Brand Messaging Today

At the beginning of my brand strategy consulting career, I talked a lot about relevant differentiated benefits. The benefits could be functional, emotional, experiential or self-expressive. This evolved to focusing on the non-tangible benefits (emotional, experiential or self-expressive) with the product functions or features serving as support or proof points. Now, I mostly focus on a brand's shared values. The most successful contemporary brands focus on shared values and even go as far as creating communities around those shared values. And, increasingly, these values-driven brands become the vehicles through which people communicate their shared values.

The first step in creating brand messaging is understanding the values that the brand wants to share with its customers. These values can come from the organization's founder and his or her strongly held values or they can be determined through deep qualitative research that uncovers customers' attitudes, beliefs, values, hopes, fears, anxieties and aspirations. The shared values will emerge from this customer insight process.

Next, those values need to be incorporated into the organization's mission, vision and values. Then the brand story needs to be created from these values. Further, the brand's tagline and elevator speech is created from these values. These values should also guide hiring criteria and the organization's policies and standards. The brand should be aware of the words and phrases used by people who hold these values and they should be worked into all of the brand's communications.

Once the brand begins to stand for these values, customer community-building mechanisms can be created around these values. Further, once the brand begins to stand for these values, the brand can create insignia merchandise that features the brand's identity. People will wear, use and display this merchandise to communicate their values to others.

It is important to realize that a brand needs to be authentic in sharing these values in everything it does including its messaging. It is difficult to fake values. And if the values are sincerely held, it is difficult not to demonstrate them as a matter of course in everything the brand does.

Brand Personality as a Point of Difference

Southwest Airlines is one of the earlier high profile examples of this. Co-founder and former CEO Herb Keleher, pursued a leadership style based on values, attitudes and culture and created a no frills airline that was fun. He believes in "hiring for attitude and training for skill." He has also said, “A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.” 

GEICO has its lovable, charming gecko. Which led to more insurance companies trying to create their own personalities through advertising campaigns and their characters, such as Progressive's Flo.

As I recall the brands I have worked with over the years, brand personality has been an important part of several brand positioning projects. Here are some examples of that.

• I worked with a federal credit union whose mantra was "simple, easy, fun." "Fun" was clearly differentiating in their category but we had to define how that personality attribute would play out at each point of customer contact.
• We worked with a watch brand that was a symbol of its wearer's hyper-competence and hyper-confidence. 
• I am currently working with a reinsurance company that is known for having a "sense of humor" because of a previous leader's personality. We may adopt that as a permanent part of that brand's DNA.
• We positioned a health care system as being serious. It's point of difference was that it was a serious place for serious, complicated diseases and injuries. 
• We helped a golf brand take on the personality of a serious, skilled, competent player so that the brand could be worn as a badge by people who were serious about golf.
• I worked with a property management company whose primary point of difference was its friendliness and responsiveness to renter's needs.
• We helped an insurance company adopt a set of values that is based on Christian values, generosity and caring for one another as a community.
• When I was at Hallmark, the company's mission was to help people share their feelings and nurture relationships. We decided the brand's essence was "caring shared."
• I worked with a continuing care retirement community that decided to focus on "family" including the love of family and family relationships.

While brand personality can be the result of a carefully crafted advertising campaign, more often than not, it becomes part of the brand's DNA. It becomes institutionalized and internalized by each employee. It even becomes part of the hiring criteria and performance appraisals. Consider choosing a unique and compelling brand personality as a part of your brand's unique value proposition.

Different Types of Brand Benefits

I have often said that their are four types of brand benefits: (1) functional, (2) emotional, (3) experiential and (4) self-expressive. In addition to this there are values that the brand might share with its customers. Let's explore examples of each of these using one brand and one product - the Apple MacBook Air. (This just happens to be the computer from which I am writing this post.)

What are some of its functional benefits?

• It is small and light, almost as small and light as a iPad, making it easy to transport to meetings and when traveling through airports.
• As with all Apple machines, it powers up quickly and powers down quickly. This is due to integrated software, and in the case of my laptop computer, a solid state hard drive. This becomes very beneficial when one has only five or ten minutes to use the computer (while waiting in a hotel lobby, during meeting breaks or during airport layovers).
• It syncs well with my iPad, iPod and iPhone. I can play my iTunes music off of any one of them and it transfers easily from one device to the other. 
• It is less susceptible to computer viruses so I don't need anti-virus software and it is less likely to freeze or malfunction due to malware.

What are its emotional benefits?

• I feel good about having one of the best computers around. I feel secure that it will turn on and work every time I try to use it.
• The name Apple just makes me feel good. It is a more approachable name than that of many other computers.

What are its experiential benefits?

• I like the look of the backlit keys on the keypad.
• I like the touch of the keypad. 
• I like the smooth rounded corners on the laptop.
• I like the way the hinge works when I open or close the laptop - very smooth.
• I like the way the plug attaches magnetically to the laptop and I like the green light showing me it is attached properly.
• I like the look of the backlit apple on the laptop cover.
• I like the sleekness of the device.
• I like the texture of the brushed aluminum body.
• I like the intuitive way that the operating system works.
• It pairs perfectly with my Bang + Olufsen headphones, whose volume control is designed to work with Apple devices.

What are its self-expressive benefits?

• The computer signals that I like quality products.
• It signals that I appreciate finer things.
• It signals that I am willing to spend more for better quality.

What values does Apple share with me?

• An appreciation of aesthetics.
• An appreciation of finer things.
• The love of innovation.

I have not listed all of its benefits and as you can see, some benefits interact with and support one another. If I were to summarize the benefits from my perspective it would be - high quality, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and tactilely attractive. It is sophisticated yet very approachable. 

What is Your Brand Delivering?

Storytelling

Brands tell stories. They create myths. They engage people. They entertain people.  What story does your brand tell? Is it engaging? Does it create an emotional connection to the brand?

Experience

What experience does your brand deliver? Does in connect with people through one or more of the five senses – touch, smell, sight, sound and taste? What feelings does it evoke? Does it calm people? Does it exhilarate them? Does it make them laugh?

Values

Brands often stand for something. They embrace a set of values.  What does your brand stand for? What values does it embrace? Does your brand express the values of its intended customers? Can they wear the brand as a badge of their values? Can they use the brand as a self-expression vehicle?

Personality

Brands have specific personalities. What personality does you brand have? Is it trustworthy? Is it reliable? Is it friendly? Is it smart? Is it innovative? Is it entertaining? Is it compassionate? Is it rugged? Is it stylish? Is it quirky? What personality should your brand have?

Service

How does your brand serve its customers? Does it have a service ethic? Does it strive to anticipate customer needs and exceed customer expectations?  Does it try to surprise and delight its customers?

Archetype

What is your brand’s archetype? What drives it to behave as it does? What is its primary motivation? Does it like to guide others? Is it trying to save the world? Does it like to achieve? Is it a nurturer? Is its motivation to create the next big thing? What drives it to be the brand what it is?

Personification

In what ways does your brand take on human qualities? As listed above, does it have a specific personality and does it hold certain values? Is it trustworthy? Does it make promises to its customers? Does it connect emotionally with its customers?

Promise

Finally, what is your brand’s promise? What does it promise to its customers? Does it promise unique and compelling benefits or shared values? Does it consistently deliver on those promises? If it fails to deliver on one of its promises, does it recover from that failure and even turn the failure into a victory?

Summary

This then is what a brand does.  It tells stories. It creates experiences. It holds a specific set of values and it shares those values with its customers. It makes promises. It delivers on those promises.  It provides services to its customers. It has an archetype and a personality.  And it can do all of this because it is the personification of an organization and its products and services.

Brands and Identity

Brands create identities for organizations or their products or services.  One definition of identity is “the collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.”

To understand identity better, lets think about how identity is determined for people. A person is identified in the following ways:

• His name
• His body and face
• His facial expressions
• His voice
• His mannerisms
• What he wears
• What he drives
• How he carries himself
• His personality
• His beliefs
• His attitudes
• His values
• His habits
• His behaviors
• His occupation
• His hobbies
• His fingerprints
• His ocular scan
• His DNA

How can these human identity attributes inform brand identity? Brands can have some of the same attributes, while they also have others. Here are some of a brand’s identity attributes:

• Name
• Icon
• Type fonts
• Color palette
• Visual style
• Other distinctive visual elements
• Brand voice
• Distinctive sounds
• Jingles or theme songs
• Distinctive scents
• Distinctive textures
• Personality
• Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Values
• Behaviors
• Spokespeople
• Characters

The idea is to create a brand identity that is multi-faceted, nuanced, robust, distinctive, likeable, compelling and consistently presented (with some room for spontaneity or surprise). Ultimately, the identity is intended to create recognition, recall, distinctiveness and likability. Each and every identity element should be able to encode and decode positive associations in people’s brains.

I wish you great success in crafting a compelling identity for your brand.

Brands and Their Emotional Appeal

What is it about Donald Trump that makes him a GOP frontrunner for US president (so far)? Here is what many people say. Trump cannot be controlled. Trump knows it is all a joke. He is our way of giving the middle finger to Washington and career politicians. He says what he thinks. He has no filter. That is refreshing. He succeeded in business. Maybe he could succeed in government too. He is not politically correct. He seems real. He embodies the rage of the white middle class.

Why is Richard Branson and his Virgin brand so popular? He smiles and laughs a lot. He has fun. He dreams big. He breaks the rules. He is not afraid to take risks and fail. He perseveres. He values people and respects his employees. In a way, he epitomizes a different more refreshing approach to business development and management.

Why is Andy Warhol so popular? He was one of the pioneers of Pop Art. He showed us that art can be about common everyday items, items that are a product of our high commercialized consumer society. Art can be accessible. It doesn’t have to be profound. And it can be transient like other aspects of our throwaway society. His work chronicled popular culture from the 60s through the 80s. And they sometimes made statements on popular culture. His art was original, different and modern. And Andy Warhol really knew how manipulate the media.

What do these three examples help us understand about branding? They demonstrate the power of personality. They establish the importance of being different from everyone else. They reveal that it is important to tap into deeply held attitudes, values and beliefs.  They indicate that timing can be a factor in popularity. And they show that emotional appeal is always very important.

Aligning Brand Values with Customer Values

A business associate recently asked me what I mean when I say that brands can connect with people on a values level. Here are the examples that I shared with him to illustrate the concept.

“The strongest companies/brands often connect with their customers on a values level. Toyota Prius is for people who are progressive, environmentally sensitive and care about "Mother Earth." Mercedes shouts social status and is for people who want to be perceived as having made it in society and the world. Patagonia is for people who love the pristine nature of the wilderness and who are passionate about the sports that they pursue (rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc.) in the great outdoors. Nike is for people who perceive themselves as, aspire to be or admire authentic athletic performers. Mini-Cooper is for people who want to be perceived as non-conformists, as being a little bit different or quirky. Fox News is for people who are politically conservative and who believe in a clear right and wrong, the sovereignty of the individual and a diminished/limited role for government. Apple is for smart, innovative, leading-edge, hip people who are a step or two ahead of everyone else. Reed College is for the self-directed, hyper-intellectual liberal student.”

While this may not always hold true, it does for a large portion of these brands’ customers.  So, for instance, some people will say, “I simply bought a Prius because gasoline prices are skyrocketing and it achieves a much higher MPG than most other cars.” However, many others will have purchased a Prius not as a simple spreadsheet exercise to save money but rather to do their part in creating a lighter personal footprint on the earth.

While brands can promise functional, emotional, experiential or self-expressive benefits, those whose values are aligned with their customers’ values are much more likely to achieve a much deeper and longer lasting loyalty.