The Omnipresence Of Brand and ‘Total Brand Strategy’

We are obsessed with putting things into neat little boxes. Tidy definitions aid the sell and give our egos hills to die on. You’d know this already if you’ve had to stomach a debate amongst strategists on Twitter.

The problem with neat little boxes is that what we sell doesn’t always fit in them. People aren’t personas, creativity isn’t a science, and brands are anything but basic. We trim off the frayed little edges and squish down complexity to make things fit. I think we might call this ‘decision-making’, but it’s easier to sweep all our choices into a broom cupboard and act like they never existed. Choices are essential, but having made one, our only path forward is with the confidence we made the right one regardless of the outcome. Better to forge ahead than become paralysed.

Choices are therefore traded on confidence and confidence lives in abundance in Adland. Ask anyone in the industry for a definition of culture, insight, or what constitutes a big idea and you’ll be bored to death before reaching a conclusion. This is in no way their fault. The simple reality is that these concepts are just that - conceptual. They are subjective in nature and open to a wide range of interpretations.

So, in keeping with this tradition, I’m going to confidently talk to you about the concept of brand and why some thinking on the subject disguises a bigger picture. This is not to say I believe other people’s definitions of brand are completely wrong, but rather that they may be incomplete.

For some marketers, the 4Ps represent distinct pillars of marketing. Many believe these pillars do different things and therefore do not overlap. When talking about brand, they often talk about a singular P - Promotion. In this view, brand is an effect projected outward by marketing teams or their agencies. A causality of intentional strategy - or what they describe as their brand strategy. Brand strategy is therefore thought of as a promotional tool that we fully control. I’m not sure how many marketers think this way. I hope very few because this outward, one-dimensional view of brand is, in my opinion, limited. Or at least, the creation of intentional associations through a coherent and consistent communication strategy is only one way in which the construct of brand can be formed.

In reality, brands are ever-evolving tapestries. They are collections of associations loosely held and agreed upon by disparate groups of people who have never met. Intrasubjective ideas that are gradually sketched over time with the hope the picture they describe becomes clearer and cleaner. Yet, the lines we sketch are constantly drawn over by our choices and again by the normal people who experience our brand. The associations formed around a product or company aren’t just from what we communicate about the product or company. They are also formed by how people use the product, their experience of using it, how they perceive others who experience it, their perception of its value, and their experiences in the place they buy it. All of these things and many other micro-moments along the way contribute to the intrasubjective construct of brand. In this way, brands are formed by all members of the 4Ps. A great deal of things that businesses do, communicate, and a great deal of things that are communicated are more memorable than advertising.

This is important for us to understand. Rather than brand strategy being enacted primarily through communication channels and campaigns, brand strategy is, in fact, an umbrella high above all of the 4Ps which consequently requires a bird’s-eye view of every choice being made across the business which in turn communicates some form of information exchange. As such, those responsible for gardening the construct of brand will need to input into all of these functions.

For example:

Myriad choices in defining the product shape its brand.

Myriad choices in how the product is priced shape its brand.

Myriad choices in where and how the product is sold shape its brand.

And yes, myriad choices in how the product is communicated shape its brand.

Controlling all of these things from a singular viewpoint is incredibly difficult given the number of choices needed to create a coherent sense of brand, but perhaps that’s why so few coherent brands exist that seem to get all of these things right. I’m sure you can think of only a handful.

What I’m describing may be thought of in a similar vein to the concept of Total War (often attributed in essence to Carl Von Clausewitz, but detailed in the work of Stig F?rster). A Totalitarian view of military goals being accomplished by all means necessary and inclusive of all resources available to the state. Thankfully, I’m just talking about how conceptually brand can be contributed to by all resources available to the company. You don’t have to go blowing up your competitors.

But the idea of a fully integrated, albeit, slightly Totalitarian view of how brands are built is a valid one. So, to continue this analogy, let’s call this approach to brand-building Total Brand Strategy.

“A brand is shaped through a series of moments which people remember and associate with one another” — Paul Bailey, Brand Strategy Director, Halo

In the context of Total Brand Strategy, every choice that communicates information to customers will also create the potential for memorable moments. Moments that if executed alongside the effective use of distinctive assets, will become what Paul Bailey described as Associated Memorable Moments?. I believe this opens up a world of opportunity for our thinking around brand-building, much of which tends to be executed within silos or as after-thoughts. To change this, I’m going to look at a selection of ways brands have built memorable moments and how some have become signature moments - the kind of experiences characterised by long-lasting brand associations and the envy of their competition.

Buying the product

The experience of buying your product can offer opportunities to create memorable moments. If you’re an alcohol brand, this could be in the serve (the slice of lime with a Corona or the bucket four of them come in, the time spent waiting for a perfect pour of Guinness). While these examples are specific to product consumption moments, the experience of buying itself can offer opportunities for the unexpected. When you buy a Tiffany engagement ring you are offered a free glass of champagne. And why not? This is a luxurious moment for celebration, after all. Prett a Manger empowered its baristas to give away free coffee to customers. This created an opportunity to lift a customer’s mood and create a positive memorable moment for them while empowering staff by making their day-to-day job more emotionally fulfilling. Hyperoptic Broadband goes the extra mile during installation by offering to contact your landlord directly to arrange everything needed to install their product, which often involves messily drilling through walls. Removing the tricky conversations and awkward lulls in the product experience is a simple but greatly appreciated act.

Opening the product

There’s something magical about unboxing a product for the first time. Many brands know this and have rightly spent an enormous amount of money perfecting the moment. Apple is perhaps best known for its slick, engineered boxes that slide open slowly to increase the sense of anticipation. And if you can believe it, peeling off the plastic protectors on electronic devices is now something many people savour with others. There’s a sort of ASMR cult for these sorts of things on YouTube if you’re so inclined. In automotive, Tesla cars are delivered to your door as standard, and my Audi dealer offered to pay for a hotel knowing I needed to travel a while to reach their dealership. There are many ways brands can create memorable surprises in the ‘opening’ experience, or indeed, in its closing. For example, ice lollies have a joke written on the stick, and there are sometimes games or activities printed on the inside of chocolate wrappers. Enjoyable little gems you can discover once the joy of the product has expired. Personal touches in the opening of a product go a long way to making the experience memorable. Your name handwritten in a Net A Porter and Mr Porter box emphasises their sense of personal service and is often what their customers love to talk about.

Using the product

How we use a product is full of potentially memorable moments. The snap of a KitKat provides a sonic device as well as a means of stamping the time it takes to eat it. The sound of products is naturally memorable from a neuroscience perspective, or even the lack thereof. David Ogilvy’s iconic ad for Rolls Royce helped cement this idea of driving one being serenely quiet. The weight of a Mont Blanc pen confirms its quality and value. Our experiences of using a product can be open to personal preferences. People often have their own little routines. I for one have a very specific way of eating chocolate bars. I take great care in trying to unwrap the plastic to create a perfect horizontal line halfway down. I have no idea why. Perhaps I saw it represented this way in an ad as a child and became obsessed with recreating the image. Cadbury Creme Egg created a whole campaign just about this one thing. When the product itself is a place rather than an object, there are naturally potential spaces or times where memorable moments can be achieved. Receiving a warm cookie when checking in at a Double Tree Hotel is just one example.

Owning the product

Memorable moments can be created beyond the initial use of the product. In 1983, Natwest created a new account designed for children which came with an initial piggy bank called Woody. They could acquire the rest of the piggy family as their savings grew. There were five piggy banks in total. I was the proud owner of all five until I saw how much I could sell them for on eBay. I am, however, a loyal Natwest customer to this day. Collectables are one way of building memorable moments that contribute to brand, and another example of this is the packaging that the product comes in. Many cosmetic brands arrive in luxurious beautifully designed boxes, which are worth keeping purely for their aesthetic place in the home. Tiffany’s iconic turquoise bag and its white ribbon is a status signal and worth displaying. The JD Sports and IKEA bags have also taken on collective cultural value and are reused as fashion symbols. A more surprising example of a branded collectable was found in Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Upper Class’, where the salt and pepper shakers carried a message on the bottom encouraging customers to steal them. Again, this served as a status signal in the homes of those that did. But at the more budget end of the scale, the branded glasses you find in pubs’ aren’t purely for delivering the perfect serve, but are also intended to be stolen and to live on in the cupboards of punters.

The power of small and unexpected gestures

With most of the examples above, there is a sense of the unexpected or that our expectations are being surpassed. Our expectations are weighted against the status quo and therefore equal to the homogeny of the category. For moments to become memorable, they must consciously surpass this barrier and be acknowledged as being more than what was expected. Going the extra mile when others will not results in experiences that may be remembered across entire lifetimes. One example of this is from the world of Michelin-starred restaurants where should you order the tasting menu, you will leave with a little sealed envelope with that evening’s menu printed inside on gorgeous matte stock. It is essentially a self-contained time capsule for you to stash away in a drawer somewhere at home. Another example from the world of restaurants comes from Rory Sutherland, where a London restaurant’s wine pairing was essentially a series of standardly priced wines, perhaps cheaper by the glass than comparable wine pairings at other eateries. At least, except for the last glass of the evening where the Sommelier had poured those savings into a much more expensive glass of Burgundy Grand Crux. As such, the meal ended on a euphoric high as those who cared enough about wine to order the pairing, and were familiar with this Burgundy, could savour the moment of drinking it. Special unexpected moments that surpass our expectations. And in cases such as the wine pairing example, these are moments that we may not decide for ourselves given a choice. Sometimes having a luxurious option chosen for us shuts down our ability to rationalise ourselves out of indulgence. An example of this I experienced recently was at the end of my Invisalign treatment. I’d invested a fair amount of money straightening my teeth, but due to a rather drunken evening at university many moons ago, one of my front teeth had a small chip in it. My dentist decided that in order for me to appreciate the effects of the Invisalign treatment fully, she would repair the chip free of charge. Suddenly my teeth appeared more perfect and the value I attributed to the Invisalign product for achieving these results soured.

In the world of digital brands, there are naturally less tangible opportunities to create memorable moments. That is, memorable moments are less likely to exist digitally than in physical spaces or by putting something in a customer’s hands. We may trick ourselves into thinking adding snow to an app during December or balloons to a digital experience on a customer’s birthday will elicit the same positive associations as described in the examples above. Sadly, this isn’t the case and for some people, these unexpected digital flourishs are more unwanted than appreciated. That isn’t to say memorable moments can’t be created digitally. I just haven’t personally come across any worth noting in this article.

Should all brands have a signature moment?

We have a degree of control over what becomes part of the brand and what doesn’t. Beyond what we communicate about a product or company, we can create multiple memorable moments. I believe the challenge for brand owners and their agencies is less in creating these moments, as in my view, there are so many places to go searching for them. Instead, the challenge is curating them as part of a larger, coherent and consistent story. Ultimately, this is the essence of brand strategy. As a starting point, I would encourage teams to consider the following areas for research and ideation.

• How can we make the purchasing experience unexpectedly memorable?
• How could receiving and opening the product be more endearing?
• How might the product or its packaging continue to add value way passed its initial usage?
• How could the experience of using the product be something people will remember fondly?
• Where in all of the above are the weakest or strongest emotional peaks, and how might we elevate them differently to our competition?

If you would like a guide to help you or your team embark on the journey of creating more memorable moments for your brand, then please reach out to me.

Thank you to Pete Scanlon, Joel Stein, Ann Storr, Rachel Davis, John Lyons, Dave Wakeman, Marc R?ger, Adam Knott, Jane Goldman, Alice Salisbury, Pollyanna Ward, Steve Price, Will Humphrey, Craig Sanderson, Fran Perillo, Reuben Turner, Matt Sibley, for their contributions to the discussion on this subject, and credits to Paul Bailey and Rory Sutherland for the work I referenced in the article.