Hiiiiiiii Move Fast, Think Slow readers!
I missed a week. Sue me. I’m not perfect.
But in case you also missed it, check out Why You Need to Laugh More and the 4x4 (meditations + visual vibes).
That’s the cool thing about the old Substack. You can always dig back into the crates to read what you missed.
THE CHALLENGE
Justin Welsch is challenging me. Not me personally. HE DON’T KNOW ME LIKE THAT!
But my writing approach.
He’s all like: “You need to get 101 about the things you know about and share them online. That’s how you build a following.”
And yes, he says that in a deep online bro voice.
At least that’s what I hear in my head.
Nevertheless, I struggle with this.
So, I’m taking Justin up on the challenge this week.
Not sure how this will go, but I do know I’ve spent a bajillion hours studying brand marketing and working with companies of different shapes and sizes to develop, make, and ship advertising campaigns.
I also know it’s 10:56 PM after a full work day that included taming a tiger to bed (the tiger is my kid) so please note, if I mess any of this up I AM JUST A HUMAN BEING DAMN IT!
So without further ado, let’s dive in!
THE TROPICANA STORY
In 2009, Tropicana Organce Juice decided to re-brand its “Pure Premium” product packaging.
The execs who led the effort were excited.
They had shown the charts going up and to the right stating “we predict a re-design will increase our Pure Premium revenue by +10 in year 1 and +25% by year 3.”
The design agency was gearing up to submit their re-design to Awards to get the recognition they deserved. THIS WAS TROPICANA OJ BABY!
But those execs and that design firm never got to do the victory lap around the track.
Within two months of the launch of the new look, Tropicana removed all the re-branded “Pure Premium” from the grocery store shelves. They went back to its tried and true packaging design.
Why did they go back to the old design?
Because sales had plummeted -20% due to the package re-design.
For a multi-million dollar orange juice juggernaut, THAT’S A LOT OF CASH!
If this doesn’t convey the power of brand. The value of consistent brand messaging over a long period. Than I don’t know what does.
“Brand name is one of the most sustainable competitive advantages in business. There are very few competitive advantages that have survived as long as brand name. A technological edge can be lost and economies of scale can be matched but brand names often endure the slings and arrows of competitive fortune.” - Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business, NYU (Source)
“BRAND” IS SATURATED / INTERCHANGEABLE, THEREFORE IT’S CONFUSING AF
One of the things that I find humorous is if you asked people inside and outside of marketing what does “brand” or “brand marketing” mean, you would get different a variety of responses.
As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in Debbie Millmans’s “Brand Thinking and other Noble Pursuits.”
“We now use the word in every conceivable context. The more broadly you use the word, the less useful it is as a way of distinguishing or describing complex phenomena.”
As he is with many topics, he is correct.
Mark Earls has noted, [BRAND] is used in a variety of different cases in everyday industry speech. It can refer to a mark, set of values and guidelines, set of associations in the mind of the consumer, a product from a certain company, or the company itself. We switch between different uses all the time but this has an impact on what we, and clients, and CFOs, understand ‘brand strategy’ to be.
Here’s the bottom line.
The brand is a value generating asset to a company.
The brand is a tangible object.
A logo.
An idea in your mind.
As the Tropicana case study reveals, it does generate value for a company. They changed their logo, people started buying their competitors orange juice.
As adidas admitted, they over-indexed on “digital marketing” at the detriment to the brand. Gap admitted this. So did AirBnb. And so did Top Shop.
No matter what those growth marketers will have you believe. A very good brand will increase the value of a company. It will generate more leads and sales for a business-to-business company. It will increase the pricing power and purchasing volume of a consumer-facing company.
In short: IT WILL HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS BECAUSE THAT’S THE OBJECTIVE OF A BUSINESS. GROWTH OVER TIME.
WHERE DOES BRAND COME FROM
“The word brand” is derived from the Old Norse word brand, which means “to burn by fire.” - Debbie Millman
That’s fascinating.
As is Debbie’s observation that humans have been “branding” ever since ancient Egyptians branded their livestock, just like ranchers did in the American West centuries later.
“Perhaps our motivation to brand, and to be branded, comes from our hardwired instinct to connect. Perhaps not. In either case, what is indisputable is the breakneck speed at which brands have grown over the last century and the number of people who have bought into these brands.” - Debbie Millman
P.S. Debbie has been doing Podcast since before it was the “IT” thing to do. If you’re looking to get smart and inspired on brand, design thinking, culture, and such. Give it a listen. ^^The underline means you can click on the link^^ It’s awesome.
WHAT IS BRAND?
Some other great quotes on what a brand is from Debbie’s book:
Branding is the process of attaching an idea to some object, or to a service or organization.
Branding is a profound manifestation of the human condition.
Brands exist in the minds of the people who interact with them.
A brand is a promise of a certain kind of consistency and continuity over time.
A lot of people get confused on the difference between advertising and branding. Branding is an experience. Advertising is a temptation.
The best brands are those that create something for consumers that they don’t even know they need yet.
On some level, when I’m a brand, I’m more commercial. When I’m a story, I’m more human.
There are different levels of meaning associated with any given brand, some of which are absolutely new to a moment, and others that are continuously there over time.
HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF THE BRAND
We could go on and on geeking out about brand and brand marketing.
But, I need to get to bed so let’s wrap this one up. 😊
In it’s most simplistic terms you maximize the value of the brand in three ways:
Representing what the brand means/says is crystal clear way in every single form of communication
The brand is authentic to the mission of the company
The brand possibilities are built within a vision of an intriguing story
That last one is one of the big reasons I was drawn to advertising.
This idea of telling a story that might change someone’s life and/or a business growth trajectory is incredibly exciting. It’s something you can believe in because when done correctly, it works. I like to believe in companies that can create a whole new category of business or steal market share they never knew they could steal before their marketing campaign existed.
Know this. No one casually wore running sneakers in the 1970s. But by the 1990s a lot of people were wearing them. Yes, that’s about the product in of itself. But it’s also about the idea behind the product.
Many humans love Nike. Because they create a product that fulfills on the feeling they think it will fulfill on. Some may say, that’s fulfilling on the brand promise. But that promise is also about the appealing nature to it’s wonderful mythological story. Just take two minutes of your time to watch this. It can go beyond product and business sometimes and that can be good and powerful for human beings.
PARTING NOTES
I’m heading down to Austin for SXSW this weekend. It’ll be a cultural/advertising/digital nerd love fest. But also a homecoming that I always look forward to. Austin holds a deep and meaningful place in my heart.
I’ve been talking to college students lately. In forthcoming MF/TS dispatch I’ll share some of my notes on what I’d be doing if I was them. Even if you’re not a college student the notes are relevant to the journey you are on.
Also been thinking a lot about Jeff Bezos Business School. That’s not a real thing but this Lex Friedman interview is littered with absolute gems that any business or company should seriously consider stealing. Not for nothing, Jeff built a juggernaut despite other businesses having more resources than he had when he first started. I think he got a thing or two right when it comes to innovation, leading teams, and pushing new ideas that generates positive results. 😏
IMAGES (AND/OR THOUGHTS) OF THE WEEK
Go forth.
Stay safe.
Ride the wave.
-Mitch