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Every purveyor of fine branding boasts a proprietorship over unique methodologies, outstanding insights, and uber-talented staff that will transform a product or service into something they can dub larger than life.
That is, a Great Brand.
After several good years shelling out seven, eight or sometimes nine figures on branding schemes, today’s marketing director is under mind-numbing pressure to deliver tangible business results right away! A growing number are waking up to a sobering fact that branding has failed to provide anything but bills.
Most “great” brands, we are learning, are not built on any branding. In fact, the fantastic brands are made of altogether different stuff. Branding creates reality through perception! Outrageously important brands create perception through reality. Branding seeks to gloss over a lack of differentiation, while the top brands are built from the inside out on–you guessed it—differentiation.
Those PowerPoint-hogging branding aficionados are snap-quick to claim all the credit for the success of Apple, the VW Beetle, Mini, Nike, Harley-Davidson, etc. The branders cite the outstanding logos or creative work (and an accessorizing Facebook fan group) as reasons why the fantastic brands are so prominent. A convenient confusion of cause and effect! These brands didn’t become ubiquitous because of marketing. You know this and can give your own examples. Unique and differentiated propositions made for good marketing programs. That is, Apple products are easier to use, VW Beetles have looked different from any car for decades, and great athletes use Nike products. As for Mini, gee, it’s so darn adorable.
Really, the best brands make for marvelous communications because they speak for themselves. Not by coincidence do most ads for VW and Apple feature with product placed solo with a white background. A newfangled Jetta or iTouch is unusual enough, so anything else in the frame would distract. Or let’s talk about Harley, which can be identified from blocks away by its gurgling roar.
Branding will produce clones. Slap a competitor’s logo on most ads and it works just as well–and just as poorly. Having nothing to say for themselves, the "suckers of branding" are addicted to borrowed equity, from babies to breasts, heart-wrenching melodies to really lame jokes, and (ugh) leafy roads to the cliché about that yucky road of life.
Does anyone believe that a, ahem, Buick was ever Tiger’s car of choice even for a rental? That Brooke Shields cared a lick about the VW she was pushing—besides the fact it paid for her hair stylist? That Celine was ever in love with the Sebring (and how did she ever learn to pronounce it)?
Marketing directors serious about building intensely loved brands know effective brand building means spending time with the real product builders: engineers, food scientists, technologists, and outside consultants who can test the brand with astute consumers. These efforts help create a differentiation that defines the cool-as-crap product. The collective insight gives focus so agencies and internal folks do what they do best: bring differentiation to life through compelling communications that motivate customers to love—and buy—it.
Motivation is what we look for in a superb, unstoppable brand.
…Twitter @laermer
11 comments:
Hey Richard-
Loved this...really loved it. An a budding entrepreneur, strapped for cash, I've been around to brand or not to brand bush (paying big bucks that is to a firm) more times than I'm willing to admit publicly. My niece tonight just said to me,"Wow, that was a waste of money," when I told her how I website I feel in love with spend over $250k on branding. You made me feel better that I don't have the cash right now and that doesn't doom me from success, it will just make me work harder at differentiation. That I can do.
Thank you!
Stephanie
This post really hits home Richard. It also speaks to the 'higher ups' who believe with some shinny branding a less than excellent product/service will be the talk of the town. My favorite line in this post is "Outrageously important brands create perception through reality." We can strive all day to brand the hell out of something but if the value/values proposition is empty, then it will fail, whether sooner or later.
Loved your article. As someone who is creating a brand, my time is spent on the value proposition. If we get the value proposition right for consumers, all else will follow.
Bravo, Richard! CMOs and Brand Managers alike should post your words on their walls: "Effective brand building means spending time with the real product builders...". That's the absolute heart of the matter.
Don't forget, it works both ways. A great product can fail without good branding.
Great post! Now, what if the problem is with the CEO and not the PR person? There is a lack of a clear inside mission, philosophy or goal. As much as I push, I don't seem to get them to realize that "branding" is more about conveying the company mission and goals rather than the "look & feel" of a brochure.
Like Roy Disney said, branding is for cows. It's what you do when you run out of new ideas.
I think the key to it all - including differentiation - is the culture of the company and the consumers who use the product.
Companies that get the culture right - and by that I mean, their employees live the company's values - are going to have the best brand identification because they will have that inside-out build.
Great post and new to your blog. How about branding yourself? Do you have posts on that? Thanks.
Thank you so much for this article. So on point.
Thanks so much for writing this! I've felt this in my gut but could not find a way to express it as succinctly as you did. I intend to share this with all my colleagues who have an open mind on the subject and haven't been brainwashed into believing that the sizzle IS the steak.
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