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Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant

DAVID AAKER

Summary

David Aaker, the father of branding, defines the concept of brand relevance using dozens of case studies: Prius, Whole Foods, Westin, iPad and more-and explains how brand relevance drives market dynamics, which generates opportunities for your brand and threats for the competition. Aaker reveals how these companies have made other brands in their categories irrelevant. He shows how to eliminate the competition and become the lead brand in your market.

“Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant” is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or wherever books are sold.

Highlights

  • When managing a new category of product, treat it as if it were a brand
  • By failing to produce what customers want or losing momentum and visibility, your brand becomes irrelevant; and create barriers to competitors by supporting innovation at every level of the organization.
  • Using dozens of case studies, shows how to create or dominate new categories or subcategories, making competitors irrelevant
  • Shows how to manage the new category or subcategory as if it were a brand and how to create barriers to competitors
  • Describes the threat of becoming irrelevant by failing to make what customer are buying or losing energy

Endorsements

Joe Tripodi
Chief marketing and commercial officer, Coca-Cola

Aaker has nailed it (again)! The long-term viability of a business is inextricably linked to gaining a brand relevance advantage through new category and subcategory development and unique positioning.

Jim Stengel
Former chief marketing officer, P&G

Most of our work as brand builders is reactionary, chasing each other’s ideas. The result is a marketplace of sameness. David Aaker gives us fresh principles and real ideas to change that, to be truly innovative, to raise our game.

Ann Lewnes
Chief marketing officer, Adobe

Aaker has hit the nail on the head with Brand Relevance. You’ve gotta take the leap or risk getting left behind.”

Tony Hsieh
Author, Delivering Happiness and chief executive officer, Zappos.com, Inc.

Brand Relevance shows how finding a higher purpose, a characteristic of great companies, can affect which brands customers perceive as relevant.”

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of over one hundred articles and 18 books on marketing, business strategy and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world.

Connect

Want to interview Dave or feature him on your next podcast? Please connect with us or David Aaker directly.

Explore how David Aaker and Prophet can help your business build relevant brands.

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The Importance of Category Labels

Don’t accept a minor role in a fixed category. Start a new one and become its star.

I’ve stated many times before that the only way to grow, with some exceptions, is to innovate and create “must-haves” that define a new subcategory (or category) and then manage that subcategory so that it wins in the marketplace and so that your brand becomes an exemplar. When this happens, subcategory competition becomes the focus rather than brand competition, and this can be a foreign concept to most marketers.

Subcategory/ Category Labels

A key part of the process is the subcategory or category label or “brand.” The brand that can define and manage the label will be in a position to both help the subcategory win and become its exemplar. A recent article in the Sloan Management Review provides insight into the importance and dynamics of category labels based on a study of several categories. They observed that categories usually start with multiple labels before a dominant category label emerges. Premature labels exit because the category technology changes over time.

The “credit card” label, which describes cards sponsored by banks, was preceded by “charge cards” and “charge-a-plate” as the technology changed over some 30 years. Sometimes, early efforts to describe the category emphasize different aspects and become obsolete as the category evolves.

So “smartphones” were variously called a “camera phone,” “game deck,” or “PDA.” Sometimes the early labels just aren’t very good. Snowboards were first called Snurfers. There is a fine line between a brand like Telsa creating a subcategory label and being an exemplar for a category that is not defined by any label but by a set of characteristics that may be a half dozen or more in number.

“The only way to grow, with some exceptions, is to innovate and create “must-haves” that define a new subcategory.”

Creating a label means that the brand has more control over the subcategory. A brand that aspires to be the category leader should make an effort to be the brand that introduces the dominant label, or identifies it early and becomes its exemplar. The goal is to infuse the category with the characteristics on which the brand is strong so that the brand can obtain exemplar status. Think of stories like Burton, who created the Snowboard label and proceeded to imbue it with characteristics that the Burton board excelled at.

Parity with Defining Characteristics of the Category

A late mover needs to conform to the label and demonstrate parity with respect to the defining characteristics of the category. The assumption is that the category, when defined by a dominant label, is unlikely to change in any brand idiosyncratic way. In overlaying my ideas onto the research stated in the article, I would make the following observations.

  1. While category dynamics are important, there is actually more action in subcategories because they occur more frequently. So instead of accepting a fixed category and striving to become relevant, a latecomer should try to innovate and add a new “must-have” to the category thereby creating a subcategory for which the brand can dominate.
  2. The concept of reliance helps the dynamics with respect to subcategory (and category) competition. A goal of category or subcategory creation is to make all other options irrelevant. Competitive brands lose not just because they are not preferred, but rather because they are not considered. One objective of the dominant brand is to manage the subcategory definition over time, changing or adding “must-haves” so that it’s harder for competitors to stay relevant. They are always on the defense fighting a relevance challenge.
  3. There are times when the label of a subcategory (or category) is the brand itself. Xerox represents copy machines, and Google represents search engines. People “Xerox reports” and “Google it.” Tesla competes in the “electric vehicle” category but because of its set of “must-haves” it really defines a subcategory of which it is the only member. It thus achieves the ultimate goal of subcategory-based competition—forming a subcategory in which all competitors are irrelevant.
  4. There are times in which a subcategory gets a very descriptive label such as “low fat” or “organic” food. The exemplar brand often gets to define the subcategory. Making it complex can mean the customer might have a hard time understanding and recalling the boundaries. However, it also means that competitors will have a hard time becoming a relevant player. I have suggested elsewhere that subcategory (and category) competition can be more important than brand competition. The ability to develop and control good labels is part of the process.

For more on my thoughts of the topic, see my books Brand Relevance and Aaker on Branding.


FINAL THOUGHTS

To achieve uncommon growth, define a new subcategory (or category). Managed well, it becomes an exemplar–with your brand as the clear winner.

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How to Build a Successful Brand: 7 Essential Steps

To be both credible and successful, create an approach that differentiates, resonates, and inspires.

Brand building is key for sustained, positive customer relationships that lead to increased recognition and sales. How do you build a brand?

It starts with a brand vision, which provides an articulated description of the aspirational image for the brand: what you want the brand to stand for in the eyes of customers and other relevant groups, such as employees and partners. It ultimately drives the brand-building component of the marketing program and greatly influences the rest.

When the brand vision clicks, it will reflect and support the business strategy, differentiate the brand from competitors, resonate with customers, energize and inspire employees and partners, precipitate a gush of brand-building ideas, and generate consistent, “on-brand” brand building over offerings and segments. When absent or superficial, the brand will drift aimlessly, and marketing programs are likely to be inconsistent and ineffective.

7 Steps for Building a Successful Brand

When building a brand, use the brand vision model (formerly the brand identity model) as your starting point, as it provides the structural framework for the development of a brand vision with a point of view that distinguishes it from others in several ways.

Follow these seven initial steps, based on the brand vision model, when building your brand:

1. Define the Key Elements of Your Brand

It may be based on six to 12 vision elements. A single thought or phrase cannot define most brands, and the quest to find this magic brand concept can be fruitless or, worse, can leave the brand with an incomplete vision missing some relevant elements. The vision elements are prioritized into the two to five that are the most compelling and differentiating, termed the “core vision elements,” while the others are labeled “extended vision elements.”

The core elements will reflect the value propositions going forward, and drive the brand-building programs and initiatives. For the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business’s brand, for example, they are: “question the status quo,” “students always,” “beyond yourself” and “confidence without attitude.”

2. Identify Extended Vision Elements

They add texture to the brand vision, allowing most strategists to make better judgments as to whether a program is “on brand.” The extended vision affords a home for important aspects of the brand, such as a brand personality, that may not merit being a core vision element, and for elements, such as high quality, that are crucial for success but may not be a basis for differentiation.

Such elements can and should influence branding programs. Too often during the process of creating a brand vision, a person’s nominee for an aspirational brand association is dismissed because it could not be a centerpiece of the brand. When such an idea can be placed in the extended vision, the discussion can go forward. An extended vision element sometimes evolves into a core element, and without staying visible throughout the process, that would not happen.

3. Customize the Model to Your Brand’s Specifics

Key elements of your business— what types of good or services you offer, how you interact with customers, and what segment of the market you serve, to name a few— affect how you should use the brand vision model. Organizational values and programs are likely to be important for service and B-to-B firms but not for consumer packaged goods, for example. Innovation is likely to be important for high-tech brands but less so for some packaged goods brands. Personality often is more important for durables and less so for corporate brands. The dimensions that are employed will be a function of the marketplace, the strategy, the competition, the customers, the organization and the brand.

4. Prioritize Brand Associations

It is the associations that the brand needs to have going forward, given its current and future business strategy. Too often, a brand executive feels constrained and uncomfortable going beyond what the brand currently has permission to do. Yet most brands need to improve on some dimensions to compete and add new dimensions in order to create new growth platforms. A brand that has plans to extend to a new category, for example, probably will need to go beyond the current image.

5. Find Your Brand Essence

When the right brand essence is found, it can be magic in terms of internal communication, inspiration for employees and partners, and guiding programs. Consider “transforming futures,” the brand essence of the London Business School; “ideas for life” for Panasonic; or “family magic” for Disneyland. In each case, the essence provides an umbrella over what the brand aspires to do. The essence always should be sought.

However, there are times when it actually gets in the way and is better omitted. Mobil (now ExxonMobil) had leadership, partnership and trust as the core brand vision elements. Forcing an essence on this brand likely would be awkward. If the essence does not fit or is not compelling, it will soak up all of the energy in the room. In these cases, the core vision elements are better brand drivers.

6. Adapt Your Brand to Product-Market Contexts

Having the same brand vision in all of your brand’s product-market contexts is elegant and convenient but not feasible in today’s complex marketplace. The goal should be to create strong brands everywhere, not the same brand everywhere. Managers need flexibility to adapt the brand to their context while still avoiding programs that are inconsistent with the vision. The brand vision can be adapted in several ways. Those employing the brand in different brand contexts can emphasize different elements of the brand vision, can interpret vision elements such as quality or innovation differently or can augment the vision with additional elements.

7. Create a Communication Guide Using Brand Position

The current positioning often emphasizes the brand vision elements that will appeal and are now credible and deliverable. As organizational capabilities and programs emerge or as markets change, the positioning message might evolve or change. The centerpiece of the position often is a tagline communicated externally that need not and usually does not correspond to the brand essence, which is an internally communicated concept.

“When the brand vision clicks, it will reflect and support the business strategy, differentiate the brand from competitors, resonate with customers, energize and inspire employees and partners.”


FINAL THOUGHTS

What does a winning brand vision look like? As noted above, it should differentiate, resonate, inspire and precipitate ideas. It also should have credibility internally and externally. That means that there should be proof points or strategic imperatives, planned programs that will create proof points. In addition, the very strong brands tend to have in the vision a source of energy, a higher purpose, and a personality.

This post originally appeared in the American Marketing Association’s publication Marketing News. 

Learn more about how Prophet helps clients grow better brands and businesses.

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What Is Your Higher Purpose?

Profits are no longer the only measure of success. Companies must benefit all stakeholders–including employees.

What is your higher purpose? Sales and profit goals can no longer be the prime motivator if they ever were. In my book, Aaker on Branding, I note that more and more brands have a higher purpose that is meaningful. It is increasingly becoming more about “why” in addition to “what.” A higher purpose can provide inspiration, an aspirational goal, a work-together logic, respect, motivation for social programs and paths to growth. In particular, it can:

Inspire employees

P&G’s purpose to improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come elevates the work experience of all employees. General Motors’ passion for “earning customers for life” affects employee decisions on a day-to-day basis.

Set a high aspirational performance bar that can stretch the organization

Apple’s Steve Jobs famous mission to create “insanely great products” removed the ceiling from product development at Apple. The Virgin mission, “to embrace the human spirit and let it fly” provides energy to employees to be sure.

Help promote cross-silo collaboration

Develop a common purpose that encourages people to perceive colleagues as teammates instead of being irrelevant or competitors. Employees should inherently ask, “How can I make us succeed?” before “How can I get ahead?” IBM has used its drive toward “a Smarter Planet” to overcome the inhibiting power of silos units by providing a rationale for creating and leveraging synergy.

Provide a route to customer relationships

Abbott’s quest to help customers live life to the fullest provides a way to connect that means something. Patagonia is the ultimate in having environmental considerations in their heritage, products and programs, and that attracts customer loyalty among those that share their values.

Provide an umbrella under which a host of social programs can live

Nike’s passion for sports and fitness has led to programs to create facilities that enable more kids to participate. PepsiCo’s intent to have a positive imprint on society and to become a truly sustainable company provides a home for a host of social programs.

Stimulate growth options

Roche’s diabetes team has a higher purpose, to “enable people with diabetes to live their lives as unrestricted as possible.” It’s a purpose that provides direction for both product development and brand building. Further, it can foster innovation. If Crayola conceives itself as making crayons that would define a narrow production/sales operation. But if its goal is “to help parents and teachers raise inspired, created children” there are a host of routes to product innovation.

“A higher purpose can provide inspiration, an aspirational goal, a work-together logic, respect, motivation for social programs and paths to growth.”

Nearly all firms that look to a higher purpose have several or even many of them, each of which direct programs. For example, Unilever has a set of purposes that include sustainability (the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan), give, a better future for children (oral health and nutritional programs), and a healthier future (the hand-washing program that reached over 200 million people in 2012), enhancing women self-esteem (Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty), and more. Whole Foods Market strives to provide the highest quality natural and organic products, strives to “delight and nourish” customers, serve and support the local communities, and celebrate the sheer love and joy of food.”


FINAL THOUGHTS

It is easy to get caught in a focus on financials, but employees and customers are increasingly attracted to brands and firms that have a higher purpose. It makes a difference.

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6 Reasons Why Uniqlo Is Winning

This big-thinking retailer has a clear, well-communicated vision that unifies every effort.

What strategies are behind the success of Uniqlo, a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer and retailer?

I was recently in the Uniqlo store on 34th street in Manhattan and was blown away by the quality and styling of the clothing, the store size and product scope, the presentation, the breathtakingly low prices, the service experience, the innovations and the energy. How did Uniqlo pull that off?  And why has Uniqlo experienced dramatic profitable growth over two decades?

“In fiscal 2014 it will continue a sharp sales trajectory with sales around 14 billion dollars.”

In 1994 it had approximately 100 stores in Japan. In 2015, it will have 840 stores in Japan and 1,170 stores outside of Japan, 820 of which are under the Uniqlo brand (and another 270 under the GU brand, which is a low-priced version of Uniqlo). In fiscal 2014 it will continue a sharp sales trajectory with sales around 14 billion dollars becoming a top-five global “own brand” clothing retailer.

6 Key Strategies Behind the Success of Uniqlo

Uniqlo’s success didn’t just happen by chance. There are certain strategies that have been key contributors to the company’s noteworthy progress. Here are six key elements that other brands can learn from.

1. Uniqlo has a clear vision of its brand.

To provide high-quality, performance-enhanced, basic casual wear at the lowest prices. Its clothing is up-to-date and fashionable, but not trendy.

Its fabric innovation and in-house design provide exceptional and unique functional performance. Uniqlo provides “made for all’ clothing that can be worn whenever and wherever. It is not, like some competitors, a firm that sells copies of the latest runway fashions.

2. Uniqlo brands its innovations.

This provides substance to its quality and performance positioning and sets it apart from most price-driven, value retailers. One of their signature innovations is HeatTech, a fabric developed in conjunction with a material science firm that turns moisture into heat and has air pockets in the fabric to retain that heat.

The HeatTech fabric is thin, comfortable and enables stylish designs very different from the standard for warm clothing. The HeatTech innovation keeps improving over time with new fiber technology. In 2003, 1.5 million HeatTech products were sold while in 2012 over 130 million units were sold over 250 items.

Not to mention their AIRism (a stretchy fabric) and Lifewear (a blend between casual and sportswear) technologies and more. All are branded, which means competitors have an uphill struggle to match this point of differentiation.

3. Its operational strategy gives it both a cost and agility advantage.

Its low-cost operation is based on Uniqlo’s ownership of product planning, design, manufacturing and distribution. The direct link between the stories and a stable group of suppliers means that what is being sold is directly translated into manufacturing orders.

There is no six or nine-month planning cycle, but stock is upgraded in weeks or even days. The customer thus has a direct influence on the ordering process, because what is being made is based on what they are buying.

4. The driving force is a charismatic owner-founder.

Tadashi Yanai is a hands-on leader who supports a strong, unique culture that is hard to duplicate. His influence is everywhere, as the values and goals of Uniqlo are translated into processes, measures, organizational structure and people. The organization is flat, and employees are encouraged to make suggestions.

He made a decision, a very rare one in Japan, to conduct all the business of the firm in English. Without question, this has enabled international success. He also has managed to avoid the most serious silo problems that hold back most Japanese firms, in fact, most firms, which go global. The culture he has put in place supports innovation, customer experience, teamwork and organizational goals.

5. The emphasis on the in-store experience is over-the-top.

And, it involves hiring, training, and micro-managing all touchpoints. Every activity undertaken by every employee, from a person’s folding technique to the way advisers (floor salespeople are called advisers) return charge cards to customers (Japanese style, with two hands and full eye contact) are recorded and analyzed. Each morning, employees practice the ways in which they are taught to interact with shoppers including the six standard phrases such as “Hello, my name is (blank), how are you today?” The financials are completely transparent, and sales are charted and posted each day. The firm is now building a Uniqlo University in Tokyo where 1,500 new store managers will be trained each year.

6. The firm thinks big.

Yanai wants to move beyond the primary mission to enrich people’s lives by providing truly great clothing to offer customers everywhere the world’s best stores, services and products. He wants to exceed Zara and become the top private label retailer in the world. Already tied for the number 2 brand spot in Japan (and HeatTech is in the top 50), Yanai wants to become the number one brand in every country where Uniqlo operates.

In 2004, that ambition grew as the Uniqlo Way was developed under the theme, “Changing Clothes. Changing conventional wisdom. Change the world.” There is an element of corporate social responsibility there that shows how serious Uniqlo is about contributing to the world. Their recycling effort, for example, has moved tens of millions of discarded Uniqlo clothing to needy people around the world.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Everything from a clear vision to big picture thinking has contributed to Uniqlo overall success. Where will it end? Visit a store and see what you think. I wouldn’t bet against Tadashi Yanai.

Learn how Prophet can help you take your brand strategy to the next level.

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Build Your Brand From The Inside Out

Building an internal brand can inspire employees to be your very best ambassadors.

Test your organization by asking employees two questions.

  • What does your brand stand for?
  • Do you care?

If employees are unsure of the brand vision or don’t care, there is little chance that you will successfully implement your business strategy. There are several benefits to having a strong internal brand. A clear, compelling internal brand provides direction and motivation to employees and partners. People and teams will be more likely to know if a decision or program is “on-brand” if the internal brand is successfully communicated.

The internal brand can inspire employees to find and implement creative, breakthrough brand-building programs, to stretch for a “big” idea. An employee base that is energized by a strong brand will be motivated to talk about the brand to others on social media and elsewhere. A solid brand, especially one with a vision that includes a higher purpose, is likely to provide an employee with meaning and job fulfillment. An activated internal brand strategy can support the organizational culture which can be a foundation of a strategy and its implementation. As Peter Drucker once said “culture eats strategy for lunch.”

So how do you communicate the brand to employees?

There are three stages involved: learning about the brand vision, believing the vision and that the brand can deliver it and living the brand by feeling inspired, empowered and becoming a brand advocate internally and externally.

Learning About the Brand Vision

The learning path can and should involve all the communication vehicles available such as newsletters, workshops, brand videos, brand books and personal efforts by individuals such as brand ambassadors, senior managers and influencers.

A brand vision can both capture the vision and reflect its importance to the culture especially if the CEO uses it regularly. But the learning effort should go beyond communication. It should link the vision to the business strategy and make clear that there is a reason for it to live. Executives explaining the “what and why” behind the business strategy and the role of the internal brand vision should play a key role in person. The learning effort can be motivated by highlighting gaps between the aspirational brand vision and the current reality.

Believing in the Brand Vision

Problems such as “the customer experience is not on-brand” or “the innovation stream is not adequate” can be posed to get traction. If there is excessive focus on the vision itself, there is a risk of precipitating an “I disagree” position. The believing stage involves putting substance behind the vision to signal organizational commitment. Three steps can make the point.

  1. Put visible programs in place to make the brand vision and its associated business strategy actually succeed. That might mean a culture-changing training program, offering an innovation plan, an advertising program or a customer experience enhancement. It should have substance and will involve investment.
  2. Align the evaluation and reward people and programs around the new initiative. Measurement and rewards drive behavior. In the early 1990s, IBM was poised to be broken up into seven parts, but CEO Lou Gerstner entered with a brand vision to deliver integrated solutions for clients—solutions that spanned the firm. As part of his culture-changing effort, employee evaluation was changed to emphasize organizational rather than silo performance and the company added a dimension reflecting the ability of people to demonstrate cross-organization cooperation. This sent a huge signal to the firm.
  3. Create a brand champion—an individual or a team that is in charge of the brand vision and willing to carry the flag. He or she should be a primary internal brand spokesperson and communicate the brand idea to colleagues and encourage them to find creative ways to communicate the brand to others. The brand champion might create a team of brand ambassadors—credible people to represent the brand throughout the organization.

Living the Brand Vision

The living stage, where people are inspired to action, is the most difficult and crucial. Participative workshops where employees are asked to build visual montages, find role models, evaluate existing programs, portray a customer interaction or develop new programs can play an important role. Task forces can add energy, visibility and action. Microsoft, for example, has the “Microsoft Green Teams” that look for ways to further the “green” initiative through outreach programs into the community or through internal communication programs.

“An activated internal brand strategy can support the organizational culture.”

Getting employees in front of customers can be one way to make the brand vision come alive. P&G, for example, puts executives in front of customers regularly in the home (living it) and in the store (with shop-alongs or as behind-the-counter participants). Zappos.com encourages its people to engage by tweeting, and more than 500 do so regularly. An organization that lives the brand will use brand values as a criterion for selecting and retaining employees. Zappos.com has values that include delivering “wow” experiences and being a bit weird. One of the screening questions is to name something weird that you have done.

The Zappos trial period evaluation focuses on a fit with its brand values. Harrah’s, which hires people who are exceptionally upbeat and positive, holds an “American Idol”-type audition with a set of judges to screen candidates. The Haas School of Business admits students in part by how well their personality matches the school’s values. Power brands are built from the inside out, and internal branding needs to be a priority. It must go far beyond brochures and a CEO pep-talk.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Employees are a powerful force for brand-building and a potential army of brand ambassadors. In order to enlist this force, make sure they understand the brand’s purpose.

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Move from Functional to Self-Expressive Benefits

Help people express themselves, so they can be cool at Zara, successful in a Lexus or creative with an Apple.

There is a compulsion to focus in on functional benefits. It comes perhaps from the legacy of the Rosser Reeves unique selling proposition that brought us the candy that “melts in your mouth instead of your hand.” A functional benefit is appealing. Our instinct, especially if we reside in the high tech or a B2B sector, is to assume that customers are rational and will be swayed by functional benefits.

Further, when asked why customers buy this brand or avoid that one, we assume they will give functional reasons. The resulting insights often have an inordinate influence on strategy. But we have too much evidence from behavioral economists and market researchers that shows customers are far from rational. We see it every day. Even an airline, when buying a plane, will, in the end, be influenced by their gut even with piles of proposal details in front of them.

“When a brand provides a self-expressive benefit, the connection between the brand and the customer is likely to be heightened.”

In most contexts, customers lack the motivation, the time, the information or the competence to make decisions that will maximize performance outcomes and project functional benefits from other brand associations. Even worse, strategies based on functional benefits are often strategically ineffective or limiting:

  • Customers may not believe that a brand has a functional advantage because of competitors’ conflicting claims, and they may not believe the benefit represents a compelling reason to buy the brand.
  • If the functional benefit represents a point of differentiation, competitors may quickly copy it.
  • The benefit may not represent a basis of a strong, long-term relationship because there is no emotional attachment.
  • A strong functional association confines the brand, especially when it comes to responding to changing markets or in exploring brand extensions.

A Crest that is about toothpaste will be less able to win in other categories than a Crest that enables people to feel healthy and shine confidently in social settings. Thus, it makes sense to move beyond functional benefits and consider self-expressive, social and emotional benefits as a basis for the value proposition.

Self-Expressive Benefits

Brands and products, as symbols of a person’s self-concept, can provide a self-expressive benefit by providing a vehicle by which a person can express his or her self. “When I buy or use this brand, I am___.” A brand does not have to be Harley-Davidson to deliver self-expressive benefits. A person can be cool by buying clothes at Zara, successful by driving a Lexus, creative by using Apple, frugal and unpretentious by shopping at Kmart, or adventurous and active by owning REI camping equipment.

Using a Schwab account is a signal that a person can manage an investment portfolio. When a brand provides a self-expressive benefit, the connection between the brand and the customer is likely to be heightened. For example, consider the difference between the brand connection of using Lancôme, which may heighten one’s self-concept of being sophisticated, exotic, and mysterious versus using Jergens or Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion.

Social Benefits

The drive to have friends, colleagues, family and groups with common interests is intense and can generate immediate and long-term rewards. People are not only fulfilled with social relationships, they are influenced as well. Many brands have the capability of participating or even driving social benefits. “When I buy or use this brand, the type of people I relate to are ____.”

There are several types of social benefits. The Hyatt brand has focused on enabling a social feel and experience. Sephora created a community with Beauty Talk that provides a social dimension to the brand. Others can involve affinity groups: “When I go to Starbucks I am part of a closed club of aficionados, even if I don’t interact with any.” Still others can involve aspirational groups: “When playing with a Titleist Pro V1, I am among a group that contains some really good golfers.”

Emotional Benefits

An emotional benefit relates to the ability of the brand to make the buyer or user of a brand feel something during the purchase process or use experience. “When I buy or use this brand I feel___.” Thus, a customer can feel safe in a Volvo, excited in a BMW, refreshed with Coca-Cola, or warm when receiving a Hallmark card. Evian associated itself with the satisfied feeling that comes from a workout with its “Another day, another chance to feel healthy” tagline. Cars.com takes the stress out of the car buying experience.

Emotional benefits add richness and depth to the brand and the experience of owning and using the brand. Without the memories that Sun-Maid raisins evokes, the brand would border on commodity status. The familiar red package links many users to the happy days of helping mom in the kitchen (or the idealized childhood for some who wished that they had such experiences.) The result can be a different user experience, one with feelings and a stronger brand.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Two tips for avoiding the functional benefit trap:

  1. Create a strong brand personality. Most brands with personalities deliver beyond functional benefits.
  2. Aspire to deliver multiple benefits. Providing both functional and emotional benefits is more effective than just one of the two. Photo: unverdorben jr / Shutterstock

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10 Most Common Branding Challenges

We’ve been there. Here’s how to overcome predictable snags, from digital strategy to internal brand-building.

For those involved with building a brand, there are certain challenges to keep in mind that are essential to your success.

After writing my latest book, Aaker on Branding, a book that contains an overview of 20 key branding principles, I included an epilogue that identifies 10 additional branding challenges to keep in mind as you work to build your brand. If you are involved with building a brand or brand portfolio, you will benefit from appraising how you are facing each of the challenges below:

1. Treating brands as assets

The ongoing pressure to deliver short-term financial results coupled with the fragmentation of media will tempt organizations to focus on tactics and measurables and neglect the objective of building assets.

2. Possessing a compelling vision

A brand vision needs to differentiate itself, resonate with customers and inspire employees. It needs to be feasible to implement, work over time in a dynamic marketplace and drive brand-building programs. Visions that work are usually multidimensional and adaptable to different contexts. They employ concepts such as brand personality, organizational values, a higher purpose and in general they simply move beyond functional benefits.

3. Creating new subcategories

The only way to grow, with rare exceptions, is to develop “must have” innovations that define new subcategories and build barriers to inhibit competitors from gaining relevance. That requires substantial or transformational innovation and a new ability to manage the perceptions of a subcategory so that it wins.

4. Generating breakthrough brand building

Exceptional ideas and executions that break out of the clutter are necessary in order to bring the brand vision to life. These ideas and the execution of them are more critical than the size of your budget. “Good” is just not good enough. That means making sure you get more ideas from more sources, and that you make sure you have the mechanisms in place to recognize brilliance and bring those ideas to market – quickly.

5. Achieving integrated marketing communication (IMC)

IMC is more elusive and difficult than ever in light of the various methods you have to choose from such as advertising, sponsorships, digital, mobile, social media and more. These methods tend to compete with each other rather than reinforce because the media scene and options have become so complex, so dynamic, and because product and country silos reflect competition and isolation rather than cooperation and communication.

“A brand vision needs to differentiate itself, resonate with customers and inspire employees.”

6. Building a digital strategy

This arena is complex, dynamic and in need of a different mindset. The reality is, the audience is in control here. New capabilities, creative initiatives and new ways to work with other marketing modalities are required. Adjust the digital marketing focus from the offering and the brand to the customer’s sweet spot, which is to say the activities and opinions in which they are interested or even passionate about. Develop programs around that sweet spot in which the brand is an active partner, such as Pampers did with Pampers Village or what Avon did with their Walk for Breast Cancer.

7. Building your brand internally

It is hard to achieve successful integrated marketing communications or breakthrough marketing without employees both knowing the vision and caring about it. The brand vision that lacks a higher purpose will find the inspiration challenge almost impossible.

8. Maintaining brand relevance

Brands face three relevance threats: Fewer customers buying what the brand is offering, emerging reasons not-to-buy, and loss of energy. Detecting and responding to each requires an in-depth knowledge of the market, plus a willingness to invest and change.

9. Creating a brand-portfolio strategy that yields synergy and clarity

Brands need well-defined roles and visions that support those roles. Strategic brands should be identified and resourced, and branded differentiators and energizers should be created and managed.

10. Leveraging brand assets to enable growth

A brand portfolio should foster growth by enabling new offerings, extending the brand vertically or extending the brand into another product class. The goal is to apply the brand to new contexts where the brand both adds value and enhances itself.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Those engaged in building and leveraging a brand should examine each of these challenges in turn and determine which are most critical to their success.

Then evaluate the extent to which your brand is in deficit in meeting that challenge. The answers to those questions should result in a roadmap to strengthening both your brand and your impact.

Learn how Prophet can help you overcome these common challenges and take your brand strategy to the next level.

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What Are Your Strategic Brands?

Some are power brands, others are niche and some have potential. Sorting them out takes strategy and discipline.

While much attention is paid to building brands, too often the brand portfolio is neglected. The result is marketplace confusion, paralysis in naming new products, under-supported brands and misallocation of brand-building resources. We need to better identify brand roles and, more particularly, distinguish between the strategic brands and their roles.

A strategic brand is one with strategic importance to the organization. It is a driver of reputation, differentiation, loyalty, sales and cash flow. Identifying your strategic brands will be a huge step toward ensuring that brand-building resources are not misallocated.

In general, there are four types of strategic brands:

Current power brands

Current power brands will be the ones currently generating significant sales and profits and projected to maintain or grow their position. Large dominant brands such as Microsoft Windows or Coke Zero would qualify, as would high-energy growth brands such as Chobani or Dove.

Future power brands

These brands are the ones projected to generate significant sales and profit in the future. Future power brands may be small or even yet to be introduced, but they earn status because of their potential and place in the portfolio of the future.

Linchpin brands

These will indirectly influence (as opposed to generate) significant sales and market position in the future. These brands are the linchpin or leverage point of a major business area or of a future vision of the firm and are likely to be branded differentiators. Hilton Rewards is such a brand for Hilton Hotels because it represents the future ability to control a substantial and critical segment in the hotel industry—travelers involved in loyalty programs.

Niche brands

Niche brands have become dominant in a profitable niche market but will not become power brands. They do have a strategic role in controlling a market that has value in generating profits and enhancing a brand’s image. It could be an upscale market entrant such as Mobil 1 or GE Monogram that provide both margin and image enhancement. Or it could be a protected niche, such as Yoplait’s Go-Gurt.

One classic problem is that future power brands and lynchpin brands get starved of resources. The current power brands and often the niche brands as well receive the lion’s share of both the budget and the organizational power. Often there is no organizational mechanism to take a total portfolio view, thus the brands of the future get starved.

“The current power brands and often the niche brands as well receive the lion’s share of both the budget and the organizational power.”

A second problem is the danger of wishful thinking from optimistic brand managers that will result in an excessive number of strategic brand nominees. The new brands and offerings become vested with substantial professional and personal commitment, which results in over-branding and too many strategic brands. The result is underfunding and an inability of the portfolio brands to become successful.


FINAL THOUGHTS

There needs to be disciplined in order to assess the brand portfolio and the new innovations and offerings that come with it. Assigning strategic brand status should be not done lightly. But when it is done, resources should be found, not only in the short term but also over time, so that all strategic brands can be successful.

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The Ever-Changing Customer Journey

Developing this new matrix of touchpoints requires understanding that customers–not companies–are in charge.

It wasn’t that long ago that when companies talked about the customer journey, it sounded as simple as a walk in the park. The customer journey, once linear, has been replaced by a complex matrix of touchpoints with the customer at the center. Consumers’ ability to access your brand in so many avenues and on so many devices has highlighted just how indirect and fractured these multiple journeys can be. To talk about the challenges of creating breakthrough customer experiences, we brought together three distinctly different perspectives: Harry West, a senior partner in Prophet’s customer experience practice, Chan Suh, Prophet’s chief digital officer and Andres Nicholls, a partner in our design practice.

Mapping customer pathways

“We used to draw a line on a board to represent the path to purchase,” says West. “Now, it’s multiple lines, and we talk about journeys in the plural. The path to purchase is increasingly intermittent.”

Imagine someone considering opening a new type of account at his bank. He may begin to gather information while physically at the bank, from an ATM or teller. He may then learn more from his desktop at work or his laptop at home, perhaps emailing the bank for more details. His wife, who handles most of the banking responsibilities, may complete the account registration process using a tablet or mobile phone.

What that means, West adds, is “that while most companies have a preconceived hierarchy of touchpoints, they don’t apply anymore. In each instance, it is the customer who decides how to move forward, not the bank.”

That means every possible access point has to be perfect, says Nicholls. “A touchpoint the company might have regarded as less important may turn out to be the critical deciding factor.” But banking on a mobile phone is very different than banking from a 17-inch laptop, and unifying these experiences is difficult. USAA, which has long functioned without branches, is a great example, says West. “Not only was it the first bank to offer a depositing feature via smartphone, it’s been a pioneer in using text messaging, alerting its military members to everything from low balances to potential fraud. It confronted digital challenges a decade before most of its competition.” The consumer-determined hierarchy is a tough lesson for some companies.

What it means for companies

In some ways, we can blame this ever-escalating cycle of innovation on Amazon, says Nicholls. It consistently tops customer service surveys, outshines its varied competition and raises expectations. “If people can buy a mountain bike that is perfectly sized for them in just one click, why can’t their bank, doctor or airline offer the same level of service?”

And if disappointed, consumers now have access to technology that will amplify how they feel about the customer experience — the good, but especially, the bad. “They’ll talk you down in customer comments, in blogs or on their social media accounts. And word-of-mouth can be the most influential driver of purchase,” says West. Two-thirds of all consumers say they read customer reviews, for example, and 90 percent say they act on them.

That means companies must work to deliver experiences that meet customer expectations, focusing resources to deliver experiences that will be memorable, and drive overall perception. “Companies need to understand, in a very intimate way, how customers react to their brands at each touchpoint,” West says. “That includes those you can control—your website, for example. But you also need to understand how people react to your brand in places you don’t have much control—in stores, at dealers, on blogs and in product forums.”

“Two thirds of all consumers say they read customer reviews, and 90 percent say they act on them, either positively or negatively.”

Next, companies need to measure the importance of each touchpoint and get a sense of which will have the biggest impact on the customer experience. Once the ideal experience — the signature touchpoint — has been achieved, everything needs to be brought in alignment with it. “We also recommend parallel measures that will track that experience over time,” he says.

But that’s not the end. Customer expectations are constantly being ratcheted up from same-day delivery, to free shipping, to BOGO. With innovative companies like Uber, Mint.com and WunWun, a company that delivers anything at any time. Suh says, “Customers expect experiences to get better all the time. Once they’ve shopped at stores where product passion is the key ingredient—whether they’re buying lipsticks at the MAC counter or a stand-up paddleboard at REI—they’re going to want that level of expertise and enthusiasm with more transactions.”

Finally, Suh adds, “Don’t forget that the most important interaction your customer has with your company isn’t always through a marketing or distribution channel. Sometimes it’s with the product itself. We have to put as much effort into the user experience as we do the marketing experience—that way, every time they use the product, they’ll be reassured that yes, they made the right purchase.”

What are the barriers?

For companies to keep up with this ever-traveling consumer who expects more and more, they need to be aligned and involve each division, department and market. Completely breaking down silos isn’t realistic, “but companies can build effective tunnels and bridges to connect them,” Nicholls says. Project teams need to accept that in this new universe, the launch trajectory is upended: “In the old way of thinking, once a marketing project was published, it was done. In the digital world, once it’s out there, it has just begun. And you have to help it, give it momentum and keep it alive.”

Not all organizations are equally suited to uncovering that kind of cooperation. But it’s a skill that can be learned. “At Prophet, we have PlayStudio, where we remove clients from their daily routines and combine inspiration with business tools,” Suh says. It doesn’t just lead to great ideas (such as the Hanes tagless t-shirt, the first innovation in t-shirts in 50 years and a customer experience touchdown). “It fosters customer-focused collaboration across departments with very different backgrounds. And the human interactions are what to lead to innovation,” says Nicholls.


FINAL THOUGHTS

The customer journey has evolved, and consumers expect brands to deliver seamless and holistic experiences across all touchpoints. Some you can control; some you can only influence. The experience must be delivered from pre-purchase all the way through product use.  If brands can’t meet their customers’ needs, those customers will not only share their negative experiences with others, but they’ll also quickly jump ship to the competition in favor of better and more fulfilling experiences.

BOOK

Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success

DAVID AAKER

Summary

“Aaker on Branding” presents in a compact form the twenty essential principles of branding that will lead to the creation of strong brands. Culled from the six David Aaker brand books and related publications, these principles provide the broad understanding of brands, brand strategy, brand portfolios and brand building that all business, marketing and brand strategists should know.

This book is a source for how you create and maintain strong brands and synergetic brand portfolios. It provides a checklist of strategies, perspectives, tools, and concepts that represents not only what you should know but also what action options should be on the table. When followed, these principles will lead to strong, enduring brands that both support business strategies going forward and create coherent and effective brand families.

Those now interested in and involved with branding are faced with information overload, not only from the Aaker books but from others as well. It is hard to know what to read and which elements to adapt to. There are a lot of good ideas out there but also some that are inferior, need updating or are subject to being misinterpreted and misapplied. And there are some ideas that, while plausible, are simply wrong if not dangerous especially if taken literally.

“Aaker on Branding” offers a sense of topic priorities and a roadmap to David Aaker’s books, thinking, and contributions. As it structures the larger literature of the brand field, it also advances the theory of branding and the practice of brand management and, by extension, the practice of business management.

“Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success” is available at Amazon (US/UK), Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, or wherever books are sold.

Endorsements

Ann Lewness
CMO Abode Technology

“Nobody knows brand strategy better than David Aaker. Aaker has taken all of the essential principles of branding and collapsed them into one epic brand book. Whether you’re a seasoned brand marketer or just getting started, this book will provide you with a practical path to creating, nurturing and leveraging strong brands.”

Joseph V. Tripodi
Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer, Coca-Cola

Professor Aaker has truly given the business world a gift: A highly concise and wonderfully cogent and insightful tutorial on the principles of brand stewardship and leadership.”

Richard Lyons
Dean, Berkeley-Haas School of Business Administration.

I am a devoted user of David Aaker’s work over many years, I like many of you have benefitted from his insights in chunks. Here those chunks are all pulled together, and seasoned with years of his own applied work. It’s just outstanding.

MaryKay Kopf
Global CMO of the Electrolux Group

Addresses ten strategic brand challenges including created a compelling brand vision, getting digital brand building right, and building the brand internally.

Elisa Steele
CMO Consumer Apps and Service, Microsoft

David’s new book is for learners and experts alike; a knowledge center for branding principles and strategies every marketer needs to know and practice. Why go anywhere else?

Steven Althaus
Director of Brand Management

Provocative, rooted in substance, a guiding star for modern marketers!

Sue Shim
Global CMO, Samsung Electronics

David Aaker provides 20 core principles and practical steps to create, enhance and leverage powerful brand asset, which can bring sustainable growth. It is a must read for businessman who want to find a key to future success led by power of brand.

Larry Light
CMO Consumer Apps and Service, Microsoft

David Aaker has created a must-read review of enduring principles and current challenges for 21st Century marketers.

Jim Stengel
Former Global Marketing Officer

David Aaker’s many books have been helpful guideposts for my career in business and marketing. Here is a great book that succinctly summarizes what he has learned in his storied career about building enduring, successful brands. Apply David’s 20 principles, and your brand will be more successful, and you will be a better leader guaranteed!

John Wallis
CMO Consumer Apps and Service, Microsoft

I found the book to be compelling reading for any CMO in this ever changing time and world. It touched raw nerves of challenges we are facing as a company and increased my to do list. And it connected the dots of the evolving role of marketers in organizations.

Philip Kotler
co-author of Marketing Management, 14th ed

The real test of marketing genius is not to produce a successful product but to build a lasting brand. Dave Aaker has done more to help us understand brand building than anyone else.

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of over one hundred articles and 18 books on marketing, business strategy, and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world.

Connect

Want to interview Dave or feature him on your next podcast? Please connect with us or David Aaker directly.

Explore how David Aaker and Prophet can help your business create signature stories that resonate with your customers and employees.

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Brands as Assets: The Idea that Transformed Marketing

The radical idea that brands are valuable changed how companies view marketing, creating a monetary advantage.

Sometime in the late 1980s, an explosive idea emerged that brands are assets, have equity and drive overall business strategy and performance. That idea altered perceptions of what marketing does, who does it, and to what end is its purpose. It’s also the focal point of the first chapter of my latest book, Aaker on Branding. It truly transformed marketing, comparable in impact to other transformational ideas that have appeared in the last century such as mass marketing, segmentation and globalization.

“Brands are assets, have equity and drive overall business strategy and performance.”

When firms adopt this asset view of branding, marketing is no longer perceived as a tactical arm of the business run by middle and lower-level managers (or an outside agency) in order to generate short-term sales for a single brand, offering and organizational unit. Rather, marketing is seen as:

Strategic and visionary

Marketing contributes to the business strategy through its first-hand knowledge of customer insights and marketplace trends, plus its expertise with respect to segmentation, brand portfolio strategies, the value proposition, growth strategies and global brand strategies.

Being managed by top executives

From a strategic view, the brand is usually managed by people higher in the organization, often the top marketing professionals in the business organization. For marketing-driven organizations, the ultimate brand champion can be the CEO. In any case, marketing now gets a seat at the strategy table becoming a participant at creating and managing the business strategy.

Charged with building brand assets

Shifting the emphasis from tactical measures such as short-term sales to strategic measures of brand equity and other indicators of long-term financial performance is a monumental change. The guiding premise is that strong brands can be the basis of competitive advantage and long-term profitability going forward. A primary brand-building goal will be to build, enhance or leverage brand equity, the major dimensions of which are awareness, associations and loyalty of the customer base.

Leveraging brand assets

When a brand is viewed as an asset, the opportunity will arise to leverage that asset to generate growth. It can be used as a master brand or perhaps as an endorser to support a vertical extension or a strategic entry into another product class by providing awareness, credibility, customer relationships and positive associations. It can also be used to frame a subcategory, thereby rendering competitor brands less relevant.

Managing the brand portfolio

As offerings and brands proliferate, it’s clear that marketing needs to manage the brand family to foster clarity, synergy, energy, relevance and leverage. That means that each brand needs to be assigned well-defined role sets and managed so that they are successful in those roles. The possible brand roles include strategic brands, cash-cow brands, master brands, endorser brands sub-brands and more.

Addressing the organizational silo issues

Nearly all brands span different silo organizations defined by products, markets or countries. Marketing is charged with fostering communication and cooperation across silos without which there can be inefficiencies, lost opportunities to scale effective programs and brand diminution. The brand-as-asset view has faced resistance for various reasons. The power of short-term financials is overwhelming and pay-off from brand building is difficult to quantify, especially in the short term. Building brand assets is no easy feat. Nevertheless, the time has come to prioritize brands as assets – its impact on marketing can be transformational.


FINAL THOUGHTS

The transformative idea that brands are assets, with real monetary value, changed the way corporations see them. It’s brought about the understanding that brands require investment, nurturing and oversight in order to maximize their value.

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