Beyond the Brand
“The word ‘brand’ is overused, sterile and unimaginative” – Michael Eisner, Disney
What I took from this quote is that we live in a society where we are bombarded with so many brands. This makes it very hard for brands to stand out as there is a lot of competition. This makes it important to consider how to go about making an effective brand that will last.
Values
We learnt that brands are all about values. It is essential for you to believe in something and explain why you believe it. Only then are there a chance other people will believe you. Doing this forms an emotional connection with your audience as it builds trust and a bond.
Functional benefits are the bare minimum for a brand. This means they provide a product or service but there isn’t necessarily much of a high emotional connection or respect for the brand yet. Emotional benefits mean the brand shows what they believe in, therefore, gaining an emotional connection between themselves and their audience. Self-expressive benefits mean customers have loyalty towards the brand and the consumer believes the same things as the brand and carries the same values. Its almost like a lifestyle choice. This level is the hardest to reach but the brands that do fall into this category usually last a long time.
Value proposition
Value proposition is the promise of value to be delivered and communicated. To provide this, you need:
- A brand: Users develop emotional connections to brands.
- Experience: The experience customers have with your brand connects your products use with the user’s emotional reaction.
- Product: Your product may do something better than other products, solve a problem that hasn’t been solved yet or fill a need in the market.
I found it interesting learning about this as it made me think of brands differently and what is most important. Previously, I would have thought the product was the number one thing to focus on. However, it makes sense why the actual brand and experience comes before this as that is what makes loyal customers and how people remember you.
How do we go about this?
Brands and reputations take time to build. We were given some areas to consider and focus on:
- Consistency (in quality and tone of voice)
- Attention to detail (consider everything)
- Emotion (tell a story)
- Experience (how people see and feel your brand e.g., in-store and packaging)
- Reward loyalty (Gestures and tokens)
“If you don’t give the market the story to talk about, they’ll define your brands story for you”
After hearing this quote and taking part in today’s lesson, it has inspired me to possibly rethink some aspects of my brand. For example, I will consider revisiting my bio and making it more captivating. I think it is important to get this part of my brand right as telling a story is essential in creating an emotional connection with the audience.