. The creation of this Doppelgänger Brand Image confuses customers and can lead to "brand avoidance" effects. The Doppelgänger as a motif arose within German Romanticism and became a canonical theme in the "Gothic" literature. The term was coined by Jean Paul in his novel Siebenkiis, published in 1796. According to Thompson et al, "Doppelgänger Brand Image is a family of disparaging images and stories about a brand that are circulated in popular culture by a loosely organized network of consumers, anti-brand activists, bloggers, and opinion leaders in the news and entertainment media."

This Doppelgänger, if heightened in intensity, can acquire mega dimensions of a Brandenstein, and well nigh bring death of a brand, a messy painful death. An in-depth biopsy into Doppelgänger Brand Image is worth studying. It shall yield deeper insights that can be used for better understanding and management of any brand. This emerging concept holds tremendous potential for deeper forays.

Let us revisit what a brand is. Brand has been the cynosure of most academicians and marketing professionals - a concept revered and even defined multifariously. Nevertheless, its centrality cannot be overemphasized if one has to conceive or initiate marketing initiatives. Brand is by definition a network of associations in consumer's minds. High brand equity levels are known to lead to higher level of consumer preferences and intensions to purchase and also high brand equity leads to higher stock returns.

Further, imagery based on anthropomorphisation (seeing the human in nonhuman forms and events) pervades human judgment of products has been a powerful concept. It is concluded that the consumers positively evaluate products that are presented as humans and have human like features. Anthropomorphisation portrays a brand as an analogue of man, having a structure or morphology akin to a human being.

Brand image constitutes the most vital element of creation of a brand meaning in the customer's mind. Grasping totality of brand image holds some strong, unique, and favorable brand associations in the customer's mind in the form of network of associations.

Now, the emergence of a powerful, popular Doppelgänger may signal that a brand has 'peaked' and must either evolve or decline. Using Goldman Sachs as a case study, Freund and Jacobi explored the creation and circulation of anthropomorphic and monstrous Doppelgänger brand imagery by anti-brand activists and found that this powerfully influences public perception of a corporate brand. This lineage of how organizational personae are created is very insightful.

The practice of parodying advertisements and hijacking billboards in order to drastically alter their message is a core mechanism herein. Rahul Gandhi has lost face on account of mocking he has been subjected to vide his reckless assertions. The hype on 'achche din' is proving a pillar of ridicule in hands of opposition. Something similar happened with the India Shining campaign a decade back. The U-turn man, Arvind Kejriwal, has slipped to nethers in public preference of leaders it wants.

Therefore, it is essentials for today's brand managers to manage the Brand Doppelgänger and make sure that it does not turn out be monstrous and takes away the shine from an otherwise successful brand.