Brand Elevation

Lessons in Ueber-Branding

Wolfgang Schaefer, JP Kuehlwein

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781789664669
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789664676
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

How can a brand become one of those peerless 'Ueber-Brands' we all admire and are willing to pay a premium for? Is there a proven process? Where should we start?

Brand Elevation explains the main drivers behind brands becoming peerless and priceless and how to harness these principles to develop a winning brand strategy. Written for marketers and brand managers of all levels of experience, and for both those working in start-ups and established players, it proposes a six-step, easy-to-follow program to elevate your brand.

Brand Elevation explores challenges such as creating a distinct and brand-guiding mission, mediating between exclusivity and inclusion and mastering the art of seduction. Featuring case studies and expert accounts from organizations including Airbnb, Acqua di Parma, Burt's Bees, Lakrids, Starbucks, TerraCycle, and YouTube, Wolfgang Schaefer and JP Kuehlwein skilfully explain how any brand - regardless of sector and industry - can become a modern prestige brand.

Part One

Recap: The principles of Ueber-Branding^TM

The idea of Ueber-Brands^TM

‘Ueber’ is German for ‘above and beyond’, and that is where we have found brands to go as they seek to acquire meaning beyond the material. Our research showed that brands that are considered peerless and priceless go beyond conventional approaches to brand identity development and marketing execution by following seven principles that we review and illustrate below.

These principles are guided by three deep-seated desires people have and value in brands that can satisfy them:

• The desire for meaning that can be found in a higher Mission and a Myth to believe in.
• The desire to be special, but also to belong, which can be achieved by balancing exclusivity with inclusiveness.
• And the desire for truth, which requires brands to make that mythical dream come true but also to put your money where that Mission is and shine from the inside out.

The principles account for key dimensions of a brand: They provide a vision to follow but also guide the brand’s actions in the here and now. And they guide the relations the brand has with its customers as well as how to live its promise as an organization. At the heart, though, a Brand Myth needs to escape total rationalization to be able to provide that inexplicable attraction of Ueber-Brands.

Figure P1.1 The Ueber-Brand Model – seven principles that can elevate a brand to become meaningful, peerless and priceless

SOURCE The authors (2015)

Figure P1.1 details

The Ueber-Branding Model is shaped like a star with an arrow at the top reads vision, the arrow pointing to the bottom reads action, the arrow pointing to left reads relations and the arrow pointing to right reads organization. The steps of Ueber-Branding Model are listed anticlockwise from the top as follows:

1. Mission incomparable
2. Longing versus belonging
3. Un-selling
4. From myth to meaning (listed in the overlapping region of the Venn diagram)
5. Behold!
6. Living the dream
7. Growth without end.

Principle 1: Mission incomparable

Having a distinct, brand-guiding Mission

Having a higher calling, a reason-to-be that goes further than ‘making money’, lies at the core of every Ueber-Brand. A higher calling not only guides the organization and elevates the brand. Importantly, it helps fulfil the aspirations of its stakeholders and supports them in their identity construction. To do this, Ueber-Brands need to go beyond good ideas and individual relevance, to offering ideals and societal resonance. Even the leading CEOs at the US Business Roundtable recently changed their guidance for ‘the purpose of a corporation’ from ‘maximizing shareholder value’ to ‘promoting an economy that serves all Americans’ (Business Roundtable, 2019).

To note: When we talk about Ueber-Brands being guided by a Mission, we are not referring to those grand but generic ‘save-the-world’ declarations that often have no discernible link to the business at hand. What we are talking about are Missions that are rooted in the business but give it a bigger reason for being, beyond profit. Ueber-Brands differentiate themselves through daring visions combined with unique creativity and the guts to pursue them. They enrich the brand experience and offer their fans the chance to feel bigger or better, no longer just buying but buying into something. Something that reflects the values, tastes or abilities they seek to signal, for example.

We found two ways for brands to gain this kind of personal and social significance: The first is following a higher calling that gives the brand a socio-ecological or spiritual purpose beyond the economical one. The second is re-defining the category they’re in by setting new standards and making us change how we think and feel about and interact with it.

Mission Route 1: Following a higher calling

Vincent Stanley, one of the early employees at Patagonia, a nephew of the founder Yvon Chouinard and its Director of Philosophy, told us of a time in the early nineties when a team finally sat down to formalize the Mission the organization had been following intuitively for two decades. It read ‘Build the best product. Cause no unnecessary harm. Use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.’ It felt strange to Vincent and others to write it out, but it also felt necessary as the organization and brand were growing rather fast. In 2019, Yvon and his team raised the bar, urged on by what they experienced as an overwhelming escalation of the environmental crisis. The ‘Reason For Being’ is now preceded by the declaration ‘We’re in business to save our home planet’ (Patagonia, 2019b). This update and upgrade ensures the brand stays ambitious in pursuing its Mission and becomes even more outspoken in opposing what it sees as traumatic threats to nature, supporting local activist groups, for example, who seek to convince Balkan states and the European Union (EU) to stop investments in hydro-plants that are destroying some of the last wild rivers (Rose, 2019). In the United States (US) the brand has joined a law suit against the Federal Government over the downsizing of lands that are protected National Monuments (Patagonia, 2019a).

Young Everlane provides an example of an apparel brand with a more moderate approach to brand activism. Founded in 2010, this digitally native label also seeks sustainable ways for its clothes to be made and consumed. But it does not take to the streets to save the world. Rather, it promises ‘Exceptional quality. Ethical factories. Radical transparency.’ Its website shares its moral compass with its customers: ‘At Everlane, we’re not big on trends. We want you to wear our pieces for years, even decades, to come’ (Everlane, 2020). Offering fewer choices allows for an in-depth vetting of the supply chain. Everlane asks every supplier to provide sturdy products, to pay its workers living wages and to ensure their safety. It also works with suppliers on minimizing the negative impact on the environment. Documenting this work and the place each garment comes from is as much part of its ‘radical transparency’ as is opening its books. Each product description on its site comes with an account of how well it is made but also how much it costs to source materials, make it and ship it – and thus how much the company will earn.

Figure 1.1 Everlane manifesting its Mission of ‘radical transparency’, item by item

SOURCE Reproduced with permission of Everlane (2020)

Figure 1.1 details

The figure shows the following:

Transparent pricing

We believe customers have the right to know what their products cost to make

Materials: 11.89 pound sterling; hardware: 1.68 pound sterling; labour 5.85 pound sterling; duties 3.21 pound sterling; transport 1.48 pound sterling.

True cost 24.11 pound sterling; Everlane: 53 pound sterling; traditional retail: 121 pound sterling.

The appeal to customers of seeing a company pursue a philosophy in making its products that goes beyond the material is being recognized across industries and markets, as the example of Indian handbag maker Hidesign shows. The company not only puts its indigenous designs and craftsmanship forward but now also explains its respectful treatment of workers, the environment and its vegetable tanning process (Atwal et al, 2020).

It might be tricky to tell an Everlane T-shirt from any other high-quality one. But its commitment to transparency imbues its product with moral values that its young fans started to miss in the ‘fast fashion’ brands and has inspired some, like H&M, to follow suit. The true sign of an Ueber-Brand: Charting the course and inspiring or forcing others to follow suit.

But beware, you can’t just fake living a higher purpose or grab one for your communications, when needed. Particularly in our social media world, it is better to be held in esteem for one’s humility than to be humiliated for having hopped on the ‘val...

Table of contents

• Preface: Welcome to the age of brand elevation
• Acknowledgements
• Part One Recap – The principles of Ueber-BrandingTM
• Principle 1:  Mission incomparable – Having a distinct, brand-guiding Mission
• Principle 2:  Longing vs belonging – Balancing exclusivity and inclusion
• Principle 3:  Un-selling – Mastering the art of seduction
• Principle 4:  From Myth to meaning – Giving the brand soul
• Principle 5:  Behold the product! Making your product manifest the Myth
• Principle 6:  Living the dream – Letting the brand radiate from the inside out
• Principle 7:  Growth without end – Balancing scaling and brand building
• Part Two How to – Six steps to elevate your brand
• Step 1:  Set Your Mission
• Step 2:  Write Your Myth
• Step 3:  Realize Your Dream
• Step 4:  Live Your Dream
• Step 5:  Find Your Ueber-Target
• Step 6:  Ignite All Targets
• Summing up: The Ueber-Branding Model
• Part Three Lessons – Ueber-Branding in action
• Case 1:  TerraCycle – From Mission to Myth to movement, or: How to ‘eliminate the idea of waste’Tom Szaky
• Case 2:  Acqua di Parma – The power of a mythical core, or: How to build your business and your equity simultaneouslyLaura Burdese
• Case 3:  Burt’s Bees – Growing an Ueber-Brand ground up, or: How purpose and profit can live in harmonyJim Geikie
• Case 4:  Starbucks – The renaissance plan, or: How to leap ahead by going back to quality and serviceSamantha Yarwood
• Case 5:  Airbnb – The importance of culture, or: How Airbnb found, launched and lives its purposeDouglas Atkin
• Case 6:  Lakrids – Growth without end, or: How to scale a dreamPeter Husted Sylvest
• Case 7:  YouTube – Platform or brand of the future, or: How to be one when you are manyChris Dale
• EPILOGUE
• Crises – Times of Ueber-Opportunities
• References and further reading
• Index