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I Setting the Stage
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Leading academics like David Aaker and highly admired companies like Procter & Gamble are the industry thought leaders. They have codified the beliefs most companies have internalized and live by to include:
- brands are strategic assets and, as such, should be managed by highly experienced executives
- functional brand benefits are important but can usually be copied by competition
- brands should deliver emotional benefits to better bond with the target audience
- brands should become good story tellers because stories engage the whole brain and, as such, are more memorable
- brands should have a purpose that defines how they change consumersâ lives for the better
- brands should guide a companyâs overall vision and mission along with the innovations that will create the future.
Most companies believe that they do not have a proven and effective brand building process in place. As a result, they often hire highly experienced marketing professionalâŚCMOsâŚto create breakthrough brand initiatives. As we have all observed, the CMO position is highly volatile.
I suspect that the volatility reflects a few factors:
- itâs very difficult to succeed in the âhitâ business by its very nature. Most new brand initiatives fail. I suspect thatâs why books are written about the winners. âVictory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.â
- traditional corporate success measures (e.g. sales, ROI) donât include or account for brand equity. Stated another way, companies get what they measure. And brand equity and emotions are hard to measure. And to date, impossible to measure in a way that can be expressed in a corporate earnings report.
- companies often donât invest sufficient funds or time to support brand initiatives.
- the survival politics of large organizations often works against the CMO as a âmiracle workerâ or âhit maker.â Lightning in a bottle is probably the unwritten hope when hiring a CMO.
A few organizations never or rarely go outside to fill a CMO position. They hire and promote only those who began their careers with the company. They are usually quite adept at identifying and promoting those executives with natural or well above average branding skills. This approach favors success but is limited by the lack of a well- grounded and researched branding process.
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There are a number of factors, taken in concert, that will drive success:
- the reader should select a brand that he or she wants the process applied to. It can be a brand he wishes to create; a brand that needs to be reinvented. If a team of readers go through the process together, they may want to select a brand of strategic importance to their company. Senior management may agree to judge the final outcomeâŚto reinforce the effectiveness of the process and the teamâs solution. Bottom lineâŚthe process should be applied to real world challenges in which the reader is deeply involvedâŚand not a theoretical exercise.
- the reader should create a base line of self-knowledge before learning before reading the book. Here are some pre-read questions.
How does the reader define branding? What are the readerâs favorite brand(s) and why?
What is the readerâs branding experience? Does the reader follow a particular branding method? What branding questions or issues does the reader wish to address?
What is the readerâs desired outcome from the book besides learning the process? For example, does the reader wish to learn about the structure of the creative process? Research techniques to uncover tacit knowledge? Brand hypotheses generation? Brand concept development? Brand strategy development? Implementation tactics?
The reader can compare their in-going assumptions at any point along the way and at the conclusion of the book.
- the reader will recognize that the brand building process is, in its essence, the creative process. As such, the reader is actually learning how to approach and manage complex creative work.
- of all the work undertaken in corporations i.e. engineering, craft, and routine work, nothing is more difficult than creative work. Thatâs because creative work has the most unknowns and most variables. All the steps of the branding process are based on academic studies and practical experience about the best way to manage complex creative challenges.
- a companyâs corporate culture is stronger than steel. Peter Drucker was correct when he stated that: âCulture eats strategy for breakfast.â Involving and collaborating with cross-functional teams help ensure alignment, that a transfer of learning takes place, and there is commitment to implement the brand solution. Net, net, the process includes activities to ensure that corporate culture is reflected in the brand solution.
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I joined Grey Advertising after graduating college. Grey had just completed a multi brand/multi-year study to determine if changes in brand attitudes would predict changes in brand behavior. The conclusion: changes in attitude did indeed predict changes in behavior. Brands with increased positive attitudes grew; brands with increased negative attitudes declined. No change in attitudes, no change in behavior.
We applied the insights from the study to develop brand strategies for two Procter & Gamble brands. Jif peanut butter, number three in the market after Skippy and Peter Pan, had seen volume decline for 13 consecutive years. And Downy, a fabric softener that P&G wanted to launch. Downy would be the fifth fabric softener in the US market. The other four brands had failed to make the fabric market viable. Household penetration of fabric softeners was under 1% pre- Downy.
Jif was relaunched with the tagline âChoosy Moms Choose Jifâ honoring moms for making good decisions on their kidsâ behalf. Jif became market leader in five years and has remained so for decades.
Downy was launched with a campaign property that showed a mom holding a bath towel, hugging her child and a reverse image showing the kid hugging momâŚexpressing appreciation to mom for all that she does for him. The fabric softener market had household penetration of 70% within three years of Downyâs launch and Downy had a 90% share of the market.
Jifâs relaunch and Downyâs launch had one element in commonâŚboth elevated the self-esteem of target consumers. Elevating self-esteem, honoring the way the target consumer feels about herself, has a positive impact on brand attitudes. Jif, a brand in long decline, was reinvented in consumersâ eyes. Downy, a new brand, established a unique emotional bond with consumers.
Importantly, Downy was able to persuade a vast array of consumers to add a fabric softener to their laundry routine. And Downy made the laundry routine more complex and time consuming because consumers had to add Downy at the midpoint of the washing machine cycle.
There is a rule in marketing that one should launch products that do not require consumers to change their habits. Our habits reflect ways we get things done efficiently.
Asking us to change our habits is considered extremely difficult to do even assuming we have the time and money to educate consumers on the benefits the change could bring.
That the Downy story had the power to change consumersâ habitsâŚin this case, making their laundry process less convenientâŚis testimony to the power of an aspirational brand story.
These two brands were key to the development of the Success Model.
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II Brand Building Process
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Brands that have demonstrated growth over long periods of time, despite the tests of competition, have merged the motivating power of fundamental human beliefs with their offering.
Why do brands that have applied the Success Model enjoy long-term success?
- Fundamental Human Beliefs answer the four questions all humans must answer. Who am I? Whom do I belong to? What is my mission in life? How capable am I? The answer to these questions creates meaning in our lives. When brands link their story to these beliefs, they become more valuable because they honor the values we live by.
These beliefs are above culture, country, and category. They are above culture which is always shifting. They are not tied to any one countryâs beliefs. They are the above category which is functionally defined.
In many ways, these beliefs reflect how the human species has made it to the top of the food chain. We humans are always imagining a better future for ourselves, our families and friends, and, in many cases, our world. We seek to connect with others to share joys and sorrows and build better futures. Our fundamental beliefs give our lives meaning and shape the way we live.
- Brands that have embraced the Success Model continue to grow over generations. The reason: Fundamental Human Beliefs do not change over time. New consumers entering a market share the same beliefs as the consumers who have participated in the market for decades. As such, Success Model brands donât âage out.â They are renewed as a new generation of consumers enter the market.
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The Method was developed over three years in which we needed to first learn and then apply the principles of the creative proces...
