In an article in CMO magazine, Taddy Hall, Chief Strategy Officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, explains that creating a great and sustainable brand (and supporting it through packaging) requires that brand managers determine how consumers use brands in their lives. Hall offers nine ideas for creating a great brand.
1. Don't ask customers what they want or query them about product attributes. Those questions won’t provide insight into customers' needs. Only by observing how they confront the challenges of a particular set of circumstances can you identify their “jobs to be done.” From there, you can define a new category according to those jobs and develop a brand that's the perfect “hire.”
2. Beware of the major up-front advertising blitz. If a manager recommends mass-reach advertising to generate awareness and induce “trial,” be nervous. Big markets are needed to justify spending big bucks. Big markets are usually occupied and unavailable to new entrants.
3. Avoid competitive assessments grounded in product attributes. Competition is any brand a customer might choose for the job at hand. Whether that solution shares any attributes of your brand is irrelevant.
4. Realize that a famous brand won't necessarily reward shareholders. Rather than shoot for fame, it's far better to create a brand that weaves into the fabric of customers’ lives. This will ensure that at the infamous “moment of truth,” the customer has no decision to make. She simply selects your brand.
5. Think “back of mind” instead of “top of mind.” The human brain, compensating for limited faculties of absorption, has developed staggeringly powerful filtering mechanisms. If you can help people conserve their scarce thinking faculties, they'll reward you.
6. Understand that advertising is a very expensive form of life support. Advertising is a high-cost substitute for relevant differentiation. The automotive industry spends more than $40 billion a year on advertising many “me-too” products—and much of that $40 billion promotes rebates. Now that's a broken model.
7. Fix what's broken, not what's easy to fix. When you're losing $5 billion a year, repainting the planes is not the answer. When 90% of products are failing, accelerating the product launch cycle is not the solution.
8. Remember that the most powerful driver of brand value is a customer's experience. The benefits of positive customer experience with your brand are too often dismissed as obvious—and then neglected in practice. The benefits are: increased purchase frequency, diminished price sensitivity, loyalty, forgiveness of occasional glitches, word of mouth, and a willingness to try brand extensions.
9. Branding, innovation, and growth are inextricably linked. If you're confronted by a proposal that focuses more on advertising strategy than growth, kill it. Great brands innovate.
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