{original squeezed contributor: snallfot}

Key Points

• The author drives his thesis that simple brands are more likely to succeed.
• He describes a process to create simple and relevant brands

Summary

The process of developing simple brands:

Establish your brand idea

• A simple and meaningful point of difference that consumers should associate the brand with
• Includes the 3 components:

1. Who you’re talking to
2. Who you want to beat
3. How you’re going to beat them

• Often a solution to a simple, everyday problem that is not obvious to anyone else. Research is a great tool to identify the idea, but requires creative stimuli (e.g. good concepts to test)
• “To (1) frugal people, Motel 6 is the (2) alternative to staying with family and friends that provides a (3) welcoming, comfortable night’s rest at a reasonable price.”
• Not all ideas following these criteria are good ideas. Aim for a specific but durable idea, and try not to be influenced by too many second opinions.

Capture the essence of your idea

• Formulate a brand driver that captures the core meaning of the brand idea
• A brand driver is a single phrase or sentence that can be grasped intuitively by co-workers and provide clear direction that every branding signals should follow
• A good brand driver talks to peoples’ guts, is crystal clear and easy to remember
• GE: “Imagination at work”
• The brand driver is a clarification of the brand idea, which complements it by being inspirational and providing guidance

Get the employees engaged in the idea

• Communicate the idea inside the organization
• Demonstrate what it means to make “on-brand” choices in day-to-day activities
• Often a program that makes people understand how and why the brand idea is important, makes them excited about what they do, and engages them in an interesting way
• The engineers designing the brakes at BMW know that they are building the “ultimate driving machine”. They don’t need a cookbook recipe, they know the ingredients.
• Internal communication of the brand is a way of relating the brand idea and brand driver to the employees’ daily tasks. Best case, they understand all the touch-points with the consumers and what is expected of the brand in that stage.

Consider your brand’s name

• The most important branding signal
• An even simpler form of the brand idea than the brand driver
• The best names resonate with (1) brand strategy, (2) consumers, and (3) the law
• “Timberland” – a wonderfully suggestive and expandable name

Create branding signals, beyond the name

• Establish a couple of power signals to focus on
• Assess where the brand has the best opportunity to connect with the consumer
• Can be next to anything in the market mix: product design, web site, retail environment, etc
• Apple’s premium packaging and in-store environments are examples of branding signals, whereas KFC’s symbol is a true power signal