An animated view: how brands create value
A few days ago I came across an animated GIF that, to my mind at least, provides a moving metaphor of how brands interact with customers to create value. This particular animation wasn’t designed to explain brands—it shows how a sewing machine creates a lockstitch—but the process of stitching together two elements, in a lasting fashion, is a large part of what brands do.
Check out the animation for yourself:
Animated GIF of brand interaction and value creation—aka how a lockstitch works.
The animated brand
As I view this animation metaphorically, this is what I see happening in terms of brand.
- Imagine that the green thread represents the customer.
- The down stroke of the needle is the purchase.
- The blue thread from below represents brand value from the company.
- The rotating red arm (the hook) represents the value delivery of a brand program.
These four elements work together to bring about a fabric of co-created value. You can see the fabric being stitched together in the animation. To the right side, before the brand interaction, we see two separate layers of cloth. After the brand interaction, those two layers have been bound into a new relationship, of infinitely greater value. A strong, well-stitched fabric means brands that can be fit to the customer, and endure the test of time. Of such strong threads, enduring brand relationships are made.
What this animation reveals about brands
In this animation you can see how the resulting lockstitch is a co-creation of the customer and the brand. It shows the resulting brand fabric as a collaboration in value. Without that co-creation, the resulting stitch would be a much weaker chain stitch, a kind that can unravel easily. Cheap, flimsy brands are like a chain stitch. They’re not made to last.