The reason for this post was to help shine a light through the marketing fug of buzzwords and industry mumbo jumbo surrounding brand. We’ve recently joined our local Chamber of Commerce and I wanted to make it more relevant, more accessible to a market that assumes it to be the domain of only the larger corporations, or quite often hears it as some kind of generic background whine generated by design agency sales spiel.
Quite bizarrely, as I sat down to write this, I received a very nice email from Andy Barrington, Group Head at Saatchi & Saatchi. He loved the idea behind our company and the sentiment of our website, and wondered if we’d encountered the Lovemarks work of Kevin Roberts (worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi). It’s basically a theory behind what happens when Brand takes the next step up the evolutionary ladder, when it evolves into something more intimate… More all consuming…
However tempting as that sounds, I won’t get side tracked with it in this post, as I’d really like to cover it more fully another time. But it was worth noting in as much as many of the values, purpose and reasoning that We Love assign to brand cross over very nicely with the ideology behind Lovemarks. And no this probably isn’t a coincidence. The concept of Lovemarks has been developing for a few years now and has no doubt pervaded the consciousness of most design and marketing professionals at some level or another. Apparently in my case, subconsciously ; )
Ok, so what is Brand?
For starters it’s not your logo. It’s not your nice blue colour scheme. And it’s not even your brochures, website and spanky new business cards. At it’s base level, brand is what your market believes you represent. From your values to your dreams. In it’s simplest form brand is the promise you make to your market. The expectation you create within their mind…
It’s then up to you to deliver this promise through all relevant channels and customer touchpoints – from your pricepoints, your telephone manner, your brochures, website and sales team; from the sign above your shop to the wallpaper you have in your office, all the way though to your supply chain, your R&D, how efficient you are, the quality of your work and service levels you provide.
What does this mean in daily terms?
Tesco promises Quality, Value and Service. You expect to be treated courteously, for them to open another till if your queue is too long, for your goods to be returned without quibble. You expect your chicken to be more ethically sound than the supermarket down the road, your steaks to be plumper and your bread to be fresher (yet with far fewer food miles being travelled).
And how have you come to understand this promise in the first place? Through their communications. Online, offline, and anywhere you see a screen (including instore).
But it doesn’t stop there, it’s really only the beginning
A brand must touch you in a way that mere commodities can never aspire to and many products only dream of. The key to any brand, big or small, is differentiation – not just functionally and rationally – but at an emotional level. This emotive difference must then become part of a two-way communication where values are aligned and a purchase preference created through positive customer experiences.
So what does this mean without the buzzwords? Well, I love chicken. Mostly deep fried. But I’m not going to be visiting a certain Colonel and sampling some of his secret sauce. I don’t like the way he looks after his staff and I definitely don’t like how he treats his livestock. Ok he does do tasty chicken (and strangely tasty gravy…), but this is only a functional difference. I’m not going to do business with him as I just don’t agree with his values or his methods. However, there’s a great local chicken guy who’s secret raggamuffin marinade just blows my mind (ooh, ragga ragga sauce… now there’s an idea…). He sources locally, ethically and makes gorgeous fast food. Yes it’s slightly more expensive, but do I care? Not even remotely.
If either of these two businesses dropped out of existence tomorrow would I be bothered? KFC, no. Local Chicken Guy? Absolutely. It’s a way of life, part of my Saturday routine, a passionate treat to my tastebuds that I regularly indulge in. And then feel good about the whole experience. At every level.
Sadly his tasty poultry offering may well disappear in the direction of Sir Clive Sinclair’s infamous C5. Why? Because he doesn’t have the time or money to get out there and start telling people about himself and his product. But hey, that’s another rant for another time. You get the picture.
Here’s the bit about your logo
We’ve established that emotional buy-in is paramount. That values need to be aligned and your market engaged. So, how do we achieve this loyal relationship, this intimate engagement? It goes right back to delivering on your promise and communicating it through every channel and every touchpoint available – from the tone of voice of your copy through to the graphical language you use – whether it’s your website, your advertising or your annual reports. And yes finally to your logo, your badge that sits at the pinnacle of your brand, that embodies everything you stand for.
Take a look at the classic axis chart below. Where does your service/product currently sit? Is it anywhere in the top right quadrant? If not then you need to identify where you’re falling down and do something about it. Otherwise you’re going to end up like Local Chicken Guy.
And remember, there’s much more to brand, this is just the beginning of the conversation. We’ll be covering other aspects in more detail in future posts : )
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