General Branding
by Brad VanAuken
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The Strongest Brands | The
Quick Brand Health Assessment | Top
Brands | Customer Loyalty
Awards | CMA 2004 Brand
Metrics Study
The Strongest Brands
The strongest brands aren't created with a logo or a tag line.
They aren't created with an advertising campaign. They aren't
even created with a product or service. They begin with a compelling
vision—a vision whose foundation is deep customer insight. The
insight may be informed by personal experience, in-depth research,
active listening, intuition, or one or more of many other paths to
customer intimacy.
The strongest brands strive to understand cultural context, underlying
values, hopes, anxieties, fears and other motivations. They also strive
to understand self image, icons that evoke strong memories and feelings
and other emotional stimuli. The most progressive organizations find
ways to experience relevant contexts and situations with their customers.
The strongest brands are authentic and stand for something. They possess
integrity. That is, they are internally and externally consistent;
they are who they say they are.
The strongest brands have a distinctive and consistent ‘voice' and
visual style. They weave compelling stories. And they strive to develop
emotional connections to their intended customers.
The strongest brands transcend specific products, services and delivery
vehicles. These brands are most closely associated with functional,
emotional, experiential and self-expressive customer benefits. They
exist to meet deeply felt human needs in unique and superior ways.
Is yours one of these brands? I hope that it is.
The Quick Brand Health Assessment (Or, you know your brand
is winning in the marketplace when…)
- The brand is mentioned to customers and potential customers, and
they brim with enthusiasm in their response.
- Your brand's external messages “ring true” with
all employees.
- Employees are enthusiastic and consistent in recounting what makes
their brand special.
- The brand's market share is increasing.
- Competitors always mention your brand as a point of reference.
- The press can't seem to write enough about your brand.
- Your CEO has a strong vision for the organization and its brand.
He or she talks more about the vision than financial targets.
- Your organization's leaders always seem to “talk the
brand” and “walk the brand talk.”
Top Brands
20,000 brands were evaluated against the following three foundational
components of winning brands: (1) performance, (2) treatment and (3)
community. Performance is measured by product trials, blind tests,
etc. Treatment addresses whether the brand resolves customers' conflicts,
adapts to their needs and is convenient for them. Community addresses
whether people identify with other users and ‘feel a part of
the club.'
The brands that best deliver against each foundational component (in
rank order) are as follows:
Foundational Component |
Top Brands |
Performance |
Toyota, Honda, Saturn, Michelin,
Craftsman, eBay, Dell, Apple, MapQuest, Timex |
Treatment |
Wal-Mart, Saturn, Home Depot, Buick,
Toyota, Allstate, Costco, Wells Fargo, Southwestern Bell, UPS |
Community |
Sam's Club, Saturn, Toyota,
Wall Street Journal, Costco, NFL Monday Night Football, Honda,
eBay, Apple, Wal-Mart |
Source: Jaya Kumar, Senior Director, CRM, Kraft Foods, Inc., Innovation
in Food & Beverage Marketing Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
Tuesday, November 25, 2003.
The same study indicated that most brands fell short on the “community” component.
Customer Loyalty Awards
For the sixth year in a row, BrandKeys has assessed customer loyalty
to brands across a number of product categories (31 in 2003). Following
are the brands with the highest loyalty in select categories:
Category |
Brand |
Airline |
Jet Blue/Southwest (tie) |
Long Distance Carrier |
Sprint/Verizon (tie) |
Online Books/Music |
Amazon.com |
Online Brokerage |
CharlesSchwab.com |
Quick-Serve Food |
Subway |
Search Engine |
Google.com |
CMA 2004 Brand Metrics Study
Following are some key learnings from the recently published Canadian
Marketing Association 2004 Brand Metrics Study:
Please rate the following
statements for their fit with your company's definition
of brand or brands: (% saying “high“ fit) |
Brand is the holistic customer experience
of product, service, and organization |
73% |
Brand is the communication-based representation
of product or service |
58% |
Brand is everything that distinguishes us
from our competition |
55% |
Brand is the visual identification of product
or service |
54% |
Brand is the definition, the identity, the
soul, the DNA of our company |
54% |
Brand is the delivery of product or service |
47% |
Brand is our company's products or series
of products |
37% |
Brand is the execution of our business strategy |
28% |
|
© 2004 CMA Brand Metrics Study |
For more information or to order your copy of the report, please go to
http://www.the-cma.org/research/brandMetrics.cfm
