Bernd Rützler – Kärcher

Kärcher is a global leader in cleaning technology, renowned for its innovative and high-performance products that set the standard in the industry. The company stands out not only for its innovative cleaning solutions, but also for its strategic approach to brand management. In this brand growth interview, Bernd Rützler, Kärcher’s Global VP of Marketing, shares his insights, shedding light on the company’s growth, the pivotal role of creativity, and the emotional connections that drive brand loyalty.

Brand value as a key indicator of growth

Bernd begins by acknowledging the significant weight that Kärcher’s brand carries within the company’s overall valuation. He quotes the company’s CEO Hartmut Jenner; ”The brand is one of the most valuable assets we have in the company,” underscoring that Kärcher’s brand alone constitutes a substantial portion of the company’s total value.

To maintain and grow this value, Kärcher employs a blend of methods. Bernd highlights the classic AIDA model—Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action—as a foundational framework for assessing brand performance; “We naturally look at the classic funnel, from consideration, first choice, and then action at the end, the classic AIDA model. There are many methods, but I find that the old AIDA model still has a good foundation for evaluating a brand.” This model is supplemented with ”softer” brand factors, such as customer affinity and emotional connection to the brand.

Furthermore, Kärcher has started to shift focus from aided to unaided brand awareness. By strengthening the unaided brand awareness, Kärcher aims to gauge more authentic and organic recognition among consumers, which Bernd describes as a ”harder currency” in brand evaluation. “We have eventually shifted from looking at aided brand awareness to the unaided, which is the harder currency. We are very high up in many countries on the unaided, and therefore, the goal must be maintaining that brand awareness, and it’s not always so easy,” Bernd stresses.

“We have eventually shifted from looking at aided brand awareness to the unaided, which is the harder currency.”

Nevertheless, it’s in the area of supported brand awareness that brand growth mainly can be achieved, focusing on the people who know the brand, but aren’t actively choosing it yet. Especially this is the case in Asia, where the challenge lies in establishing a brand presence and overcoming barriers related to market dynamics and consumer behaviour. In regions where Kärcher enjoys strong recognition, such as Europe, the goal is to sustain this awareness amidst growing competition and changing consumer preferences.

Creativity in Brand Communication

To grow and sustain brand awareness, Bernd sees creativity as essential. “Creativity allows you to stand out from the crowd, it’s the story to support your brand on the shelf, connecting brand awareness with a feeling,” he asserts. Especially when budgets become more limited, it becomes more difficult to push individual product messages. Therefore, Bernd’s team decided to take it one level higher and focus on anchoring the brand message in people’s minds, so that when they think of cleaning at home, they should think of Kärcher. After this, they will see that Kärcher offers solutions for almost everything within cleaning technology.

“Creativity allows you to stand out from the crowd, it’s the story to support your brand on the shelf, connecting brand awareness with a feeling.”

Emotionalising Cleaning

According to Bernd, brand management is about emotions. But how emotional is cleaning actually? Bernd has a clear answer to this; “Cleaning can trigger many emotions, that’s what we’ve tested with you. Many people say, ‘Yes, cleaning is initially positive. I like doing it because I do it for my family,’ but many people are also annoyed by cleaning. So, cleaning is primarily a task that no one looks forward to; everyone wants it to be clean, but the path there is often a bit arduous, and that’s our challenge. To make the path easier by basically inventing mechanical cleaning in many areas.”

Allowing for polarisation and differentiation

Another part of creativity and creating a strong emotional bond is also allowing for the polarisation of ads and other brand communication; “Creativity will always polarise, which is good, I believe. That’s why I believe in creativity. Advertising that doesn’t polarise doesn’t get noticed,” Bernd says. However, he highlights the importance of still doing it from a strategic perspective. “The freedom to be creative and fully explore ideas doesn’t mean just going wild, rather in a strategic sense, it means considering how far we can push the brand, and to explore that space.” Creativity requires courage, and a brand needs to be bold to be polarising, but when done strategically, it works efficiently in the market and helps the brand stand out.

“The freedom to be creative and fully explore ideas doesn’t mean just going wild, rather in a strategic sense, it means considering how far we can push the brand, and to explore that space.”

Nevertheless, geographical and channel differences should still be considered in creativity. As Bernd explains; “Nowadays, you have to produce the stuff for the channels, which makes things more complex and expensive. But of course, you have to be louder in certain channels, otherwise, you simply won’t be noticed.” He mentions TikTok as an example; “TikTok is different worldwide, in China, it has become one of our important sales channels, while we’re miles away from that here in Europe.” This led Bernd to reflect on whether international communication works anymore or if ads should all be localised; “Earlier, we could still manage campaigns internationally, and our goal is still to use them internationally, but I believe step by step, we will have to steer the campaigns even more regionally.”

Brand Pride

Lastly, Bernd talks about brand pride, the desire to own a brand, as his inspiration and goal for creativity. “We know from market research that at least in countries where we stand well with the brand, Germany and France for example, we know that people are proud to own a Kärcher and like to show it on the weekend. So, when they clean, they want it to be seen that it’s a Kärcher and not just some no-name product.” He mentions tattoos of iconic brands such as Nike and Harley Davidson as a carrot for him; “If a customer tattoos your brand on their skin, then I believe you’ve made it emotionally and succeeded as a brand. It would be great if we could achieve that too.” This emotional connection does not only drive recognition but also a deep, enduring affinity with the brand.

“If a customer tattoos your brand on their skin, then I believe you’ve made it emotionally and succeeded as a brand.”