The Demise of the Tesla Brand

 

I had always admired Elon Musk and what he had accomplished. And I always wanted to own a Tesla car. I decided that the Model S was out of my price range, so I waited for the Model 3. I was one of the first ones to purchase a Model 3 seven years ago. And I am considering getting my next Tesla Model 3 soon. 

Having said all of this, I want to speak to the demise of the Tesla brand. Since Elon Musk funded a significant portion (at least $277 million according to one source) of Donald Trump's US presidential campaign and is now a "special government employee" leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Donald Trump, the Tesla brand has been under attack. 

Why? Tesla's early adopters wanted to support Tesla's EVs at least partially to combat climate change. They viewed climate change as an existential threat and purchasing a Tesla vehicle as something they could do to reduce that threat in some small way. When Elon Musk supported Donald Trump, who has denied climate change, is hostile toward Electric Vehicles (EVs) and has been quoted as saying "Drill, baby drill," Tesla's founder and his motivations became suspect and out of sync with Tesla's unique value proposition,

People then began to conjecture that Elon Musk's end game in the EV market wasn't as altruistic as it first appeared but rather a brilliant ploy to "own" the fuel supply of the growing EV market through Tesla's Supercharger network, which has now been opened up to most other EV brands. That may also be the reason he shared his EV technology with other automotive manufacturers, so that they would be able to use the same charging technology. 

Then one realizes that the Harris administration was very likely to have continued to pursue the Biden administration's investigations of and legal matters against Elon Musk's business interests, something the Trump administration would not likely do. Plus, there are numerous opportunities for increased government contracts for Elon Musk's businesses under the Trump administration.

On top of that is the impact of DOGE's draconian cost reduction measures that have shown a total disregard for functional consequence or human suffering.

Tesla stock hit a new high by the end of 2024 but has declined by 31% since then and some analysts are predicting that it could plunge another 50% over the next year or so. European sales of Tesla's are plunging from 2024 to 2025, because Europeans are tiring of Elon Musk's far right diatribes among other reasons.

Source: https://electrek.co/2025/02/03/tesla-tsla-sales-are-dropping-like-a-rock-in-europe-but-its-not-just-because-of-elon-musk/

California is the biggest market for Teslas in the US accounting for 35% of all Teslas sales, however Tesla's share of EVs in California dropped from 60% to 52% from 2023 to 2024. This corresponds with a double digit decrease in Tesla vehicle sales from one year to the next. And this is despite a growing EV market in California. 

Since Elon Musk's Roman salute, anti-Nazi activists have begun calling Teslas "Swasticars" and people driving Teslas have been warned that anti-Nazi activists have begun vandalizing Teslas for this reason.

Several of my friends own Teslas. Some of them are so fed up with Elon Musk that they intend to sell their Teslas and purchase other vehicle brands even though they all admit that they have been very pleased with their Teslas. Country music star Sheryl Crow announced on Instagram that she had sold her Tesla to protest Elon Musk's involvement in President Donald Trump's administration, and donated the earnings to NPR.

All of this speaks to the cognitive dissonance that occurs when a company's founder tarnishes the image of the brand he or she created due to behavior that goes against the brand's raison d'être and unique value proposition. Elon Musk's more recent behavior and rhetoric have worked against what Tesla's admirers thought the Tesla brand was all about. 

Now, back to my next car purchase, if it is a Tesla, I will likely get it at a great deal given the state of the Tesla brand, especially if I purchase a used Tesla. (The used EV market tends to be soft anyway given the concern about battery life and cost of replacement.)

This is a cautionary brand story that may go down in the history books and marketing students may be reading about this for years to come. 

Retain Customers by Building Community

 

While some may think that an annual customer retention rate of 80% is good, that means you loose one out of every five customers each year. Theoretically, this translates to 100% turnover every five years. And, as most business owners know, it is much more cost effective to retain a current customer than to acquire a new customer.

There are many approaches to retaining customers. Frequency programs purport to do so as do other customer loyalty programs. CRM systems are supposed to help with this. Some companies try to lock customers in through multi-year contracts and automatic rebilling. But the best approach to customer retention is community building because community building creates emotional connection and stickiness. People stay with the brand because it has created a community for them.

Think about how powerful coffee klatches, book clubs and bridge groups are. Imagine if you could create that type of community with your brand's customers.

So, what are some community building techniques?

• Producing user conferences.
• Creating customer advisory boards and customer steering committees. 
• Engaging customers through Facebook pages and other social media platforms.
• Holding customer meet-ups.
• Creating local brand-focused customer clubs.
• Creating physical spaces where customers can interact.
• Holding customer holiday parties and appreciation events.
• Recruiting panels of customers to beta test your new products.

Hallmark sponsors local Hallmark ornament collectors' clubs. Tesla Owners Clubs hold frequent owner meetups. Many wealth management firms hold holiday parties for their clients. Orvis offers free fly tying and casting clinics for its customers. Robert Graham offers exclusive closed door events for people who achieve Master Collector status within their Collector's Club. Most colleges and universities invite their graduates back to reunions every five years. Large churches create small groups focused on different interests to retain parishioners. Patagonia supports grassroots groups working to find solutions to the environmental crisis. Eastern Mountain Sports encourages people to share their outdoor photographs on Instagram with #goEast. SONY's Playstation has create an online space for gamers to connect. Harley Owner's Group (HOG) has more than one million members and holds HOG Rallies around the world. P&G created "Being Girl" as a resource for teenager girls to connect and find answers to the difficult questions that growing up entails. Lululemon's brand community offers free yoga classes, festivals and events and even an experiential store in Chicago featuring fitness studios and a juice bar.

If you want to retain more customers, identify and implement ways to create community among those customers. 

Emotionally Connecting with Your Customers

Most brands want to connect emotionally with their customers but few actually do. What does it take to create that emotional connection?

Brands that create emotional connection are deliberate about achieving it. First, those brands and their brand owners often have a strong set of values, values that they ultimately share with their customers. For example, Patagonia's almost reverent love of the outdoors and a pristine environment. Or Tesla's and Elon Musk's dream of a post-fossil fuel world. Or FOX New's focus on a very specific view of the world.

Next, those brands need to really understand their customers. They need to possess deep customer insight. This usually happens through qualitative research, often using guided imagery and projective techniques.  They need to understand customer self-perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, values, hopes, fears and anxieties. We helped Footjoy do this to refocus its brand from superior functional attributes (keeps your feet dry on a wet course) to a self-expressive benefit - The Mark of a Player.

Next, one must carefully design the customer experience. This may include customer journey mapping and customer touch point design. Often these brands create customer experience or engagement manager positions to maintain focus on the customer experience.

Next comes building the customer experience into the culture. Disney does this well, as does Zappos, Nordstrom and Starbucks. One of my favorite examples of this is Ritz-Carlton's "Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen." If you are interested in creating a better customer experience,  I would encourage you to read Be Our Guest (Disney), The Zappos Experience, The Nordstrom Way - Customer Service Excellence, Leading the Starbucks Way and especially The New Gold Standard (Ritz-Carlton).

At Hallmark, we pursued a Legendary Service initiative, in which we encouraged customer facing employees to deliver service that is so unexpected and extraordinary that those service moments became the basis of widely told legendary stories.

This notion of emotional connection needs to work its way into the brand's essence, mission, vision, values, promise, unique value proposition, archetype and personality. That is, it needs to become part of the brand's DNA.

One way we work with our clients to do this is to create "We believe..." statements, statements which reflect their values and that will connect emotionally with their customers.

There are many tools and techniques to create deep emotional connection with customers. If your brand is not connecting emotionally with its customers, contact us. We can help you make that happen.

Other related blog posts:

• Fast Food and the Customer Experience
• Customer Service Comes of Age at Insurance Companies
• Branding from the Inside Out
• Creating the Total Brand Experience - Starbucks
• 10 Proven Steps to Align Your Organization with Its Brand Promise
• Mastering the Art of Brand Engagement
• Brands and Core Values
• Brand Personality as a Point of Difference
• Marketing and the Deep Understanding of Human Behavior
• Brands and Humans
• Brands and Authenticity
• The Reemergence of Authenticity
• Brands and Emotional Connection
• Brands and Their Emotional Appeal
• Purpose Driven Brands
• Brands and Positive Emotions
• How Do You Want Your Brand to Impact its Customers?
• Brands and Empathy
• Brands and the Emotions They Evoke
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• Brands and Freedom
• Brands and Belonging
• Mind Blowing Brands
• Brands and Tribalism
• Tribal Branding
• Brands are People Too
• Customer-Centric Branding
• Differentiating on the Unexpected
• What do people want?
• States of Mind
• Customer Service and Brand Perceptions

How Brand Experience Can Overcome Time Constraints

Generally, people feel two types of scarcity in their lives. They often feel as though they do not have enough money to do everything they want to do. And they often feel as though they don't have enough free time to do all that they want to do. So, the two scarce commodities are time and money.

And it is now almost a cliche when someone responds to the question, "How are you doing?" with "I am busy, really busy." It seems to be the standard answer to that question by most people these days.

So, how is it that some brands can make time seem to stand still for people as they interact with the brand? Have you ever interacted with a brand that seems to put you into a flow state? You lose all track of time and really don't mind it if you have spent too much time with the brand. These are the brands that create amazing experiences.

As a brand guy, I think of almost everything as a brand or at least as being capable of being branded. So, rock brands and other musical groups are brands. Colleges and universities are brands. Cities are brands. Museums and art galleries are brands. Amusement parks are brands. Restaurants and night clubs are brands. And people are brands too. I am sure you have lost track of time when interacting with some of these brands. And I am sure you have wanted to spend more time with some of these brands.

Convenience and accessibility have become very important to today's consumer. He or she wants everything "now." Consumers have been spoiled by everything being a click away on their smart phones. Long copy, long ads, long anything can not seem to hold people's attention anymore.

And think about how people feel about long commutes. This is a major contributor to quality of life or lack thereof. It's hard to keep up with all of our work. We don't have enough time for our families. We don't have enough time for our hobbies. We don't have enough time to exercise. Our vacations are too short. We don't have enough time for ourselves.

And yet, some brands seem not only to overcome this feeling of scarcity but literally to pull you into an experience for which time doesn't seem to matter.

Not many brick and mortar retailers can compete with online retailers regarding price or selection or being open 24/7. So brick and mortar retailers must create a better experience to attract and retain customers. Von Maur department stores feature pianists playing music in the stores. Bass Pro Shops have large aquariums filled with fish.

And let me tell you about my experience with Tesla. I love riding in the car so much (because of the quiet, high performance road handling, the acceleration, the spacious uncluttered interior, the Tesla streaming radio and the amazing sound system) that I look for excuses to get in the car and drive around. Now that I have a Tesla, I am running many more errands for my wife. "Honey, is there anything you need me to pick up while I am out?" "Where are you going?" "I don't know. Just out." To create a legitimate purpose for spending more time in the car, I have taken to driving for Uber and Lyft. It results in barely a blip in my income, but it allows me to drive around in my spare time and to share the experience with others who may not have experienced riding in a Tesla before.

The point of this blog post is to encourage you to create a brand experience that is so desirable that people not only do not complain about it taking too much time but rather complain about not being able to spend enough time with the brand. What sort of brand is yours? One that people are too busy to interact with? Or one that people can't wait to interact with? And one, that when they do interact with it, they lose all track of time.

The Relationship Between CMO and CIO

Because the brand is ultimately about the consumer experience, I have spoken about the cooperation that needs to happen between CMO and HR VP, but equally importantly in today's digitized world, there needs to be a close working relationship between the CMO and the CIO.

Consider the impact of the online banking software and its functionality to a customer's experience of his or her bank. Or of the software that powers the bank's ATMs. Consider how Tesla vehicles are completely dependent on Tesla's software in creating the user driving experience. Or consider any retailer that has both an online and physical retail presence. Does the software make the user experience seamless across the channels? Or any company that uses a CRM system. How good is that system at creating personalized customer experiences?

Amazon.com's user experience is completely based on software. And Uber and LYFT could not have become the industry disruptive brands that they became without the intricate software that drives them. But even consider the software that drives airlines' pricing, capacity management and transportation logistics. Or consider the software that supports FedEx, UPS and other package delivery companies. Even drone deliveries are software dependent.

My point is that software makes all of the difference in the world regarding user experience and therefore brand experience. So, if a CMO is not constantly working with the CIO to improve the customer experience, then that CMO should step down to make room for someone who is more attuned to today's world.

The Tesla Brand

Tesla is a wildly popular brand. Today, it's stock is up 1.98%, trading at $351.60 per share despite continuing to return an earnings per share loss. 

So what is behind such a successful brand? First, there is Elon Musk, a highly successful serial entrepreneur. He cofounded Zip2, which was acquired by Compaq for $340 million and Xcom, an online payment company that merged with Confinity to become PayPal. PayPal was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion. Then there is Tesla and SpaceX and Neuralink and SolarCity and OpenAI and the Boring Company. Behind SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity is Elon Musk's vision to reduce global warming, create a more sustainable energy future and reduce the risk of human extinction. 

I admire Elon Musk for the following reasons. He has a positive vision for humanity. He is willing to take big risks. He is a successful entrepreneur. He is a great salesperson and marketer. He is also smart and creative about financing. He is an American success story. And what he is doing is good for the world. He demonstrates what I believe America should be all about. He so inspires me that I want to be a part of his continued success. 

I started following Tesla from the very beginning. While I admired its roadster and its Model S, I really couldn't afford either. I vowed to buy the more affordable Model 3 when it came out and I was one of the very first to order it online at 12:01 am on the date it was first available in 2016. I received it two weeks ago. I love it. 

If I am honest with myself and put my consumer behavior hat on, here are the reasons I bought a Tesla:

• I wanted to support Elon Musk and his vision.
• I wanted to do my part to reduce carbon emissions and global warming.
• I really liked the notion of driving a car with an electric engine that goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.7 seconds.
• The car definitely has the "cool" factor. The salesperson at the Tesla delivery station warned me that I would be a celebrity for awhile. (Definitely a marketing pitch aimed at status and the ego.) While I have not found that I have achieved celebrity status, I have given 20 friends rides in the car and more are waiting for the opportunity to do so. And lots of people have asked very specific questions about the car. I like being an expert. I also like being perceived to be an early adopter, even if I am only that on occasion.
• I believe the car says these things about me (whether it does or not): I am progressive. I am environmentally conscious. I have good taste. I am successful. I can afford nice things. So, I believe the car signals a lot about me. And it is an extension of my self image. Frankly, it really feels like "me" to me. While I really enjoyed test driving the Model S, the Model 3 feels even more like "me" because of its elements of pragmatism, value and understatement (relative to the Model S).
• And here is what makes me love the car (some of which I did not discover until after I took possession of the car, having purchased it sight unseen).  It is really, really fun to drive. It is aesthetically understated and beautiful. I love its lines, inside and out. It is very well conceived and designed. It is functional. There is a larger than average amount of storage space in the front and back trunks. Its user interface is intuitive. With a home garage charger, it is easy to keep its battery mostly charged most of the time. I will never have to fill up at a gas station in the winter again. The sound system is amazing and I love its Pandora-like radio stations. With an all-glass roof and big glass windows it feels expansive and spacious. It has every modern amenity. It has a fully autonomous driving mode. I just absolutely love to drive it.

So, regarding brand benefits, Tesla is delivering at multiple levels - beauty/aesthetics/self-actualization, shared environmental and social values, social status, excitement/fun, comfort and even basic transportation. At least for me, this brand has a winning combination of brand benefits. 

Brand Leadership

Unfortunately, there are too few true leaders in this world. Authentic leaders, not just people assigned to leadership roles, possess a number of unique qualities. They are visionary, charismatic, introspective, compassionate, decisive, and above all, inspiring. They tend to be self-aware and curious. They care about people and enjoy lifelong learning. And often, they embody the brand's values and are the most passionate advocates of its cause. They are the true believers and the brand's standard bearers. They have stamina, take risks and are resilient.  

Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard, Tesla's Elon Musk, and someone I had the good fortune of knowing, The Nature Conservancy's John Sawhill all fit that description. 

They speak about the brand as if it was a cause. They get people excited about achieving the brand's mission. They get people to embrace and internalize its vision. And they encourage others to join them in becoming true believers. 

Administrators keep things running. They make sure everything is operating effectively and efficiently. They meet their numbers and make sure all of the financial ratios are met. If you only hear a CEO taking about revenues, profit margins and other metrics, it is quite possible that he or she is not that visionary, inspirational leader. That does not mean that true leaders do not pay attention to the numbers - they have to - but they are motivated beyond that, by the mission and vision of the brand. And they find a way to achieve those while pursuing a sustainable business model. 

How Can Start-Up Brands Beat Well-Known Brands?

I was recently asked two related questions: Why are new no-name brands able to topple big decades old brands in today's environment? How can a small start-up brand effectively challenge older established brands?

There are so many different ways to answer this, many related to technology, but some also related to legacy brands resting on their laurels. The advent of digital photography (invented by Kodak) killed Kodak's previously highly profitable business model that was driven by film purchase and developing. This disruption was amplified by the advent of smart phones with built-in cameras. 

Uber's online platform not only revolutionized and democratized the way people can get rides but it also made it much simpler to find, hail and pay for a ride. Plus, it provided for a record of one's paid automotive excursions. This is an innovative model that is scalable and has network effects. Also working in Uber's favor is the general low level of quality of taxi service compared to the service offered by Uber drivers driven by a constant customer feedback loop. 

Though backed by a lot of money from Pay Pal's founder Elon Musk, Tesla also has made significant inroads vis-a-vis legacy automobile brands. It has done this by sheer strong will and innovation. From its vigorously pursuing the concept of a luxury all electric vehicle to its sales and marketing innovations, Tesla has taken the risks to do things differently. 

The Internet also makes it easy for smaller companies to seem bigger than they are and compete effectively with larger, more well-known companies. And the customer targeting offered by Facebook and other social media platforms makes it more cost effective to go after highly targeted customers. 

CarMax, though supported with major funding, came into existence because legacy used car dealerships did not treat customers well. CarMax saw the opportunity to make automotive purchasing easier and more transparent. Again, it relied on an innovative business model and a transformative technology, a database that can be accessed from anywhere through the Internet. 

Airbnb is another example of a brand that has used the Internet as its platform to achieve scalability. But it also is driven off of the concept of shared resources. This same sharing of resources has worked for Zipcar and Zagster.

So, in summary, these examples point to the following sources of legacy brand disruption and displacement:

• An innovative business model
• A superior model of customer service delivery
• New superior technologies
• The Internet
• Software-driven solutions
• Scalability
• Network effects
• Resource sharing
• Product differentiation
• Highly targeted marketing

When The Buzz is Gone

How can you tell when a brand is vital and on the rise? Conversely, how can you tell when a brand and its equity are fading? Buzz. That's right, buzz.

Remember when Amazon.com was first launched? Remember all of the buzz around Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com? And Jeff Bezos still receives a huge amount of buzz. Fortune magazine featured him as Lord Vishnu on its January 2016 cover. Or how about Elon Musk and Tesla Motors? And then there is Donald Trump. Commentators frequently talk about how he sucks all of the oxygen out of any room in which he speaks. And news networks have been blamed for focusing the vast majority of their political news on him. Wegmans gets endless free publicity as towns and municipalities beg to have one of its stores located in their burgs and especially when one does arrive in their communities. Dove received endless free publicity with its "real beauty" campaign. Google continues to receive a lot of buzz, as does YouTube. Apple is still up there as is Samsung and Android.

On the flip side, have you heard anything about these brands lately? OfficeMax. Dress Barn. BlackBerry. Nokia. Volvo. SAAB. LivingSocial. MySpace. Sony. Sears. Radio Shack. A&P. Quiznos. Old Milwaukee. Michelob Light. Quicksilver.

I didn't think so.

Do you want a quick read on the strength of a specific brand? Think about its buzz. Does it have any? Is everyone talking about the brand or have you not heard anyone talk about the brand in years? Perform a Google search on the brand's name. How many entries does it have? Are they recent? Have major publications written substantial stories about the brand? Has it been featured on their covers? Are news networks talking about the brand? Have you talked about the brand today or in the past week?

Buzz is a simple indicator of brand strength.

Brands, Change & Innovation

The rate of change in our society continues to accelerate. This causes many people quite a bit of anxiety. Emerging technologies have replaced millions of jobs but, so far, they have created more jobs than they have eliminated. 

Consider what digital photography (invented by a Kodak scientist) did to Eastman Kodak company. Consider what Uber is doing to traditional dispatcher-led taxi cab companies. Consider how airbnb.com is impacting the growth rate of hotel chains. What did laptop computers do to desktop computers? How are pad computers and smartphones impacting laptop computer sales? Consider how Hallmark and American Greetings are impacted by digital technology. Consider what CreateSpace and other self-publishing platforms have done to traditional book publishers. What will artificially intelligent medical diagnosis systems do to medical internists? With self-driving automobiles, how will the auto insurance business change? What will Tesla and its battery-driven vehicle revolution do to the oil industry (and the auto industry and gas stations)? Where will drones ultimately take us? What will increasing aerial surveillance do to our ability to capture criminals and prevent wars? Consider that AI experts are exploring how to give computers the capacity to innovate. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Consider how Einsteinian physics superseded Newtonian physics and consider how quantum physics recast Einsetinian physics and consider the potential impact of superstring theory and multiverse theory. 

Research universities and company R&D labs are working on these disruptive technologies - energy storage, fuel cells, genomics, advanced materials, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy, advanced robotics, 3D printing, mobile Internet, automation of knowledge work, cloud technology, integrated digital design and photonics.

We were recently approached by a company that is on the verge of commercializing human organ regeneration. And consider the LED revolution. Incandescent and florescent lightbulbs may soon become historical artifacts. And several companies are working on developing direct computer-brain interfaces.

In a rapidly changing world, no business is safe from technology-driven obsolescence. So, what is a brand manager to do? For that matter, what is any business manager to do? Here is what will matter for future survival, and more importantly, to thrive well into the future - higher education, advanced degrees, lifelong learning, a solid understanding of math and science, diverse interests, diverse reading, personal flexibility, ideation skills, courage in the face of uncertainty, the ability to change course at a moment's notice, understanding the intersection of many different scientific disciplines and technologies, an opportunistic attitude, entrepreneurship, the ability to take risks, a penchant for action, an optimistic attitude and the ability to discern patterns and recognize meta-themes.

States of Mind

When I think of evocative brand names - Pandora, Hotwire, Apple, Gateway, Tesla, Amazon, Uber, AXE - or when I think of evocative advertising imagery, from the cigarette ads of yesteryear (Marlboro) to today's pharmaceutical ads (Lunesta), it makes me think of how important signaling a state of mind is. This led me to inventory different states of mind that people seek or to which they aspire. Here is the list I compiled (in no particular order):

• Tranquility/serenity
• Freedom
• Expansiveness
• Effortlessness
• Anger
• Rebellion 
• Discovery
• Delight
• Naughtiness
• Playfulness
• Complete letting go
• Uninhibited
• Letting off steam
• Complete control
• Adulation
• Debauchery 
• Animal magnetism
• Unbridled bliss
• Sexual release
• Lightness
• Belonging
• Complete acceptance
• A sense of being home
• Longing
• Nostalgia
• Venturing into the unknown
• Testing the outer limits of achievement
• Taking risks, living on the edge
• Flirting with danger or mortality
• Instigating drama
• Feeling completely safe and secure
• Melancholy 
• Tantalizing the senses
• Surrounded by beauty
• Complete comfort
• Complete luxury
• Complete indulgence
• To be completely satiated
• In the chase
• Striving
• Living completely in the moment
• Flow state

My point with this is that brands, through names, identity systems, advertising and other imagery can tap into and evoke these deeply sought after states of mind ... and that will sell products.

Taking Risks

Southwest Airlines tried something new when it decided to create an airline based on a new low cost model and employees who were cheerful and funny. Amazon.com took risks when it created an all online mega store. eBay was also an entirely new concept. Industry insiders laughed at GEICO when it began advertising so heavily with a gecko spokesperson. Uber thought out-of-the box when it created its new model for paid vehicular transportation. Wegmans has a history of constantly trying new things and integrating them if they work and abandoning them if they don't. Tesla started a new car company based on the concept of an all electric luxury car. And they decided not to sell through dealerships. CarMax created an entirely new model for selling used cars. Abercrombie & Fitch repositioned itself from a staid century-old upscale sporting goods store to a hip clothing store targeted at the teenage market. 

Not all risks pay off. Saturn was a different kind of car company and a different kind of car but when it got integrated back into GM mainstream, it began to fail. Song Airlines, a Delta Airlines startup, was designed as a lifestyle brand targeting stylish hip professional women and focused on creating a new culture in flying. It started at the worst possible time for airlines, post 9/11.

My point with each of these brands is that wildly successful brands (and some that fail) usually step out of the box, break the industry mold and take risks. As a brand, you cannot win by doing what everyone else in your product categories is doing. 

I can't tell you how many clients have said to me, "But if we do that, we would be taking huge risks. No one else in the industry has ever done that before." I have also heard the following: "We just don't know how to do that." "That is not our area of expertise." "But then we would be entering a new product category." "Our shareholders would not allow that." "That is just too risky. What if we fail?" Gambling establishments are quick to point out that "you can't win if you don't play." The same holds true for brands. If you are unwilling to take any risks, it is almost certain that you will not stand out as a brand. In fact, every single brand that was successful over the history of commerce took a significant number of risks to achieve their success. That is just how it works. 

If you are unwilling to take at least calculated risks, your brand will never achieve the highly successful differentiation you would seek for it.

Brands and Authenticity

“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

People don't like to be lied to. They don't like to be disappointed. And they don't like "phonies." People want authenticity. Consider the most recent election cycle. People are clamoring for political candidates who are sincere and really believe what they say rather than being scripted based on the latest market research or changing their stories depending on the audience. Consider how news sources now routinely "fact check" everything each political candidate says.

Consider the popularity of websites such as snopes.com, truthorfiction.com and hoaxslayer.com. There are also political fact checking websites such as factcheck.org and politifact.com. 

The number one brand personality attribute that people look for in brands is "trustworthy." This implies authenticity and transparency. 

Whether you agree with him or not, Bernie Sanders has strong grass roots support because he speaks his mind and is "real." Can you think of a political candidate who is not authentic admitting to being a Democratic Socialist in the USA today?

Patagonia wins based on its authenticity, as does Tesla. BP made a grave error in touting its "beyond petroleum" stance when it just wasn't true. 

Does choosing authenticity mean that a brand does not set strategy and create a brand position based on marketing research? No, authenticity does not rule out marketing research. Marketing research can discover what is important to customers that the brand stands for, believes in, does well  and is a part of its DNA. So the trick is to find a market to whom the brand's true self appeals so that the brand can be authentic and act with integrity. This requires introspection. Who are we? What do we believe? What do we stand for? How should we behave? What is our culture? How should we treat people? And how will this align with our target customers and what they are looking for?

Whether you approach authenticity from a brand essence exercise, a brand archetype exercise, mission, vision and values development or an organization culture project, determine what it is that your brand stands for, how it intends to behave and what will be most true to its character and then market that to the right group of customers and potential customers.

I wish you great success in creating an authentic brand.

Mindshare Before Market Share

It is very important for brands to build mindshare as a first step toward market share. I will begin with a personal example of this. The majority of my clients approach me in the following manner: "I heard you speak at the XYZ conference. After that, I bought your Brand Aid book. I refer to it so often that many of its pages are dog-eared. I have been following your blog for X number of years. And now I have this brand problem. I like the way you think. I knew you could help me with this." That is called mindshare. When your brand is top-of-mind associated with a specific need, benefit or category, or better yet, when it has totally consumed someone's thoughts regarding that need, benefit or category, that is called mindshare. 

Here are some other examples. Remember when Amazon.com was first introduced? Everyone was talking about it. Jeff Bezos was on the front cover of numerous magazines and you could not pick up a periodical without reading something about Amazon.com. Consider Tesla Motors today. The Tesla Model S earned a perfect 100 rating by Consumer Reports and has been the buzz of almost every other automotive magazine. Elon Musk has achieved celebrity status and has been interviewed by dozens of periodicals. Or, how about Donald Trump? Watch any news network, Democratic or Republican leaning, and the presidential candidate that dominates the news is Donald Trump. He seems to be sucking up every other GOP presidential candidate's oxygen. 

Strong brands must develop mindshare. This typically requires a superior product with a great story to tell but equally as important is the daily blocking and tackling of being in front of people, communicating with them, interacting with them, entertaining them and giving them something of value. The old saying "familiarity breeds contempt" is not generally true. In fact, familiarity usually leads to mindshare and liking. Find as many ways as possible to keep your brand in front of its customers and potential customers day after day.

Innovation & Brand Growth

Much of brand sales growth has resulted from sub-category innovation and innovation that redefines categories. Within alcohol products, consider Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey and all of the other flavored and infused whiskeys, vodkas and other types of alcohol. Consider the explosion of craft beers of every style, variety and flavor. Consider the rise of flavor packets or infusers for water. Consider what smart phone technology has done for the mobile phone category. Consider the series of innovations in television including color television, digital television, cable television, satellite television and smart television.  Consider the product innovations in the Swiffer line of products. The Strong museum elevated itself by becoming the first museum of play (instead of the more traditional children's museum). Consider what the Toyota Prius did to the automobile category or Tesla did to the category. Consider what Google cars will do to the category. What has online learning done for Southern New Hampshire University? Consider what WeatherTech has done to protect vehicle floors from salt damage during the winter. Consider what digital camera technology has done for photography. How about what LED lighting has done for energy conservation and light bulb longevity? Consider what USB flash drives did for computer memory, transferring files and computer backup. Consider what the introduction of ATMs did for banking. I think you get the picture.

A sure way to insure growth for your brand is to continue to innovate within and outside of its product categories. Each useful innovation creates sales surges and produces competitive advantage (at least for a time). If your brand does not innovate, it will experience slower growth and eventually be left behind.

I wish you great success in creating product and category innovations for your brand.

Brand Accessibility

Accessibility is one of the five drivers of customer brand insistence in our proprietary BrandInsistence brand equity measurement system.  How does accessibility contribute to customer brand insistence? First, accessible brands insure that brand preference is converted into brand purchase. Why wouldn’t I purchase my preferred brand if it were completely accessible to me? If it were inaccessible, I might purchase a substitute product or brand or perhaps nothing at all. But I am getting ahead of myself. First let’s define accessibility. Accessible brands are brands that are easy to find, purchase and use.

What makes something accessible? Distribution. When a brand has broader distribution, it not only increases its accessibility, it also increases its awareness, one of the other five drivers of customer brand insistence. So increased distribution can increase customer brand insistence in two ways.

If a brand is ubiquitous, there is no excuse not to purchase it if it is your favorite brand. McDonalds, KFC and HSBC strive to be ubiquitous worldwide.  One of the key pillars of Coca-Cola’s success is distribution. It talks about pervasive penetration and being within an arm’s reach of desire.  And, at least in my town, Dunkin' Donuts seems to be opening locations every few blocks, competing with Starbucks for ubiquity.  Hallmark’s closing stores around the country certainly demonstrates that it is in trouble.

The Internet is changing the importance of physical distribution a bit because it enables people to research and purchase products 24/7 from the comfort of their homes. This works better in some categories than others. For example, physical distribution is still important for many articles of clothing because unless you can try the clothes on and see how they fit, look and feel on you, you don’t really know if you want them. Online retailers have innovated many approaches to overcome this limitation, but it is still a limitation.

But, what other than distribution can increase accessibility? If you think about the two most important scarce resources in people’s lives, they tend to be time and money. So anything that takes less time or costs less money increases accessibility. A somewhat counterintuitive corollary of this is that if you can make the experience more interesting, educational, entertaining, exciting, nurturing or otherwise positive, often people won’t mind spending more time. The same thing goes for money. If the higher price is a signal of social status or good taste or some other positive self-expressive quality, a person may not be as put off by the higher prices.

Time and money also relate to the value brand insistence driver. Value has a numerator and a denominator. In the numerator are all of a brand’s benefits – functional, emotional, experiential and self-expressive together with the values it shares with its customers. In the denominator is how much time, money and perceived effort it takes to purchase and use the brand.

High prices can make brands inaccessible to many people. For instance, not everyone can purchase a Tesla automobile. And even fewer people are able to purchase a Maserati or a Bugatti.

I often use the example of choosing a college or university to illustrate the concept of brand accessibility. If a high school student has a strong preference for a specific college, but that college does not accept him, what is that brand’s accessibility to him? How about if the college puts him on the waiting list? Or, if the college defers his admission for a year? What if he is accepted to the college but, after financial aid, that college will cost him ten thousand dollars more a year than the other colleges to which he got accepted?  So price (or cost to the customer) affects brand value and can affect brand accessibility too.

Limited store hours, nearby road construction, overcrowded parking lots, exceedingly long lines or only accepting cash as a form of payment can also reduce accessibility.

Accessibility helps brands grow through increased sales to existing customers and acquisition of new customers. Research has shown that larger brands have many advantages, even beyond the economies of scale and network effects. They have greater awareness, market penetration, popularity, and perhaps surprisingly, customer loyalty.

Even brands that have exclusivity as part of their mystique must be accessible in some way to their target markets.  For these high-end products and brands, price may be the best accessibility limiter. Price will be an issue for most people but not for the target customers. However, there still needs to be some sort of easy distribution method. The Internet is one option. Rodeo Drive (CA), The Mall at Short Hills (NJ) and other upscale shopping districts and centers is another. But how about selling the products at polo matches, equestrian events, yacht races and other targeted events.

Hopefully, this has shown that accessibility is an important driver of customer brand insistence. The other two drivers I mentioned in this article are awareness and value. The two brand insistence drivers that I did not mention (until now) are relevant differentiation and emotional connection. But, I will talk more about those in other blog posts.

Seven Absolutely Brilliant Brand Names

Brand names need to be short, easy to pronounce, easy to remember, allude to the brand's benefit and evoke positive emotions. They also need to be legally protectable. Here are the brand names I like best and my reasons why.

• Amazon.com - Amazon means big. When you think of the biggest online store (with apologies to Alibaba.com), Amazon.com is it.
• Tesla - Tesla was a revolutionary genius who evokes awe. He is most associated with the invention of AC electricity. What better name could there be for an automobile company focused on an all-electric car?
• Apple - Apples are appealing. Apple pie is about as all-American as it gets. Apples with a bite taken out of them are tempting. An apple is a simple, recognizable icon.
• Kodak - Kodak is a completely coined name. It had no prior meaning. It is easy to pronounce with nice vowel sounds and a clean beginning and ending.
• Die Hard - This name, perhaps more than any, directly communicates the brand's benefit in its product category, batteries. And it is short and easy to pronounce and remember.
• Wrangler - This just sounds tough and western. It evokes the imagery of a wrangler. And what do wranglers wear? Jeans.
• Dove - One simple one-syllable word says it all - pure, soft, gentle, serene. Everything one would want in a bar of soap. 

Brands and Belonging

Remember the television show, Cheers? People love to spend time in a place where everyone knows their name. Churches, coffee houses, book groups, country clubs, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, summer communities - they all create a place where people feel as though they belong. People want to be recognized and understood. They want to hang out with others who know their name, share an interest, share stories and perhaps even share the same view of the world. 

Starbucks creates its in-between place where people can relax and get to know one another. I have met several of my friends of many years at Starbucks. Orvis is a place where people who love fly fishing can hang out. The North Face is for the outdoor enthusiast. Robert Graham wants you to join their Collector's Club and Hallmark wants you to join its Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club. Harley-Davidson owners feel an affinity for one another as do Patagonia and Tesla customers. 

Colleges and universities want their graduates to feel a lifelong affinity to their institutions and brands. They go to great lengths to create alumni associations and events. 

How is your brand creating a space or platform for people to feel as though they belong and are known? 

Brands and Memory Structures

An important role of the brand manager is to determine the memory structures associated with the brand so that marketing communications can reinforce and leverage these structures. Also, potentially useful new brand associations can be discovered in the process.

For instance, Bush beans might be associated with summer, picnics, grilling, family and Duke (the dog). Coke might be associated with its bottle shape, the color red, the beach, parties and nightclubs. A pizza brand might be associated with cheese and tomato sauce, family and friends and watching sports on television. Hallmark's greeting cards are associated with holidays, special occasions, family and friends. But they also are associated with candy and flowers among other product categories.

Everyone knows McDonald's arches and Nike's swish. Most people associate Harley-Davidson with the sound of its engine. Many people associate Tesla with Elon Musk and batteries and alternative energy. People associate Cinnabon with the cinnamon scent. Many brands are associated with fond childhood memories or with sex. What is Old Spice associated with? How about Dos Equis? ("Stay thirsty, my friends.") GEICO? 

The trick is to discover all of the items people associate with the brand so that those associations can be reinforced, built upon and used to help people recall the brand associated with not only marketing communication and the brand identity itself, but also with specific relationships, occasions, complimentary products and other memory triggers.

If you have not identified and mapped out your brand's memory structures, you need to do so. it will help with the effectiveness of your advertising and your brand's identity system.

The Importance of Product

In large consumer packaged goods companies (houses of brands), the brand manager often manages product and brand decisions together. In branded houses, the product and brand decisions are often made separately. 

While products and brands are different - brands are the personifications of organizations and their products and services - products, never the less, are very important to the success of the brands whose names they bare. 

Witness the strength of the Apple or Tesla brands. They are based on high quality products with innovation, functionality and aesthetic appeal. Both also command premium prices and are in the luxury category. While a well thought through brand can increase the appeal of a mediocre product, it cannot completely overcome its deficiencies. As the saying goes, "You can put lipstick on a pig. It is still a pig."

Don't overlook the importance of the product or service itself when managing your brand. Deficient or sub-par products and services will tarnish the brand's image, while superior products and services will enhance its image.