Branding, Business and Making Them Work (Part 3)
Why DIFFERENCE Matters
If you’re following this series, you know that a name is not a brand neither is a logo, the brand is the feeling they engender. The brand is what the symbols mean to the receptor. You also know that brands have psychological value and that it creates monetary value.
We also established that the main purpose of branding is to get more people or a certain demography of people to buy more stuff for more years at a certain price (usually high) and that when this is successful, you have built a charismatic brand. I promised to write about ‘difference’ today but ‘difference’ is only one of the disciplines of brand-building so let’s start from the foundation — a successful brand.
A successful brand is any product, service, or organization for which people believe there is no substitute — Marty Neumeier
Some teeny tiny brain science. The human brain has many parts responsible for thoughts and how we process them, and whilst they all contribute in some way to the decisions that we make, there are two parts, each predominantly responsible for logic and intuition — the left and the right brain hemispheres.
While executives and business people tend to depend on the left side, it is necessary for both sides to work together to create value and in this case, value is determined by how well you can create and enforce an impression.
The brand is not a part of the business, the brand is the business — Daryl Travis
To create a successful brand, you must pay attention to difference. So the first thing to do is…
Differentiate
Humans are hardwired to notice what is different, Different always gets more attention. This article wouldn’t be so important in the ’80s, we didn’t have as many options with similar features as we do now.
You have to stand for an idea. Your product may be great but, who are you? Nike represents motivation, movement.
The power of any brand is simply how your association with it makes you feel — Daryl Travis
There are so many options today, it becomes necessary to harness the edge that a brand gives.
Marty Neumeier says, Marketing today is about creating tribes. Nike is a tribe of motivated sportstars.
What does buying your product make us feel a part of?
How do you create a difference? Focus!
Focus, focus, and focus.
If you do not have compelling answers to these questions, you definitely need more FOCUS.
An enemy of focus is ill-considered brand extensions — those that chase short term profit at the expense of long-term brand value. Suspending present relevance for a future one
It is brand-er-mentally wrong to have a product and create the impression of a group of products or companies because you intend to have them in the future.
Example:
A good brand extension grows the value of a brand without diluting the focus. Rather, it reinforces it.
I’ll write about collaborations tomorrow. It’s one of the strong disciplines of brand building. I hope you read.
