The Power of Branding: 5 Rules of Successful Brands
Apple, Nike, BMW, Pepsi and Disney - what they have in common? Think about it for a while, but don’t take money into consideration. Well, you could say a lot of things and they probably are true. However, the very fact of considering these brands tell us that there is some hidden, engaging message behind them. This brings me to the first conclusion that:
There’s always a great message that stays behind the succesful brands.
Examples? Here they are:
Apple - “Think different.” (Who wouldn't want to be like Steve Jobs?)
Nike - “Just do it.” (Be productive, think of all kinds of great athletes)
BMW - “Designed for Driving Pleasure.” (Congrats, you’ve done it, you can afford a expensive, luxury car. Now take a ride that is designed to please you.)
Steve Jobs said:
“It’s a very noisy world and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is! And so, we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us”.
Be clear what you’re about and what core values you represent, or your brand.
Remember that brand as defined by Marty neumeier is a result
“A customer’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.”
Branding is not a logo. Logo is a symbol. The final product in which brands try to consolidate their values and features.
So let's consider what makes great brands. How branding affects our reality. How we make a brand-based decision and what can we learn to create coherent brands that better describe our mission and vision that are appealing to the customers we want to reach.A sense of belonging. “Find your greatness” by Nike
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher said:
“Man is by nature a social animal” .
There’s a very significant statement - we have to live in a group of people. Man lives in several such groups - friends from work, friends from school, family, church community etc. That’s why a sense of community and identify play an important role in human life.
Each of the individual groups has some core values.
In my opinion, the company that best sells its values is Nike. They rarely talk about their product - they don't say why their sole is better than Puma, what they show are great athletes and female athletes.
Here is an example of one of the best ad campaigns ever.
“Find your greatness”, says one of the Nike campaigns.
Who wouldn't want to feel like a world-class athlete striving for something bigger than himself. Who doesn't want to have a mission and purpose in life?
“Greatness doesn’t have one address.” This is followed by further conclusions, not only can you achieve greatness, but you can make it on your own terms in any field.
So full message from Nike sounds - Be an individualist who strives to achieve greatness that you define.
That's why it's so important to define your value and what you stand for. Consider what kind of emotions can you provide to people and start building values based on it. 2. Apple - “Think different”. Case study
This is definitely of one of the most successful campaigns in the history of advertising.
To deeply understand this campang, is it worth paying attention to the wide context.
In 1986 Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. He started new comapny “NeXT”, that was focused on building new operating system. Later, Apple began to get into more and more serious problems in terms of finance and general stagnancy. In 1997 Apple purchased NeXT and Steve Jobs returned to the company as CEO. Apple was only weeks away from bankrupcty. So it was known that the company needed some refreshment, something that would move them forward.
Steve and his team came up with “Think Different” idea. They believed that people who think differently or different (which is incorrectly grammatically, but Apple did so on purpose by creating a noun to give more meaning to the word) were able to change this world for better. The message itself was reinforced by the figure of Steve Jobs himself, who is associated with innovation and changing the world.
Apple tried to transfer this note of uniqueness and excellence to their customers, saying that to buy Apple’s product you have to think different.
Apple gave props to customers who bought the Apple II becuase they had to thought differently about computers. Computers back then looked completely different. When you saw computers in the movies, they were gigantic items that occupied large rooms, while you could put Apple II on your desk.
3. Emotions and irrationality
We can summarize this chapter into one sentence: People make decisions based on emotions, not facts, but for the sake of post, let’s dive deep into it.
Research has shown that in order for a person to make a decision, emotions must be involve. This is how Ventromedial prefrontal cortex works, which is responsible for the process of decision-making and self-control.
Even if we think that we are fully aware of the decision we made, it often turns out that the decision was subconscious. Scientists, even 10 seconds before the respondents made their decision, were able to accurately indicate what the results would be.
Having this knowledge, it can be concluded that people, in order to use your product or services, must have feelings for them.There’s a lot of scientist research that clearly show how people make decisions. I encourage you to check them to better understand human psychology and decision-making mechanisms.
And if you want to make better decisions yourself, I encourage you to read my post: "10 Powerful Mental Models: How to Make Better Decisions and Gain Clarity in Thinking"
4. Create a consistent vision
I was asked to do a rebranding for a German shop that sells things for apartments and gardens. At first, the store was nothing but a regular store that sells on e-bay.
My task was to create coherent communication for a brand that wants to be associated with coziness and family atmosphere. The clue I got was " Time well spent with the family in the apartment and in the garden" and I started building on it a brand identity.
After creating the logotype and selecting the color palette, I moved on to creating gifs that were to set the direction of identification. I was oriented to show a family atmosphere.
This is one of them:
Two coherent, moving pictures clearly indicate dynamism, just as it is in a house full of love. These pictures strongly influence our imagination. We are able to picture what the fun between father and child was like.
The environment also matters. It's all on a large, comfortable bed. Who doesn’t want to buy a comfortable bed that will be used for fun among family members? I think that every parent would like to buy it. For more insights like this follow me on Twitter :) - click
Always look contextually at branding. In what situations your product or service will be used - often ask yourself this question and think about your customers, what their day looks like, what they do in their free time.
“Top Haus" is a company that sells cozy things for apartments in which we live with other members. The GIF I created shows the dynamics of interpersonal relationships.
Nike are sports shoes, so you know that speed matters. This is what their logo is associated with. Swoosh!Apple are electronic devices, people use them in their homes, offices or during meetings with other people. It is obvious that they must be elegant and unobtrusive.
5. Godlike
We live in an age where we see the glow of the "divine element" in popular people. Take a look at the biggest celebrities: Kanye West, Leonardo Di Caprio, Madonna. They seem a bit unavailable to us, but what most attracts the masses to them is the disposition of certain traits. For example:
Kanye West - divine creativity
Di Caprio - handsome bachelor,
Madonna - forever young
Thanks to this, they build their message and can exceed certain social norms. People justify their behavior by being unique and one-of-a-kind. Who other than Kanye could say such words? He is the embodiment of divine creativity. Again, the message they state is super important. Kanye conveys that anyone can create great things. Similar message to Nike and Apple.
Summary:
There always must be a clear and engaging message.
Be authentic and do whatever you can to express what you stand for clearly.
Remember about the power of context - use famous personalities and their visions, you can refer to some events or simply refer to situations from everyday life - think what your brand is associated with.
Be consistent and coherent.
Hope you learned something valuable from this post. I encourage you to read the other articles as well as check out my social media. If you are interested in cooperation - check the "About" tab or simply contact me via email.
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