Brands and Bullshit

by Bernhard Schroeder

  The best place to start is to understand what a brand isn’t. Your brand isn’t your logo. Your brand isn’t your visual identity system or your retina-ready website. It isn’t your color scheme or even your wonderful product. And most importantly, your brand isn’t what you say it is. Your brand is what they say it is. They meaning people, people meaning humans and humans meaning the intuitive, flawed and emotive beings we all are. In other words, your brand is a “gut feeling” that’s rooted deep within people. It’s a personal feeling because brands are defined by individuals, one by one, human by human. And when enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, we have a brand.

  BRANDING ≠ BULLSHIT. Many marketers equate branding to excess, prodigality and even bullshit. It’s the notion that branding is just the stupefying marketing noise (sizzle) that sells the real thing (the steak). This notion is fueled by the belief that features, benefits and the “x factor” of a new product alone create value and, therefore, there is no need to spend already scarce time working on brand development instead of product development. Yet the single most challenging hurdle facing a marketer is just as real as the others. Product marketing is easy, building a brand is hard. But having a differentiated brand could make all the difference in the success of the product.

  BRAND SIMPLIFIES CHOICE. It is the simplest to understand: People have too many choices and too little time. A byproduct of our over-messaged and hyper-connected culture is the proliferation of choice. Consider the toothpaste aisle alone. There are over 400 different types and brands of toothpaste to choose from. Some whiten, some are meant for sensitive teeth, some are dentist-approved and some are even gluten free and organic. Add in the thousands of choices for what type of toothbrush you’re going to use to apply your toothpaste and the simple act of brushing your teeth can become an overwhelming myriad of choice. If just brushing your teeth presents a person with an immense amount of choice, what about the rest of the marketplace? A powerful brand has the ability to stand out where it matters most. In the customers mind.

  I know what you’re thinking, “That might be true, but our product is so unique, so different, we’ll be the only one out there.” I hate to say it, but that’s probably not reality. If you are one of the very, very few marketers who are marketing something so unique and different that there is literally no basis for comparison, kudos to you. For the rest of us, we will face the challenge of over-saturated choice sooner rather than later. That’s where the brand proves itself as the opposite of excess, prodigality and bullshit. Why? Because the brand simplifies our choice. People, as emotional, intuitive beings, base their buying decisions on trust. Trust is gained from the relationships developed between people and organizations, and that relationship is facilitated by your brand. Very simply: Brand ≠ Bullshit; Brand = Relationship. To take it a step further: Brand = Relationship = Trust = Value. If you can help the customer internalize the “value” of your product and create that powerful customer feeling that there is no replacement for your brand, then you are well on your way to building an amazing brand. In order to better understand branding, let’s go back to the beginning of branding.

  THE HISTORY OF BRANDING

  The concept of branding has been around for hundreds of years and likely much longer. What it means to brand something has broadened quite a bit since the word first came into use. Despite the changes, each of the older kinds of branding is still in wide use today. The modern word “brand” is derived from the word “Brandr”, a word from Ancient Norse meaning “to burn”. Around 950 A. D. a “brand” referred to a burning piece of wood. By the 1300s it was used primarily to describe a torch, essentially a burning piece of wood that was used as a tool. By the 1500s the meaning had changed to refer to a mark burned on cattle to show ownership. Individual ranches would each have their own unique mark so ownership could be determined if their animals were lost, stolen, or mixed in with animals from another ranch. Each brand had to be simple, unique, and easy to identify quickly – essential traits that are still common to modern logos.

  The 1820’s saw the rise of the mass production and shipment of trade goods. As products like ale and wine were produced in larger batches and wider distribution, manufacturers began burning their “mark” onto crates and cases of goods to distinguish themselves from their competition. Over time, the brand evolved into a symbol of quality rather than ownership. Products that were perceived as having a high and consistent quality could command a higher price than their undistinguished alternatives. In 1870, it became possible to register a trademark to prevent competitors from creating confusingly similar products. Brands promised functional benefits such as Coca Cola’s 1905 slogan, “Coca Cola Revives and Sustains.” Brands themselves were becoming more valuable than the actual product.

  The introduction of radio and television gave manufacturers new ways to create demand for their products. In 1928, Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, published a book called Propaganda. Bernays argued that by associating products with ideas large numbers of people could be persuaded to change their behavior. The book was enormously popular, and advertising agencies on Madison Avenue took notice. By the 1960’s, marketers were using mass media to associate brands with emotional benefits rather than functional ones. Advertisements showed how using a particular brand would make you more desirable, part of an exclusive club, or — as Coca Cola promised in 1979 with “Have a Coke and a Smile!” — just happier.

  By the 1980’s, distribution channels reached around the globe and consumers had more choices than ever. Companies began to focus on building brand recognition for themselves rather than focusing exclusively on their products and services. This allowed them to build brand loyalty that extended across product lines and gave their consumers a sense of belonging and personal meaning. In 1984, Apple Computer released their iconic “1984” television ad that showed users breaking free of rigid conformity by using Apple computers. The computer itself was almost an afterthought in this powerful ad. Branding became strategic and took off; businesses began to focus on establishing long term corporate identity rather than creating short ad campaigns. Advertising agencies grew into brand consultancies. Corporate branding extended to non-profits, political groups, and even personal brands for celebrities.

  The rise of the internet and social media is driving the next stage in the evolution of branding. Unlike consumers of the past, internet-connected people of today aren’t satisfied to merely consume – they want to participate. Social media brands like YouTube and Facebook rely on their users to help establish their value and how they are perceived by the public. Content sites like Amazon and Yelp depend on reviewers to provide their most persuasive content. Although internet-based companies give up some of the control of their brand image, the loyalty from an actively participating customer base is unparalleled. Viral marketing, search engine optimization, and outsourced delivery allow organizations to gain visibility and deliver products without spending millions on advertising and infrastructure. So today, it is possible to create a brand, have no physical presence and have people around the world believe your brand is just as good if not better than the physical representation of brand. Amazon versus Walmart. Think retail and the destruction that is occurring in that marketplace with online retailers beginning to decimate actual retail brands with physical stores. Food delivery service brands are becoming more important than the actual food. We are indeed entering an interesting era and there is no better time to understand branding and to become a brand expert.

  THE MAKING OF A BRAND EXPERT

  Are people born to be marketers? Do brand experts just rise from among the sea of marketers? Becoming an expert in anything does not just happen. It takes focus, purpose and years of practice. Researchers and educators have studied exactly how some people become experts. And guess what? It does not happen overnight.

  Thirty years ago, two Hungarian educators, László and Klara Polgár, decided to challenge the popular assumption that women ju
st don’t succeed in areas requiring spatial thinking, such as chess. They wanted to make a point about the power of education. The Polgárs homeschooled their three daughters, and as part of their education the girls started playing chess with their parents at a very young age. Their systematic training and daily practice paid off. By 2000, all three daughters had been ranked in the top ten female players in the world. The youngest, Judit, had become a grand master at age 15, breaking the previous record for the youngest person to earn that title, held by Bobby Fischer, by a month. Judit became one of the world’s top players and has defeated almost all the best male players.

  It’s not only assumptions about gender differences in expertise that have started to crumble. Back in 1985, Benjamin Bloom, a professor of education at the University of Chicago, published a landmark book, Developing Talent in Young People, which examined the critical factors that contribute to talent. He took a deep retrospective look at the childhoods of 120 elite performers who had won international competitions or awards in fields ranging from music and the arts to mathematics and neurology. Surprisingly, Bloom’s work found no early indicators that could have predicted the virtuosos’ success. Subsequent research indicating that there is no correlation between IQ and expert performance in fields such as chess, music, sports, and medicine has borne out his findings.

  So what does correlate with success? One thing emerges very clearly from Bloom’s work: All the superb performers he investigated had practiced intensively, had studied with devoted teachers, and had been supported enthusiastically by their families throughout their developing years. Later research building on Bloom’s pioneering study revealed that the amount and quality of practice were key factors in the level of expertise people achieved. Consistently and overwhelmingly, the evidence showed that experts are always made, not born. These conclusions are based on rigorous research that looked at exceptional performance using scientific methods that are verifiable and reproducible. Most of these studies were compiled in The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, published by Cambridge University Press and edited by K. Anders Ericsson, one of the authors of this article. The 900-page-plus handbook includes contributions from more than 100 leading scientists who have studied expertise and top performance in a wide variety of domains: surgery, acting, chess, writing, computer programming, ballet, music, aviation, firefighting, and many others. In other words, a lot of smart people have studied “expertise” and concluded it can be learned.

  The journey to truly superior performance is neither for the faint of heart nor for the impatient. The development of genuine expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, honesty, and often painful self-assessment. There are no shortcuts. It will take you at least a decade to achieve expertise, and you will need to invest that time wisely. Here are three pieces of advice on how to potentially become a brand expert on purpose:

  ACQUIRE BRAND KNOWLEDGE. When was the last time you read articles, studies or even a book on branding other than this book? How are you going to learn to “cook” if you don’t get in the kitchen? Set up Google Alerts on branding, read several books on branding (will provide a list later in the book), attend workshops on branding and maybe even take a branding class at a local university.

  ENGAGING IN “DELIBERATE” PRACTICE. You are not going to become a brand expert if you don’t practice the art of branding. Quite a bit of this practice should focus on tasks beyond your current level of competence and comfort. Do a brand analysis. Create a branding tree. Go to a workshop on branding and really participate. Put yourself out there. Don’t try and fool people either. Let them know you are a marketer who wants to learn the art of branding. They will help you if you are authentic and don’t try and bullshit them.

  YOU WILL NEED A WELL-INFORMED COACH. Everyone needs a coach or mentor in their professional life. In this case you need to find someone who can really help you understand what you don’t know about branding. And this person needs to be a “brand expert”. Take the time to seek out this person as there are not many of them in any marketplace who are truly experts. Look for people who have actually built or managed brands.

  BE PATIENT, IT TAKES TIME. If you want to achieve top performance as a brand expert, you’ve got to forget the folklore about genius that makes many people think they cannot take a scientific approach to developing expertise. Experts are not born, they are made. It’s going to take you between five and seven years to become an expert who is really knowledgeable and good.

  RUN WITH A PACK. There is nothing like a “pack” mentality to learn even more and perhaps a bit faster. In my marketing career, I had an amazing mentor who taught me about branding. But what accelerated that learning was hanging out with other marketing professionals who were also learning the art of marketing and branding. It was not long before I had surrounded myself with other people my age who were smarter than me and we all shared points of view and knowledge we were learning. It might have been over beers or even a ballgame. But I learned a lot from my peers who I respected. I got to practice via our conversations and fuel my learning about branding.

  CRAFTING A BRAND PROMISE

  It’s critical to every brand that they have an underlying “promise” that they are making to their customers. And if you are a great brand the promise is never said or appears in any of the marketing communications. It is “felt” by the customer who has internalized all the marketing messages and believes in your promise. Let me give you an example via Nike. Nike is meticulous about their marketing, their brand image, their endorsements of top athletes, etc. All to support their tagline of “Just do it.” But that only serves to deliver their unwritten promise and that is, “If you wear or use Nike products, you will have the opportunity to be a champion.” That is what customers “feel” from Nike. It’s how Nike has built a multi-billion brand that can with stand the test of time and competitors. Here are some guidelines in building a brand promise:

  BRAND PROMISE

  Simple is better. It should be no longer than a simple sentence or two. A brand promise is not the same thing as a mission statement, which can often get convoluted with rambling sentences. An effective brand promise combines the catchiness of a tagline and reinforces it with the essence of the company’s mission. However, it’s not the tagline. Credibility is key. If the customer experience doesn’t match the brand promise, the value of your brand is weakened. An example of a brand promise not living up to expectations comes from Ford Motor Company. During the 1980s, Ford’s brand tagline was, “Quality is Job 1.” However, owners of Ford’s vehicles were not impressed as their vehicles routinely broke down. It got so bad that consumers gave Ford their own version of a brand promise: “Ford – Found On Roadside Broken.”

  Better be different. If your brand promise sounds similar to other brand promises, especially a competitor’s, how can you distinguish yourself from the pack? You need to discover what makes your company unique and different from your competitors. This goes beyond the features and benefits of your product and straight to the soul of your company and heart of your employees.

  Has to be memorable. A brand promise should impact every decision your company makes. While a promise may not be as catchy as a tagline or slogan, it must be memorable enough for employees to embrace it and use it during customer interactions. And, in turn, it is then internalized by the customers who just feel your brand has no easy substitute.

  Inspire People. People, in general, will act when they feel an emotional connection to a person or a product or a company. An effective brand promise helps establish that connection by being inspiring. At the same time, don’t promise what you can’t deliver. A brand promise is meant to inspire, but you also want to be realistic. A great example of an inspirational brand promise was Apple’s “Think Different” campaign. It promised amazing hardware and software that would allow you to do your very best work.

  THE CORE ELEMENTS OF A BRAND

  If you are going to build a brand or even revitalize one, y
ou need to be aware and understand the core elements that go into crafting a brand. Here are the core elements I look to create in a brand:

  CORE BRAND ELEMENTS

  1.BRAND IDENTITY. The brand of course is an easily recognizable name that immediately tells people about a certain organization that manufactures certain products or delivers certain services. Brand identity is the way people recognize the brand. It may be through the logo or other associated visuals. The Apple logo is very simple but it is immediately recognizable worldwide.

  2.BRAND IMAGE. Brand image is the idea of the brand that people develop in their minds. It also dictates what they expect, and don’t expect, from the brand. For instance, Mercedes has the image of a luxury car maker. So, it cannot be building a budget car even if there was a large market. Its existing premium customers won’t take to it kindly as it dilutes the current image. Actually, Mercedes has done just that but not under their brand name. The Smart Car has its own brand and is not directly associated with Mercedes in the USA. It’s hard and sometimes impossible to change a brand image so it’s best to know what you’re aiming at before you invest hard earned dollars.

  3.BRAND POSITIONING. Positioning is the way a product is placed in the market and in the customers mind. It basically defines what segments of the market the brand is targeting. For instance, Patagonia is a brand targeted at outdoor enthusiasts and experts. Basic ingredients in all outdoor gear might be similar but this one has been positioned to attract its customers with its expert focus on design, functionality and sustainability. Who does not want to wear Patagonia?

  4.BRAND PERSONALITY. Brand personality is just like the personality of human beings. It is certain emotional or personal qualities that we associate with a particular brand. For example, we can associate youthfulness with Pepsi or ruggedness with Dewalt tools. Every single element of the brand identity including the color of the logo and the typography on the brand name adds to the personality.