Old Europe In Search Of New Ideas

What are the new German Icon Brands for the 21st Century?

by Susan Imgrund (nee Moss)

If I had written this article last year, as I was planning, it would have been very different. Somewhere in the title, or at least in the first paragraph, would have been something about "crisis" and "loss of self-confidence". The tonality would have been that that seems to surround the German national football team everywhere they go- doom-laden and self-punishing.  

Last year, the official 'word of the year' from the GfdS (Gesellschaft fur deutsche Sprache or Society for the German Language) was 'Teuro', which summed us up. We'd followed our role-models, the US, on the next step to being the 'United States of Europe' with our very own Eurodollars, but once we had them, all we could do was whinge about them. Last year, I would have held up all the 'usual suspects' of successful and innovative new(ish)brands- Apple, e-Bay, Google, Starbucks, Timberland, Discovery Channel, Dell and the like , bemoaned that fact that they all came from the US and proposed that the way out of the crisis would be for Germany to get creative again and come up with some equivalents.

I probably would have said that there was no real reason why we should be in such awe of these successful US brands and of the way that marketing is conducted in the US. We should probably just re-examine some of our more conservative marketing methods and be prepared to be rather more innovative or creative in what we did. I expect I would have raised the question of whether we are by nature a little resistant to change, narrow-minded and dreary or whether we had simply been talked into this undesirable state through our crisis of self-confidence.

I might have had a little whinge about how some of our European innovations- such as the Tour de France, founded in 1903, had been taken over and dominated by the US.  

Perhaps I would have even become a little philosophical and remarked that perhaps Germany, as one of major forces of the Modern (Industrial) Age of the 19th and early 20th centuries has not yet adapted to the age of Post-Modernism, where our 'goods'-information- travel in milliseconds. Many of the values that we hold dear and have made us what we are :- punctuality, speed, efficiency and the power of machinery- have less of a part to play in a world where flexibility, spontaneity and multi-tasking are the name of the game. I would have even made the observation that , with the Markenverband - the association for the protection of trademarks or 'Anwalt der guten Namen' celebrating its centenary in 1903, many of our Icon brands were born at the height of the Modern Age and have already had or are approaching their own centenary. These would be such brands as Maggi, Milka, Nivea, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

It is quite possible that I would have had a cursory look at what passes for innovation in the German market- readymade Colabeer mixes with American-sounding names, pale Starbucks-imitation coffee and bagel chains, confectionery brands going miniature and forming unholy alliances with each other, every week a new boulevard press title (just choose any two of the following words for the title: Frau, neue, Wellness, Woche, Post, Revue) and Aloe Vera yoghurts- and come to the sad conclusion that this is all tinkering, dancing on a pinhead, rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and symptomatic of a lack of vision, courage and pride in ourselves.

As motivation to move on, I would have cited Smart as a genuinely new innovation in the world of brands; a brand that fits into the Postmodern age as perfectly as the little car fits into that tight parking spot. Look how Smart signifies everything that we're good at, I would have said- clever design, solid engineering, reliability- and fits a need in the Postmodern world and is not just a product but a whole new attitude. Let's have more Smarts, I would have said.

But sometime last year all that changed. If you look at the title of this piece, you will see what I mean. 'Old Europe' has been chosen by the GfdS as the expression of the year. The phrase was originally a term U.S Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld used to disparage Germany and France for resisting war in Iraq but became a proud rallying cry for opponents of the war. As Rudolf Hoberg of the GfdS said: "The term 'old Europe' was originally used as a provocation, but its meaning underwent a transformation and now stands for a new-found symbol for positive self-confidence among Europeans."

The war in Iraq and our various reactions to it have proved to be a turning point not just in the political sphere. There is a feeling of 'Old Europe' saying 'enough is enough; let's have a go at things our way again'. The love affair with the US has simmered down a little with a backlash against the Anglicisation of the German language and brand names like 'Power Team' , 'Big Gum' or 'Pick Up' confined to products for the under 8s who still find such things 'cool', although 'geil' is now a more likely descriptor in playground lingo. We are learning to do things differently; as symbolised by Germany once more being World Champions in (women's) football.

In the world of brands and marketing, we are also beginning to see the rewards of going back to our way and concentrating on what we are good at. We are beginning to see through a lot of US (and UK) - style marketing for what it is- hot air often without substance. The values that characterise our Icon brands are those of integrity, honesty, authenticity, a dedication to perfectionism- sometimes to even self-punishing extremes-, technical excellence and quality substance. Keeping these values in mind, we can turn our attention to marketing and innovating in our way, on our terms, rather than following the US model. Rather than simply look to the future with a blank sheet of paper, we should use the experience of 'Old Europe' as the basis for new ideas and innovation:

Developing the Icon Brands: Audi, Mercedes, Maggi, Milka, Beck's, Lufthansa,Steiff, Nivea, Miele, Kraft, Bunte, Stern, Daimler, Krupp, Siemens, Bosch, VW, Adidas: the list is endless. Are any of these brands less iconic than Marlboro, Levis, Harley-Davidson or Nike, even though they may not shout so loudly on the global stage? With authenticity and heritage being such positive attributes for luxury brands, is it any wonder that the US hip-hoppers and rappers have abandoned the Tommy Hilfigers and Ralph Laurens to ageing and spreading babyboomers and prefer to rap about the brands of Old Europe, be it Courvoisier, Mercedes or Gucci?

Further on the subject of authenticity, one could argue that part of Starbucks' success in the US could surely be attributed to the appalling state of coffee in that market where even our Tchibo and homely KJS brands taste ultra-gourmet in comparison. And who would really want to be a subject in the land where the King of Beers is Budweiser? We go back to 1516. Weve even got our football back and maybe on home ground in 2006 is the place for the national team to shine once more.

Rebranding and going Global: From the bureaucratic Deutsche Telekom emerges a family of T-Brands (T-Mobile, T-Com, T-Online) to meet our needs in the Postmodern world.

New Models and Brand Extensions: The new Beetle, Audi TT, Mercedes A-Class and E-Series, BMW Z Series and M Series, Hugo Boss, Jil Sander and Nivea all represent innovation based on an existing brand core.

Reinventing and Retro: We can look to others'past and reinvent, as we did with Pilsner in the 19th Century or as BMW has done with the New Mini and Rolls Royce, or to our own past , as in Afri Cola, TriTop, the Adidas Retro Range or the 'Ossimarken'- the beloved brands of the old DDR.

Innovation through Communications: Sixt and Media Markt/Saturn are prime examples of brands who have invented and reinvented themselves through their media campaigns.

Do we also need more Smarts? The answer must be yes. In the spirit of Martin Luther, Bach, Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Schumann, Planck, Hertz and R?ntgen, Bauhaus and Expressionist Cinema Germany did establish some new brands on the global stage at the end of the 20th Century too- in addition to Smart one can list Jil Sander, Kraftwerk, Escada, the Love Parade and Techno music.

German brands have had global success. Looking at Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands, published in Business Week, Mercedes is one of only two European brands in the Top 10, along with Nokia. Germany has no less than six brands (Mercedes, BMW, SAP, VW, Adidas and Nivea) in the Top 100, more than the UK, France or Italy. And the third fastest growing brand on the table is the quietly-spoken SAP- outperforming the rather more vocal brands Dell and Starbucks in its growth rate. Incidentally, the dominance of US Brands on such a chart can partly be explained simply by the size of the domestic market!

On the subject of SAP, here is another clue to success in the future for German brands. SAP is a software supplier in the business of providing integrated business solutions. As a brand SAP embodies many traditional German qualities- precision, technical skills, attention to detail and quality but is perfectly adapted to success in the post-modern age. SAP is modest about its success and behaves with typical German post-war humility. We believe that there are many more unsung heroes out there in the field of technical innovation.

Finally, the US icons have heritage too, that they often prefer to forget! Levi Strauss only became an American citizen in 1853, they year he founded his company but he was born in 1829 in Bavaria. Theodore Roosevelt may have done much to snowball the popularity of the Teddy bear but the innovator and creator of that well-loved centenarian was the nephew of a lady in wheelchair who founded the company that bears her own name, Steiff, in Giengen/Brenz in 1880. And even King Elvis is believed to have descended from a certain Andreas Preslar, born in Germany in 1701.

When looking for new ideas, creativity is rarely about creating something completely new, but more about making new connections and using the past to create for the future. In fact, this is all Starbucks have done, by re-creating and re-inventing the coffee-house tradition. As one of our most famous 'old Europeans' (Goethe) said, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." Maybe next time I won't wait so long to start an article!

Notes

This article was originally written in early 2004 and the Interbrand survey referred to is 2003. Sue is an Associate Red Spider and other Red Spiders contributed to this piece.