What is a WoW Brand? Part II

We just scored a date with the consumer through 4D's of dating advice... Next is how the relationship continues...

...I am now about to marry a thief.

No, I’m not going to tell you she stole my heart. I mean it: she is a thief.  When my girlfriend was a little girl she nicked a bar of chochlete straight from a shop counter.  But what is more remarkable than the fact that she has done anything dishonest in her life is the fact that she can still tell you exactly what the chochlete looked like and, with no entreatment from me, sing the brand’s jingle:  “First comes the sun, air, water then nutrituos diet, Papa when you come home don't forget to bring Ulker”.  Why?  Because the brand stood for the same thing for so long the association is unavoidable.

Fast forward  25 years.

I’m going to attend GmX training in March and I have a homework to ask my friends what brands are lovemarks for them.  What brands can’t they do without, and why?  The list read like a who’s who of the rich and powerful:  Apple, Nike, Starbucks, Mini, Sony, JW, Diet Coke, Nespresso.  Yet more remarkable than the list was the fact that each friend could tell you in a heartbeat what they loved about their chosen brand.  Why? Because the brands have stood for the same things for so long the association is unavoidable.

That’s the power of consistent equities.

Great brands know what they want to stand for in the hearts and minds of their consumers, and stick to it.  Usually it is something simple, and they make sure to bring it to life consistently over time and across touch points.  Apple is always about design and creativity.  Starbucks is about a relaxed personalized coffee-house experience.  Sony TV is about colour.  Nike is about Just Do It and a passion to win.  Each brand has made some mistakes in the past - Starbucks have famously recognized that their move into automatic espresso machines and even cheaper plastic seating in some stores has diluted some of the equity they’ve built up - but each brand seems to know where true north is because they keep coming back to it.  And consumers reward them for it.

We have our own examples of where we have got equity consistency right, then wrong, then right again. However a brand is what it is and playing with the brand essense, stretching it to a different personality usually fails. So What’s at play is consistency.  The reason is that we remember and are influenced by people and things that consistently say the same message.   Psychologists call it the rule of commitment and consistency.  Not only do people try to look consistent through their words, deeds, beliefs and attitudes but we are also more open to relationships with people and brands that do show such consistency.  (Think of politics: we respect leaders who stick to their principles, not those who flip-flop with public opinion.)  Furthermore, Associative Network Memory Theory (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase) reminds us that information that is strongly associated in an established memory network is more likely to be recalled than less associated information.  Said another way, we remember things that have strong associations to something else in our minds.  Paris equals the Eiffel Tower.  Cows equal milk.  Milka equals purple cows equals milky chocolate.  It’s why my girlfriend not only remembers the chochlete bar she lifted but the song about the chochlete she lifted:  it’s all built around associations...  

And how are such links formed?  It can be through sudden disruptive associations.  I am planning to propose my thief in Notting Hill, failure or success, it will  forever be associated in my mind, even though it will happen just the once.  Or it can be through consistent, engaging repetition, like my grandmother and her scones.  She always brought them when she came over.

Anyway, all this psychology makes me want to lie down on a couch some where, so let me skip to what I think it all means to us.

First, make sure everyone who works on your brand knows the simple equity you want to stand for.  Consumers are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day.   In such an environment, any given brand can only ever hope to build up a small handful of meaningful associations.  What messages and associations will be most persuasive for your consumer?  These, and only these, should be captured in a choiceful equity pyramid and shared with anyone who touches the brand. 

Take a long, wide view to building brand equity.   Rome, as the saying goes, wasn’t built in a day, and brands take even longer.  Remember that equity statements are long term visions of what you want your brand to stand for in the hearts and minds of your consumer.  The contributions you make today to building your equity are for the benefit of future leaders of the brand as much as your own.  It means that every initiative you do should be driving a key equity choice.  It means that every piece of communication you produce should be true to the brand you are trying to build.  It means that at every single place the consumer engages with your brand they should have the same equity messages reinforced.  So whether you are a brand executive or global head of brands, do equity audits:  consider every touch point your consumer has with your brand that you have some control over and ask yourself:  am I building a consistent brand here?  If not, what has to change? 

One of my favorite quotes on this topic of the long, wide view of brand equity comes from Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney who said “We came to think of Disney as a canvas on which many artists paint one dot at a time.  If each of these dots is executed with precision, imagination, and an awareness of the whole, the painting becomes richer, more vibrant, and multidimensional.  The opposite can also occur.  When a new group of artists comes along, the risk is that they bring lack of attention to the whole.  Point by point, stroke by stroke, the masterpiece deteriorates into something mediocre and commonplace, even ugly, until eventually it is destroyed altogether.”   That’s magic.

Have executional consistency. Remember that equities are not just strategic.  In fact, execution plays a huge role in driving associations for the consumers.  That’s why there is so much power in executional equities like the Nike swoosh and “Just Do it” or the lounge-room like feel of a good Starbucks experience.  They bring associations of the brand to life for the consumer.  It’s why consumers remember characters and icons like Marlboro Man, Milka Purple Cow, Apple bite, etc... who have been walking purposely into the hearts of consumers since decades.  Having executional consistency is maybe your only means to build a consistent equity especially if your brand doesn’t have the chance to air an advertising campaign.  Memorable equities are a gift to your brand when it comes to driving influential associations between your brand and your benefits.  People remember these far more than they do individual ads. 

Stay fresh.   Finally, remember that consistent doesn’t mean being boring or formulaic.  Our jobs as marketers is not to create entirely new things to say, but new ways of saying the same thing in fresh and relevant ways.  That’s where true creativity comes in.  That’s how brands are built.

So I guess what I’m saying is this:  stand for something and keep standing for that something.  Sooner or later you will have a brand that consumers will not only notice, but will associate great things with and will gravitate to.   Then you’ll have built a brand that stands the test of time. 

Only, watch out for beautiful little girls with innocence in their eyes and desire in their hearts.  They don’t always pay for what they take.  But they will sing your song.

Sinan Seha Türskeven

What is a WoW Brand? Part I

Asking my collegues and friends which brands they are attached to and they actively and passionately promote to others I came up with brands like Coca Cola, Apple, Starbucks, Nike, Mini, Sony, Johnny Walker, Mercedes, Google, etc...So this probed me the question what really a WoW brand is? How do some brands succeed to score a date with the consumers? and then turn this into a sucessful relationship? and how do they manage to stand still against the test of passing decades... Could there be an analogy between building successful brands and building successful and longlasting relationships? 

So the muses in my spirit revived and forged me to ponder a little bit...Let's see if we will be able to solve the riddle behind lovemarks and find a guiding path to build equities that steal hearts ...By the way I'll skip the boring video posting step so bear with my boring content:) Let's start with the first step: "How to Score a Date"

If you are having trouble scoring a date and i believe it’s not through a lack of available resources.  Forget the advice of friends or online dating services; just typing the word “dating” into amazon.com spews forth 33241 books on the topic. My research has led me to conclude that if you want to write a book on dating, the title is important.  It has to be confident, like Mr Right, Right Now, or How to pick up Beautiful Women.   Ideally it should have both a title and a subtitle:  Understanding Women: The Definitive Guide to Meeting, Dating and Dumping. It should assume the opposite sex is an animal, just waiting to be trapped: Men Are Like Fish: What Every Woman Needs to Know About Catching a Man.  And finally, it has to have an angle; that hook that makes the reader want to skip all the others out there and just date the writer, like Rachel Greenwald’s Find a Husband After 35 Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School, which offers tips like:  “Market Expansion:  Cast a wider Net” and “Packaging:  Create your best look”.   I’m sorry – that’s not sexy.  That’s sad.  

But I got to thinking…maybe there is something in Ms Greenwald’s approach.  Are there strategies that will score you a date?  But I am not here to advise you on your love life but to offer brand builders advice.  So, perhaps the pertinent question becomes “is there a type of communication strategy that will help your brand score a date with the consumer?’   (The more pedestrian amongst us would call that date “trial” in our so called disposition funnel) 

Yes, I want to talk to you about good communication strategies. What are the characteristics of strategies that will help your communications score dates with the consumer?  But before you despair too much, feeling that I have just teased the lovelorn amongst you, the good news is that the principles of these consumer-date winning strategies pretty much hold for scoring a date out there in the real world of relationships:) 

Before I get into the principles, let me tell you two things.  First, what a communication strategy is.  It is that portion of a brand’s marketing strategy that deals with the content of the message in the brand’s conversations with the consumers.  Said another way, it’s the benefit (what we promise the brand will do for the consumer), reason-to-believe (an optional element that might be used to increase the believability of the benefit) and the brand character (the long term personality, image or attitude of the brand.)    

OK, on with the consumer Dating Tips.





In a nutshell it all comes down to Four “D’s”.

1.       DESIRABLE – substantive, meaningful and relevant.

Guys -ladies forgive me in this because my chromosomes are XY in nature:),  if you are going to win a date with that truly gorgeous woman sitting across from you on the train or in the club (or even at work, although I don’t encourage that, as it will only end in tears), you’re going to want to be desirable, no?  You are going to want to approach her with something that would make her choose you in preference to that other, potentially better looking guy sitting near you.  You are going to want to say something that is substantive and meaningful and relevant to her life, yes?   “Did you see that V12 engine in the latest Trucking Life magazine?’ is not going to cut the mustard.  Really, I’ve tried it. Not a good memory:)  

      It’s no different to your communication strategies.  Your benefit needs to offer the consumer something they want; something that you know will help them choose you in preference to the other brands out there.  We put unrealistic pressure on our communications when we ask it to be built on strategies that are boring, or, worse, irrelevant to the lives of our target consumer.  Conversely, a highly desirable strategy almost sells the brand itself.




     Of course, strategies that promise something desirable to the consumer come about when you have a terrific understanding of your prime prospect.  We should have enough research and consumer knowledge to confidently say, even before we brief the agency, that we have a strategy that offers the target consumer exactly what she wants.   In this way, MR&I collegues are like our dating coaches.  Think “Hitch” with BAT business cards. 

The parallels with dating are again obvious.  While too much research into someone is spooky and a little too like stalking, aren’t the chances a girl will say yes to your request for a date increased if you offer her something relevant to her life?   “Hey, you clearly have an eye for fashion.  I swear that’s a Stella McCartney design you’re wearing.  Would you like to go to her catwalk show?  I’ve got tickets.’  Mmmmmm…you are one smooth dog.   

2.       DISTINCTIVE – relative to the competition

The following will NEVER be a real conversation between girlfriends.

 “I got swept off my feet last night by an amazing guy.’

“Tell me more, tell me more, like does he drive a car?”

“No.  Actually, he was kind of boring.  Nothing different about him.  Nothing different at all.  In fact, there wasn’t anything about him that you would say was the least bit surprising.  He was just like any guy I suppose.  But he asked me out on a date and I said yes!”  (Giggles with excitement)

“Well-a, well-a, well-a..huh?! “

If you ever hope to win a date, there has to be something about you that the other person finds different and intriguing. This holds true for your brand; only the word we use is “distinctive”.   Your communication message strategy needs to capture that aspect of your brand that sets it apart from competition and provides a meaningful basis for consumer preference.  We know for a fact that distinctive strategies work, and that great strategies often have two or more areas of distinctivity.  Where the distinctiveness comes from is less important.  If you’re lucky, it may be straight out product performance superiority.  It may be a distinctive twist on a usual benefit or via an emotional benefit tied back to your functional benefit, or by a unique and compelling RTB or even by a distinctive brand character, which, by the way, if your brand doesn’t already have then you are cheating your brand out of a lot of potential first dates with the consumer.  (Push for something distinctive, like Kent's “Click & Change” or with benefits which resonate with unmet consumer needs susch as longer lasting smoker through LIP or LSS in KS formats .  Wouldn’t you rather date someone like that than a “trusted expert?”)  Net, ensure your strategy is distinctive versus your competition. 

3.       DECISIVE – clear and simple

For most of us, there is nothing more nerve-racking than asking someone out on a date.  Your heart feels like it’s in your throat and sweat drips from places you didn’t know you had glands. The strong become meek and the meek become weak, and all that nervous energy tends to make us verbose beyond description.  We can’t seem to get one word out, so instead we put out three hundred.   We ramble, kind of like I’m doing now…

The dating game belongs to the decisive. 

Just make the proposition clear and simple (oh, and a little bit romantic).

I think we must be nervous when we write communication strategies to woo our consumers, because those strategies are so often verbose and unclear as well.  Simplicity works.  In fact, it’s critical.  I cannot stress enough the importance of simplicity in your strategies.  It is simply impossible to communicate more than one cohesive thought and hope that consumers will digest it and run with it. ' Simplicity = Success square' where even Einstein throws his weight behind the importance of simplicity in communication.

4.       DIVIDEND PAYING TO YOUR EQUITY

Before we get back into the relational dating tips, here’s a question for you.  Are communication strategies there to build your sales, or your equities?  Or both? 

Hint:  both. 

Good strategies drive sales but also pay dividends to your brand equity, in that they are born out of, or are consistent with clear equity choices your brand has made.  If they aren’t, rewrite the strategy.  Now, that all sounds very black and white; but hey, I believe in moral absolutes.  There should be a direct link between your brand’s promise to the consumer and one of your equity building blocks.  When there isn’t, you fail to build equity for your brand.  In cases where your brand has well established equities, not being consistent with them just risks leaving the consumer confused or unable to recall that the promise is actually from you.

The analogy with dating is again helpful.  Yes there are obvious cases where you are asking a complete stranger out for a date, and I guess that in those circumstances you can be whatever you want to be, but in most cases we are asking friends or acquaintances if they want to take the existing relationship a little deeper.   In those cases, they already know a little of what you are about – what your personal brand equity is, if you like.   What is more likely to work?  To be your normal wonderful self, or to suddenly become someone you are not, hoping you’ll still be able to make a connection?  Well, the poet of a new generation, Avril Lavigne (1984 - ?), sums it up well in her song “Complicated”

You're tryin' to be cool, you look like a fool to me. 

Tell me why you have to go and make things so complicated?

I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me frustrated

In summary a good strategy matters.  It really does.  Building great brands likens it to the ground upon which you build your house.  If it is strong, it’s like building on a rock.  It will inspire great work that will create an emotional connection with your consumer.  If it is weak, it is like building on the sand.  Nothing will remain once the tide of competition sweep over you.

So go ahead and have your brand ask the consumer for a date, but do it with a communication strategy that is desirable, distinctive, decisive and dividend paying to your equity. The 4 D’s of dating.

Who knows, do those successful may turn into a relationship, and the relationship into love? while those things must be progressively harder to navigate - Amazon has 167962 books on “relationship” but 262612 on “love” – you will never know unless you first get a date.

Now it is late and some well deserved break for a movie before sleep time. Just inserting the Conan 3D in the BlueRay drive and to test my new Sony LED screen.

No no  no...My girlfriend is now with me -she was supposed to be asleep- and we are going to watch an Anne Hathaway movie...Subtitle is "Twenty Years. Two People'

Maybe it is written in today's stars int the sky and my destiny is really about WoW brands, lovemarks and defenitely about romantic movies:) Sinan Seha Türskeven