Three essential tips for building a breakthrough brand.

How to build a breakthrough brand: Put people first

Whether launching a completely new venture to establish a new brand and disrupt a category, or repositioning an existing brand for renewed growth. The absolutely critical factor is to put experience at the front of all brand thinking.

Based on extensive client case examples I’ve identified the three most effective approaches to put experience at the heart of brand building.

1.Think Community first

When all the strategy work happens to build audience insights they tend to develop personas, profiles, user definitions, customer acquisition targets, portraits etc.

Thinking about customers or users in this way tends to focus on singular experience. Even in go-to-market terms, it will often be early adopters influencing later adopters etc.?

What gets missed in this approach is how will all these people collectively feel about being part of this new product/ brand? How will they talk about it, share it, feel about it together as part of its community?

There are many case studies of brands that grew from grassroots quickly establishing themselves in culture with consumers who really felt the brand was a symbol of their shared values and beliefs. These are the brands that gain consumer love and disporportionate levels of advocacy, positive sentiment and affiliation much beyond the characteristics of their product or service attributes. One good recent example is the US electric SUV/ Pickup brand Rivian . They have recently been voted most loved car brand in the US, just 2 years after launching. Their success goes beyond their commitment to an innovative vehicle, it goes deeper into every element of the brand’s commitment to the values that its consumers hold dear. It is a pledge and a platform for building a future knowing that this future can only be achieved by powering the values of their community.?

It is this reciprocal outlook to building the brand with community that is fostering the love and support that is powering the business growth.

2.Think killer experience, before killer feature

“It’s not always about what the product feature does, it’s about how the user feels about what the feature does for them.”

Too often in the early stages of a digital product business, the dev team is focusing on solving for the user problem by finding the killer feature. The one or maybe two things that the new product will do that users will value most highly.?

Unfortunately this approach can lead to developers overlooking the human side of product experience. It’s not always about what the feature does, it’s about how the user feels about what the feature does for them.

This thinking has been pivotal in my recent work in partnership with launch of Zing a new international payments card and app on behalf of 汇丰 . ?Early thinking was pointing to the ease of using Zing, how it would be quicker, or more convenient to send and spend with the platform. Now these characteristics are of course critical for any provider in this category, but in truth they’re hygeine factors, expected, not valued experiences.?

Instead I focused on how the experience of using Zing enables you to do the things most important to you as you live internationally. As I called it, “Do your Zing”. This is a deeper role and purpose for the brand delivering on the product experience to underpin the ambitions and aspirations of an entirely new generation of global travellers who hold a new set of values dear that Zing exists to serve.

3.Make the experience the brand

So assuming the first two points here have been your focus, this part is easier, because in essence you’re just shining a light on the truth of what you do and why you’re doing it.

Brands often position themselves into a space in a category because they feel that’s what they want to be seen as. But as evidenced by Rivian, loved brands are really owned as much by their customers, in just the same way fans are fierce owners of their favourite music artists or sports teams.?

Taking this approach is how new brands seem to come out of nowhere to blow up categories, think about how TikTok disrupted Instagram, Under Armour disrupted 耐克 and Airbnb disrupted Expedia. They all gather following for the experience they represent and in doing so their supportive customers apply a pressure that displaces the dominance of the existing category leader.

If you’re thinking about the challenge you’re facing to develop a new to market product and brand, and want to ensure you’re going to breakthrough against established competitors, let’s talk. If you’ve found this post valuable, please like, repost and follow for more perspectives on growth and brand building.?

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