Brands Create Customers

Ever since our revered Patron Saint laid down the rule that brand builders must be the life of the party, we’ve been on the lookout for blood-quickening quips to make others raise a glass, raise a few eyebrows, or, worst case, raise a few fists.

Here is my humble contribution: an initial set of brand-related asides, aphorisms and epigrams to heat up a corner conference room or out-of-office bacchanal.

They’re “infamous” because they contravene conventional brand doctrine–and therefore generate hope for brands themselves.

Note: See Part II here.

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Take the brand builder test

The brand builder test: Explain why Capuchin, Capulet and cappuccino are heaven on the lips. (Brand builders know the answer because brands are a craft of culture.)

How the brand relates to sales

If the sole purpose of your brand is sales, your brand will sell you short.

Brand positioning

What counts in brands is not how you position the company. What counts is how you position the customer.

Brands vs. marketing

Everyone wants a brand experience. No one wants a marketing experience.

Brand icons

In brands we want less icon and more innovation. Icons are dead relics. Customers can do better.

Brands that control customers

Brands that aim to contain, corral and control customers create wonderful markets on the other side of the fence.

Brand integrity

The brand is never the face of a company. Faces fib. The brand is the spine.

Brand thinking

Brand thinking begins by asking these three questions:

1. What is holding our customers back?
2. How can we advance our customers beyond the reach of competitors?
3. How can our customers add value back to our brand?

Brands and illusion

♣  Brands made of make-believe fool the company more than they fool customers.

♣  When the brand’s a charade, finances soon follow.

Brands that change the game

If you want your brand to change the game, start by changing the customer.

Brands of emotion

Brands focus on customer feelings when they have no strategy to deliver customer freedoms.

Brand theater

If you design your brand as theater, plan to sell tickets.

Brand loyalty

The loyalty of the brand to what it stands for. Loyal brands earn customer trust.

Brand potential

Brands are company potential X customer potential. (Your brand frees customers to grow, and to take you with them, using the platforms you provide.)

Brand stories

Brands that can, do. Brands that can’t, tell stories.

Great brands

A great brand does not do more for its customers. A great brand frees customers to do more for themselves.

Brand image

Companies create customers in their own image. Standout brands create standout customers.

Brands and true believers

Brands that seek true believers are brands that don’t believe in customers–or in themselves.

Brand promise

No one goes to a restaurant because it promises great food. They go there because it serves great food. Weak brands promise. Great brands deliver.

Brand character

Companies with character create brands with character. Don’t confuse brand character with “brand personality.” A “brand personality”  is a brand that blinks.

Brand failure

Brands fail when they stop listening and start telling.

The brand myth

If your brand isn’t the truth, use a myth.

The difference between a brand and a label

The difference between a brand and a label is that the brand leads, while the label follows you around.

Brands are the generative organs of business

Brands are the generative organs of business. They fertilize, conceive, gestate and give birth to living customers.

How to make your products fly off the shelf

The best way to make your products fly off the shelf is to give wings to your customers. Your brand is their ticket to fly.

Market research

The process of continually subdividing a population until you come up with nothing but lemmings.

Why you must protect your brand from bean-counters

Brands designed by bean-counters run mostly on fumes.

Photo: Hysterical Bertha — Flickr

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Brand Culture, Brand Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.