Brands Create Customers

It usually happens like this: I’m describing how a new approach to brands can be the best thing since sliced bread when someone in the room says: “That sounds great, but my company really doesn’t need a brand. We’re not in retail. We’re not a consumer goods company. We don’t worry about packaging and shelf space and stuff like that.”

There are several ways to address the “brands don’t apply to us” issue. I like to start with the universal form of brand that runs like a dial-tone through all markets, affecting all companies.

“What about your default brand?” I ask. “That’s the brand your market assigns to you. Every company has a default brand, whether they realize it or not.”

I explain that a company’s default brand is called caveat emptor. This brand premise is embedded in potential customers. It’s been driven deep into their minds by society, the market, and by their own experience. It tells them that until they know otherwise, their behavior toward you should be “buyer beware.”

Caveat emptor is the first hurdle you cross as you build your active brand to create customers.

And yes, it is your brand, until you demonstrate otherwise.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 6:52 am and is filed under Definitions, Fundamentals. 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.