Review: Building Better Brands by Scott Lerman

What makes a great brand? How do you measure how effective it is? How can you know if there is a way to make it better? Accordingly to Scott Lerman: A great brand is actionable, compelling, and true. Two out of three won't do. It must be a blend of all three.

So, let's break this concept down:

• Actionable: everyone responsible for what is made, said, and done knows the do's and don'ts for success.
• Compelling: They must be inspiring to insiders and outsiders, exerting a strong pull on target audiences. You wanna be a part of it or its purpose in society.
• True: Make it true to its culture and capabilities. Alling it with the expectation of the outside audience.

If you're able to bring these three together, you'll have a brand that will become known for something important, instantly recognizable, and improves its ability to compete on the market. But why should we build a better brand? Mainly because it creates an asset that drives choice and retention. It will help them short-list you and build loyalty.

So, in order to understand how can we do it on each step, let's take a look at the Gates of choice or funnel of any brand/product.

1. Entry (Brand Identity): Here comes the brand identity which includes name and logo and must be distinctive, memorable, protectable, and appropriate. That's what is seen and remembered, even though it's overrated.
2. Long-list (Arena): It's a statement of where the brand chooses to complete and must be general in order that the consumer might easily include it in its wish long-list.
3. Short-list (Positioning): That's where the magic happens. It's the relative relationship of a brand to its competitors.
4. Win (Character): In a short-list, everyone has a reason to be there, so what is key to the consumer is defining the brand that he/she wants to be associated with. Of course its relevance in correlation with the importance of the brand. The more significant it is the more it matters. Think for example of a company you're interviewing to work for, if they do not play by a character that you wanna be associated with, you're probably not going there, no matter how much money they throw at you.
5. Retain (Experience): A consistent failure to deliver on a brand's promise will lead to its failure. So as important as selling, it ensuring high-quality services exceeding expectations.

Audiences experience brands by moving through the gates of choice. But crafting the elements that define each gate needs to be done in a different order.

Character drives all of the choices made by the organization. Then Arena defines the playing field and dictates whom you're trying to reach. Positioning determines your strategy for appealing to key audiences. Then experience, it's when the full brand story unfolds and finally, identity comes as a container of brand meaning.

The brands that are most successful are predictable or (predictably unpredictable). You understand their characters, so you have a good sense of they act, sound, feel and even smell.

Character is a truth inside the organization, so its development comes from within. The Arena is constrained by what is understood by key audiences and the more focused it is, the easier it gets to explain and for people to remember. Broader Arenas on the other hand allow you to reach larger potential audiences.

But when it comes to Positioning, we've got a mix driven by internal and external forces as getting a short-list requires communication-specific reasons (attributes) that are most important to a target audience. Here we can find what's named Brand territory, the playfields you to choose to be at and to focus on. Usually, there are five archetypes that you can fill with your attributes. Even though most brands do touch most of them, the best ones center on one or two. Less obvious positioning is a good way to stand out.

• Assets --> What we control
• Offer --> Our products and services (The container store or The home depot)
• Approach --> How do we do Things (Jetblue)
• Skills --> The skills we apply (Mckinsey)
• Mission --> the ideal that drives us (American Red Cross)

Attributes represent what might be important to a range of customers, employees, and other key audiences. Listing them all in each category is a good starting point for brand positioning. From this list you must identify the most powerful ones and a good framework to do that is P.I.E which extends for Potential, Importance, and Ease.

• Potential is the relative leverage of one attribute versus another to drive choice.
• Importance is a ranking of the attributes that influence choice most to least.
• Ease is a combination of factors, such as cost, how much it fits your characters, and how believable it is to your audiences.

The key ones are centered in the intersection, and you must pick up three and articulate an elegant statement that captures a differentiated competitive positioning, as well as the unique character of the organization. Then, you should analyze all your experience and understand if it fits your new positioning. If it doesn't then elaborate short, mid, and long-terms to adapt it and make it consistent in all channels and interactions.

Then you get to brand identity and before pursuing a massive change, analyze 5 criteria to see how far you should go and what really needs to be done. Changing just for a change can be a trap you must avoid.

• Equity: the value in existing brand elements
• Fit: the gap or alignment between what exists and what the brand character and positioning requires
• Effectiveness: the performance of existing brand elements
• Signal: the magnitude of the "splash" you want to make
• Cost: the money, time, and attention needed to make the brand program work.

Well, I do believe that this piece offers a wonderful and one-of-a-kind step-by-step guide for brand development, but even though you're not pursuing a project as big as this one, I do hope it gets you insights that will make you reflect on how the brand of your company and products it's been build and delivered. Do you really have the best brand you might have?