While marketers have debated the meaning of ‘Brand’ like the classical Greeks had with ‘Democracy’, or the French & Italians with ‘Love’, one contemporary author has nailed an excellent definition for our times. What follows is the first of an article series covering themes from the book: A Clear Eye for Branding
We choose brands based on the Feelings they evoke in us. Quality and Consistency were the traditional branding values. As advertising and new products proliferated, nowadays these values have shifted to Familiarity and Comfort (especially for low-involvement products with minor differences between brands).
A brand is a fluid and multi-faceted personal concept that contains all the ideas, values, stories, memories, perceptions, and feelings accumulated over time in people’s unconscious minds. It is conveyed by a wide variety of touchpoints. When assessing these, including the logo, one should critically ask if they’re appropriate for the feelings you want people to have. If it doesn’t matter, then it’s simply irrelevant.
To grow a brand, Tom says to:
Increase customers’ pleasant feelings - like discovery, fun, reward, a sense of belonging, increased self-esteem - which will condition desire. And eliminate their unpleasant ones - boredom, risk, pain, effort required, reduced esteem - which condition aversion. Spend time scrutinizing every sensory clue encountered by your customers so that the mental picture that they create about your offering - their sense based belief - is the accurate one.
What characterizes the purchasing behavior of strong brands? It comes to one or more of the following:
- Willingness to pay a premium when compared to alternatives
- A readiness to spend much effort to acquire it
- Continual repurchasing; not accepting a substitute, within reason.
If brands are based on people’s feelings, subject to change due to today’s continuous information flow and competition for attention, then it’s very important for an organization to be agile and looking out for their audience’s changing preferences. Study and put oneself in the mind of the customer, across different scenarios. Ethnography is but one means of research.
Great branding is thus about discovering and understanding WHY customers buy, based on their feelings, then STIMULATING those feelings. Tom adds:
Today’s customers insist on high quality, quick delivery and relatively low prices. And customer service is a dated, lean-back practice, where employees are paid, and technology is used, to be friendly, answer questions, and generally make the overall purchasing experience an agreeable one. Customer stimulation is a lean-forward strategy, designed to increase both sales and profitability.
Branding is a game of seduction that’s rewarding when you:
- Continually seek to know and understand your audience’s behaviors, desires, and expectations
- Look for ways to deepen your mutual ‘relationship’ with them
- Develop timely new products and services that improve their lives
- Stimulate your audience to try, purchase, and recommend your brand to others
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Thanks Mario. That’s a great summary!