GreatBranding. Accident or Design?

Over the last forty years I’ve been fortunate enough to help create, develop and sustain some of the world’s most famous, and most successful, brands.

More than that, as a consumer, I have touched and been influenced by thousands of brands.

Sadly, I’ve also witnessed the demise of well-intentioned brands, often fatally flawed from their inception.

If you ever wonder what true power looks like, just cast your gaze on a successful brand.

In 1988 the Swiss corporate giant, Nestle, paid the then highest-ever price of ￡2.5 billion to acquire British confectionery brand manufacturer Rowntree.

The amount paid was 8 times the tangible net asset valuation. If you’re struggling to work out where the value differential might be found, try looking at the hidden IP of the Rowntree brands – brands such as KitKat, Quality Street, Fruit Gums, Fruit Pastilles, After Eights, Yorkie and Lion Bar.

The point is that brands can be extremely valuable things.

Sadly, our constant exposure to brands means that far too many people think their creation is the easiest thing in the world to do. The sheer number of brand failures attests to the fact that it isn’t.

On a purely rational level we look at the features that a product or service offers us in exchange for our money. So why then do we choose Nike over Adidas or, indeed, Adidas over Nike? Is it just about our colour preferences or is it really about each of us, as individuals, chiming with the specific image each brand conveys and the benefits they offer? When Nike says, ‘Just Do It’ and adds a ‘tick’ to emphasise the point, it’s then that we are responding to Nike’s brand values.

Brands are built through a combination of insight, commitment, investment and relentless delivery on the promises they make; but every brand has to begin somewhere, and that somewhere is often a name.

I’ve lost count of the number times I’ve been asked whether there’s a magic formula to creating a successful, and memorable, brand. As far as I can tell there’s no single incontrovertible solution, but I believe there are a few guiding principles that can certainly help.

When creating a new brand identity, we normally begin by looking at four critical elements:

1.    Memorability

2.    Authenticity

3.    Ability to Trademark

4.    Campaignability

Memorability is really all about how readily and easily the brand identity will chime with its audience and stakeholders.

Memorability can be achieved through significant investment in targeted marketing activities of course, but it can receive a huge boost if the brand name already has a degree of ‘familiarity’. ‘Apple’ is a good example: most of us have been familiar with the word since we were first exposed to the alphabet. What does ‘A’ stand for? Why, it’s ‘Apple’ of course.

Incorporating ‘familiarity’ doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing innovation. When asked to bring the work of a leading fruit grower and processor to life, we coined (and trademarked) the phrase ‘Fruitician’. The word itself was unique but its memorable roots are clear.

The ultimate accolade is when a brand becomes a brand-verb: we Hoover rather than vacuuming, we Tweet, we Skype and we Google.

But when it comes to ensuring a brand really sticks in the minds of its audience there’s nothing more powerful than the inclusion of an image. The great Roman orator, Cicero, was familiar with the impact that an image could achieve, including visuals in his speeches. The ‘Picture Superiority Effect’ confirms that pictures are more immediately recognised, and more quickly recalled, than either spoken, or written, text. In fact, scientists believe the brain is able to process images approximately 60,000 times more quickly than text. Little wonder then that many of the most successful brands incorporate a strong visual component (commonly known as a visual identity, logo or similar), whether that’s a bitten apple, the Amazon directional arrow smile, the Google ‘G’, the Microsoft multi-coloured ‘window’ or even the artistically scripted Coca-Cola name.

Authenticity embraces many elements, including the impact that a strong ‘back story’ can have on a brand’s ability to resonate with its target audience. Let’s take another look at Nike. Is it really a random collection of two vowels and two consonants? Frankly, if it was, as a consumer I’d be hugely disappointed. Look behind the name and what do you discover? Nike is, or was, the goddess of victory in Greek mythology, depicted as having wings. So, is the tick really a tick or, if we dig a little deeper, can we find the stylised image of a wing? It’s not surprising that we find these ‘stories’ intriguing and attractive. After all, most of us have been responding to engaging tales from the moment our parents first introduced us to bedtime stories.

The ability to trademark a brand name might seem a little pedestrian when considered alongside attributes such as memorability, authenticity and visual cognisance, but it’s important, nonetheless. Today it’s no longer just about trademarking either – there’s the question of whether the domain name is available and, if it is, whether it’s available in a familiar .com form.

Since the establishment of trademarking in around 1857, many millions of marks have journeyed through the process. This brings with it a major challenge: given that so many words are now in common usage, how to successfully navigate a system where even minor public prior use can invalidate an application. The commonly used solution is to either create a unique typeface for the brand name or, more commonly, to associate the brand name with an icon or logo. Given the cognisant superiority of images over words this is not just about overcoming trademarking objections – there is clearly a major inherent value in incorporating an image component.

Whether it’s Nike, Apple, Microsoft, Deliveroo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, MacDonald’s, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Pepsi, Disney, Costa, Starbucks, Chanel, Target, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify or PayPal, all have exploited the power of visual iconography.

The fourth in our quorum is campaignability, a word that doesn’t officially exist except in the minds of brand creators and marketeers. Campaignability draws on elements from Authenticity, Back Story, Memorability and much, much more but, simply stated, it is the element or essential essence within a brand that enables its public face to be a united and influential one, regardless of where it is deployed. A good example is the Amazon arrow smile: from its advertising to the packaging its goods are delivered in, all feature the arrow smile, and what it stands for, ensuring that every touchpoint with the business contributes to building the brand effectively and with minimal communication wastage.

At this point you might be thinking you have a brand that will achieve cut-through and lead to mega-success. In all probability, you’ve just taken the first tentative steps. Wrap them in testing for audience resonance, sound marketing, a fabulous product or service, a promise that can be kept, a distinctive positioning, strong audience benefits, a relentless passion for differentiation and a host of other essential elements and you can be sure you are definitely well on your way.

David

Managing Director of Brands United and Director, BU Consulting