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Context Branding Model

コンテクスト・ブランディング

Satoshi Akutsu and Shigeru Ishida · Hitotsubashi University and Dentsu, Tokyo · 2002

Introduction
Linking Identity and Image Through Context

Context Branding comes from the 2002 book Brand Strategy Scenario by Satoshi Akutsu, a marketing scholar who had studied under David Aaker, and Shigeru Ishida, a branding practitioner at the advertising agency Dentsu (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112; Aiuchi et al., 2005, pp. 4, 19). The authors say that practical branding methods were held back because no single angle covered brand identity (the company side), brand image (the customer side) and the communication between them. They chose "context" as that angle (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112). The idea is simple: the same information can mean different things to different people. A product unchanged for a decade can look timeless to one customer and dated to another, depending on what each already knows (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112). The structural model shows how the identity a company wants to create settles in the customer's image (Sakurai, 2018, p. 20). The book adds a process model with seven steps, from exploring context to managing it (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 113). The approach treats branding as an exchange in both directions. A company should not plan a context and hand it to customers. It should join them in creating the context (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114).

The Model

Context Branding Model: header bars Company over Brand Identity and Customer over Brand Image, with Brand Communication between them; the three columns are crossed by three levels, Personality, Benefits and Attributes. Brand Identity also holds Philosophy, an oval in which Mission, Vision and Values are linked by two-way arrows, and the benefits Self-Expressive, Emotional and Functional. Brand Image holds the benefits Functional, Emotional and Self-Expressive and the Attitude group Good–Bad, Like–Dislike, Fits Me and Want It; beside it, an oval in which an arrow leads from the customer's Values to Expectations
Redrawn after Akutsu & Ishida (2002, p. 48) as reproduced in Sakurai (2018, p. 21, Fig. 2-8), labels translated from the Japanese original.

Elements

Definitions follow the review of the book by Kobayashi (2003), the summary and quotations in Sakurai (2018), and two later articles co-written by Akutsu (Aiuchi et al., 2005; Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016); quotations are translated from Japanese. The figure also shows attributes (属性), the customer's attitude (態度) with its four facets Good–Bad (良悪), Like–Dislike (好嫌), Fits Me (合う) and Want It (欲しい), and the customer's values (価値観) and expectations (期待). These are only named in the sources, so they have no card of their own.

Three Domains

  • 01

    Brand Identity

    Brand identity (ブランド・アイデンティティ) is the company side of the model (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112; Sakurai, 2018, p. 21, Fig. 2-8). It is the company's own picture of what the brand should be, and the picture it hopes customers will adopt. Since it steers all company activity around the brand, it must state the context it is to be read in, so that staff and partners share one understanding (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 113). It has four elements: philosophy, benefits, personality and attributes (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114). It builds on the philosophy but often adds strategic elements the philosophy need not hold, such as concrete customer benefits, attributes and personality (Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, pp. 10–11).

  • 02

    Brand Communication

    Brand communication (ブランド・コミュニケーション) links identity and image (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112). Its job is not just to deliver facts but to steer how customers read them, because the same product gains or loses value with the context. It can supply the way to read the facts, or shift the customer's own way of reading (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 113). In Sakurai's summary, the unspoken knowledge behind the identity, such as values, is turned into information and stimuli that reach the customer (Sakurai, 2018, p. 20).

    Acerola drink: in Chapter 3 the authors apply the model to an acerola drink, from the weak points of its image to a rebuilt identity and new communication. Vitamin C is the core of what people link with the drink. It is strengthened in the setting of beautiful skin, and the added claim "34 times as much as lemons" ties vitamin C more closely to the drink (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 113; translated).

  • 03

    Brand Image

    Brand image (ブランド・イメージ) is the customer side of the model (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 112; Sakurai, 2018, p. 21, Fig. 2-8). What a customer knows about a brand sits in the mind as a web of associations. Whatever comes in from outside is read against the knowledge already stored there, from past experience to beliefs, language and culture. A web is only useful if its links give each association a clear meaning; a mere word game does not count (Kobayashi, 2003, pp. 112–113). In Sakurai's summary, customers judge the brand's information through expectations that come from their own values, and so form the image (Sakurai, 2018, pp. 20–21).

Philosophy (Brand Identity)

  • 04

    Philosophy

    Philosophy (フィロソフィー) is one of the four elements of brand identity. It is made up of mission, values and vision (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114). Akutsu and Katsumura call this whole the brand philosophy (ブランド理念), refer to Akutsu and Ishida (2002), and observe that strong brands often build their identity on it (Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, p. 10).

  • 05

    Mission

    The mission (ミッション) states why the brand exists (存在意義) (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114; Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, p. 10).

  • 06

    Values

    The values (価値観) are what the brand holds dear. They guide how people act when they do branding (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114; Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, p. 10).

  • 07

    Vision

    The vision (ビジョン) points to concrete steps toward the mission (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114). Akutsu and Katsumura describe it as the state the brand should reach at some point in the future (Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, p. 10).

Levels Across All Three Domains

  • 08

    Personality

    Brand personality (パーソナリティ) appears in all three domains. The book treats it, like benefits and attributes, as a key building block of identity, image and communication, and it is the only one with a chapter of its own (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114; Aiuchi et al., 2005, p. 4). Personality is a term from psychology. The book defines it as "a unified psychological and physiological pattern" behind a person's experience and behaviour (Akutsu & Ishida, 2002, p. 233, as cited in Sakurai, 2018, p. 21; translated). For a brand it matters in two ways. It makes the image easier to form, because it sets the brand apart, ties its parts together and shows how it relates to customers. And it sets the context itself: the same message is read differently under a different personality (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114). Aiuchi et al. call this the context-defining function (コンテクスト規定機能) and see personality as the core of the context (2005, p. 5).

  • 09

    Benefits

    Benefits (ベネフィット) are, like personality and attributes, an element of identity, image and communication (Kobayashi, 2003, p. 114). They come in layers. A brand can give functional benefits, create pleasant feelings and let people "stage self-expression" (Akutsu & Ishida, 2002, p. 22, as cited in Sakurai, 2018, p. 10; translated). The figure splits them into functional (機能), emotional (情緒) and self-expressive (自己表現) benefits, on the identity side and on the image side (Sakurai, 2018, p. 21, Fig. 2-8). A later article counts customer benefits (顧客便益) among the concrete elements an identity adds to the philosophy (Akutsu & Katsumura, 2016, pp. 10–11).

Source

  1. Aiuchi, M. [相内正治], Ninomiya, S. [二宮宗], Ishida, S. [石田茂], & Akutsu, S. [阿久津聡]. (2005). ブランド・パーソナリティ構造の円環モデルとその実務への応用 [A Circumplex Model of Brand Personality Structure and Its Application to Practice]. マーケティングジャーナル [Japan Marketing Journal], 25(2), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.7222/marketing.2005.037
  2. Akutsu, S. [阿久津聡], & Ishida, S. [石田茂]. (2002). ブランド戦略シナリオ：コンテクスト・ブランディング [Brand Strategy Scenario: Context Branding]. ダイヤモンド社 [Diamond, Inc.]. The originators' book is not freely accessible, so this profile draws on the substitute sources listed here; pages of the book are given as cited in Sakurai (2018).
  3. Akutsu, S. [阿久津聡], & Katsumura, F. [勝村史昭]. (2016). 組織力強化プロセスとしての企業ブランディングとその効果 [Corporate Branding as a Process for Strengthening Organizational Capabilities and Its Effects]. マーケティングジャーナル [Japan Marketing Journal], 36(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.7222/marketing.2016.026
  4. Kobayashi, T. [小林哲]. (2003). [Review of the book ブランド戦略シナリオ：コンテクスト・ブランディング [Brand Strategy Scenario: Context Branding], by S. Akutsu & S. Ishida]. マーケティングジャーナル [Japan Marketing Journal], 23(1), 112–114. https://doi.org/10.7222/marketing.2003.033
  5. Sakurai, M. [櫻井光行]. (2018). ライフ・ストーリー・インタビューによるブランド形成要因の探索：アイデンティティ形成に関わるブランド体験 [Exploration of Brand Formation Factors by Life Story Interviews: Brand Experiences Related to Identity Formation] [Doctoral dissertation, Kaetsu University]. Kaetsu University Academic Repository. https://kaetsu.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/916

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