A brand is not merely “something that’s nice to have” any more than air is something good to inhale once in a while.
A brand is like air. Without it, you don’t survive. With it, you can live.
More to the point, a brand—like air—simply makes all the good stuff possible.
To be on the same page, the definition of brand used here is "that image/mark/identity which people know you by beyond your logo—but instead by what you stand for and what customers know you by."
By way of example, breathing doesn’t mean everyone who breathes will be the next Michael Jordan, the next Thomas Edison, the next Einstein, the next Picasso, the next Steve Jobs or the next Donald Trump. And having a brand doesn’t mean you’ll be the next Apple, Google, Nike, or Godiva. What it does mean is: now you can.
How you live—or grow as a brand—that’s the next step.
But to even be in the race—human or otherwise—you need a brand. Just like you need air.
Let’s see. Design is about order, aesthetics, chaos, organization, look, feel, experience, common sense, uncommon sense, knowing when to zig, knowing when to zag, being willing to challenge, being willing to change your mind, being able to laugh, cry, get angry and be silly, knowing when to fight and above all knowing the best places in town to order in on a late night project.
It’s knowing great typography, knowing how to art direct, knowing about color, space, more space, less space, contrast, emotion, the dynamics of shapes, forms, dimensions and more color.
It’s knowing the power of ideas, the power of words, the power of people.
Possibly above all of those is never tiring to learn more, to be inspired by work other than your own, never losing that “hunger” you had when you first got into the business and always looking for those who are better than you so as you don’t fall into the hellish existence of complacency.
Those are the qualities that for me make the best design, the most powerful brands and the best designers.
The biggest tragedy is any editorial—online or offline (meaning print)—that TALKS about design but looks like “a trade magazine.”
To the rescue has come idsgn.org which simply kicks ass and has raised the bar to whole new level and restored my hope in great design being to used to talk about great design, great advertising, great branding and more.
Their site is awesome. They embody everything I mention above in all the details perfectly. Hands down, they are the best site on design and everything design related.
The bar has been raised. Now it's time for everyone else to wake up and smell the coffee.
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD
International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating
brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City
Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
As so well put by Steve Jobs, "In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior
decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me,
nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the
fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing
itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."
I’ve been honored to work with the great Grammy winning cellist Eugene Friesen for about 10 years now. It’s always been a joy working with Eugene and he graciously considers me his “eyes” to his audio world. Quite an honor, plus we laugh a LOT!
All that leads up to yesterday’s discussion where we will designing the new upcoming CD due out in December of this year. I will keep you posted but it features Eugene and legendary pianist Tim Ray who was Lyle Lovett’s pianist for a decade. Sure to be a killer CD.
Recently, Eugene advised me that his pure water CD was awarded a Gold Award in this year’s Nautilus Book Award Audio Book Category. The trick was having the design of the CD reflect the content of the CD. Tricky when the style of music and spoken word defy categorization, cross musical borders and breaks new ground for an audio book. But that was my problem and why Eugene and I get along as we do.
How Winners are Selected This awards has a unique three-tier system of judging books that offers a deliberate course of examination and scrutiny designed to sort and separate books (in this case, audio book) as they are measured against a carefully prepared list of notable characteristics. The goal of this judging process is long and labor intensive, and is carried out by three teams of highly qualified, experienced reviewers located across the U.S. whose successful careers as editors, writers, librarians, schoolteachers and bookstore owners are only equaled by their vision for books that offer new ideas and options for a better world for everyone.
Silver winners are selected from each category by the readers in Team #2, and these winning titles are then passed along to the third team where the Gold winners are chosen.
What They Say About the Recording The performance captured on PURE WATER recalls the essence of the communal celebrations of poetry, stories, jokes, prayer, and music in which Rumi's work was first uttered, but in a distinctive contemporary setting. The cello of Grammy Award-winner Eugene Friesen carries the language directly into the heart of the listener with a diverse menu of world folk melodies, Bach and improvisation.
So can design be music to the eyes as well as the ears? I’d say so.
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD
International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City
Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
Kissinger said, "If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere."
Today's Greatest Threat in Business In business today, I find there's too much focus on what is bad, what is threatening, who did what to whom.
Imagination and innovation are our greatest weapons. Lack of using them is the only thing strong enough to stop any of us from achieving our goals. Factually, we can each get more done in less time if we simply take note on establishing WHERE we are going.
The Power of a Single Idea In that spirit, please enjoy these quotes I've collected that I find useful in everyday living and working.
"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service." Steve Jobs, Apple
"Customers must recognize that you stand for something." Howard Schultz, Starbucks
"A brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." George Bernard Shaw
"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."David Ogilvy, Ad Legend
"Business to Business is a misnomer. Businesses don’t buy anything. People do." Dan Kennedy
"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." Yogi Berra
"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." Henry Ford
"The best way to predict the future is to create it." Peter Drucker, Management Thinker & Author
"Do or do not, there is no try." Yoda
"Rules enable one to follow. Knowledge enables one to lead." David Brier
"If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising." David Ogilvy
"I think the most important CEO task is defining the course that the business will take over the next five or so years. You have to have the ability to see what the business environment might be like a long way out, not just over the coming months. You need to be able to both set a broad direction, and also to take particular decisions along the way that make that broad direction unfold correctly." Chris Corrigan, Famous Australian Businessman
"Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision." Winston Churchill
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."Albert Einstein
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD
International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating
brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City
Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
The key ingredient Branding, the art of distinguishing one product from the glut in an overstimulated marketplace, relies upon strategy, observation, design, planning, and the intelligent use of marketing skills. There is another key ingredient, too often overlooked, that makes the difference between a great brand and a mere commodity. What is it? Vision coupled with commitment.
Look at any great brand, or even more broadly, any worthwhile accomplishment.
Before the Empire State Building, what existed? Vision. How did this vision come into existence? Commitment and tenacity.
If twenty-plus years ago, someone had proposed: “I’ve developed a sci-fi movie trilogy that people of all ages and nations will want to see. It has heroes, villains, mystical concepts and neat special effects,” I’m sure executives would have laughed him out of the office. Fortunately, George Lucas stuck with his vision, making Star Wars one of the top-grossing movies of all time.
James Cameron did the same with Titanic, breaking all-time records.
So did the executive who single-handedly developed the hugely successful, new and improved VW bug as did Steve Jobs with the iMac, making it at the time the most successful computer launch to date, with some 280,000 advance orders before the product was even released.
Challenging conventional wisdom Being short-sighted in branding, as well as in life, is as avoidable a shortcoming as poor manners at a formal dining engagement. How bad can this become? Look at these “famous last words” and you be the judge.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”—Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.”—The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
“But what... is it good for?”—Commenting on the microchip, an engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”—Ken Olson, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”—Western Union internal memo, 1876
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”—David Sarnoff’s associates, in response to his urging for investment in the radio during the 1920s
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.”—A Yale University management professor, in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.).
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” — H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927 (Good thing no-one listened to him)
“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.”—Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”—Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles, 1962
“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.”—Spencer Silver, on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads
“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” — Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs, on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer
“You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.”—Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the “unsolvable” problem by inventing Nautilus
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”—Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899 (In 1899, there were 25,527 patents and today, there are well more than 7,000,000 from what we can ascertain)
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”— Bill Gates, 1981
Dream on Great brands begin with a dream and a vision first, and the willingness to see them through.
Remember this next time someone looks at you cross-eyed about a new idea. That’s where branding comes in—and how you create something the consumer will not only want, but demand.
Here are some of my favorite quotes that apply equally to life as they do to branding. I thought I would share them here, so you're overly cynical about other people's lack of foresight:
"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design.
Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up
expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or
service."Steve Jobs, Apple
"Customers must recognize that you stand for something."Howard Schultz, Starbucks
"A brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room."Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."George Bernard Shaw
"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we
are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires
people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants."David Ogilvy
"Business to Business is a misnomer. Businesses don’t buy anything. People do." Dan Kennedy
"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."Yogi Berra
"Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right."Henry Ford
"The best way to predict the future is to create it."Peter Drucker, Management Thinker & Author
"Do or do not, there is no try."Yoda
"Rules enable one to follow. Knowledge enables one to lead."David Brier
"If you ever have the good fortune to create a great
advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This
is irritating, but don't let it worry you; nobody has ever built a
brand by imitating somebody else's advertising."David Ogilvy
"I think the most important CEO task is defining the
course that the business will take over the next five or so years. You
have to have the ability to see what the business environment might be
like a long way out, not just over the coming months. You need to be
able to both set a broad direction, and also to take particular
decisions along the way that make that broad direction unfold
correctly."Chris Corrigan, Famous Australian Businessman
"Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision."Winston Churchill
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."Albert Einstein
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD
International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating
brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City
Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
Shhh, Listen... Words can influence, deflate, inflate or annihilate a company’s brand. Well in addition to the graphic element of smart design and an intelligently worked out marketing strategy are the slogans and taglines that often drive a company’s market presence.
A Slice of Culture Let’s take a walk down memory lane. Do some of these ring any bells?
The Uncola.
How do you spell relief?
Think different.
All the news that’s fit to print.
Wazzup!
Takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.
Don’t leave home without it.
Mm! Mm! Good!
A different kind of company—A different kind of car.
Own a piece of the rock.
Good to the last drop.
And of course, the irresistible: Just do it.
Many of the lines above not only remind one of the company name, but also what it sells, its point of difference and, in spite of all of our indifference to letting brands take over our lives, they’ve become punch lines in everyday conversation.
Should I Care? Everyday, we work with our clients to develop brands that make an impact so their brands don’t fall into the category of “highly forgettable and ineffective, but we're conservative, so no risk was taken.”
In that statement is the “logic” too many companies fall prey to. Fact is: the less you are noticed, the less you are on the radar of the people you want to reach when they do need your services or products. Some mistakenly interpret that to mean “be inappropriate” which is not what we advocate here. What we advocate, and each of the examples above demonstrate, is an approach that causes people to notice, to consider, “maybe this company can help me.” But before that happens, a company must be noticed, which means it must be distinctive, not the same as the rest.
So in addition to the design, the color, and overall look and aura of the company and its brand(s), how does it talk? Can it uniquely say something different that makes people sit up and take notice?
This is one of the key elements we help our clients establish, and then—after it’s been created—maintain.
Economy and Branding In addition to all else, every step to develop a brand must be an intelligent one. The tagline and slogan help define a company and provide that additional hook that people—your clients, customers and particularly prospective customers—can thereafter associate with your company, so they don’t get your company confused with another.
And with the economic climate today, every dollar must work that much harder. In closing this article, I urge you to develop a brand that melts in your mouth, not in your hand, and that way, we’ll leave the light on for you, so you can have it your way. So let you fingers do the walking so we can help you avoid resorting to the ol’ plop, plop, fizz, fizz remedy. Just do it. We look forward to talking with you soon.
A Last Word on Mastering the Possibilities Look at the options:
New suit: $1,200.
Latest iPhone: $299.
Mont Blanc pen: $395.
Picking the right firm to design you a brand that defies gravity: priceless.
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD
International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating
brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City
Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
Remember that unforgettable line from the movie The Princess Bride where the the evil Vizzini (performed hysterically by actor Wallace Shawn) states, “Ha ha, you fool!! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!” (The rest of his line is irrelevant to this article but is provided for its humorous relief: “The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia; and only slightly less well known is this: Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!”)
Now onto the point of today's article.
In meetings with clients and prospective clients, I notice the fact that “designing a logo” has somehow become a beauty contest resulting in such unique aspects as “I’ll show it to my wife and get back to you” or “Let’s get the consensus of those in the room and decide.”
Not only is this unworkable, it is catastrophe in the making. So I take a breath and ask (even when it’s fairly obvious that the wife may not represent "the GenX target audience" we are aiming to make contact with), “Does your wife reflect the audience we’re targeting?”
For one project several years ago, I had to speak with nearly 40 “stakeholders” of a city to get “their buy-in” on a particular direction. I told them, “Your opinion is the least important one regarding this direction.” (I then waited about 3 seconds for dramatic effect.) “And so is mine.” I proceeded to tell them what we collectively think has little if no relevance to the project at hand.
I went on to tell them the most important opinion is the one outside of this room, of the actual people we are targeting to communicate with.
Fortunately, with the above approach, we have been able to achieve some great accomplishments, with the help and cooperation of our clients.
To see several examples showing before and after treatments (these show the dramatic difference and transformation that is possible when everyone is targeting the same thing), visit http://www.famousnapkins.com
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD International, is the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating brands for such company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
As many of you know, I am an avid fan of great branding.
Sometimes I find an article that succinctly isolates a point that I know clients and friends would find useful. Below is such an article and I've underscored the part I find very useful.
Here it is excerpted from the Brisbaine Times out of Australia:
"But the thing that's got Apple to where it is now is its tenacious design system. The company finds a market that's been going for a while, figures out what people hate about it, and then engineers a solution that is beautiful, fixes all the major flaws, and has a far better user interface.
"The perfect example of this was the original iPod.
"It wasn't the first MP3 player, with the likes of the Rio PMP300 and the Personal Jukebox preceding it. And the iPod had its problems: the first two generations didn't work on PCs, and then only barely.
"It forced users to use iTunes software instead of their own applications, and for years required the use of a FireWire port, which many computers didn't have.
"Yet, they managed to create a device that was simple for the uninitiated to use, had a straightforward interface compared to the overly complex, button-heavy competition, and more than anything else, it looked absolutely sexy. And it blew everyone's mind." *
I know this little bit of insight can help us all achieve what we hope in our markets. Happy hunting!
* Written by Tim Barribeau, a University of Otago graduate, writes for the MIT Technology Review in Boston.:
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD International, is
the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating brands for such
company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
Seen in the Wall Street Journal A few years ago, the WSJ reported that in the $36 billion dollar beer market, the brand strength of an American beer is sometimes its most powerful “reason-to-buy.” The Wall Street Journal further stated that the Stroh Brewery, the nation’s fourth largest brewer, now being sold off: “The sale of Stroh, a 149-year-old Detroit brewer that was once a strong contender in the beer market, is the result of poor brand management in a flat market, distributors said.... It [Stroh] didn’t take advantage of its strong regional brands....”
Tempting fate The above story doesn’t just happen overnight. For every right thing a brand can do, it can also take as many actions that simply don’t contribute anything worthwhile to a brand’s presence, personality, strength and, ultimately, its sales.
Some Basics Let’s briefly review some identity basics. Any company, product or service has an image. So...
What is image? It’s the public perception, not what the company, product or service is, but how it is perceived. It lives, or doesn’t, in the mind of your public.
What creates this image? Everything from packaging to identity—these being the messengers affecting the marketplace’s perception. PR and word-of-mouth are also soldiers in this battlefield.
What is identity? Not to be confused with “corporate identity” or “brand identity,” identity is how the company, product or service really is, before its message has ever been exported into the marketplace, i.e., your consumer’s mind and senses.
What is branding? These are the collective actions—design, packaging, message, color, personality, media—taken by a company, product or service to create its image. Not done pro-actively, the brand “just happens.” This is where “brand management” mentioned in the above article comes into play.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Branding To better manage your brand’s “fate,” I’ve compiled a checklist for anyone managing, or affecting, the building of a brand. Basically a “things-not-to-do” checklist, these “Seven Deadly Sins of Branding” should help make any branding efforts succeed with greater ease.
Sin #1: The superior product fixation In our global marketplace, the apparent differences between products has reached an all-time pinnacle of grey, meaning the differences aren’t so black and white as they used to be. So he who gets to the market first and stays present (and with online media increasing every hour of each day, the battlefield is stiffer than ever) can outsell a similar product that is vastly superior. With the lines of communication around the globe literally a click of the mouse away, one can no longer rest on one’s laurels for very long.
To “be better than” doesn’t mean as much as it used to. The solution is first, creating a meaningful and relevant brand identity and reason for being and second, ensuring that that image connects your product—not simply it’s superior attributes— to your audience. Successful examples of this are Nike’s “Just Do It” and Apple’s “Think Different” campaigns.
Sin #2: The “no-one-can-touch-us” syndrome This pitfall rears its ugly head whenever a company reaches any level of complacency. The branding battelfield is strewn with caualties: Nike was outdone by Under Armour. Electrolux and every other vacuum brand was outdone by Dyson. Small hip cars were outdone by the Mini Cooper. Smart phones were thrown a curve ball by the iPhone, leaving everyone scrambling to catch up. If you start feeling complacent, take a fresh, honest look at your brand and you'll find, like life, nothing stays level for long.
The son of IBM’s founder, Thomas Watson Jr., stated while chief of IBM, “...We do not think that good design can make a product good.... But we are convinced that good design can materially help make a good product reach its full potential.” Isn’t it time we all listened and used the power of design?
Sin #3: The brand called “Fear” Simply, if you’re overly concerned about what associates think versus being overly concerned about your brand, then getting anywhere near branding is a bad career move for everyone involved. The opposite side of this coin is a firm belief in one’s product, a willingness to deliver what’s promised, and a strength of conviction. One doesn’t need to be an ogre, but one must believe in one’s actions. That doesn’t include being overly concerned with internal political popularity contests. Looking over the best brands, the majority came into existence driven by one person’s vision—and belief—in that brand’s potential and their persistence in seeing it through.
This cousin to complacency—essentially an unwillingness to investigate, face facts, evolve and challenge— has killed many possibly great brands, leaving only the competition happier, and stronger.
Sin #4: Ignoring the design and image your brand conveys You’ve seen these products. You’ve maybe even bought them. They’re everywhere as products...and nowhere as brands. Go into a store, any store, and look. Simply look. You’ll find a gazillion products. You’ll also find many great products but, with most ignoring their design and image, only a handful have become great brands. The difference between ordinary and remarkable will found in the details of branding.
What part does image play in the real world of branding? Everything. Fact: Minute Maid® found that other orange juice companies were “borrowing” their signature black carton. What once was a point of distinction had now become “generic.” Add to this the expanding choices given to consumers—bottled waters, flavored waters, iced teas, and bottled coffee beverages—and retaining marketshare had become a major issue for Minute Maid. The answer? Revamp the Minute Maid packaging line. The outcome? Volume sales increased more than 24%, with convenience store sales exceeding 34%. When you’re dealing with 28 million servings per day, a mere one percent increase, 280,000 more servings per day, is considerable.
Sin #5: Brand schizophrenia and anarchy Imagine this conversation: “Oh, you want to change the golden arches to day-glo pink? Sure, no problem.” Not in this lifetime. You might as well print a new resume and look for another job.
The confusion between building a brand, being consistent, keeping a brand alive and reinventing a brand can be so mishmashed that disaster strikes. Random change is not the same as planned evolution of a brand. Just as true is that boring, stagnant messaging is not the same as brand consistency.
A good rule of thumb is one laid down by Sir John Egan, chief executive for the world’s leading international airport group, “Defining the experience that customers want becomes a criterion by which you can judge the design work you commission.”
Other points to consider are, “Does this effort contribute to our brand image and equity? Does this dilute our brand position? Will this enhance our consumers ‘experience’ of our brand?”
This is all based on the fact that there is a foundation to build a brand upon.
Sin #6: The human connection ratio The frailty of a brand is in direct ratio to the extent a brand fails to connect with its consumer. Flaunting one’s wares is about as popular, and effective, as cramming in a term paper in overnight. What’s good for Visine sales (remember “Takes the red out”?) isn’t necessarily good for the grade.
Every strong brand has in some way become a product that represents what that customer is seeking: ease, convenience, power, stamina, pride, beauty. But in each case, it’s the human factor that can be missed. Every product does have, as its end use, a human who is buying the product for a reason. Find the reason, keep it on personal terms, and you’re well on your way to avoiding this pitfall.
Sin #7: Forgetting where brands live If you were to ask brand managers where brands live, they might say, “On the shelf with our product. In our annual report. In our advertising.” Wrong. Those are how a brand gets built, not where it lives.
Brands do not live anywhere but in the minds and hearts of the consumers and prospects. The job of branding is to get your product to the point of having an army of believers who stand by that brand, and what it means, in their mind.
The job of branding is to get in the front door and become a comfortable fixture in the mind of the consumer. Avoiding these seven pitfalls will help.
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD International, is
the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating brands for such
company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
That’s a good practice, as long as it continues to work. Unfortunately, companies often recognize much too late that “what we’ve always done” isn’t working as it had in the past. This is generally accompanied by that “strong resistance to change” phenomenon seen in larger corporations or bureaucratic businesses.
Look at Starbucks and you’ll see this as a key factor to their business contraction. They caught on much too slowly to see the changing trends, needs and desires of their customers. If it can happen to coffee powerhouse Starbucks, what makes us think we are immune?
And while smaller companies can be much more agile and fluid, they’ll fall into this trap unless they are keenly observant, quick to evaluate and take action.
It goes like this We’ve always made our product this way, or delivered it that way. That works well for 2, 4, 5, or 10 years. All of a sudden, it doesn’t work.
What happened? The needs, desires, trends and “basic instincts” have changed. All of a sudden (but more commonly, slowly—under the radar—over a protracted period of time), customers need something different.
Now if their needs have changed (and your business model, its way of doing business or the manner in which you deliver your product hasn’t), you will be out of sync and unless you respond quickly, out of business.
When it was working, it was WORKING. If it isn’t now, it is time for some RAPID (spelled F-A-S-T) assessment to figure how to become relevant again. Here some key questions to ask yourself:
Is our brand meaningful?
Does our brand connect to our customer?
Has our brand lost its way with how life is today?
Has the competition muddied up the field?
Are our customers now confused about what our brand stands for?
Insanity isn’t good for business Insanity has been described as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
The above outlines how to become sane (and relevant and profitable) again.
David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer at DBD International, is
the recipient of over 300 industry awards creating brands for such
company's as Estee Lauder, Revlon, New York City Ballet, Legacy
Chocolates, Sunbelt Software and many more.
