Isn’t it funny how you retain a real love for those brands you have worked on in the past? Many years ago I was lucky enough to start my career at DDB working on the Volkswagen account. I learnt a lot about the creation of great work and especially great copywriting.

The latest Golf ad – ‘Why drive something like a Golf when you can drive a Golf?’ – shows that clearly they aren’t missing me, and are still producing great ads!

In my earlier post, I suggested that BMW seemed not to be sticking to a coherent brand positioning. Admittedly, this rather stark hypothesis was based on several pieces of TV advertising, not on the wealth of marketing data we would normally be reviewing. Nevertheless, I felt that there was something not entirely in order with how BMW was joining all the marketing dots.

I wasn’t hugely surprised, then, when Campaign recently posted news about BMW calling a pitch for its advertising, digital and direct marketing accounts. The article stated that “the review is part of a statutory process that requires its accounts to be pitched every five years”. It so happens that the review will also include their UK advertising account led by US agency, GSD&M Idea City, appointed earlier in the year and responsible for their latest TV campaigns.

It looks as though BMW also think that brands like theirs deserve a robust, coherent and joined-up marketing plan…

It’s the tensest moment in a poker game. The chips are down and you’re all in; one way or another it’s going to be a turning point for someone at the table. The chip leader could take a nosedive and you could find yourself leading the game.

And right now in brand-land the stakes have risen… because the barriers have fallen. Ad rates have dropped steadily as the economy has stuttered and businesses have adopted a frugal-minded attitude to their marketing activity. But the big boys need to stay alert. Because the short-stack brands at the table have suddenly got enough budget to make an impression.

Traditionally brands break down the journey to a greater share of the market into several stages, based on the role they play in consumers’ decisions. It works more or less the same way people (consumers) make decisions about which guests (brands) to invite to their party:

1.  Awareness: Do they know who you are?
2.  Consideration: Do they even think of you when they’re making the list?
3.  Preference: Are you one of the first they think of and do they like the idea of your company?
4.  Loyalty: Will they want to pick you first, time and time again?
5.  Advocacy: Will they be talking you up with their friends?

Loyalty and advocacy are the holy grail, and although they’re not unattainable goals, nobody really expects to generate mass-market advocacy. But all major brands do sweat and fret over increasing their preference against their old rivals. And they can normally afford to be quite short-sighted. They don’t worry too much about the smaller brands in their market which are forced to pursue niche marketing strategies around them, picking off mere morsels of loose share from the brand leaders. Until recently the chip-leaders knew the short-stacks weren’t a threat because they couldn’t overcome the hurdles of awareness and consideration. But with ad rates down, more and more brands on the fringes are setting their shoulders back and striding confidently into consumers’ consciousness.

Just take a look at the current Jameson’s Whiskey and Pets at Home spots. Neither are unknown brands but they have put themselves on TV either for the first time here or for the first time in a long time. As the Pets at Home Chief Exec., Matt Davies, says “We want to tell people we exist … There’s never been a better time to do a TV ad – rates have come right down and people are spending more time at home and watching more TV”

The Jameson’s ad looks an awful lot like the kind of communications routes Scotch whisky and bourbon brands like Johnnie Walker and Jack Daniels have been taking for some time. And for consumers who weren’t particularly aware of it, the taste-led proposition combined with its affordability could drop Jameson’s right into the consideration set against the likes of mainstream whisky brands like Bell’s and Famous Grouse.

The temperature at the table may turn torrid. And major brands in categories with middle-weight competitors should look at their position in the game. When they do, they should recognise that stacks of money won’t separate them from their competitors anymore. They’ll have to consider their brand proposition, their positioning and be honest about how sustainably relevant and motivating their point of differentiation is. They can no longer out-spend the competition; They’ll have to out-think it.