Great brands simplify, and intensify
Every brand has to focus its value stream to deliver an optimal experience to customers. This is not a matter of managing dozens of brand “touchpoints.” It’s understanding the very few elements that define the brand experience in its purest form.
The key is to simplify, and intensify.
Powder ski destination Alta, Utah seems to understand this principle. The resort sees its mission as connecting skiers to the snow, in a simple, no-frills setting, so the elements can speak for themselves.
Purists drive simplicity, and intensity
Alta attracts purists who want the pristine powder experience. There’s a brand lesson here. Purists simplify and intensify by their very nature. And purists are often the power behind brands, both from the company side and the customer side. Purists are brand drivers. They know what counts. They don’t settle for less.
Alta is sometimes criticized because it lacks the glitz and glamor of high-style destinations such as Vail, but glitz and glamor often means a long wait in a lift line, and a longer wait for dinner. Not much simplicity, or intensity, in that.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
[...] Great brands like Jaguar and Land Rover live by their own logic and passion. They create customers in their own image. This is a process of brand intensity, a reduction to pristine elements of heightened existence. If a new corporate owner makes a brand more of what it is, unleashing potential locked within, then the brand can thrive anew, as in BMW’s glorious resurrection of the Mini. But if a new corporate owner believes that buying a famed brand is nothing more than buying a selling point, the brand can lose its vision—for itself and its customers. Customers—always the brand canaries—will sense this in a heartbeat. The interior feels low rent and, insignificant as it might sound, the electric aerial is a joke on a car costing in excess of £60,000. Jaguar needs to look forward and to change its focus. I know many point the finger of blame firmly at Jaguar’s Ford parent company, but the Blue Oval has poured money into the firm but the excuses always seem to be the same – ‘wait until you see what’s coming next’. Jaguar has tantalised us frequently in recent years with concepts promising new directions, svelte styling and innovation like the R-D6 concept . . . a big diesel GT four-door coupé. Did they build it? Nope. [...]