Brand Idea as a construct deserves more conversations given the expansive impact it can have on a brand.
In today’s messaging cacophony, where a human being is assaulted with at least 500 advertising messages per day, the initial few seconds a consumer engages with a brand becomes critical. A brand in those few seconds, must woo the consumer at laser speed. And in those few seconds it must say something that would compel the consumer to discover more. Else the consumer walks out.
A Brand Idea is much like what Carmine Gallo says – a business must have a story succinct enough to be defined in a Twitter friendly headline. Today, it’s critical for every brand to have one.
A good brand idea will act like a compass for a brand. It would simplify everything, for both its audiences – Internal and External.
Let’s look at one of the most iconic brands of our times – Amazon.
What would be its strategic Brand Idea? To be the most customer centric organization in the world.
And this has been aptly demonstrated by one of its Delivery Man, who went on a horseback in snow-covered Srinagar to deliver an order. Almost theatrical in optics, but an act that truly sums up the Amazon’s ‘Customer Centricity Gene’.
It won’t be an outlandish claim to say, Amazon’s Brand Idea of supreme ‘Customer Centricity’ is versatile enough to also guide its Human Resources apart from being a compass to its Tech or Marketing Team.
Here’s another example of a Brand Idea, I personally love. That, of a home-grown, new age Insurance company – Digit Insurance.
Given the age old, perception of complexities strongly associated with the Insurance category, Digit came up with the Brand Idea of ‘Simplicity’. For India, I feel, it’s a truly unique space to own, nurture and deliver against a backdrop where brands from the category use almost, the same vocabulary.
When a brand cracks that one word or that one expression to define itself, it creates a Guiding Light that helps it to navigate through diverse terrains. Both internal and external.
Today, a consumer is overwhelmed with advertising messages all day, with information din streaming from influencers, critics, and competitors, resulting a ‘filter-out-information’ mode in him.
Add to this the consumer’s changed shopping pattern – from linear to complex purchase pattern.
Some of the key touchpoints of any brand that reach consumers are essentially – Brand Promise, Purchase Moment, and Consumer Experience. Regardless of the order, they reach the consumer. Now, if the brand does not deliver a consistent message across these touchpoints, it hazes the consumer’s mind and he is likely to shut the brand out.
Whether it’s a start-up or a multinational, whenever a brand exhibits inconsistency across critical consumer touchpoints or struggles to inspire and align its internal audience to agree and deliver on its brand promise, in all likelihood, it is the effect of an Undiscovered or Unarticulated crisp brand-pitch.
Now that you have read this far, do ask yourself. “If I had to describe my brand in a Twitter friendly headline or in a single word or an expression brand-pitch, what would that be?”
If you are struggling, it means your Brand desperately needs to discover its Brand Idea.
As Allen P Adamson says, “You can’t make consumers aware of something if you are not 100 percent aware of it yourself.”
– Henry Moirang, Communications Strategis, LeapX
