Business professionals’ collective understanding and appreciation for the broader meaning of a brand has evolved over the past twenty-five years as greater volumes of thought leadership on the topic has eventually found its way to nearly every corner of the commercial world. Even still, certain misconceptions persist.
The true definition of a brand
Perhaps you have observed some of your colleagues demonstrate a more primitive understanding of branding by thinking and acting in a way that suggests a brand is limited only to its graphic representations, like a logo and dedicated brand colors. However, a genuine brand is not defined by a clever name, great logo, slick packaging, or a glossy ad. Rather, a genuine brand is defined by people’s overall perception of it.
Imagine it this way: on one hand, a company has a brand vision (how they want people to think of their brand), and on the other hand, is people’s perception of the brand (how customers actually think of it). Ideally, we want those two things to be aligned. Because our perceptions are formed by our experiences, the bridge between the desired image and the perceived image is the brand experience.
Experiences form perceptions
Brand experiences can be thought of as either direct or indirect. Indirect brand experiences include things like the brand’s advertising, website, social media presence, email communications, customer reviews, third party endorsements, critics’ commentary, etc. However, direct brand experiences result from actual engagement with the brand’s offerings in the form of its products and services.
For example, imagine a prospective customer going to test drive a new car model from Ford. When attempting to make a right turn out of the dealership parking lot, the car turns left instead. And maybe a wheel falls off. In that scenario, no amount of impressive advertising (an indirect brand experience) like the one that perhaps compelled the customer to test drive the car in the first place, could repair the person’s poor perception of the brand after the abysmal direct experience they had with the product.
Conversely, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant could have a loyal following and a line wrapping around the block seven days a week because of the unique quality of its food (which is a direct brand experience), while any indirect expressions of the brand, such as its name, signage, or interior decor fall far short of any competent branding professional’s standards for excellence.
So, both direct and indirect brand experiences are important because our ultimate perception of a brand is based on the sum total of all our experiences with it. Stewards for the most well-managed brands think of every interaction that someone has with the brand, whether direct or indirect, as an opportunity to express its essence with quality and consistency [see sidebar on consistency]. And every interaction results in either a deposit or withdrawal from the brand’s “bank of trust”, depending on how the person perceived the interaction.
For upstart brands, building trust and credibility from the onset is crucial. Foregoing a thoughtful brand strategy, or cutting corners on the process, compounds the risks, increases the liability, and widens the brand’s exposure to failure.
Consistency vs. Cohesion
Consistency is an often cited “rule” of branding that is largely misunderstood. The widespread preoccupation with consistency by marketing professionals may be due to the fact that the general concept is easy to understand compared to some others that are a bit more abstract (like the idea of a brand’s essence). People tend to reflexively frame it this way:
These two things are the same, so they are consistent. But this thing is not exactly like that other thing, so they are inconsistent.
But a rigid interpretation of consistency in branding is naive and limiting. Ralph Waldo Emerson had a famous quote from his essay Self-Reliance:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
In this line, he wasn’t denouncing the virtues of structure or rigor. He was attacking intellectual stagnation. To him, consistency—merely for the sake of it—limits opportunities and impedes growth. This is very true in managing brands. To make room for a brand to thrive and evolve like a “living organism” it is better to think in terms of cohesion. Set boundaries, stay within them, but leave some latitude to maneuver. The important thing is that everything feels like it’s hanging together.
Controlling the narrative
Thoughtful expressions of a brand aspire to convey its essence in some way, and when done well, create an observable through-line that provides a sense of cohesion. A well-formed brand strategy should explicitly identify and describe the brand’s essence, which functions to provide the brand concept with a center of gravity, and often forms the basis for the brand story.
We hear people talk about controlling narratives—to win political favor, to minimize the damaging effects of some bad PR, or to build affinity for certain products and services, as is the case in brand marketing.
Every brand has a story, whether the brand’s leadership crafted that story with specific intent or not. If they don’t, their customers will, because that’s the way we’re wired.
As we mentioned in a previous post people don’t buy things, they buy stories. Brands that conscientiously drive their own narratives are in a much more advantageous position.
The power of emotional storytelling
The most effective brand stories appeal to human emotions, which has much greater potential to build affinity for the brand than a rational presentation of a product’s features and benefits. Brand stories containing ideas that reflect their target audience’s deep beliefs or passions have the effect of reinforcing people’s ideal image of themselves. In a way, forming an affiliation with a brand and the story that surrounds it, can help people feel more like the person they want to be. At the same time, good brand stories can provide much more substance, purpose and meaning to a brand’s offerings, lifting it above the sea of sameness that is characteristic of many competitive fields.
Case study: Moleskine’s brand story
Consider the example of Moleskine notebooks. They are handsome, well crafted, have useful features like ribbon bookmarks, elastic band closures, and a handy folder pocket in the back of the book to collect sundry loose leaf items. They use proprietary paper that delivers an unmatched writing experience. They come in many sizes and page patterns for different uses.
Over time, an abundance of copy cat products have emerged on the market, with varying degrees of quality. None meet Moleskine’s standard, but some get pretty close when comparing physical properties alone. But none of them possess the gestalt that Moleskine enjoys, which emanates from its brand story.
It’s Moleskine’s story that truly sets it apart, beginning with the rich history of the brand, buttressed by all the famous literary and artistic minds throughout the decades that swore by them including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin. The brand story is further elevated in Moleskine’s manifesto which beautifully expresses the brand’s higher purpose, informed by a set of core beliefs:
At Moleskine we believe in the timeless power of handwriting as an essential expression of human civilization, a powerful act to unleash human genius and foster the development and sharing of literacy and knowledge. In a fast-paced technological era, we proudly celebrate the artistry of the human touch; the enduring pleasure of putting pen to paper to unleash your unique voice. We celebrate the solemn, thoughtful and meditative gesture of the pen gliding across a blank page; the romance of crafting a personal story to record a lifelong memory and leave a distinguishing mark in all its unique beauty. Handwriting is both universal and deeply personal. It’s a thoughtful way to express your true self and connect to others in a very intimate yet universally accessible way.
Put pen to paper, and unleash your unique voice.
Powerful stories like these can and should be reinforced with every one of the brand’s expressions, across all touch points. Through emotional storytelling, brands can shape perceptions in a way that create deeper connections with their customers, progressively fostering preference, then loyalty and ultimately the holy grail—advocacy.
Experiences can be designed
In summary, the true definition of a brand is the collective perception of it by all the constituents in its value chain. And their perceptions are formed by the sum total of all their experiences with the brand, both direct and indirect.
This line of thinking in its simplest form concludes that Brand = Experience. When accepting that essential framing, it’s important to note that everything is an experience. And experiences can be designed.
