Why Customers Buy Brands, Not Products

Alex said to Mary, “I am the man of your dreams.” Though a little presumptuous, Alex nevertheless believed in marketing himself directly. After dating Alex for several weeks, laughing together, and generally enjoying Alex’s company, Mary said, “I believe that you are the man of my dreams.” Alex had successfully branded his message with Mary.

The difference between sales/marketing and branding is essentially this: sales/marketing is telling the customer about your product or service, whereas branding is about what your customer believes your product or service can do for them.

Scott Bedbury, one of the most successful branding gurus of the twentieth century, was president of marketing during Starbucks’s rise to preeminence within the coffee industry. As head of advertising for Nike he transformed the brand image into something spectacular, using the tag line “Just Do It.” Suddenly Nike went from being an image about sneakers to a product about values and esprit. Bedbury wrote a book called A Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the Twenty-First Century (Penguin Books, 2003) in which he tells about transforming Starbuck’s brand core identity from “engineering a great cup of coffee” to “providing a great coffee experience.” “We wanted to reward our customers with consistently better service, not a sometimes cheaper cup of coffee,” he said.

Declaring “relevance, simplicity, and humanity—not technology—will distinguish brands in the future,” Bedbury proposed a humanistic approach to branding by championing two key aspects of a brand: love and trust, he says, are critical for success. No amount of advertising can help a company or product if it lacks a soul or heart, he explains, since both are required for marketing to resonate with consumers.

Mary felt that Alex loved her more than any of her other suitors because he was radically different from the others. In winning Mary, Alex had followed the advice of leading marketing and branding experts. See what your competitors are doing, and then do something completely and originally different—something that makes the customer feel special, wanted, and cherished.

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.” – Jeff Bezos

by - Randy Kay

(pacesetters.training and tenorcorp.com) - "We're in the business of people."