Brands Create Customers

One of the traditional tasks of brand practice is to spend time, energy and money to divine “brand essence.” This is the quest to distill the “soul of the brand,” that irreducible quality that will distinguish and infuse brand programs going forward. Meetings are held. Surveys conducted. Minds probed. Navels gazed. The mission statement is dusted off and re-read, often with perplexed faces. After all this, the usual result is essence by committee, one that’s “different enough” from competitors, but still more-or-less the same so it won’t disturb anyone’s routine.

It’s thus no surprise that a few years down the road, this compromise essence wanes. Sales slip. Markets are lost. The brand must be “refreshed,” and the “essence cycle” is repeated.

What a waste! There has to be a better way.

I’d like to propose a different approach to brand essence. In the true spirit of navel gazing, it’s a shift in focus: from an “inny” to an “outie.” In other words, don’t look inside for your essence. (Trust me, there’s only lint.) Find your brand essence in what you do for customers. (That’s the “outie.”) The bottom line is that your customers will define your brand essence, not you.

And I propose making brand essence action-based, rather than an inert asset. It’s much more dynamic than some sacred fluid locked in the company vault.

So here’s how I see it: The essence of brand is collaboration. Brands are collaborations in context between a company, its customers and the product. (Yes, products themselves play a role.) To change your essence, do something different with customers. If you want a better essence, create better customers.

Your essence is in their hands.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Definitions, Creating Customers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.