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Branding InformationBranding = Focus
by:
Martin Lindstrom
Over the years I've often been asked what the private secret formula is for booming branding. What folk are actually asking me is how to do their brand a worldwide leader, like Coca-Cola.
Well, sorry guys. There's no magic hidden in the process of building a brand. What booming brand-building is all just about is following three simple principles. These form the crucial guidelines that help ensure you build a booming brand.
Branding is all just about focus. Once
I say focus, I mean a lot of things. But the most important points are:
·your focus on a specific audience;
·which is echoic in your focus on a specific values;
·which is echoic by your clean focus on a specific tone-of-voice.
I cognize it sounds banal, but shaping your unique target group is fundamental. Let me give you a couple of examples.
McDonald's has always been a family restaurant, and ne'er
a burger bar. What's the difference? None. But the family focus is a positioning strategy that's echoic in everything the corporation does. McDonald's knows that by targeting families it hits one of the most attractive, loyal user
groups available: they get into the parents' wallets via the kids' minds. Knowing the strength of this strategy, it's no wonder that McDonald's has become what it is. And, by the way, the audience focus doesn't mean that McDonald's misses out on attracting teenagers, tweens or grown-up singles to their restaurants. Obviously, McDonald's restaurants are full of such user
groups. But, by attracting a target audience, McDonald's hasn't frightened off another user
groups away. Simply imagine McDonald's targeting teenagers. Do you think any families would-be show up?
A celebrated liquor brand distinct to take targeting to the extreme by focusing on alternative audiences, like the gay community in the USA. By hit this community in voguish bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, the product became fashionable and, so, a wider and wider audience was attracted to it. By now the liquor in question is one of the world's best-known brands, yet it's been raised in a really alternative background.
Having considered the importance of your brand's audience focus, let's look at its message. What is it your brand wants to say? What tracks should it leave in the consumer's mind after exposure? What are its values? If I were to ask you what impressions spring to mind once
I mention the word "Lego" you'd probably speak of "a creative construction toy", or just "colorful plastic bricks". If I mention "Rolex" you'd probably respond with thing
like "high quality Swiss watch". "Mercedes-Benz"? "A high quality German car".
The principle is simple. What would-be you like the user
to think, and not think, once
they perceive your brand? Don't be too ambitious. You can't do the user
say everything you want. For example, you probably didn't say, "Just Imagine…" once
I asked you to respond to the conception of Lego, even as although that's the product's motto today. Focus on your brand's values, and communicate these consistently.
That's the third important factor in a healthy stigmatization strategy: communications consistency. Being consistent means delivering your brand's message exploitation a tone-of-voice that becomes recognizable as the voice of your brand: that communicates the brand's values to its target audience day after day, year after year, everywhere, anywhere! A nice rule of thumb to consider is this: once
you start feeling sick and tired of your brand's message and voice, its connection with the consumer's recognition is probably just beginning. Remember, you are exposed to your brand thousands of times much often than your customers are. So don't let your own frequency of exposure affect your communications decisions.
Consistency is applicable in every facet of your brand's user
communication strategy: ensure your brand targets its audience consistently, that it communicates the same message to it, that it personifies and transmits the same values, that it is exposed with the same vocabulary, nomenclature, design elements and graphics every time.
Many companies fail on the consistency prerequisite, even as the big ones which you'd think would-be cognize how to handle this fundamental stigmatization challenge. Take Swissair for example. I bet you cognize the name, but do you cognize that Swissair is besides acknowledged as Crossair, Flightline, Jumbolino and Swissair Express? Each of these sub-identities are attended
by a version of the Swissair logo, even as although they all fly internationally. I'm sure there's a logical reason behind the airline company's divergent stigmatization strategy. But I wonder if Swissair's customers understand it.
So, why didn't I define design consistency as a factor in its own right: the graphic design, the logo, the look that surrounds the brand? Well, because these elements are not what creates the brand. They keep it and can help accelerate recognition and therefore, speed up the stigmatization process. The "look" is a necessary element in the consistent communication strategy, but it's just an element. If your brand possesses the most beautiful logotype and is associated with perfect distinguishing design, yet it has no clean audience focus, no value focus and no tone-of-voice focus with which to deliver its well-honed message, I doubt you'd ever succeed in building your brand. However, by following the guidelines established by these three principles, you're likely to score the brand-building goal, even as without a fabulous logo.
Strong stigmatization has nothing to do with a beautiful logo. But it has everything to do with your brand's message.
Simply just about THE AUTHOR
Martin Lindstrom, Chief Operational Officer, BT LookSmart and author of "Brand Building on the Internet".
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