Childrens Corner

Originally aimed at younger people, today Virgin has a wider target audience. As Branson has matured so too has the brand’s appeal. “Four years ago we crossed over into appealing to their
parents,” he says. “But we have to be careful we don’t lose the kids. I’d like people to feel most of their needs in life can be fi lled by Virgin. The absolutely critical thing is we must never let them down.”2

By the mid 1990s, Virgin seemed to be everywhere. So ubiquitous
had the brand become that hardly a day seemed to go by without seeing a grinning Richard Branson launching some new Virgin product or service. The famous fl ying V logo was emblazoned on aircraft, megastore and cinema fronts, and was about to make its debut on cola cans.

The activity prompted some to question the company’s strategy.
Those who understood what he was about, however, recognized
that what Branson had created was an entirely new kind of brand
proposition. John Murphy, chairman of the famous brand consultancy
Interbrand, for example, observed that: “Unless they poison someone or start applying the brand to inappropriate products such as pension funds or photocopiers, I doubt whether the Virgin brand will ever be diluted.” Little did Murphy know that by 1996, Virgin Direct would be offering fi nancial services – including pensions.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Almost as impressive as his ability to steal the limelight when he wants to is the Virgin chairman’s ability to avoid negative publicity for his business activities or have his private life reported by the media. Like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Branson seems to be able to vanish when it suits him, so that all that remains visible is his toothy smile.

While others with alternative business credos such as Anita Roddick
have been punished by the press if they put a foot wrong, many of Branson’s business setbacks and failures remain discretely hidden from the public gaze. Roddick, it seems, was penalized for her apparent self-righteousness and for taking what some saw as a marketing gimmick too seriously. Branson, on the other hand, is seen as a schoolboy prankster and given the benefi t of the doubt. This may explain why when Branson has received critical press coverage it has tended to be for his philanthropic activities rather than his commercial adventures.

By and large, the media attention Virgin receives is positive. The other side of the Branson media manipulation is his ability to drop out of sight when it suits him. From time to time there are rumors of cash shortages within the Virgin Group, and that he has overstretched himself. The fact that his business is a private
company with most of its interests registered through offshore trusts makes it very diffi cult for outsiders to know what the true balance sheet position is. This perfectly legal and tax-effi cient arrangement works to Branson’s advantage.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

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Branson also has a remarkable knack of popping up at unexpected moments of public drama. In the run-up to the Gulf War, for example, when a British Airways plane and crew was held hostage by Saddam Hussein’s forces, Branson informed the British media that he had offered Prime Minister John Major the use of a Virgin aircraft to get them out. He put a plane on 24-hour standby to fl y in and bring the hostages home.

Just days after Princess Diana announced that she would be withdrawing from public life because of media pressure, she appeared on the same platform as Branson to launch a new addition to the Virgin Atlantic fl eet. Diana looked relaxed and at ease as Branson sprayed her with champagne and persuaded her to pose in a red Virgin Atlantic jacket. (PR genius is not too strong a term for Branson.)

When the pop star Boy George found himself in diffi cult straits over his heroin addiction, who stepped in to offer a fatherly hand of help? None other than Richard Branson, whose Virgin record label had discovered George in his Culture Club days. Branson whisked the troubled pop star away from the media gaze and checked him into a top drug rehabilitation clinic. Cynics saw a blatant PR opportunist at work, but others saw the Virgin boss as the caring face of the pop business.

In 2006 Branson upped his game when he announced he was
committing his time and billions of dollars to helping save the planet from the threat of climate change. There is no one who could doubt Branson’s determination to make a difference when he commits to a project. Who knows, he might just prove the catalyst for many more corporations to get involved in tackling global warming.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

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It had cost £3 million for the Global Challenger to travel barely 400 miles. But no one from the world of marketing was in any doubt that it had been money well spent. Referring to a £300 million Pepsi Co. advertising campaign that included repainting Concorde blue, one British PR expert claimed that simply by leaving the ground, Branson had “outdone Pepsi fourfold.”4

One anecdote highlights his aptitude for media relations. On his second and successful attempt to bring back the Blue Riband to Britain for the fastest sea crossing of the Atlantic, Virgin staff back on dry land were kept busy throughout much of the voyage going through a list of the UK’s national and regional media. From the operational headquarters in one of Virgin’s record stores, they called the editors one by one and offered to patch them through for a live interview with Branson on board the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II.

While Branson answered questions from one newspaper, the next
would be receiving a background briefi ng from the land-based staff and waiting to be put through. The Challenger’s skipper kept this up for hours, answering the same questions and making the same wise cracks again and again to obtain maximum coverage. Finally, he turned to Chay Blyth, the round-the-world yachtsman accompanying him on the record attempt, and said: “This is getting boring. We’ve got to tell them something else.” “We’ve just missed a whale,” the astute yachtsman said by way of reply. “Where, where?,” asked Branson getting excited. “I didn’t see it.” It was only when he glanced back at Blyth that he realized that, whale or no whale, the story made good newspaper copy. “Oh yeah,” he said, “I’ve got it.” The next few editors heard about the huge sea creature that had had such a close brush with the boat. Naturally, they lapped it up.

So well known is Branson’s talent for a good story that new Virgin
ventures have little diffi culty now in arousing public and media
interest. Virgin Bride, the company’s chain of bridal stores, was still 18 months off launch when a rumor, started in a West London estate agent, reached all the national newspapers within three days. The company even received a phone call from the Los Angeles Times.5

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

Where other companies spend huge sums of money on advertising,
Branson generates yards of column inches for free. And where other fi rms employ expensive PR fi rms to organize contrived media events, Branson delivers a much more valuable commodity – news.

The secret to his self-serving publicity campaigns is an instinctive
understanding of what appeals to the media. To publicize the launch of his airline, for example, Branson arrived at the inaugural press conference wearing a brown leather aviator’s helmet, Biggles style. Editors loved it, and splashed Branson’s photograph all over their newspapers. The story generated so much public interest that Virgin didn’t need to advertise its fi rst fl ights.

And, of course, when the winner of the Volvo and Virgin Galactic competition – fi rst prize, a trip into space – was announced in New York in 2005, there was Branson, the usual grin barely visible from inside his astronaut outfi t.

Since then Branson’s media events have escalated. To launch Virgin
Cola in the US, for instance, he drove a full battle tank down a busy New York City street to demolish a wall of cola cans. No surprises for guessing which company made the news the next day.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder

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One of the most frequently asked questions about Virgin is how far the brand can stretch. Branson’s answer is that as long as the brand’s integrity is not compromised, then it is infi nitely elastic. Virgin’s strategy is based on what he calls “reputational branding” rather than traditional product and service branding. Lessons from Branson the brand master are:

? A good brand travels. The ubiquitous Virgin brand has prompted some commentators to ask whether the brand is being diluted. Those who understood what Branson was about, however, recognize that he has created an entirely new kind of brand proposition.

? Brand elasticity is infi nite. The most important aspect of the Virgin brand proposition is its credibility among its market segment. Existing Virgin products and services provide credibility for new offerings.

? Love, honor and cherish your brand. Branson has acknowledged
time and time again that the most vital asset Virgin has is its reputation. His philosophy is: look after your brand and it will last.

? Rules are for breaking. If you’ve got a great brand and can see a market opportunity, you shouldn’t let a little thing like whether you have any experience of that market get in the way.

? A pinch of salt adds fl avor. Whatever Virgin does, it adds a sense of fun or cheekiness. It is not that the company goes into anything in an unprofessional way – far from it. It’s simply that it has a sense of humor.

NOTES
1 Rodgers, Paul, “The Branson Phenomenon,” Enterprise magazine, March/April 1997.
2 Rodgers, Paul, “The Branson Phenomenon,” Enterprise magazine, March/April 1997.
3 Campbell, Andrew and Sadtler, David, “Corporate Breakups,”
Strategy & Business, Third Quarter 1998.
4 Virgin Group literature.

Taken From: Richard Branson 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder
5 Branson, Richard, “Money Programme” lecture, BBC, July
1998.

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