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As seen with Madonna, in order for a brand to be adopted by a culture, it needs to project authenticity, but Aerosmith’s introduction of urban music into suburban markets also shows that acceptance in a new market often depends on how the product is introduced.

Milka’s long history as a leading manufacturer and popular brand of chocolate gave it authenticity among European consumers, which translated into brand authenticity among chocolate lovers in the United States. Consumer acceptance of the brand, however, was facilitated by Kraft-an established, accepted conduit through which to enter a new market. Today, you can find the lilac cow at your local Wal Mart or Kroger.

Kraft’s Front Woman Kraft’s brand and marketing strategies are built on six core values that serve as guiding principles or inner beliefs that define how the company operates. Some are similar to the values of other leading firms, including innovation, speed, trust, and teamwork. But two of Kraft’s values pop out as different from those of the typical firm, and they parallel lessons to be learned from studying enduring rock bands. Those values are passion and focus. The company’s brand includes the promise to bring a passion to win to everything it does, with a confidence to set high goals and an uncompromising drive to achieve them, and a focus on what matters most to consumers, and what’s most important for building its people, brands, and business.

Kraft’s corporate structure is unique in that it has co CEOs- Betsy Holden and Roger Deromedi. Just as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards lead the band in different ways at different times, so do Holden and Deromedi; it is Holden’s personality, however, that makes her the Jagger of Kraft. She embodies both passion and focus in the way she energetically leads the company. A former fourthgrade schoolteacher, she entered the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she energized case teams to excel.

A leader in the world of cheese, Kraft shows how to take an existing product and rework it a thousand ways to create new products.

Building on its basic cheese formula, Kraft was the first to offer commercially packaged cheese slices in 1965. Philadelphia cream cheese now comes with pineapple, strawberries, or salmon already mixed in; Kraft sells over $1 billion annually in cream cheese alone. It put cheese in a spray can, called it Cheez Whiz (reaching a whole group of customers just dying to eat cheese from a can), and forever changed hors d’oeuvres at Middle America’s dinner parties. It took fat out of Velveeta (Velveeta Lite), for calorie conscious consumers in search of smaller waistlines, and put in jalape?os, for those wanting a little zing in their cheese loaf. Constantly innovating, Kraft now has bragging rights to a portfolio of 200 forms of cheese products-even Elton John doesn’t have that many versions of “Candles in the Wind.” Create an Authentic Brand; Choose an Accepted Conduit Mooove over Elsie, there’s a new cow in town-and she’s purple.

Kraft added Milka, one of Europe’s leading brands of chocolate, to its vast array of brands sold in the United States. Founded by Phillippe Suchard in the mid 1800s in Neuch?tel, Switzerland, Milka transformed chocolate from a product available only to Europe’s elite to a treat that could be enjoyed, and afforded, by all. Packaged in a lilac wrapper decorated with cows in a pasture, the brand is recognized around the world and reigns supreme throughout Europe as one of the most tender chocolates available. Through extensive advertising, Milka developed the personality of the lilac cow to the extent that when German schoolchildren are asked to draw a farm scene, they often color the cows purple.

Deliver on Fans’ Expectations When fans attend a Rolling Stones or Eagles concert, they expect to hear a string of hits they can sing along with, performed with topnotch sound quality and delivered with high energy. Like these legendary bands, Kraft brands give customers what they expect. Kraft may not be gourmet food, but its fans don’t expect it to be. They do, however, expect reliability, top shelf quality, familiarity, and good value.

Firms must ask themselves, “Do our products really deliver the attributes consumers consider most important?” In a food company, those attributes might include taste, ease of preparation, consistency, reliability, and safety, all of which affect the overall perception of product quality. Distribution is the less observable attribute of great brands, just as road crews and staging may escape the attention of fans at a concert. But a focus on quality that customers expect has lead to a hit parade of number one brands at Kraft, including Philadelphia, the number one cream cheese in the world.

Evolve to Remain Relevant without Alienating Current Fans Many artists featured in this article are dedicated to innovation, often trying to incorporate the latest technology into their shows, musical sounds, and productions. Madonna sticks to her core brand, but innovates in terms of how she presents that brand to her fans. Neil Diamond, on the other hand, innovates by releasing new music but changing as little as possible, following more closely the adage, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” Kraft follows a combination of the two.

Oscar Mayer-the leading hot dogs, cold cuts, and bacon brand in the United States-is Kraft’s Elton John, Billy Joel duet. The brand consists of quality, good tasting lunchmeat marinated in vats of personality. Just think of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The giant hotdog on wheels hit the roads of America in 1936; today, a fleet of them travels the United States, Puerto Rico, and Spain, leaving a trail of people singing the infamous jingle, “Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener…. ” Admit it. You remembered it, didn’t you? Let Fans Participate in the Brand Oscar Mayer also lets fans participate in the brand. An even more popular jingle than the wiener anthem is the bologna anthem. It is Kraft’s Wal Mart cheer-its “Rock and Roll All Night.” The words, “My bologna has a first name, it’s O S C A R…” still resonate through the minds of boomers and Generation Xers alike. Today, however, kids may not sing the bologna song in the cafeteria, but they do talk Kraft at lunch when they assemble and trade Lunchables. This modern day brown bag lunch is really a kit of snack sized food that kids like to eat and can assemble and eat, such as pizza and taco Lunchables. Kids get to play with their food and trade among themselves, while parents don’t have to take the time to make lunch for them.

Fan participation may also occur via web site, as Aerosmith has done well with its Notes from the Road section, chat room, and photo gallery. Similarly, Kraft spews out a slew of recipes and ideas about how to be creative with Velveeta, for example, and customers can enter contests and win up to $100,000.

Reading like the Forty Licks greatest hits CD, Kraft brands include Tang, DiGiorno, Tombstone, Knudsen, Cracker Barrel, Bakers, Calumet, Shake ‘n Bake, Grey Poupon, Cream of Wheat, Milk Bone, Jell O, Balance and Oasis Bars, Sure Jell, Claussen, Minute Maid, Good Seasons, Seven Seas, A 1, Chips Ahoy!, Ritz, SnackWell’s, Triscuits, Zwieback, Corn Nuts, Altoids, Toblerone, Life Savers-and we could go on, but won’t! Kraft follows the branding strategies from the classic rock era in which each member of the band projected a unique identity. When Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts walk on stage together, they are the Rolling Stones, but each draws screams from fans because of his individual personality. For instance, some people are huge Watts fans because they have an affinity for him greater than the connection they feel toward Jagger. Today’s contemporary bands usually promote the name of the band, passing up the marketing effort required to promote individual personalities. Like the Rolling Stones, each Kraft brand has its own identity, any one of which may connect with consumers better than another family brand.

Function + Fun = Focused Brands In their recent Face to Face tour, Elton John and Billy Joel electrified audiences with an integrated display of piano genius and personality.

Their endless string of combined hits kept concertgoers emotionally engaged for over three hours, but it was their unique synergy that kept fans on their feet a majority of the time. John and Joel blend just the right amounts of function and personality to pack a powerful entertainment punch to even the most discerning fans. Though each artist has tremendous skill and personality, it is their collective formula that allows them to work as a successful team; John adds more parts function (with more serious piano interludes and focused demeanor) and Joel more parts fun (laughing more and jumping around the stage).

What makes Kraft so cool is the long term dominance its brands have commanded in the marketplace, their effect on overall financial return, and their role in driving long term strategy for the company.

Kraft’s brand focus exemplifies our conclusion that the most valuable assets on a balance sheet often don’t even appear on the balance sheet-a company’s brands. Brand equity, sometimes measured by the excess of a firm’s market capitalization over its net worth, represents a long term investment in market share, wallet share, and heart share.

And as the legendary bands featured in this article show, the greater the heart share or emotional connection between fan and brand, the more likely that brand is to be adopted into consumers’ lives.

The ultimate cheese and cracker combo was born in the merger of Kraft and Nabisco to reign as the largest branded food and beverage company in North America, with revenues of nearly $30 billion.

Kraft brought the world’s number one brand of cheese, along with leading brands of salad dressings, packaged dinners, barbecue sauce, and other products to the table, while Nabisco brought with it the world’s leading cookie and cracker brands. The marriage, which is expected to result in cost savings of $600 million a year by 2004, transcends languages, permeates cultures, and sells in 150 nations around the globe.

Promoting Individual Identities: Marketing One Collective Brand Many brands featured in this article are single brands, firms whose corporate identity is closely tied to one brand. Unlike JetBlue, WalMart, and Madonna, however, Kraft is a family of brands that holds the number one share position in 21 of 25 product categories in the United States and internationally. The company owns over brands that, according to Nielson data, are so culturally relevant that at least one can be found in 99 percent of U.S. households at any given time.

S Resist the temptation of overexposure-fans like to feel like they are part of something special.

S Empower your fans to help your brand become and stay successful in the market.

If the stereotypical classic rock band were reincarnated as a portfolio of consumer brands, it would be Kraft Foods-an enduring example of how lessons described throughout this article apply to product brands. A little bit Rolling Stones and a whole lot of Neil Diamond, Kraft’s brand umbrella embodies what it takes to get onto retail shelves and stay there for decades. Its string of number one hits rivals that of Elton John, just as the qualities and personality of its products rival his professional persona.

Kraft is perhaps less hip than many of the brands cast in the marketing media spotlight, but it is sexy because of the profits it generates. Not as glamorous as Victoria’s Secret or as funky as JetBlue, Kraft’s success results from masterful marketing of the mundane. It proves, however, that the principles pulled from the world of rock and roll apply to just about any product, including cheese, lunch meat, and frozen dessert topping.

Krafting Winning Brands Kraft’s portfolio of brands rocks. If you’ve read this article, that proclamation shouldn’t shock you. Just think of the equity the company has built over the past several decades with its household name brands, including Jell O, Cool Whip, Grey Poupon, and Maxwell House. It boasts leading brand names in categories mainstream America can’t live without-what would we do without Miracle Whip, Velveeta, Shake ‘n Bake, and Kool Aid? Generations of kids have been raised on those four staples alone.

At Victoria’s Secret, it results in intense public interest fueling free television coverage of its fashion shows on Entertainment Tonight and other programs. In all of these instances, fans evangelize for the brands they love, help recruit other customers, give little regard to special promotions of competitive brands, and ultimately provide higher profit margins for the companies they follow.

Though fans sometimes exist in the corporate branding world, they run rampant in the world of classic rock. Why? Primarily because of the emotional connection that binds fan to band. The ability to evoke an emotional response-”Wow, that’s the brand for me!”-is critically important for marketers looking to create loyalty among customers. Studying legendary rock bands reveals tactical lessons on how to create lasting brands, including: S Forge and foster an emotional connection with fans.

S Develop ways for your fans to incorporate the brand into their lifestyles.

S Develop what your brand communicates to fans in terms of information and emotion.

S Retain fans by continually improving the brand at a rate that doesn’t distract from the overall positioning of the brand.

S Stay fresh in the market, but true to your core sound or strength.

S Create realistic expectations among customers and understand that their expectations will increase over time.

S Reposition and update the brand by cobranding with brands that have appeal in the markets you are targeting.

S Develop talent continuously, package it well, and relate it through multiple mediums.

S Monitor brand adoption and customer behavior to drive brand adaptation.

That’s the world or rock and roll bands. That’s also the world of money making brands.

Fanfare In today’s competitive arena, retailers, manufacturers, and service organizations alike strategize for new ways to attract and retain customers. Frequent buyer programs, special service offerings, improved customer service centers, and product reiterations sometimes lead to success for the many firms vying for customers’ attention and spending. And while a consistent combination of these and other programs may make significant strides in the race for long term loyalty, few firms achieve an emotional connection with their customers.

As KISS, the Rolling Stones, and Elton John reveal, emotional connections foster devotion among customers. In the music world, these customers are known as fans-a group of zealots that bands can count on to buy their latest albums, attend their concerts, and demand that their music stay on the radio. They also represent a baseline of sales for new records, concerts, merchandise, or projects the band produces.

For bands, a strong fan base represents a major step toward longevity, sustained relevance, and a place in culture. Though this category of customer is not exclusive to the world of rock and roll, it is far more prevalent there than in the world of commerce.

So what does creating fans mean for businesses? At Starbucks, it means people willing to pay top dollar for a cup of coffee nearly every morning-and a decade of 20 percent annual growth rates, even in 2002 when the rest of the economy was sputtering. At eBay, it translates into people who have developed side businesses of buying and selling online, somewhat addicted to the thrill of a treasure hunt.

Some evoked tears; some promoted smiles; all drew applause. But few songs inspired fans to sing along as much as “New York, New York” with its famous lyrics, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” That’s the world of rock and roll-the New York City of competitive marketplaces. It is hard to imagine a more fickle industry; one minute a song is hot, the next it’s pass