Strategy. Innovation. Brand.

Brand

KISS Your Brand

Many of my clients are small to medium-sized software companies. They love to talk about their technology and features in very serious tones. Unfortunately, all their competitors are doing the same. The result is a mishmash of jargon, acronyms, and general confusion.

Business executives — the ones who actually make purchase decisions — don’t really understand it all. So they opt for safety — a large company with a known brand. Generally, the safe choice is not my client.  I tell my clients that they need to make a very simple, very clear statement of why they’re the better choice than the safe choice. Technical arguments don’t work well. Rather, the brand statement should revolve around a cluster of easily understood benefits, like flexibility, simplicity, or cost.  Keep it simple and use a little humor to attract attention.  Here’s how Lawson used simplicity and humor to project their brand argument: simpler is better.

Branding – The Emotional Appeal

Toothpaste has shown us that you can brand a product by stating a benefit or by appealing to authority (coupled with endless repetition).   But what about emotion?  Isn’t that useful in branding? Of course, it is.  And that’s why we see so many animals in branding campaigns — animals appeal to us in emotional ways.  Let’s look at another toothpaste brand – Ipana – to learn the secrets of using animals in building your brand.

Branding – Benefit, Authority, and Memory

Toothpaste seems like your basic commodity product. After all, toothpaste is toothpaste.  So how do you stand out in an overcrowded market? One way is to state a benefit.  Another way is to appeal to authority.  Let’s look at two classic toothpaste campaigns — Pepsodent and Crest — to see how these approaches work.  They can also teach us how to make a brand memorable through rhythm, rhyme and repetition.  You might call them the 3R’s of branding. Learn more in the video.

Priming Your Audience

What happens when you think about words like “old”, “bald”, “wrinkled”, “retired”, and “Florida”?  These are all words associated with old age.  When you think about words like these, you start to behave like an older person. Indeed, you even walk more slowly than you would if you had thought about “young” words instead.

It’s an important concept called priming.  Your audience is probably thinking about something before you communicate to them.  What they’re thinking has a considerable influence on how your message is received.

So what can you do about it?  First, you should know what’s on your audience’s mind before you begin,  If the audience is positively primed, you may not need to do much more.  If they’re negatively primed, however, you’ll need to take a second step and re-prime them.  You can do this be carefully choosing the words and images you evoke as you set the stage.  Learn more in the video.

Change the Channel

You’re communicating with a colleague at work and your message is not getting through. Maybe you have the wrong message. Or maybe you have the wrong channel. When the going gets tough, it may be time to change the channel. Learn more in the video.

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