Brand Truths

Thoughts and insights on brand strategy, brand management & brand building for a changing world

[brandtruths]

Successful brand building – like life – is a game of inches (Part 1)

Fans of sports movies will recognise that the title of this post borrows from Al Pacino’s famous coach’s speech in the American football film, Any Given Sunday. “You find out life’s this game…

[brandtruths]

How marketers overcomplicate executing strategy – the hilariously pointed lessons of the ‘Designing the Stop Sign’ video

According to Richard Branson, “Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple”. It’s ironic then how much marketing tends to overcomplica…

[brandtruths]

Fierce Truths – Three challenges for brand marketing from (what used to be) Monty Python

Comedy can help us see things that we’re usually blind to, or that we simply prefer to ignore. As put by writer Mary Hirsch, “Humour is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without…

[brandtruths]

The Unique Selling Proposition is one of those terms that is frequently thrown around in marketing circles. But it tends to be misunderstood and misused. This post looks at the problems with USP thinking.

[brandtruths]

The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low-cost producer is the only winner.

Philip Kotler

[brandtruths]

Technology versus Instinct - a key dilemma for the future of consumer marketing

This post outlines why the future of marketing communications may well revolve around resolving core contradictions between the current view of how brands should use digital technology and recent advances in consumer psychology.

[hum4nbehavi0r]

As soon as a brand’s vision of itself has been identified, it means that the brand can adjust the things it does, from the specifications for new product development to packaging design to choosing new modes of distribution. Vision has to be behind all things. It has to take in everything. It serves as a yardstick.

Jet>Lag by Jean-Marie Dru (via re-brand)

[brandtruths]

This has just raised the bar for big production advertising. Well worth watching.

[fastcompany]

When Mercedes wanted an appropriate visual to explain its “Magic Body Control” active suspension system, the brand turned to—what else?—chickens.

"All the credits go to the chickens, which are just naturally able to keep their head steady…" You have to see the ad.

[cemiddleton]

Hysterical… and shows how a good analogy goes a long way in making a point. 

Analogies are important in effective communications. They create comparisons that we can relate to …or never forget. I’ll give it to Mercedes they just raised the bar in the unforgettable category.

[brandtruths]

For most people Mercedes probably also just got a little bit cooler because of this.  Not bad for a fairly conservative brand touting their founder's motto as slogan.

[watch-it-tik]

[brandtruths]

This egg packaging from the Japanese environmental campaign Mottainai, goes to show that just about anything can tell a brand story and have a personality.

[hum4nbehavi0r]

In order to change people’s behavior we have to see the world through their eyes. It’s not just about incentives, it’s about the way we interpret ourselves and the social world.

Redirect by Timothy Wilson (via re-brand)

[cemiddleton]

Brands are like people. Just as we put thought (or not) into what we look like (what we wear, our hairstyle, shoes, etc.), the words we use, with whom we befriend or hangout, where we show up (and decide not to), and what we stand for bigger than ourselves, so too does a strong brand.

Brands are not just logos. Brands are more dimensional.

Successful brands have intentional thought put into all the aspects that make up a persona with the goal of bringing a company and its business plan to life in meaningful ways.

Brand strategy bridges where a company is today and where it is heading tomorrow (…and communications/PR makes a brand have meaningful touch points, and brings people important to the business along so it’s natural evolution and journey together).

Successful brands have a unified marketing/communications) team backing them.

If done right, their job is to find ways to make sure every employee is knowledgeable and proactive at participating to ensure consistency in bringing the brand to life. (Examples: every email signature looks the same, receptionist’s way of answering the phone matches the culture, there are main messages to convey in every communications outside the company is consistent, colors used with the logo are the same, etc.)

Consistency and repetition (even to the point of boredom internally) means you are on the right path. 

The goal is over time there is proven link between what is claimed and what is done (daily).

Through consistency, trust is built and loyalty takes hold.

Often, however, companies slap a logo on something and call it a day. OR, the marketing team becomes a policing task force requiring everything to come through their department before it can see the light of day.

In both cases, a brand will wilt on the vine.

Today’s post by Seth Godin, shares another insight how the “front lines” mixed with social media are essentially in bringing a brand to life… and how quickly the combo can kill it too if senior management with the marketing team are not prepared.

[brandtruths]

Apple is one the strongest brands on the planet. But over the past two years it has been increasingly tested by direct attacks from competitor advertising. This post outlines what’s been happening and Apple’s response to it.

[brandtruths]

Initial findings of a 10-year study suggest that their use of social media may have done FMCG brands more harm than good.

Image Credit: mkhmarketing

[languageofbrands]

[brandtruths]

Seattle Police Officers hand out Doritos at Hempfest, an event "to educate the public on the myriad potential benefits offered by the cannabis plant".

Interesting example of context in channel selection and the positive effect of medium on reception of the message.

[whatisadvertising]

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.

James Randolph Adams, American Advertising Federation Hall of Famer (via whatisadvertising)

[tpdsaa]

A brand isn't a logo

Submitted by www.twitter.com/adverplanner.

[brandtruths]

Don't confuse brand identity with brand strategy.  It plays a role in communicating what a brand is about.  But its impact on brand equity shouldn't be oversold by designers or over relied on by marketers.