Customer-Centric Brand Strategy

Too many companies still think of marketing as the thing to do to sell more products. The products are a given and marketing plans are created and executed to sell more of the products the company produces. In this way, marketing is a tactical afterthought. 

But what if the purpose of the company was to meet (and even anticipate) the needs of one or more specific customers? What if that company focused on a limited number of very specific customers with very specific needs? And what if that company used research to better understand (and again, even anticipate) those needs? And what if the company's focus was to meet more and more of that customer's needs through additional products and services?

What do I mean by focus? Bass Pro Shops focuses on people who fish. Orvis focuses on people who fly fish. Arena and Speedo focus on swimmers, and especially competitive swimmers. Lane Bryant and Avenue cater to plus-sized women. Paul Smith's College is for students who love the outdoors and especially the Adirondacks. Brigham Young University caters to LDS college students. zZounds.com caters to musicians. 

But what if their growth strategies were not focused on targeting new markets for the same products and services but rather, creating new products and services to better serve their specifically targeted core markets? To become invaluable to a specific set of people creates tremendous brand loyalty and even advocacy.  And, more importantly, it insures that the brand remains current and relevant leading to a much longer life. Specific products and services can become obsolete over time. Meeting important customer needs in an ever increasing and evolving set of ways does not. 

Instead of a product-centric strategy, consider a customer-centric strategy. 

The Use of Visuals in Branded Websites

I thought it would be interesting to highlight how colleges and universities use different visuals to communicate their distinctiveness on their websites. Here are some examples to which I would like to draw your attention:

College/University	URL	Tagline or Slogan	Visuals	Overall Message Communicated	Effectiveness of Web Site Imagery in Conveying Brand Distinctiveness
Paul Smith’s College	paulsmiths.edu	The College of the Adirondacks	Logging, a boat on a lake, students in a stream, students in the woods, measuring the circumference of a tree, rappelling, Adirondack fungi fest	Outdoors education - living and learning in the Adirondack Park	8
Reed College	reed.edu		Video featuring students and faculty talking about the philosophy of their educational approach	A unique intense intellectual education	10
Naropa University	naropa.edu	Transform yourself. Transform the world.	Tickets to see Dalai Lama, yoga pose in front of mountain, Bhutan, art studio, massage therapy, contemplative education	A place for spiritual growth and awakening	7
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	rpi.edu		Pictures of happy students interspersed with scientific and laboratory images	A fun place for students who are focused on STEM	6
Princeton University	princeton.edu		Mostly text with some very small images	A conventional educational experience	1
Oberlin College	oberlin.edu		Full screen images of a wide variety of subjects from an aerial view of the campus to a student working on a bike, a professor talking with a student and a student working in a botany lab	Imagery that draws you in to explore further	6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	mit.edu		Each day a different image is featured on the homepage. Each image highlights research occurring at the Institute. Today, it highlights a virus that can combat bacteria.	A place where very interesting, leading-edge research occurs	10
Rhode Island School of Design	risd.edu		Full screen images with lots of color and creativity - from a richly designed fabric to a display of found natural objects	This place is all about design	9
University of Rochester	rochester.edu		Each Friday, the university features a student, faculty, staff or alum photo on its home page.	Speaks to community engagement	6

Several things occurred to me regarding the effectiveness of website imagery to convey brand distinctiveness. First was the size of the images – full bleed versus very small. In every instance, full bleed images were much more effective.  This worked very well for MIT and RISD and terribly for Princeton. Second was the consistency of images. MIT’s images always conveyed the same thing – very interesting leading-edge research. RISD’s images were also fairly consistent in conveying a design aesthetic. Paul Smith’s images conveyed a fairly consistent feeling of outdoor experiential education. Next, the use of a video instead of still images was very effective for Reed College. And students and faculty talking about Reed’s unique educational approach clearly communicated distinctiveness.  Finally, changing images such as MIT’s new image every day and University of Rochester’s photo Friday indicated a level of dynamism and, in University of Rochester’s case, community engagement.

Don’t underestimate the power of imagery in conveying a certain brand feeling and brand distinctiveness.