Dengler Johannes Managing director Alois Dallmayr Kaffee oHG
The brand also creates identification internally, for the people who work here.
1. How significant is the brand for your company management?
Dallmayr is one of the leading brands of coffee in Germany, the third largest coffee market in the world (after USA and Brazil). Dallmayr Prodomo as an individual product is the Germans’ favourite coffee and the third most-popular individual item in German food retail outlets (incidentally after Kerrygold butter and the Coca-Cola 1-litre bottle).
Our brand has an appeal and is central for us both internally and externally. It gives us guidance internally, and calibrates our actions every second of the day. Many decisions can be taken habitually or intuitively according to the criterion: “Does it help move the brand forward?”, or: “Does that suit the brand?”, without everything having to be scrutinised or calculated in detail. The brand also creates identification internally, for the people who work here. I think they cannot clearly differentiate whether they are working on behalf of (or for) the brand, or for the company. At any rate, externally we would be “nothing”, a “nobody”, without the brand.
2. How does the brand specifically help you to manage your company and make decisions?
I think I have already answered that.
3. In your opinion, what are the misapprehensions of brand management that need to be avoided?
– Making important decisions on the basis of a consumer panel, without using your own opinion or intuition.
– Being too optimistic about being able to “reposition” a brand within only a short period of time.
– Rotating product managers or agencies that keep questioning everything.
4. What advice would you give to other companies with regard to brand management?
Understand and internalise the true brand essence, and changes to its positioning should be made either not at all or only very slowly.
5. What company do you admire for its brand management?
Lindt and Apple. Apple is clear, really. Everyone thinks they are great. Lindt is outstanding in its long-term focus on quality and its adherence to its promise throughout the entire process chain, for decades.