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Where Do Brand-Building Ideas Come From?



When it comes to brand-building programs
quality should come before budget concerns. It is
worthwhile to spend a significant proportion of a
brand-building budget on finding truly effective
brand-building initiatives. The chances of finding
brand-building home runs will be higher if one or
more of these methods and perspectives are
used:
External role models
Find an organization that has successfully
addressed a similar problem or task and adapt
what they did. And don’t limit the search to those
organizations that look like your own – be willing
to look more broadly. A retail bank with a broad
array of financial services that aspires to provide a
trusted adviser role might look to Home Depot as
a role model. Home Deport has launched
numerous internal and external programs that
allow the brand an approachable, knowledgeable
friendly face.
The brand experience
Identify all existing and potential brand
touchpoints. Evaluate them by segment,
determine the importance of the touchpoint to the
customer relationship, prioritize touchpoints by
cost of upgrading, and develop an action plan.
Look to customer problems and needs and the
experience of dealing with them. Could that be
improved?
Customer motivations and unmet needs
Because customers sometimes hide motivations
and are unaware of unmet needs, indirect
approaches such as anthropological research can
be helpful. P&G researchers, for example, created
Downy Single Rinse based on insights from
seeing the laundry habits of Mexican women
facing water shortages and time constraints.
Brand teams can also leverage their knowledge
and experience to create programs that break with
tradition, such as the Apple store with its energy,
clean layout and Genius Bar.
Customer sweet spots
Brand building is about communicating the brand
and its vision to customers. A different approach
is to make the brand an active partner in an area
that the customer is interested in or even
passionate about. Chapter 11 of my latest book,
Aaker on Branding, explores why that option can
be effective and how to implement it.
Competitor weaknesses
Look at competitor weaknesses,even for potential
“reasons not to buy” and attempt to position them
as well as your brand. When PowerBar introduced
Pria in response to Clif Bar’s Luna (the first
women’s energy bar), Pria was able to message
around being more petite, having fewer calories,
and having a different and better taste and
texture.
Emerging markets
Examine emerging applications or market
segmentsbecause they might provide a pathway
not only to growth, but also to a brand refresher.
Recall the classic finding that Arm & Hammer
baking soda could de-odorize a refrigerator. It
forever changed the brand.
Find more idea sources
Empower all units in the organization to come up
with ideas to source and test ideas. Pantene’s
“Hair So Healthy It Shines” came from Taiwan,
and Levi’s Dockers came from South America.
Employ crowdsourcing. Create a well-defined brief
that engages one of the many crowdsourcing
sites. Ask customers for ideas like Dell does with
its IdeaStorm developed in 2007 and recently
ungraded and revitalized.
Utilize discipline
Use creative thinkingdiscipline learnings.
Implement disciplined brainstorming techniques
with clear objectives, lateral thinking (start the
process from different, even outlandish points of
reference), and avoidance of evaluation during the
ideation phase. Break routine by going on a field
trip to gain new perspectives. Develop a creative,
friendly culture.
Be opportunistic
The best brand builders are opportunistic. When
Hyundai won the coveted 2009 Car of the Year
award from the North American International Auto
Show, it was able to exploit that award by
providing credibility (with an explanation point) to
its quality and styling story. A brand-building
team needs to be nimble and flexible in order to
leverage such opportunities.
Whatever the idea source, the key to success is to
refine, refine, refine using a sequence of methods
and test & learn processes. The core driving
should be the unrelenting search for the home
run, and the knowledge that anything less will be
marginal.

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