Best brand 2006 – Hitachi

Branding is a vital component in any organisation’s quest to meet its strategic and tactical business objectives. But when the organisation in question is 100 years old, operates in multiple markets, has a diverse and disparate product range, is made up of over 1000 different operating companies globally with little consistency in positioning or communications, its importance suddenly becomes critical. This was exactly the position that Hitachi Europe found itself in 2004, and the reason it embarked on the programme of brand reinvigoration that saw it recognised as B2B Marketing’s Best B2B Brand of 2006.

The catalyst for the transformation of Hitachi into a brand-focused organisation was the twin appointment of Sir Stephen Gomersall as CEO of Europe and Mark Wilkin as head of brand and communications. Whilst Sir Stephen joined following a career as a diplomat, most recently as Britain’s ambassador to Tokyo, Wilkin is a Hitachi man through-and-through, having spent 18 years at the organisation and its subsidies. They started their current roles on the same day and despite very different points of origin, both share a similar key objective: as Wilkin puts it, “to build brand synergy and strengthen the brand.”

Whilst Hitachi’s diverse and decentralised structure may have been both cause and consequence of its growth over the last century, Gomersall and Wilkin recognised that it was likely to be a barrier for the company’s future progression. “This structure allowed the entrepreneurial spirit of each company to be reflected in the way it wanted,” says Wilkin. “But now we’re operating in a global economy. People’s touch points with the brand are many and varied.” He says it is no longer possible for any organisation to take a piecemeal approach to branding and expect to achieve its potential. “Our aim was to refine the brand and to be coherent and consistent across all channels,” adds Wilkin. In Hitachi’s case, this means everything from flatscreen TV’s to MRI scanners. The task, therefore, was significant; but then so was the opportunity.

Branding by consensus

The situation that Gomersall and Wilkin inherited at Hitachi Europe was, from a branding perspective, to put it politely, fragmented. Another word might be chaotic. The European organisation had 26 different subsidiaries, operating on various different tiers and consequently with varying levels of autonomy. This distributed structure made the need for brand consolidation more pressing, but also made achieving the objective more complex. Wilkin explains, “Because the businesses have a degree of autonomy, we can’t impose [a new approach to branding] from head office. It has to be done by consensus.

Wilkin readily admits the prospect of generating buy-in from 26 separate organisations was “a bit daunting”, but that having worked for one of Hitachi’s subsidiary companies, felt he could relate to their perspective. “I knew how I would have felt if something had been imposed on me from on high. Whilst we wanted a common brand identity, I didn’t have any fixed ideas about what it should be.”

He continues, “Sir Stephen and I agreed that we needed to involve as many group companies as possible. Not every company has chosen to be involved, but they all had the opportunity.” A brand strategy team was put together, including representatives from the various companies, the first task of which was to appoint a brand agency. Loewy was selected from a shortlist and Wilkin is full of praise for the agency’s approach. “What we’ve achieved wouldn’t have been possible without Loewy. It bought into what we’re trying to achieve from the outset. It is very pragmatic and open to ideas and not the kind of agency which takes a brief, comes back and says ‘here’s the solution – take it or leave it’. This would not have worked with Hitachi.”

Internal limitations

With a structure in place and an agency appointed, research was the next priority. Wilkin regards this as fundamental. “I firmly believe that before you embark on anything like this, you must find out what your customers and employees feel about the brand,” he says.

Fortunately for Hitachi, the company had recently conducted a study into employee brand awareness. This showed that understanding of Hitachi’s brand values, and the structure and breadth of the organisation, was relatively weak.

Loewy took responsibility for organising customer research and focus groups were conducted in two cities in the UK, France and Germany in summer 2005. This revealed Hitachi was primarily perceived as a consumer brand, with strong empathy from people who had purchased its consumer electronics products. So far so good; however, there was little understanding of Hitachi as a B2B brand. Whilst the consumer market has been, and will continue to be important to Hitachi, it only accounts for 12 per cent of its business; the remainder is spread between its diverse range of B2B products and services. Yet this was virtually unknown.

Personal gain

However, the findings of the research project was not all bad news. They also demonstrated that the panellists’ level of interest in Hitachi’s role as an innovator, developing and utilising new and cutting-edge technology across many markets, was high, as was their interest in the breadth of the organisation. “Ultimately all consumers are interested in the potential benefits to them as individuals,” says Wilkin. “Therefore we set about communicating these benefits, and how Hitachi improves people’s lives. This is still the core of what we’re trying to communicate.”

This insight meant that Hitachi’s enigmatic and perhaps idiosyncratic strapline, ‘Inspire the next’ could and should be retained. Wilkin explains that this strapline predates his role, was developed by Hitachi’s global HQ in Tokyo and subsequently rolled out in Europe. He admits that customers don’t always fully understand its meaning, but, “because it’s unusual, it creates comment and attention.”

Mixed messages

Once all the findings of the research had been evaluated, Loewy then set about developing these insights into a campaign. However, although the main objective was to communicate Hitachi’s credentials as a B2B technology company, from the outset the campaign was not entirely business focused in terms of its feel, regularly using family and domestic-related imagery, and advertising mixed-in consumer products with messages for business services.

In terms of media choice, rather than focusing exclusively on traditional business channels, the campaign included TV advertising shown in ad breaks during high profile football matches, such as the Champions League, which have large audiences but are unconventional territory for B2B brands.

The rationale for this, as Wilkin explains, relates back to the fact that most people’s first interaction with Hitachi was as a supplier of consumer electronics. “All decision makers are consumers,” he says. “The campaign aims to take them from the familiar to the unfamiliar. By and large we are communicating with them in their leisure time, and we wanted our messaging to be consistent with that.”

He continues, “Generally our audience are very busy people. They don’t have much leisure time, but they treasure what they do have. They do watch TV, but it is generally ‘appointment to view’. We’ve tried to get to them in different situations. We’ve also used national press and online; places they go for information. This might be business information or it might be sports news. In France, for example, we advertised in [sports newspaper] L’Equipe. The campaign recognises that they are human beings and not working all the time. We’re communicating with them in a way that means they are likely to be receptive.”

Evolutionary campaign

The first wave of Hitachi brand activity appeared in Autumn 2005, and this has been followed up with regular strategic bursts of activity during 2006 and into 2007, focused around key events. Wilkin explains that activity has been stringently tracked and evaluated via customer research, and developed. “It is a single campaign that has evolved through several phases,” he says. “This evolution was a pragmatic response to the research. I believe we can always make something better.”

Far from scaling down the activity, Wilkin says that “something quite significant” is currently in the planning stage for early next year, although he declines to offer any more information. “We need to keep looking at what we are doing and refining it. We also need to find other ways of bringing the brand experience to life for our customers.”

He says Hitachi’s stand at this year’s CeBit technology fair in Hannover is an excellent example of this, with various group companies coming together to demonstrate the breadth of the company’s offering and bring alive its proposition of improving lives through technology.

Support from the top

Not only are the Hitachi group companies appreciating the benefits of the newly reinvigorated and strengthened brand positioning; so it seems is the board, who Wilkin describes as “extremely supportive.” He says the marketing budget allocation has been based on the findings of the six-monthly research programme, and the corresponding levels of brand awareness and that to date all targets have been met. “It’s a case of ‘so far so good’,” he says. “In terms of perception, knowledge and awareness, we’ve seen year-on-year increases, which have been dramatic in some cases. This will hopefully translate into more sales, and higher margin sales, as people understand our heritage and our values, they will be more inclined to pay extra.”

In the meantime, Wilkin is satisfied that he’s been given the green light to take the brand campaign forward. “We’re currently planning up to 2008, which is much further ahead than we had previously been looking.” Although this is all good news, Wilkin is far from complacent. “We can always improve,” he says, particularly with regard to unprompted awareness.

The whole experience to date has, according to Wilkin, been generally enjoyable, although not without its stresses. “It has been fraught at times, because we’ve set ourselves very ambitious targets and have pushed ourselves to the limit to achieve them. But it’s generally been invigorating.”

In broader terms, there are signs that what Wilkin and Loewy have achieved in Europe is being recognised in a broader context. “Hitachi didn’t have a global visual identity. Over the last two years we have begun to improve consistency and a lot of the elements which we’ve used to achieve this have been developed in Europe, using the same process of consensual agreement as was used here.”

After a century of gradually spreading its wings, Hitachi has finally recognised the importance of thinking coherently and consistently in branding terms. Its success was built on its ability to innovate and compete in multiple markets. However the brand that this process ultimately created was at best stifling growth, and at worst threatening to tear the company apart. What Wilkin, his team and Loewy have achieved is a branding platform that is broad, strong and inclusive enough to involve all parties, and makes a virtue out of the disparate and sometimes disjointed nature of the organisation. In branding terms, it is a minor miracle: the ugly duckling brand has turned into a swan. And whilst on its own it may not be the key for another 100 years of success, it puts Hitachi in good stead to compete in the globalised economy.

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