Living Branding = The Branded Life

by Martin Lindstrom
This text had appeared in MarketingProfs.com on on January 29, 2008.

Welcome to the Louis Vuitton hotel. Louis Vuitton? Why not?

Here is a hotel in which every room is decorated with the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram. A hotel in which the LVMH group's top Champagne brands, Dom Pérignon and Krug, are served on arrival; the group's top Hennessy Cognac is displayed in the bars; and the staff members are dressed in the latest Louis Vuitton fashions and sport Louis Vuitton watches. This is a hotel that aims to make luxury a synonym for life.

The latest Louis Vuitton ad campaign, featuring Mikhail Gorbachev sitting in a limo beside a piece of signature Louis Vuitton luggage was a coup. The hotel may yet be a victory for the brand.

That's right. It hasn't happened yet. But when the hotel does enter the scene, Louis Vuitton will be one of the last luxury brands to express itself as the ultimate branded lifestyle.

Already, the Versace Palazzo in Australia, the Armani Hotel in the United Arab Emirates, and the BVLGARI Hotel in Milan have made their impact on the hotel business by pursuing the art of true experiential branding.

Some have been more convincing than others. But all of them have succeeded in demonstrating a new wave of branding that aims to occupy every minute of the customer's day with an unbroken theme of branded experience rather than the momentary brand rush of purchase.

Experiential brand building is taking on new and all-encompassing dimensions. IKEA, for example, is no longer just a flat-pack-furniture and homewares store. It's a construction company that builds IKEA houses, based on the IKEA promise of easy living and affordable design. When you buy an IKEA house, you get two days of complimentary interior decorating advice. Of course, the recommendations centre on which IKEA furniture and accessories to buy.

Then there's Martha Stewart's latest venture with KB Home that promises her devotees the perfect home. The kitchen design, the living room, the bathrooms and hallways are all designed in the spirit of Martha Stewart—plug-and-play ready for $250,000.

Welcome to the world of living branding—a new breed of 24/7 brands that are likely to occupy more and more of our lives, from our waking moments to when we retire to bed.

Disney was among the first to offer a branded holiday with the Disney cruise, followed by Disney tours to Paris, Rome, and Pisa, all guided by en expert named Mickey or Donald. Four Seasons Hotels will soon launch the Four Seasons cruise ship. And, years ago, the Ritz Carlton and Donald Trump concepts began offering branded lifestyle resort accommodation.

So have we reached the pinnacle of branded living? Or could this be another beginning? Branded living, or living branding, is a methodology that gives brands access to every detail in daily life.

What's to stop the approach making inroads on momentous events in life, from weddings to funerals? From birthdays to anniversaries? You can already buy coffins branded by the band KISS. And Harris Casino in Las Vegas now offers its VIP guests Harris-branded funerals.

So, it looks like this is just the beginning of a trend which will occupy and influence every aspect of life. Why's that? Because in a world where Paris Hilton attracts more media attention than Stephen Hawking, where superficial perception is more influential than considered fact, where the signals we send are more important than what's behind them, where success and acceptable values are tied up and reflected in materials and the constructed image, branded living makes sense.

The days of branded clothing, branded cars and branded drinks will soon seem very dated. In a world of consumption, we need more to stimulate our ambitions, aspirations, and self-image.

It's like an addiction. Once you've started, you can't stop. Once living branding becomes fashionable, it will become the norm, and then its precepts will run the show. Just like another fashion, our branded lives will be trapped on the never-ending treadmill of upgrades.

Suddenly it won't be enough to have an Armani house. You'll need the latest Armani, featuring the latest range of furniture, the latest themed scents and the latest color story. You'll be able to buy the house new, or upgrade your existing Armani house. The renovations will all be managed and carried out by the Armani Group, which will offer its services on a subscription-based arrangement. This will ensure that your life (style) never goes out of fashion.

We're not at this stage—yet. But everything indicates we're not far from entertaining the idea of living a truly branded life. A couple of months ago it was announced that the Armani Casa concept—a six-story building in the center of Milan—would soon be opening its doors in cities across the world. Armani Casa is a department store carrying everything from Armani flowers to Armani chocolates in addition to Armani furniture, stereo equipment, lighting, and, of course, clothing.

The vision of a truly branded life has become a reality. The brand is no longer a backdrop to life—it has become the star of the show. And the consumer has become merely a cast member.

The Power of Brand Repositioning: A Four-Phased Process

by Gregory J. Pollack
(Gregory J. Pollack is founder and president of PBM Marketing Solutions, a partnership brand marketing company.)
This text had appeared in MarketingProfs.com on January 29, 2008.

So many brands and companies are constantly reinvigorating their businesses and positioning them for growth. There is a constant need to innovate, reinvigorate, update, recalibrate, or just simply fend off the competition in an effort to better explain "why buy me."

To move forward, companies and brands need to first take a look at their current brand positioning. But for a moment, even a brief moment, it would make sense to go back to the brand drawing board to answer the question, Just what is brand positioning anyway?

Brand positioning creates a specific place in the market for your brand and product offerings. It reaches a certain type of consumer or customer and delivers benefits that meet the needs of several key target groups and users.

The actual approach of a company or brand's positioning in the marketplace depends on how it communicates the benefits and product attributes to consumers and users. As a result, the brand positioning of a company and/or product seeks to further distance itself from competitors based on a host of items, but most notably five key issues: Price, Quality, Product Attributes, Distribution, and Usage Occasions

As companies and brands today look to brand repositioning, they first have to ask what the reasons are for repositioning the brand. They can include declining sales, loss of consumer/user base, stagnant product benefits, or the competition, including such issues as increased technology and new features.

What's next after identifying the reasons for pursuing a brand repositioning?

A four-phased brand repositioning approach will help guide you through the process and allow your company and brand group to best calibrate based on timing, budget, and resources to get the job done.

Phase I. Determining the Current Status of the Brand

The purpose of this phase is to understand the company and brand, including exploring key issues, opportunities, and challenges. The reason is to obtain a clear snapshot of the company and brand in present terms, which will offer a clear insight to opportunity identification and assessment.

Understanding the brand includes reviewing the complete history of the company and brand, including its current brand positioning, the original positioning, how it has evolved, and most important: what the company and brand stands for today. Key questions to ask and answer:

• What differentiates our company and brand from the competition?
• What are the equity drivers of the company and brand?
• What are the historical ways to communicate the company and brand equity to consumers and customers alike?

As we dive deeper into the current status of the company and brand, we also need to get a clear understanding of the company and brand, including a review of the current brand customer. Key questions to ask and answer:

• Who is the current target customer base?
• What is his/her profile?
• What are the reasons for purchase?
• What are the buying patterns?
• What are the user patterns?

Once we better understand the current brand customer, we can then review the company and brand sales history, including revenue, growth, and industry and category market share. It is also important to look at the specific core product and/or service offerings.

This review should include the current product strategy and mix, with specific emphasis on understanding the current SKU product strategy in the case of a company, specifically a manufacturer. If your business is in the service-offering or professional consulting arena, this would include a review of the total service offerings and programs offered. Key question to ask and answer: Do all products live under the same brand strategy or are there different product strategies that fall under one brand strategy? This can include determining whether your business is a category leader, or a player as a secondary brand.

This phase should also include looking at production capabilities and constraints, distribution strength and strategy, top key accounts, key selling points, along with a careful review of all sales and marketing promotional materials.

Last, but of equal importance, is to review the competitive landscape, including the number of competitors, keys to their success, and what they are doing right as well as determining some of their key challenges. Key questions/areas to look into are market share, industry strength, customer profiles, and consumer buying trends; include a review of the industry and category trends and forecasts.

Phase II. What Does the Brand Stand for Today?

We now need to understand how consumers feel about your company and brand today. In consumer packaged goods (CPG), this might mean talking to kids and moms, as well as other user groups, to determine what your company and brand stand for.

Obtaining a clear insight to the way consumers feel and relate to your company and brand will provide the starting point of the repositioning work. First we need to gain parameters, including...

• Identifying key growth areas for your brand, marketplace and industry opportunities
• Looking at your brand positioning in the competitive landscape
• Measuring the current equity of your brand
• Determining opportunity areas of where to take the equity of your brand.

Clear objectives include the following:

• Understanding current consumer perceptions and needs of your brand
• Determining how far to move your brand without alienating current customers and loyalty base
• Identifying how to position your brand to attract new users and their ultimately becoming loyal purchasers/users/buyers

The first step on the course of brand repositioning is to hold "brand equity groups," which will directly ask consumers and users of your brand key questions, including "Why select our brand?" and "What was the key decision making element?" Beyond these general questions, the brand equity groups will also seek to understand their reasons for purchase, determine their hierarchy of needs and what your brand currently delivers, understand usage occasions and patters, and showcase brand equity dimensions. In addition, one of the most important functions of running brand equity groups is to identify similar affinity groups, lifestyle, and behavior patterns among your consumers and loyal customers that can translate into better understanding your customer profiles.

From a logistical perspective, the brand equity groups could take place over the course of two days with about four groups total. To ensure good program read and reach, it would be best to run these groups in approximately three to four cities.

Through this process you will identify needs, both unmet and met, in category and industry, determine the delights and dissatisfiers of your brand, as well as determine current brand-equity drivers of your brand. In a sense, the process will provide you with a current measure of the value of your brand to consumers or end-users.

This will not only provide a snapshot of today and where your brand sits but also an immediate look into where you can take your brand tomorrow.

The goal of the brand equity groups is to identify opportunities, including looking at growth areas for your brand as well as unmet consumer and user needs.

Once we can find the current equity value of the brand, the next step would be to run "brand positioning workshops."

Phase III. Developing the Brand Positioning Platforms

Now that we have a good and solid understanding of where the company, business, and brand sit within the overall marketplace, as well as a good understanding of its value to consumers, the next step is to find out how far to grow, expand, and stretch the brand.

The purpose of Phase III is to utilize all marketing research, brand, industry, and consumer information to reposition what your brand should and can stand for. The key reasoning is that determining effective and successful brand repositioning will help retain existing customers and acquire new ones. As we look to begin brand repositioning, we need to keep in mind that it needs to capture "How we want consumers to think and feel about your brand."

This process will develop and create several key brand positioning platforms to showcase how far your brand can move to retain existing customers and acquire new ones. It will answer these questions:

• Who do we want our brand to be?
• What benefits will it deliver to the consumer?
• How will we promote the brand product purchase, collection, and user patterns?

The most important guidelines to success will be to ensure that all aspects of where to take your brand are carefully reviewed to ensure that the core values and essence of your brand are maintained. With this in mind, as a general guideline, there are four key ingredients as part of the brand repositioning work. The new Brand Positioning will be...

• Ownable—Unique to the brand
• Leverageable—Important and relevant to the target
• Sustainable—Relevant other categories in the future
• Extendable—Appropriate for partnership marketing and other marketing programs

There are two key components to the brand positioning workshops—strategic and creative—and they should involve two sessions. The first session would be "Developing The Brand Vision," which includes where the brand is and what it should become tomorrow, as well as mapping out where to take the brand in the short and long term.

The second session would be "Stretching The Brand." Essentially, you would take everything you have heard and learned, and review consumer insights with the goal of taking your brand where it should go. This process should include exercises to stretch your brand into the future.

For instance, you might develop a different marketing positioning platforms that can take key dimensions as far as possible. For a toy or consumer brand that might include such parameters as fun, mystery, anticipation, taste, usage occasions. However, this process should really center on what consumers think you should explore.

As a result, the brand positioning workshop should determine four to five key benefits and potential platforms that are agreed upon by the entire group. Then it is up to every member of the group to refine and validate each positioning platform. These workshops review key marketing research information and consumer attitudes and, most important, the current purchase patterns. The overall purpose is to determine which areas and brand positioning platforms to pursue.

The final output of the brand positioning workshop is "Developing the Brand Vision," "Developing the Brand Drivers for Future Positioning," and "Developing Brand Alternatives."

Now that we have developed new brand positioning platforms, we need to test it and validate it with consumers as well as key customers. The ultimate purpose and goal is to refine the brand positioning platforms.

So, we go back to the focus group format in which we would again talk to key consumers and customers with the purpose of checking back with them to validate the new brand positioning. This essentially allows for refinement of the new brand positioning. It will also help determine just how far your brand can be stretched. It is also essential to develop visual concept boards to position your brand and its products in a new light in front of consumers and customers.

The final output of this phase includes a concise and clear understanding of consumer views on key new brand positioning platforms as well as the final brand positioning. This will provide and deliver an overview of consumer attitudes toward the new brand positioning, with a focus on retaining existing brand customers and acquiring new users.

It will also showcase the final new brand positioning statement, explaining in detail the reasoning behind the new brand positioning.

Phase IV. Refining the Brand Positioning and Management Presentation

Now we have a great start, a new thinking, and (most important) the beginnings of the new brand positioning for your company, business, and brand. The purpose now is to review and refine the new brand positioning and communicate to all function departments in order to align efforts.

The main reason is that it is important that everyone on the brand team and all function areas understand, buy in, and support the new brand positioning. Essentially, this will become the umbrella strategy for the brand group dictating marketing programs and tactics.

As part of this final and very important phase in brand repositioning, we need to refine the positioning. This includes finalizing the brand by incorporating all feedback from consumers, customers, vendors and agencies, as well as the brand group, to ensure achievable positioning vs. aspirational positioning.

The ultimate final stage results in building a strong team to carry the message to senior management and leaders within your company. This includes developing and presenting to the brand group and senior management the new brand positioning.

Once the entire senior management and leadership buy in and endorse the new brand positioning, there is still much work to be done. The main focus now shifts from research and development to solidifying, marketing, and communication.

As such, we need to create a "brand identity manual" that provides a clear direction on the new brand positioning. Most important, it describes how the new brand positioning will deliver growth for the business. The "Brand Identity Manual" showcases industry and competitive trends and consumer attitudes that resulted in the new brand positioning.

Its purpose would be to communicate all marketing research and findings, along with the reasoning for the new brand positioning, as well as deliver clear and concise brand messaging for all subsequent brand function areas, support groups, agencies, etc. The result is that the "Brand Identity Manual" ensures unifying and agreed-upon brand positioning for the entire company and support groups and functions.

The final output for Phase IV is the production of a "Brandscape." This includes a visual imagery and musical score combined to bring the new brand positioning to life. It can be shared with the entire brand group and brand support groups to communicate new brand positioning and is a core way of communicating the new brand positioning to anyone in the company or anyone connected to the brand group.

The reasoning is that the "Brandscape" could be utilized by all future brand departments as "Brand Communication Guidelines," including packaging, marketing, sales, communications, etc. The overall purpose is to ensure consistent communication of the brand equity across any medium and by any partner.

Brand building's key to long-term success

by Jacob Cherian
This text had appeared in The Economic Times on 14 Dec, 2007.

Brand building started on day one for Riyaaz Amlani’s new venture six years ago. His Mocha coffee shop chain wanted to differentiate itself from others, which Amlani thought had followed the Starbucks template faithfully. He spent several weeks planning nuances such as the quantity of the dessert scoop and the mix ‘n’ match of furniture.

He designed the whole project with a belief that a coffee shop is not a restaurant, but a place for socialising. All this got early visitors talking about how different the experience was. And Mocha had got its brand baptism.

On the other hand, internet portal Sulekha.com didn’t begin a brand-building exercise until this year, though it had started as early as 2001. The company focused on developing a critical mass of users and let growth come from word-of-mouth. Unlike the flashy dotcoms that rose and fell during the bubble, Sulekha conserved cash for operations.

Start-up companies often grapple with the dilemma — whether to build a brand or not? While a strong brand equity can bring enormous value to the company, it also requires a large commitment of capital and management energy early on. Many businessmen wonder if they aren’t too small to attempt brand building or whether they can afford it.

Experts say new businesses should start planning for brand building as early as possible. For some, it might start at the pre-product stage, while some others would have to wait till they establish the core attributes of their product or service offerings. But, failure to build a brand and to start investing in it at the right time can bleed the company of much of its potential, experts say.

“A company should start building its brand, stage-wise, as soon as it has validated its core,” says Harshal Shah of Reliance Technology Ventures. He says this ‘core’ comprises the team’s values, experiences and capabilities. For instance, when Steve Jobs started Apple in the mid-1970s, the computer industry was dominated by stuffed shirt veterans dealing in complex mainframes.

Those who saw Jobs roaming about his office barefoot and in frayed jeans would have suspected he was going to convert the mighty computer into a gadget for everyone. And that’s exactly what he did. Today, the Apple brand enjoys a cult following as it stands for innovation and fun.

A strong brand is a profitable asset. People pay far beyond the manufacturing costs and nominal profit margins for products they recognise, trust and enjoy consuming. For an early stage company, it helps in defining the product to both potential customers and its own employees. It tells buyers that this company is investing for the long term, it will be around tomorrow and it will repeat the performance. Internally, it tells the team members that the entrepreneur stands for certain values which must be reflected in every action that they undertake.

Products without a clear brand definition eventually lose their direction, recognition and value. They will turn into commodities that will be bought from the cheapest vendor without a quality promise.

The identity of a brand flows from the organisational culture, experts say. It is the essence of the attributes of the offering, that will be consistently performed every time a customer experiences it. It is not mere advertising, nor even just marketing, but a clear recall in the consumer’s mind of all that a product or a service stands for.

“Any moron can put an ad in the paper. Communication is the easy part. The process of communicating and then delivering on a promise builds the brand,” says Sanjay Anandaram of Jumpstartfund, who is also a visiting faculty at INSEAD.

But when does the core get validated? Shah says it typically is about a month from the starting day, but can vary depending upon the resources available and the opportunity at hand. For travel portal Yatra.com, which started selling to consumers before tapping business customers, the validation happened even before it started, he says.

“When Yatra came to us for funding, we looked at a lot of other companies to understand the space. We found that these other companies didn’t have experience in the travel business. (But Yatra’s founders) came out of the travel industry and therefore had the domain experience and customer knowledge.”

With some companies, the first big customer win can propel a company into the branded league. Further customer wins become easier as a satisfied first buyer will provide the testimony. For WiMAX equipment supplier Telsima, such an opportunity came in the form of Reliance Communications. Shah says Telsima experienced its Big Bang moment with such a top name becoming its customer and there has no looking back since then.

The key to brand building is promising exactly what the business can deliver and delivering exactly what it has promised. Every time. From employee behaviour in front of customers to the words chosen for advertisement copy, every interaction that a company undertakes with the target audience defines, embellishes or destroys the brand.

“Every interaction also gives an indicator. If a company promises to deliver on the next day and if they don’t, it is an immediate indicator,” says Baazee.com founder Avnish Bajaj, who has now turned a venture capitalist with Matrix Partners.

So, it is a good idea for a start-up to make sure that its product works well and is ready for brand-building. “You do not want to start brand building and then if your product doesn’t work, you will lose your customer and s/he won’t come back,” Praveen Gandhi of Seedfund cautions.

Once an early-stage company decides to invest in brand-building, the first step would be to define its own genome and go about imprinting it on its products. R Ramaraj, who steered Internet company Sify in the early days of access business, says: “Our core was to encourage an innovative environment.” Having taken this decision, the company went about encouraging that culture within the organisation. “After all, we were one of the first Internet companies. We had to be innovative as there weren’t enough role models.“ Today, Sify is not only a large access company, but a complete content and telecom services provider.

In Santa Cruz, a Mumbai suburb, sits a little company that has no fixed work timings. People play computer games when they want to and the company gives an X-box 360 to their most successful business partners. During their quarterly off-site gatherings, they spend half the day playing football and basketball. This is a gaming company and their theme is “Play together”. Quentin Staes Polet, co-founder and CEO of Kreeda Games, says ‘playing’ is part of Kreeda’s core and the brand values flow from it.

Quite often, entrepreneurs fail to recognise such intrinsic values that will help a company win against competition and provide a lasting value to customers. “The lack of value creation is because people don’t know what to focus on,” brand consultant Ramesh Jude Thomas says. In other words, value creation is the eventual goal. Those who don’t see this and claim to focus just on growth are wasting their time.

The next step, of course, is to ‘live’ the values that a newborn brand claims to represent and communicate to the audience that the same results can be expected in all the transactions. Promod Haque of Norwest Venture Partners gives an example: “One of our portfolio companies based in San Antonio is called Rack Space. They provide web hosting services. The management of this company calls their customer support “fanatical support”. Here, the brand of the company and the company culture are intertwined. It is drilled into their employees that they will provide fanatical support.”

Infosys Technologies, the oft-cited example for entrepreneurship, enjoys arguably the best brand name among Indian software services providers. One of the chief attributes of its brand was its ability to bridge the cultural gap between the East and West. Early on, it focused on training its employees to understand the finer points of Western culture and conduct themselves accordingly while working on customers’ sites. This, eventually, has got it better billing rates than other Indian companies.

Longevity and profits in the long term are a good reason for early brand building.

The Napkin Test

Why it's time to replace your company's bulky mission statement with a vision concise enough to fit on the back of a napkin

by Carmine Gallo
(Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands including Intel, Chase, IBM, Nokia, SanDisk, The Home Depot, Clorox and many others.)
This text had appeared in BusinessWeek.com on December 7, 2007.

The most exciting business ideas fit on the back of an airplane napkin. I've mentioned Cranium co-founder Richard Tait in previous columns (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07), but his story is worth repeating. He told me that the idea behind his popular board game hit him on a cross-country plane trip. He and his wife had spent the weekend with friends who "dusted them" at Scrabble. Yet Tait and his wife were unbeaten at Pictionary. What if a game existed, he thought, that would give everyone who played it the chance to excel in one category or another in front of family and friends. His vision was simple: to create a game where everyone shines. Tait's enthusiasm was so contagious that he attracted partners, employees, and investors like Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. But the vision itself was strikingly simple. So simple, it could fit on the back of a napkin.

A Vision Is Not a Mission Statement
Consistently delivering a simple, memorable, and concise vision can make the difference between a successful business and a failing business. Not a mission statement, but a vision. I'm about to suggest an idea that might stir up heated debate in offices across America but will guarantee to free up thousands of hours that can be applied to improving the business. Lose the mission statement. That's right. Throw it out and throw out all of the meetings and e-mails that go along with it.
As a longtime communications coach, I have worked with thousands of top executives in a variety of industries. I've got news for you—nobody can repeat the mission statement. No one. A mission statement is a long, convoluted paragraph, typically arrived at by committee and destined to be tucked away in a desk and forgotten. A vision is different. A vision is a vivid image of a brighter future that can be articulated in 10 words or less. It is repeatable and consistent. A vision can fit on the back of a napkin.

Examples of Concise, Profound Visions
A top venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital once told me the most exciting business ideas can be articulated in one short sentence. He told me that when the Google guys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, walked into the office, their vision for the company was simple, concise, profound, and memorable: "Google provides access to the world's information in one click." (That's 10 words, for those of you counting.)

One of my favorite visions is promoted regularly by Cisco Chief Executive Officer John Chambers: "Cisco changes the way we live, work, play and learn." The concise, memorable vision is repeated consistently in presentations, speeches, marketing materials, and the company's Web site. If you do an Internet search for the terms "Cisco" and "live, work, play and learn," you will find more than 1 million links. Now that's an effective vision.

One of my favorite examples of the power behind a great vision was told by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during a speech at Stanford University. Ballmer told the audience that six weeks after dropping out of Stanford to join Microsoft, he thought he had made a mistake. Bill Gates and his father took him out for drinks and said, "You don't get it. You said you just joined to become the bookkeeper of a 30-person company. But we're going to put a computer on every desk in every home." According to Ballmer, that vivid vision—a computer on every desk in every home—stuck for 17 years.

Here's another. Several months ago, I had a conversation with Cold Stone Creamery former CEO Doug Ducey. Ducey ran the ice cream chain as it expanded from a small number of shops to become the 14th-largest franchisor in the nation. Ducey told me that in 1999, the company's "goal" was to grow from what were then 74 stores to 1,000 stores in five years. A goal, however, is not inspiring. A vision is. Ducey's vision was concise, specific, and emotional. Cold Stone would become "The ultimate ice cream experience." It worked because it was concise (five words), specific ("ice cream") and emotional ("experience").

A Winning Vision Is Consistent
Once you announce the vision, it's critical that it be consistently communicated to employees, customers, and your other key audiences. That means within new business pitches, at staff meetings, during customer interactions, etc.
Management guru Marcus Buckingham has said a leader succeeds only when he or she makes people excited and confident in what comes next. I believe a great vision does so. Help others see the bright future that you see by crafting and delivering a vision so enticing the rest of us can't help but follow.

How to define a brand's soul

Laurence Knight, Unilever veteran and consultant to Unilever brands such as Dove, Axe, Caress and Pond's, likes to preach that a brand needs soul in order to thrive, especially as the world gets more digital. What brands have the most soul? Adweek's Joan Voight had to know, and the answers she gets from Knight, the president of Fletcher Knight, are not what you might guess. "Brands with soul share a passion and motivation with their consumers, they have a clear reason for being," Knight said.

Q: What is the difference between a brand with soul and one that is soulless?
A: Brands with soul share a passion and motivation with their consumers, they have a clear reason for being. The brand soul is not necessarily a mission or a charitable cause, although it can be that. Brand soul is usually related to values and ethics, such as quality, self-esteem or integrity. The brand is a champion of those values. A brand without soul appeals to the head by relying on a hard sell and a focus on product features. A brand without a soul can also appeal to the heart with an emotional proposition. My client Dove, for instance, used to have an emotional underpinning (around the proposition) that its products were relaxing and soothing. That was not soul. Now Dove is aligned with raising the self-esteem of women and girls, that is its brand soul.

In the retail world, what brands have soul?
Costco is a great example; it aligns with the value of giving a people a good deal on quality goods. It literally has a community of like-minded consumers because it is membership based. It behaves like it is a partner with the customer. All the employees seem to get that value system; they (see themselves as) helping their members get the most bang for the buck. That search for a good deal is the soul of the brand. Which is different from a discount brand that is about getting the lowest price.

How about Trader Joe's chain of markets? Doesn't it have a similar soul to Costco?
The Trader Joe's brand certainly has soul, and like Costco the employees live and breathe the brand equity. But their souls are different. Trader Joe's brand soul is that it searches the world and brings food experiences to its customers. It represents the curiosity of food exploration and has the soul of an adventure seeker. Its products are affordable like Costco, but they are more artisan.

What is a high-profile mass-market brand with a strong soul?
Pepsi. It has aligned itself with music and the self-expression of music.

How about the tech brand with the most soul?
Google. It has integrated itself into everyday life. It helps its users find what they want. That is its soul, (being a helper) in the digital universe.

Name a high-profile brand that needs to find its soul.
Nike. Nike's ads and stores and its association with big events make a strong emotional impact on consumers. But the brand needs to engage and link with consumers in the everyday space. For instance, it could be involved in providing open fields and playgrounds in cities. Nike needs to find ways to drive dialogue on an everyday basis.

What is the true sign that a brand has soul?
The brand goes beyond the individual and is integrated into the community. Instead of brand evangelists, where there are leaders and followers, a brand with soul has a fan base of peers. The brand is equal and parallel to consumers; it is not in the center. That's why the idea of 360-degree marketing is a problem. It is egocentric, it puts the brand in the center of the 360.

Does digital technology help or hinder brand soul?
It is totally the reason why brand soul is so important now. It allows people to connect with each other on a daily basis and it allows brands to be in the daily lives of people. Every brand now needs to ask, "What is our daily discussion with our customers?"

What is the role of the marketing agency in establishing brand soul?
Agencies can bring a different set of tools to use to manage the brand. They can track the brand internally by studying the client's organization as a whole. They can also study the brand externally and then align the overall brand meaning with the internal passion of the company.

What business benefits are reaped by brands with soul?
Brands with soul jump off the curve and have higher levels of loyalty than expected for their size. Most retail beauty brands, for instance, show a set conversion of traffic. But retail beauty brands with soul have a higher number of planned trips and show higher conversion rates. Brand soul also steers employees' activity in the areas of customer service, sales, product development and innovation.

What are the biggest threats to brand soul?
Radical changes in personnel or in a parent corporation can disrupt a strong set of guiding principles. Another big risk is becoming too obnoxious. The classic example is an entrepreneur who believes too much in his own success and fails to understand that you can only nurture brand soul within your consumer base. Soul lives in the community of consumers and is not controlled at the center.

[Source: www.adweek.com]

Bypass the Brain and Go Straight to the Heart

Connecting with emotion builds a brand and keeps it vital

by Mary Weisnewski
(Mary Weisnewski is principal of Kite, a Seattle-based brand strategy and implementation firm.)
This text had appeared in Brandchannel on March 24, 2006.

“The idea that business is just a numbers affair has always struck me as preposterous. For one thing, I’ve never been particularly good at numbers, but I think I’ve done a reasonable job with feelings. And I’m convinced that it is feelings—and feelings alone—that account for the success of the Virgin brand in all of its myriad forms.” — Richard Branson

In a surplus society full of competing products and services, how do you capture the attention of potential customers and make sure that they develop positive impressions of your brand? Lists of features and benefits alone are no longer enough to differentiate your product or service, especially when you often have only a few seconds to make a vital impression in such a noisy environment. If you can make an emotional connection and capture your customer’s heart first, you’ll have a chance to make rational arguments later. But if you miss it, you’ll be lost in the crowd.

Why we do what we do
Human beings are sociable creatures. Our tribal urge is strong; we want to belong to something. The best-known brands in the world have successfully used these basic human drives to attract and develop brand loyalty by creating authentic emotional connections that bypass the brain and go straight to the heart, tapping into powerful feelings about self-image, fantasies, aspirations and dreams. Although decisions about purchases and loyalties are based on both rational and emotional reactions, it’s the emotional response that motivates us to act. Recognizing that fact is the key to effective brand building. In the words of neurologist Donald Calne, “The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.”

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs states that since we are motivated by our unsatisfied needs, once we have the basics of food and shelter taken care of, we begin to be motivated by our need to be a part of something larger than ourselves. So it’s only natural for people to connect with products and services that speak to such powerful emotional drives and give meaning to our purchasing decisions, especially the discretionary ones.

Finding and connecting with your “tribe” of customers is the key to building a successful business, and building an emotional connection is the best way to reach those consumers who are most likely to remain loyal to your brand. For example, what do consumers feel when they think of Southwest Airlines? Some may feel great, because the style of service makes them feel like they’re part of the Southwest Airlines tribe. Others may have the opposite reaction, because their self-image does not align with the experience that Southwest offers. These tribal identifications are the most reliable predictors of whether or not a consumer will buy a ticket from one airline company or another.

And it’s not just the sexy consumer products that can harness the power of emotion to build a strong brand. Even an apparently neutral commodity like salt can connect with emotions. That little girl with the umbrella translates the rational message of Morton’s into the emotional response of trust that leads to brand loyalty. In the same way, decisions about business-to-business professional services are also motivated and determined by emotional responses. And that doesn’t mean that those decisions aren’t logical as well. Reactions such as “I love working with that company because it’s always a good experience” or “I know this is the most expensive solution, but I know that this company will stand behind their promises” are motivated by emotions, but they are also smart business decisions. Every company claims that it will stand behind its promises, but unless they have been conveyed in a manner that inspires trust and confidence—very powerful emotions—they’re simply meaningless words.

Brand awareness and brand strength
Awareness and strength are two very different aspects of a brand. Both are necessary for long-term success, and emotion plays a huge part in expressing and experiencing them. Advertising is highly emotional, which makes it an important vehicle for getting the message and the product in front of people in order to build brand awareness. But advertising alone can’t create something that is not really there. It can’t deliver the actual experience, or build a relationship or create a lasting emotional connection. It can only set the stage. No matter how good the advertising is, brands that don’t deliver on their promises will never earn the loyalty that comes from consistently positive experiences with the products or services. When emotion and experience work hand in hand, trust builds, creating the positive emotional responses that create loyal brand relationships.

Communicating emotion by design
Design is one of the most powerful tools for communicating brand emotions. It’s the glue that connects logic and reason with imagination and feelings. Good design expresses the essence of a brand in ways that speak directly to the emotions. Design communicates the intangible benefits through tone, style, color and attitude: loud or quiet, hip or elegant, exclusive or accessible. The most successful brands in the world, including Volkswagen, Apple and Nike, demonstrate and acknowledge the motivating power of good design by investing tremendous resources in the design, development and maintenance of their brand images.

If a company wants people to feel themselves reflected in their brand and say “it’s the one for me,” it’s important to remember that everything matters. Building a strong brand that has loyal followers is a complex undertaking and relies on hard work and coordinated effort. It requires consistent focus, innovation, careful listening and skillful execution over the long haul for a business—and its brand—to prevail.

The power of a good brand story

by Mark Thomson
This text had appeared in Brandchannel on October 25, 2004.

Call it cavalier, but my first question to Fortune 500 CEOs and start-up entrepreneurs alike is, “What’s your story?”

What strikes me is not how different, nor how similar, the answers are; but how hard it is for nearly everyone to answer the question in the first place. Before reading any further, and before casting any stones, pause for a moment and ask yourself the question…. You see, it’s not so easy, is it?

Well into the age of the soundbite, we’re still hard-pressed to summon the elusive 60 second description of what it is we do, what our brand provides to those we serve, and why it matters.

And, this of course, is only the tip of the iceberg. Our fixation with the “elevator speech” (or martini-monologue) derives from the need to “sum it all up” for audiences with notoriously short attention spans. But, before we can sum it all up, we need to have thought it all through. Like the concert pianist who makes Chopin seem easy, there’s a whole lot of unseen effort that goes into the public performance.

So, when I ask people “what’s your story,” and see their eyes glaze over and their fingers start to fidget and their throats sprout frogs, I know that someone has not been practicing. Someone has not learned to read the music, to hit the right notes, to make the instrument of communication sing. I know too that, no matter whatever the immediate need (write a brochure, craft web content, create a name), there’s a deeper need, a more significant bit of work to be done.

I came to branding from Anthropology, armed with the understanding that one of the primary ways we make sense of our world and our place in it, is through stories. The same is true of brands. Brands are the stories that unite us all in a common purpose within an enterprise, and connect us with the people we serve on the outside. These brand stories give meaning to who we are and what we do. They’re a special kind of story—they’re strategic; they build on themselves chapter by chapter, over time; they grow as they respond to changing customers and changing markets.

Brand stories are what drive our critical interactions with our customers and stakeholders. To use a common marketing formula, they are what propel Awareness, Consideration, Trial and Buying. They are also what ensure the repetition of this process—the virtuous cycle that produces growth and profitability.

This is what makes brand stories so important. Far from being window dressing, they are key business drivers. The more coherent and compelling your brand story, the more it will power the success of your enterprise.

So, how does one craft a strong brand story, one that drives key business decisions as well as marketing communications? The watchwords of a strong brand story are Clarity, Consistency and Character.

Clarity: First, make sure you know what you wish to say. This is the content of your brand; who you are, what you do, who you do it for, why it matters to them, and how it’s different from anyone else in the marketplace.

Consistency: Then, make sure you say it (and show it) in the same way, wherever and with whomever you do business. This is how all your communications, actions and accomplishments start to work together, building up into the unity that is your brand presence in the marketplace.

Character: Finally, give it a little oomph, panache, flair. This is where your personality shines through. It’s what brings you to life at an emotional level. It’s what makes people want to connect with you. It’s what turns necessity into desire. For example, it’s what turns the statement, “I need a new cell phone,” into “I want that new cell phone.”

To a large degree, crafting a good brand story is about applying the lessons we’ve always known. Remember the tales we used to love as children? At the end of them, we were often asked by a parent or teacher, “What’s the moral of the story?” Like so many of life’s fundamental lessons, this one endures throughout all that we do, including business. The moral of a story is the core idea or truth that the story expresses. Your brand story works in a similar way; it defines and expresses the core truth about who you are as an enterprise. It’s the rationale behind your most fundamental decisions. It’s the meaning at the heart of all your messages.

Ultimately, it is your brand story that helps you answer that most fundamental of all questions: “Why?” Why do you decide to make one decision and not another? Why do your customers need you? Why is it that you’re better able to meet their needs than anyone else? Why does your logo look this way? Why do your press releases read the way they do? And most importantly to marketers and managers alike: Why would someone make that critical decision to use your products and services over those of anyone else?

Once you have answered these questions, you can go on to create important communications tools—the key messages that keep your people on point, the speeches and corporate communications that rally investors, the copy and design that accurately and powerfully convey your identity to consumers. But, until you’ve defined your brand story—no matter how fancy your communications program—you’ve got nothing to say.

So, what’s your story?

See Your Brand Vision?

by Martin Lindstrom
This text had appeared in Brandchannel on November 25, 2002.

You must know clearly who you are before you can tell anyone who you want them to think you are. A quick review of most corporations reveals a disappointing lack of unique brand visions and distinctive corporate identities. While most companies devote some time to thinking about and defining who they are and where they want to go, the vast majority seems to come up with impotent copy-and-paste statements, redolent with empty clichés and nebulous objectives.

Take a look at this excerpt from one company's vision statement.

“We will be seen in all our markets as the quality leader among international airlines. This will be achieved by:

• Mobilizing our joint talents, know how and skills
• Inspiring all staff to support our persistent effort to improve quality
• Placing quality first in everything we do
• Setting an annual target of measurable improvement
• Doing things right the first time
• Providing both our external and internal customers with a reliable and punctual product and careful and friendly service.”

Now, which airline is this? American Airlines? British Airways? United Airlines? Well, in fact, it could be any of them, couldn't it? This was taken from KLM's vision statement but, demonstrably, most corporate vision statements read the same. Cut-and-paste jobs with the only difference being in the company name.

I'm not criticizing the way people run their companies. But I am flagging such vision statements with huge question marks. What value do companies gain from motherhood statements? What value do companies gain from probably spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars on articulating a supposed mission? Could it be that these “company visions” are nothing more than pieces of verbal livery that are nice to have and obligatory elements on corporate websites? Or is it that the management teams are really using these vision statements as guidelines for their work?

As Hamel & Prahalad stated in Competing for the Future, “At most companies, employees focus on short-term performance, like improving profitability or process. These are important challenges, but people won't go the extra mile unless they know where they're going.” A thoughtful, substantial, meaningful vision statement can communicate direction.

Personally, I'd love to see a company's personality reflected in its stated vision. Why do these statements have to be the same? I'd like to see some managerial courage reflected in a vision statement. You could think about an airline's vision like this: “It's not fair that only birds should experience the pleasure of flying.” Or, “Man should be free of the burdens of distance because any movement limitation is a waste of time.” Perhaps these sound more facetious than I intend, but I want to illustrate the value of injecting some provocation into the corporate vision; some quality that communicates the corporate personality through a meaningful vision statement and thus differentiates its brand from that of competitors.

Vision statements should be distinctive and strong so that anyone within the company's target group can identify the associated brand. Consider this vision statement: “Man is the creator of change in this world. As such he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them.” Can you identify what corporation might have expressed this? If you guessed Apple, you're right. This vision was articulated decades ago but it holds true for Apple today and is compatible with the company's “Think Different” campaign.

Or what about this vision statement? “One can embrace either a static or a dynamic way of seeing the world.” And this is followed by the brand's company ambition, which is “to be the catalyst of change for a whole generation.” Any guesses? It is Pepsi.

A vision expresses a brand's place in its world. It articulates a brand's reason for being. For some reason most corporate “visions” are disturbingly similar. Perhaps that reflects the fact that most companies' objectives and most brands' purposes are similar. Or perhaps that reflects the fact that courage is lacking, or nonexistent, in the business world.

11 tips to grow beyond the start-up phase

HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE BETTER AT THE JOB THAN YOU ARE
It’s a fact that companies are built by people, and the best people build the best and most profitable companies. Put simply, great employees may cost you 20 to 30% more in wages, but they can be twice as productive as mediocre employees. Invest in good people.

PLACE HIGH URGENCY IN EVERYTHING YOU DO
Always do everything you can today. Too many people treat their businesses as 9-to-5 jobs. Never put something off until tomorrow if you can do it right now.

GET CUSTOMERS COMING BACK
The road to profitability is through repeat business. Too few business owners set themselves up for long-term success. Your business grows when you add regular new customers on top of existing regular customers. Think of it this way: What if every customer you ever got stayed for life? How many regular buyers would you have?

MAKE DECISIONS QUICKLY
New companies don’t have the time or resources to stand still. General H Norman Schwarzkopf once said, “When placed in command, take charge.” It’s better to take a decision and move than stand still.

DELIVER MORE THAN YOU PROMISE
If you tell a customer it’ll be three days, deliver in two. If you think it’ll be two hours, say three hours and surprise them. This is the best form of marketing ever.

PRICE YOURSELF FOR PROFIT
Don’t ever be the cheapest. You’re the small guy; you don’t have economies of scale. Big companies can make up in volume what they lack in margin. You can’t.

NEVER SPEND A $ YOU DON’T HAVE TO
You don’t need a pricey desk, you need a desk. Too many new business owners go and buy the best stuff because they think image is important. Listen, when you get profitable, you can have a big mahogany desk. Right now, just get a desk.

SET A BIG VISION
Start Small, Finish Big should be the title of your book. Don’t aim to be the best ice cream maker in your city – aim to be the best in the country. Remember, building a business is a 10-year plan, not a one-year plan.

MARKETING IS MATH
Don’t ever let an advertising sales representative teach you anything about marketing. They will say dumb things like, “Half your advertising works and half doesn’t – and you’ll never know which half.” Rubbish. If an ad that costs $100 gets you $100 back in profit, it’s a good ad. Another tip: Image advertising doesn’t make sense when you’re not yet profitable.

LEARN TO SELL
There’s nothing worse than a business owner who isn’t going to sell – or ever learn to sell. No company makes money unless someone sells something, and you can’t just rely on people you hire to do the selling for you. If you want to grow a profitable business, you’ve got to learn sales yourself.

IT’S SIMPLER THAN YOU THINK
Before most people even go into business, they work it up to be far more complex than it really is. Business is very simple: Sell at a profit and keep at it. Over-complicating the process won’t help anymore. If your business seems too complex, it probably is – so make it simple and watch yourself succeed.

[Source: www.entrepreneur.com]

5th June - World Environment Day

Changing weather... global warming... dwindling natural resources may have worried us a lot, and so we picked this day - 5th June - as World Environment Day to express our concern for the planet we live on.