How WWE Made Me a Fan of Brand Communication

Were you one of those kids who used pillows as dummy opponents to perform the deadliest moves by popular professional wrestlers like The Rock or Triple H? I was. Pillows obviously don't have blood. Instead, cottons used to come out of the innocent pillows. Fans with such emotion for wrestling have always heard that line from haters, "Wrestling is fake." Some fans come up with a strong "NO". And there are some other 'smart' fans who say, "Well, its not fake. Its scripted." I used to be among the second ones. But I eventually came up with a third answer. While studying Brand Management in University I realized, "Wait a minute... This is just what World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) does... oh my God! This business is all about Brand Communication!" I found a crystal clear example of how powerful brands and brand communication can be.

WWE is a gigantic business earning a billion dollar revenue every year. And what lies at the core of their product is extraordinary brand communication. Think of the millions who know its actually a storyline based program but still are crazy about WWE. Why do they invest there emotions for it? What magic keeps them attached? The magic is my third answer- Brand Communication. Wrestling business is about creating an experience in the minds of the audiences. This experience creation is made possible by brand communication. And this unbelievable capability made me fall in love with branding. I believe WWE is like a text book for the brand managers.

Wrestlers are Brands

The fundamental challenge in wrestling business is to make people care about the matches. Why would you watch a match with predetermined result? That needs making people care about the wrestlers first. WWE (and other promotions also like Impact, ROH, NJPW etc.) overcomes this challenge by building the wrestlers as Brands.

Here I quote one of my favorite lines from the great Indian advertiser Piyush Pandey:

"If you give me truth, I believe. If you give me a story, I remember."

To get a place in consumers' mind, brands need to have stories. Brands must elicit a certain image to have an emotional bond with the consumers. Every wrestler is a brand. Just like any proper brand, they have their story narrated strategically. Just the way different brands assorted in a supershop have different propositions, language, belief system, tagline, color and story; every wrestler stands for their own unique attributes. They have their own persona, gimmick, philosophy, entrance music, entrance theatrics, catchphrases, signature moves, in-ring gears etc. All these associations help to establish a superstar as a Brand audiences can connect with. With so many years of business, creatives of WWE have probably gifted us with all 12 classic archetypes of brand. Some wrestlers are portrayed as villains (heels) and some others as heroes (faces). Whether a superstar is villain or hero, he or she has to induce reaction from live crowd in the arena and TV audiences.

Catchphrases Are Taglines

Taglines of brands can be compared with catchphrases of wrestlers. They would eat up some space in your brain if played effectively. "If you smell what The Rock is cooking" is one of the most popular catchphrases of all time by The Rock. In fact, he has numerous wildly popular catchphrases and audiences can not but burst into cheers whenever 'the great one' talks. Wrestlers or brands popularize their catchphrases to the point when crowd tend to complete the catchphrase as soon as wrestlers just start saying it. Just think of the engagement they generate. Think of the bond superstars create with the audiences. This is what a brand aims to attain. Connection with the TG.

Just think of the engagement they generate. Think of the bond superstars create with the audiences. This is what a brand aims to attain. Connection with the TG.

Enjoy this short clip from 'The Graham Norton Show' where The Rock says how he sells two of his famous catchphrases.

Music for Creating Identity

Music and jingles have always been two magnificent connectors of brands with audiences. AR Rahman adapted Mozart's 25th symphony to create the legendary theme music of Titan watch about 20 years ago and it still is the greatest association of the brand. WWE's use of music to create connection is like a copybook for the brand managers. Superstars or 'Brands' have entrance themes of their own. As soon as the music hits, crowd would know who is coming. These themes are composed according to the personality of the superstars. With time, as a character develops, his or her theme music is also edited to suit the current phase. Interestingly, when a character turns villain, his or her music might also be slightly edited to provoke the evil vibe. Japanese wrestler Nakamura's entrance music is so catchy that live crowd hum the music together when he enters. But when he turned villain, some Japanese rap was added to his music so that people find it difficult to hum the music. (A villain is not supposed to be cheered).

Don't miss the video that tells you how The Rock's music was edited as his character took off with time. I give you the link: How The Rock's Music Was Created and Updated with Time

And Thus Brands Are Created

Along with music and catchphrases come signature moves, gestures, attire etc. Sporting all these distinctions for a long time creates different wrestlers as different brands. Some are rebel, some are patriots, some are monsters, some are fun-loving and everything that falls under the classic brand archetypes. When needed, these characters are reinvented. New associations are built. New catchphrases are created. Its just like rebranding.

Matches Are Branded Too

Sometimes even the matches are branded with lucrative headlines, myths, records and stipulations. The Undertaker's unbeaten record at Wrestlemania (Biggest annual event of WWE) was always marketed as a streak that's almost impossible to break. When finally Undertaker lost at his 22nd Wrestlemania appearance, it was a shock fans could hardly absorb. The reaction of the crowd to the scripted incident was larger than life.

Responding to Society

WWE's branding is not just about selling the script. People today want more from brands. Being responsive to the new waves of social changes is a feature of the bests of brands now. Previously, women wrestlers in WWE were called 'divas' and they were highly used as 'sex symbols' in the storylines. This was quite normal for the audiences in mid 90s till early 2000s. WWE stopped such objectifying of women responding to the rising awareness towards respecting women. Even both the male and female wrestlers are called 'WWE Superstars' now. WWE is working with Susan G. Komen to fight breast cancer. A pink rope was once added in the ring as a symbol of awareness against breast cancer. An 8 year old kid named Connor, who was suffering from brain and spine cancer, was a big WWE fan. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon got to know through a social media campaign that Connor wanted to meet his favorite wrestler Daniel Bryan. McMahon let him meet with Daniel and other popular wrestlers within 48 hours. After his death, they also honored him with annual 'Warrior Award'. Who won't love such a brand?

Digitally Active

WWE has shown how brands can utilize social media. Hashtags promoted by WWE during shows can always be found on the list of top trends in Twitter. Sometimes the superstars twit on their ongoing rivalry to give it a real feel. You can also find enormous presence of WWE contents in YouTube and Facebook. They are building brands even when TV shows are not running.

Picture: Pink rope in the middle

The Final Chapter

The ultimate result of all these branding effort is the larger than life reactions from the audiences. It's been about 60 years this business is being run successfully. Their biggest event Wrestlemania is considered one of the top 10 most valuable sporting events by Forbes. The flagship show 'Raw' is USA's longest running weekly episodic TV program. It has global appeal. Of course, it's a part of pop culture. Emotions of millions of fans around the world are the biggest asset of this business. All these have been made possible by the superb brand communication skill of WWE. My own thinking pattern have been shaped largely by this business. And this business made me a fan of the art and science of brand communication.