Branding Continues to Evolve

At the beginning of the year, I featured a write-up by Paul Worthington, from Wolff Olins, regarding the evolution of branding. Since then, I feel the increasing adoption of smartphones and other mobile technologies has influenced the continued evolution of branding.


The initial three phases of branding, begin with the introduction of TV advertising and its ability to communicate to mass audiences in a visual manner. This was the 'product age' were brands differentiated on a unique product feature - creating the unique selling proposition.


However, product features can be easily duplicated by the competition, eliminating long-term differentiation. So, with the introduction of the PC computer and consumer research, we saw the introduction of the emotional selling proposition. This phase aimed to establish an emotional connection with customers by featuring how the product/service would meet their needs and wants.


Building off the desire to connect with the customer and the increased demand for transparency from organizations, we have seen the growth in experiential marketing. Enabled through the internet and social media, brands are able to engage with the customer soliciting feedback and fostering dialogues between the customer and the brand or with other customers.


But now, customers expect to have the best product features and understand how it satisfies their desires, while being able to engage with the brand at any time. So, customers are beginning to want more from their brands - expecting them and their products to add value to their daily lives - any time, any where.


With the growing dependance and demand for mobile devices, customers expect information and tools to aid them when most needed.  This is creating the perfect opportunity for brands to extend their experience and provide a meaningful utility that is there for the customer when they need it most.

For instance, Nationwide Insurance developed an iPhone app to create a meaningful service for their customers. When someone gets into an accident they can call the police from the app, which geo-locates where the accident took place. You can take photos of the damage, complete the needed paperwork and send it off to Nationwide to begin the claim process.  This is a great example of a brand developing a utility that allows it to add-value to the customer relationship when they need it most, creating the greatest impact further strengthening the trust for the brand.


So, when you go to create an engaging brand experience for your customers, take it one step further and determine how you can develop a meaningful utility enabling the brand to add value to their daily lives when they need it most - in the moment and on the go.

Nike on Brand = The Ultimate Quick Fix

Having just finished my afternoon run, I came across Nike's new ad for the Nike Trainer One, which read "This shoe works if you do." My first thought after reading it, "Brilliant!"

Today, BrandWeek wrote about this ad and its retaliation to the popular toning shoes introduced by companies like Sketchers and Reebok. These toning shoes have generated considerable increases in revenue for these organizations, and the article suggests that Nike missed the boat and should have created a toning shoe to meet women's needs, and the ad was in defense of them not creating one of these shoes.

Well, I couldn't disagree with this more. Sure, maybe Nike missed the "opportunity" to create a toning shoe, but, if this is true, I would consider it a blessing in disguise. If Nike had created a toning shoe, an athletic shoe designed to make working out "easy", it would have gone against Nike's core brand philosophy of Authentic Athletic Performance. There is no authentic athletic performance in trying to get in shape without sweating.

Nike is about striving for excellence; being the best; going out there and Just Doing It! I mean look at this recent ad for the Write The Future campaign - there is nothing in this alluding to making athleticism easy:

It would be completely backwards for Nike to create an athletic shoe for people trying to avoid "Just Doing It".

However, the toning shoes make perfect sense for Reebok, who is repositioning itself as the sports brand that makes sport fun and approachable for everyone. But Nike is about being competitive, willing to go through the hurt and be the best. Walking around to tone doesn't fit the mold.

It's no wonder Nike is the market leader. In my mind, they are crystal clear on who they are, and they are willing to make the appropriate trade-offs to maintain their brand philosophy.

Just like the ad suggests, the quick fix is sticking to the fundamentals - in the case of branding, the fundamentals are your philosophy!

Build up from the foundation: Branding is like solving a Rubik's cube

The other day I was playing around with my Rubik's cube, and I began to think that managing a brand is very much like solving a Rubik's cube.

There are several billion ways to solve a Rubik's cube and, for that matter, to manage a brand. But, like a Rubik's cube, there are few ways to efficiently manage a brand.

The way I solve a Rubik's cube is similar to how I approach branding - I start with the foundation. I like to align the base of the cube and build up from there. This is similar to branding in that I believe great brands start with a strong foundation, rooted in their brand purpose - why the organization is in business; how it will make meaning and contribute to the greater whole.

Once the base is solved, every subsequent move is made to build up from the foundation, and the base helps guide what moves you are to take next in an effort to create a consistent and uniform looking cube - aligning the colored sides.

Branding is very much the same. All initiatives taken are in an effort to support the purpose and build off that purpose. Even though an organization's initiatives, like moves, may vary, they are still in an effort to create a consistent perception of what the brand stands for.

However, any move you take that doesn't build off the foundation will distort the consistency you've created to solve the cube. This forces you to go back and rebuild the base to begin aligning the cube again.

Similar to the cube, when an organization takes a wrong turn and does something against the brand, it appears inconsistent in the eyes of the consumer. This usually forces the organization to go back to its roots and refocus on its brand purpose to ensure future initiatives align with the brand.

But when all the right moves are made, in an effort to build off the foundation and align the sides of the cube, your result is a sense of pride in its consistency, and you can see the cube the way it was designed to be seen - this is the very same for branding!