If you’re responsible for marketing at a British company, you may or may not want to rely on that heritage as a key part of your messaging. If you’re selling electronic instrumentation to the over-50 set, the fact that Lucas gauges on British Leyland products failed early, regularly and often could be an impediment to success. On the other hand, if the target market is under 30, they likely won’t know of this ehemm, pedigree, and you can feel free to lay the British stuff on as thick as you like (as I've said before, we're all Anglophiles here, whether we'll admit it or not).
The inspiration for this post is recent advertising from British Airways as seen here in the US, running in outdoor and print media. The positioning is that of a guide to local UK culture – and to "go with those who know". Now BA has its hands full in the US, with Virgin Atlantic having the upper hand in promotional awareness. So it has to do something. Appealing to Americans with a message such as this has merit. If we aren’t experienced international travelers, we might want to go with the more "established" airline that seems more substantive than stylish.
But, the firm doesn’t make it easy to access the revelant content on its Web site – the follow-through is buried where you won't find it (unless you read on and I'll reveal the URL). It appears to be just a thin creative exercise.
Big missed opportunity
What I mean by follow-through is simple: if you visit British Airway's regular website, www.ba.com (which is what most people will do -- not follow the deep URLs in these ads), there is no obvious promotional tie back to this advertising (an easily-missed button at the bottom right of the site will take you to the promo area). But, alas, for most casual visitors to the ba.com site, there is nothing to be seen but a reservation engine and links to buy hotel and rental car packages.
The expected cultural and business information is there - it is just hard to find (a glossary of UK idioms and colloquialisms that dovetail nicely with the creative, travel notes, links to current attractions, etc.). It could go further to offer a sign-up for a newsletter on UK travel. An entire ambassador or concierge program could be built around this concept. Visit the promo area of the Web site to see the glossary, etc.
British heritage can be an asset for you, too.
No matter what you are selling, it is possible to make your UK heritage valuable and meaningful. From software to soap to marmalade, there’s ample room for brand differentiation leveraging your British roots. Think I’m wrong?
Symbian is a cellular phone operating system builder, and a consortium of Nordic, Korean and Japanese phone manufacturers. But its original lead founder was Psion, a quirky UK maker of handheld devices that had an operating system this group could build from - and its position as an innovator in handheld devices was the gravity that brought this diverse group together. The company remains a UK-based entity – and that UK base offers it an international stage from which to project itself to handset manufacturers worldwide.
Crabtree & Evelyn is a terrific example of using pedigree to justify a premium price. Its packaging is so attractive that women of all ages (starting with my pre-teen) are immediately attracted to its products when on display. Its soap is, as far as I can tell, soap – but its prices are definitely inspiring!
Tiptree, Wilkin & Sons have penetrated US foodstore shelves with preserves that sell at a premium price point (competing with France’s successful Bon Maman). Its packaging oozes tradition and features its royal warrants – something bound to impress US buyers as they seek to impress their guests (and feel better about themselves). The fact that Tiptree preserves are more mainstream in the UK and premium priced in the US speaks volumes on the value of "Britishness" in US consumer markets.
Leverage your heritage for all that it's worth. Here in the US, it's worth more than you might think.
PS - thanks to the adland blog for the BA phone kiosk photo - it offers a good article on this campaign as well.

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