Marketing Communications

56 CHAPTER 2 BRANDING

consumers associate with a brand or product. For example, most consumers would think that

it is more appropriate to drink a soft drink in the aft ernoon or evening than at breakfast.

Likewise, a smoking jacket would be highly unsuitable to visit an amusement park, but has a

perfect fi t with a gala party. Private label products may also be perfect for private use, but not

for gift giving.

McDonald’s has focused on kids and families for many years. In response to the greying of the population and an

expanding older market, McDonald’s tried to capture the more adult audience. To this end, the company launched

the Deluxe line, ‘hamburgers for adults’, with a sophisticated, grown-up taste. The line included the Fish Filet

Deluxe, Grilled Chicken Deluxe, Crispy Chicken Deluxe and as flagship the Arch Deluxe. The new line was launched

by a $100 million ad campaign. Both the products and the campaign were very different from what people expected

and were used to from McDonald’s. The ads showed kids looking puzzled at the complex hamburger and making

‘yucky faces’. Ronald was even shown in ‘adult’ activities like golf and pool. McDonald’s key values and key con-

sumer associations are friendliness, cleanliness, consistency, simplicity and convenience. That is what people

expect to get from McDonald’s and that is the reason why they go to McDonald’s – not to get a sophisticated burger

at a high price. McDonald’s gradually discontinued the line and currently only a few sandwiches (such as Chicken

McGrill) are still available. It is estimated that McDonald’s lost about $300 million in research, production and

marketing for the Deluxe line. The Deluxe line is considered as one of the biggest marketing flops in history, on the

same level as New Coke.^61

BUSINESS INSIGHT

Arch Deluxe: an expensive McFlop

As a third type of intangible associations, brands can also have a symbolic meaning or a

personality. Brand personality can be defi ned as the set of ‘human personality traits that are

both applicable to and relevant for brands’.^62 A brand’s personality is stronger if its elements

are deliberately co-ordinated and if the personality is kept consistent over time. In 1997,

Jennifer Aaker developed the Brand Personality Scale (BPS) to measure a brand’s personal-

ity.^63 Th e BPS distinguishes fi ve personality dimensions: (1) sincerity (down-to-earth, honest,

wholesome and cheerful), (2) excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative and up-to-date),

(3) competence (reliable, intelligent and successful), (4) sophistication (upper class and

charming) and (5) ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough). In her US study, MTV scored highly

on excitement, CNN on competence, Levi’s on ruggedness, Revlon on sophistication and

Campbell on sincerity. However, in a later cross-cultural study in Japan and Spain, only three

of the fi ve factors emerged. Furthermore, Aaker did include not only personality items in her

scale, but also user characteristics such as male, female, upper class, Western, etc. To solve the

foregoing shortcomings, a new scale was developed and it proved to be robust in the USA and

the ten diff erent European countries in which it was tested. Th e new measure also consists of

fi ve dimensions, but shows more affi nity with the Big Five of human personality than Aaker’s

dimensions do: (1) responsibility (down-to-earth, stable, responsible), (2) activity (active,

dynamic, innovative), (3) aggressiveness (aggressive, bold), (4) simplicity (ordinary, simple)

and (5) emotionality (romantic, sentimental).^64 In the current competitive environment,

engineering brand symbolism and a brand personality are becoming more important. Th e

success of Lego, for example, is linked not only to its physical attributes, being the simple and

distinctive Lego bricks, but also to the psychological meaning of a company committed to

fostering creative imagination.^65

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