Many brand strategists’ strive to develop points of differentiation that drive brand preference among consumers. The key to winning is assumed to be differentiation; however, your brand won’t even be considered if it’s considered to inadequately deliver on a key must-have dimension. You will not be a player – which means you have no chance of winning – no matter how compelling your point of differentiation is.

The solution is the point-of-parity concept, which was introduced to the branding world in Kevin Keller’s book, “The Principle of Positioning.” It’s defined: Points-of-Parity (POPs): Associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may be shared by other brands (i.e. where you can at least match the competitor’s claimed best). While POPs may usually not be the reason to choose a brand, their absence can certainly be a reason to drop a brand. The solution is to change a liability into a point of parity, meaning the brand is “good enough” at the dimension, that it’s no longer excluded from consideration. The points-of-parity concept is another perspective on how to make or keep a brand relevant. There are two points of parity types: category and competitive.

Category Point-of-Parity

A category point-of-parity means that a brand offers perceived necessary category features. For example, nowadays a consumer is likely to look over a bank or credit union that doesn’t offer a convenient and secure mobile deposit feature. In another example, German auto manufacturers resisted adding cup holders to their automobiles as they insisted vehicles are “driving machines, not open beverage carriers.” Eventually, cup holders became a must-have for many and the German auto manufacturers were forced to incorporate the feature.

“The solution is to change a liability into a point of parity, meaning the brand is “good enough” at the dimension, that it’s no longer excluded from consideration.”

The Jaguar brand lacked four-wheel-drive vehicles Jaguar executives saw their brand being perceived as irrelevant by those who wanted four-wheel drive. When the group of four-wheel-drive buyers grew to 50 percent of the purchasers in their top geographic markets, Jaguar introduced an all-wheel-drive model. The vehicles they introduced weren’t intended to be seen as superior to the Audi Quattro and similar models, but rather good enough that most buyers wouldn’t exclude Jaguar from consideration.

Competitive Point-of-Parity

A competitive point-of-parity is designed to negate a competitor’s point of differentiation. A common brand problem is when buyers perceive a competitor to have better product quality. Hyundai had a significant quality issue In the 1990s, Hyundai made cars that were overwhelmingly considered to be of inferior quality to other vehicles in the market. After fixing the quality problem in the early 2000s, consumers still shunned the brand. It took years, but through a variety of programs and communication channels, Hyundai found ways to communicate the new quality levels and gained quality parity. Their quality was perceived to be good enough that attention could turn to points of difference such as price, styling, gas mileage and warranty.

McDonald’s Loses Swells of Customers to the Competition

Mcdonald’s had a competitive parity problem when it lost customers who were concerned about the nutritional quality of their foods. Instead of giving any consideration, they began to veto the brand and purchase healthier alternatives. To respond, Mcdonald’s began offering grilled chicken sandwiches, a variety of salads, fruit smoothies, apple wedges for Happy Meals and reengineered their signature fry recipe dramatically reducing the “bad” fat. The goal was not to make McDonald’s a destination for the healthy-eating segment but to create enough parity so that the number who wouldn’t even consider the brand was reduced.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the problems McDonald’s needed to solve. Starbuck’s success presented a serious threat to McDonald’s breakfast and off-hours business. The brand saw this challenge as an opportunity. The advent of McCafé in 2007, with a line that included cappuccinos and lattés, changed the competitive landscape. McDonald’s didn’t aspire to be better than Starbucks; the goal was to just provide a close enough experience to Starbucks that they’d create a point-of-parity with respect to quality. As a result, a segment of Starbucks consumer base started to include McDonald’s in their consideration set.

To grow your brand, you must create “must-haves” that define subcategories

The only way to grow a business (with rare exceptions) is to create “must-haves” that define subcategories, manage those subcategories to success and build barriers to inhibit competitors from becoming relevant. In conducting research for both of my books, Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant and Aaker on Branding, I found that most major bursts of growth are associated with the creation of new “must-haves.” Those who aspire to grow will learn to shift focus from competing for brand preference to subcategory competition.

Subcategory Competition

Subcategory competition starts when a firm creates a “must-have” that defines or redefines a subcategory. The “must-have” can involve:

• A feature or benefit such as the high fiber content in Fiber One
• A systems offering that combines existing components such as Microsoft’s Office which integrates suites programs • A new technology like cloud computing that Salesforce.com pioneered
• A product designed for a segment such as Luna, the energy bar for women
• A dramatically low price point like that provided by JetBlue airlines
• A shared interest such as Sephora’s BeautyTalk • A personality such as the competence of Charles Schwab or the humor of Southwest Airlines
• A passion such as that shown by Whole Foods Market for healthy foods

Organizational values such as Patagonia’s concern for the environment In selecting a “must-have” opportunity, there are two risks. First, the difficulties of creating the “must-have” driven offering should not be so exaggerated that the opportunity to own a growth subcategory is missed. Second, professional and personal biases resulting in inflated incremental innovations should not lead to investing in subcategories that are not viable.

There are three tasks required of brand strategists who are creating subcategories:

1. A firm must manage that subcategory so that it wins the subcategory battle. Subcategory energy, appeal and associations need to be conceived and communicated. Customers need to be knowledgeable about the subcategory and motivated to first make the decision to buy into the subcategory and then the brand, not the other way around.
2. A firm must also win the brand relevance battle. When the subcategory is the focus of a buying decision, the goal is to have your brand be the only one that is visible and credible with respect to delivering “must-haves.” If your brand is not the only one, it should be the most relevant.
3. The subcategory creator/exemplar brands need to build barriers to prevent competitors from gaining visibility and credibility, and thus relevance in the new subcategory. Creating a subcategory will not be valuable if competitors are capable of becoming relevant or even appear to be relevant to the new subcategory. The barrier need not be technological. It can be anything that inhibits competitors such as scale, brand equity, customer loyalty and more.

Brand Preference Competition

Far and away, the most common strategy is to engage in what I call brand preference competition, which focuses on making a brand preferred among the choices considered by customers in a defined subcategory. The goal is to beat the competition through the use of incremental innovation: faster, cheaper, better. Resources are expended on communicating more effectively with clever advertising, more impactful promotions, more visible sponsorships, and more involving social media programs. You win by making your brand preferred as opposed to making your brand the only relevant brand, the only brand considered.

“The goal is to beat the competition through the use of incremental innovation: faster, cheaper, better.”

The problem is that “my brand is better than your brand” marketing rarely changes the marketplace no matter how much marketing budget is available or how clever the incremental innovation is. The stability of brand positions in nearly all markets is simply astonishing. There is just too much customer and market momentum.

Brand preference competition is also so “not fun.” The opportunity to create “must-haves,” which are responsive to an unmet need and meaningful to a worthwhile market segment, will not happen frequently. However, when it does, brand strategists need to seize that opportunity, recognizing that something bigger than a point of differentiation is present, and manage it accordingly.

Stories are a hot topic in marketing because they have been shown to be superior to facts in getting attention, being remembered, in changing opinions, stimulating social activity, developing emotion, and curiously, even communicating facts. Many firms have added journalists, editors, and filmmakers to their staff to create or find meaningful stories and present them in a compelling way. Stories are often thought mainly to support tactical short-term communication objectives. But there is also a role for “signature stories” that represent some form of strategic statement about an organization’s mission, values, brand, customer relationship, or strategic intent.

L.L. Bean’s Brand Story Example

Consider L.L. Bean, a firm that would like to communicate its innovation culture, its passion for the outdoors, its commitment to quality, its concern for the customer, and the functional benefits of the Maine Hunting Shoe. Stating such facts is unlikely to create interest, credibility or even a connection to L.L. Bean.

In contrast, consider the following story: Leon L. Bean, an avid outdoorsman, returned from a hunting trip in 1912 disgruntled because of his cold, wet feet. With little resources but a lot of motivation and ingenuity, he invented a new boot by stitching lightweight leather tops to waterproof rubber bottoms. The boots worked so well he offered them for sale via mail order as the Maine Hunting Shoe, using lists of nonresident Maine hunting license holders. Unfortunately, most of the first 100 pairs sold had a stitching problem and leaked. Mr. Bean faced a defining moment! His response? He refunded the customers’ money even though it nearly broke him and fixed the process so that future boots were indeed water-tight. This story communicates the L.L. Bean brand far better than any presentation of facts.

What Is A Signature Story?

A signature story is an intriguing, authentic, involving narrative (as opposed to a stand-alone set of facts or features) with a strategic message that enables growth by clarifying or enhancing the brand, the customer relationship, the organization, and/or the business strategy. It is a strategic asset that can be leveraged through time providing inspiration and direction both internally and externally.

A Signature Story Must:

• Be intriguing if not fascinating, some combination of thought-provoking, novel, provocative, interesting, informative, newsworthy, or entertaining to the audience.
• Be authentic – the story’s audience cannot perceive the story to be phony, contrived or a transparent selling effort. Further, there should be the substance behind the story and its message in the form of programs, policies, or transparency that support it.
• Be involving – the audience member should be drawn into the story (which usually, but not always, precipitates a cognitive, emotional, or behavioral response).
• Be strategic – the story should have a strategic message linked to the brand that enables growth by clarifying or enhancing the brand, the customer relationship, the organization, and/or the business strategy.

A signature story is an asset with enduring relevance and the capacity to inspire and provide direction over a long period. As it gets retold, signature stories gain authenticity, traction, and influence. The principal targets for signature stories are employees and existing and potential customers. Signature stories can provide employees a source of inspiration and a cornerstone for organizational culture and values.

The L. L. Bean story supports a higher purpose around innovation, the passion for the outdoors, quality, and the customer. Millennials, in particular, are attracted to firms that are aiming for more than sales and profits; a signature story can help with making that purpose authentic and clear.

Customers are also a valuable target because there is a segment that will find a brand’s values, customer relationship, and strategically important to them as they develop loyalties to brands and firms. Advancing the strategic position of the brand and organization in the eyes of this audience is challenging because of message clutter, media dynamics, growing customer ownership of context, and the complexity of social media. Signature stories can be an answer providing the ability not only to provide break-through visibility but to communicate the basic essence of a brand and organization.

The Secret to Creating Signature Stories

To find or create signature stories, look broadly for story heroes. Stories around customers, programs, suppliers, offerings are often employed to motivate customers. Four more: the employees, founder, a business revitalization strategy, and a future business revitalization strategy are usually oriented to inspiring employees.

The Customer As Hero

A customer hero can be effective because there is no “my brand or product is better than yours” connotation and the customer story is likely to be closely linked to either the organizational values or the brand’s value proposition. LinkedIn has a series of professionally created one-minute stories around “Creating Your Own Success” that involve leveraging LinkedIn. Dr. Chavez told about his dream of getting pets off of processed foods – and used LinkedIn to share his big idea. Jenni was laid off during the financial meltdown and several months of intense networking led to a marketing position and, ultimately, supported to decision to be on her own.

The Employee As Hero

An employee hero can be a source of a strong and memorable signature story because employees are on the front lines. Zappos.com, the online shoe store, has a set of signature stories around its ten core values. One of which is to deliver Wow customer service. One such story involves a Zappos.com call center employee who at 3 a.m. received a call from a customer who could not find an open pizza store. Instead of gently turning the customer away, the employee actually found a pizza store open and arranged delivery.

The Business Revitalization Story

This hero can clarify and motivate a new strategy and inspire employees and customers. Consider Zhang Ruimin who became the CEO of a troubled Chinese appliance manufacturer, Haier, in 1982. Early in his tenure he needed to replace a customer’s faulty refrigerator and found that twenty percent of his inventory was also defective. Zhang promptly had the dud refrigerators lined up on the factory floor and destroyed them with a sledgehammer in front of the whole staff to tell them and the world that poor quality would not be tolerated anymore. From that point on, the story served to define a new strategy and culture that ultimately led to Haier becoming a global leader. The story can work at the outset when the strategy is being implemented and over time as the strategy becomes an ongoing operation.

“A signature story is an asset with enduring relevance and the capacity to inspire and provide direction over a long period.”

When identifying the top print advertisements and best headlines in the last century of advertising, a 1926 ad written by a young, green copywriter always makes the cut. John Caples, only one year on the job, wrote: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano—but when I started to play!” Caples’ assignment was to entice people to buy piano lessons by correspondence from the U.S. School of Music. The hero of the ad was ridiculed by the guests when he sat down, but the ridicule turned to accolades and applause when he begins to play, only a few months after starting the correspondence course.

The ad was not only critically acclaimed but brought in a lot of customers. It illustrates the power of a story that has tension, emotion, challenge and a brand-driven resolution as opposed to a recitation of facts and functional benefits. A story, as we now know, is a powerful way to get people to get involved and remember a message. This story also nicely frames the subcategory by changing what the customer is buying and defining the relevant options.

There is a lot to learn today from this ad. It included almost no details about the actual course offering. Rather, the ad told a captivating story in graphic detail about what happened to someone who took the correspondence course, a story that brought tears of joy to readers happy for the piano player’s success.

The ad shows that functional benefits are not the sweet spot of persuasion and communication. Rather, what grabs people are emotional, self-expressive and social benefits. There is the emotion felt not only by the piano player who excelled but also by those hearing the story and bursting with pride that he accomplished his goal. The self-expressive benefit displays the ability of the man to express his talent, his perseverance and his ability to face those that had ridiculed him.

“A story, as we now know, is a powerful way to get people to get involved and remember a message.”

And there is the social benefit of the man being accepted into a desirable group. The brand was embedded so much in the story that a memory of the ad recalls a memory of the brand. Further, there was a specific call to action. You could send in a free brochure and a free sample lesson. Free! Think of the foot-in-the-door research that has shown how much impact a small action step can have.

Seven provocative and suggestive learnings emerged from a major study of patient satisfaction that was just released by Prophet and GE Healthcare Camden Group. The following learnings provide a profile of the surprisingly dismal picture of the patient experience in healthcare today, but also provide insights that will hopefully lead to massive improvements. Prophet, the branding and marketing consultancy, and GE Healthcare Camden Group, interviewed 3,000 consumers and 300 healthcare executives about the holistic patient experience. The focus was on the total experience, rather than silos such as hospitals, doctor specialties or insurance companies because all aspects of the experience are intertwined in the minds of patients. Input from providers provided a more complete picture of the current situation and its challenges.

Seven headlines that come from the study:

1. The patient satisfaction level is abysmal, which I found very surprising and discouraging considering recent industry attention and initiatives. Only 40% of consumers felt that they received a high-quality health care experience and only 35% feel that the providers have an empathetic staff. Worse, the dissatisfaction is much higher among those that have more experience with the healthcare providers; some 75% of frequent healthcare consumers said they were frustrated with their health care experience versus 48% of the rest.

2. Low satisfaction is even worse among millennials. The group values two related factors: the ability to control their lives and having digitally-enabled convenience in doing so (they’re used to both in other aspects of their life). They adore firms that provide these attributes like Uber, Starbucks, Zappos, and Square. These two factors also appear in their healthcare preferences. Among their favorite healthcare brands are ZocDoc (find a doctor), Oscar (obtaining insurance) and WebMD (managing health); all of which provide health-related solutions that people can access on their own terms. Further, over 50% are willing to use telemedicine. They rely more on input from friends and family and less on their providers than did previous generations.

3. Providers overestimate their current ability to satisfy patients by more than 20 percentage points. For example, only 40% of consumers feel they are receiving a quality experience, but over 60% of providers believe that they’re delivering a quality experience. performance gap.

4. Healthcare companies want to improve patient experience but focusing on and implementing the strategy is proving to be elusive due to competing priorities. In a 2014 survey from the American College of Healthcare Executives, 75% of providers say that patient experience is critical to their success but on the list of the CEOs’ top concerns, patient satisfaction doesn’t make the top five. It is a priority that falls well behind managing the massive amounts of industry consolidation and finding the right merger partner(s). In the Prophet and GE Healthcare Camden Group study, 85% of providers admit they don’t have a clear picture of how to improve the patient experience.

5. There is a remarkable ROI story behind improved patient experience but it doesn’t always carry the day because it is not well documented or communicated. Patient experience investment drives increased capacity, reduces operating costs, improves employee retention and build an enhanced brand that creates loyalty and thereby increases revenues. One study showed an improvement in on-time appointments from 18% to 84% and led to measurable payoffs in terms of productivity and impatient referrals translating to $460,000 average additional patient revenue per physician per year.

6. Improving the patient experience will require medical systems that break down the siloed nature of the industry, including the payment sector. And that is not easy. It requires structural change with established organizations merging or creating close partnerships with other organizations with a different discipline and objectives, often with people, culture, and processes that are also dissimilar. Structural change often slows the pace of progress in improving the seamless integration of medical services.

7. Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic show strong cases of success. Kaiser Permanente with its comprehensive health care model has the highest customer loyalty ranking in the health insurance category with a net promoter score 23 points higher than the industry average. Mayo Clinic has a strong reputation for delivering an amazing patient experience with concierge-level services. In both cases, it is the empowered people and culture that largely drive the service levels and customer satisfaction, although smart use of enabling technology is also a factor. They both go beyond fixing what is broken to surprise and delight their customers.

“All aspects of the experience are intertwined in the minds of patients.”

Earlier this week Forbes ran an article announcing the release of a Prophet brand ranking Index which ranks the “relentless relevance” of 400 top brands from 29 categories. The respondents were U.S. consumers, active in the category and familiar with the brand, so the results go beyond visibility and reach to understand the attachment to the brand.

Relentless relevance was measured by four dimensions:

• Customer Obsessed: Being important to a person’s life, connecting emotionally, and creating happiness.
• Ruthlessly Pragmatic: Makes life easier by being dependable, available, and delivering a consistent experience.
• Distinctively Inspired: Inspires, has a meaningful purpose, is trustworthy, and in-touch.
• Pervasively Innovative: Pushes the status quo, engages with customers in new and creative ways, and finds new ways to address unmet needs.

Brands that are relentlessly relevant are likely to be dominant leaders of a subcategory which is usually the best route to growth as I explained in my book Brand Relevance.

Several findings caught my eye:

1. The top three brands, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, are considered highly reliable enablers of what is important in the life of respondents. They score high across all dimensions. All of these brands are highly visible and have been the subject of positive news as well as controversy. But at the end of the day, their customers still love them, and loyalty wins. I recall hearing Phil Knight commenting on why he was running highly-controversial Nike ads. He noted that all he cared about was his core target markets, and they loved them. It’s that intense focus on the core customer that creates brand enthusiasts that stick with your brand through thick and thin.

2. Involvement is a driver of relentless relevance. The scale “engages me in new and creative ways” helped give the brands PlayStation, Xbox, EA and Etsy a place in the top 50. Etsy, admittedly a surprise to me, helps those in the Maker Movement reach a bigger pool of shoppers. The e-commerce company has devoted itself to building an authentic, people-driven marketplace, with 23 million buyers to date.

3. The Ruthlessly Pragmatic (dependable) dimension is more influential than expected in weighting the relevance score. After the first three brands, three of the next five, Netflix, Chick-fil-A and Spotify all scored extremely high on the Ruthlessly Pragmatic dimension that includes concepts like availability, consistent experience, dependability, and making life easier. It is great to be inspiring, innovative and central to a person’s lifestyle but simply delivering your brand promise is of very high value to consumers.

4. Fifteen of the top 50 brands were classic brand names that largely delivered functional benefits, or so it seems. Leading the way with positions in the top 25 were Betty Crocker, Band-Aid, Clorox, KitchenAid and Folgers. All were extremely high on the Ruthlessly Pragmatic dimension, reinforcing the hypothesis that delivering to expectations may not be glamorous, but can drive a brand’s ability to create and keep a loyal segment which can be the basis of a healthy long-term business. There’s also likely to be some emotional benefit linked to the nostalgia of growing up with these brands – they become part of the fabric of people’s lives. Likely connected: Many of these brands had relatively high scores on the “trust” dimension as well.

5. Four of the top brands including Netflix at number 5, Spotify at number 8, Pandora at Number 19, and YouTube at number 43 are Internet media brands and score high on the “important in my life” dimension. Two more, Pixar at 11 and Disney at 24, are entertainment brands and were extremely high on both “makes me happy” and “connects with me emotionally.” Not only are these companies providing a more fun experience for their customers, but they are innovating the experience and constantly keeping it fresh and relevant in consumers’ lives.

6. Seven fashion-connected brands populated the top 50 including Nike, Sephora, M·A·C, North Face, Under Armour, Adidas and Victoria’s Secret. Many had high scores on the “distinctively inspired” dimension. All involve a high level of involvement and energy as well. Relentless relevance measured on those that are active in the category and familiar with the brand provides a key brand equity indicator that is not available on other brand strength scales and represents a brand relationship that is a key to business success.

“Brands that are relentlessly relevant are likely to be dominant leaders of a subcategory.”

In my last post, I wrote about why I believe Lifebuoy’s “Help a Child Reach 5” campaign is the most effective social responsibility program running today. The program’s mission is to help one billion people develop better handwashing habits and thereby prevent some of the two million deaths of children under five that occur annually due to poor health and hygiene.

In this post, I discuss why two particular stories Lifebuoy shares in its program are so powerful. Brand stories are the hot, new currency of content marketing as firm after firm hires editors, writers, and videographers to find and record these narratives. Lifebouy seems to have cracked the code. The following two videos produced by Lifebouy provide insights into what it takes to tell an impactful story in a mere three minutes.

The first video was filmed in the Indian village Thesgora. Because of the village’s high rates of disease, Lifebouy chose it as the site for its pilot handwashing program, which resulted in a reduction in diarrhea from 36% to 6%.

In the film, a father is shown walking a long distance on his hands through fields, puddles, and a stairway to the nearby temple to seek God’s blessing. As the man walks, he is accompanied by villagers and people playing music. Inspiration for the story is rooted in the local practice of expressing gratitude by doing something like sacrificing a favorite food or walking a long distance.

We then learn the reason for the man’s journey. He finally saw one of his grandchildren reach five and is overcome with delight. The video ends by telling the viewer that two million children die before their fifth birthday because of diseases that can be combated by better handwashing. The emotional impact is powerful and reinforces the importance of Lifebuoy’s handwashing program.

In the second video, we are introduced to Utari and her tree. Utari has an attachment to the tree: she waters it, dances around it, protects it from water buffalo and stands by it late into the night. Why? We learn in the video that Utari’s son will turn five the next day, and it is a village tradition to plant a tree when a child is born.

For far too many mothers in Utari’s village, only the tree remains after five years. But Utari is one of the lucky ones and her worship of the tree reflects that gratitude. The video closes with an explanation of why the Lifebuoy handwashing program works is vital to reducing those deaths.

“The first video was seen by over 19 million people and the second by over 11 million.”

The first video was seen by over 19 million people and the second by over 11 million. Why were these videos so powerful and influential in helping the Lifebuoy program get 250,000 people – one-fourth of their overall goal – to adopt effective handwashing habits? There are many reasons including:

• The characters are real, interesting and authentic.
• Curiosity about who the characters are and what they are doing drew people in.
• The video showed real emotions, which generated a connection with viewers.
• The statistics of global infant deaths, which can be addressed with a simple and effective program were shocking.
• There was a direct connection to Lifebuoy and the impact of its hand washing program.