Happy new year folks. I hope you all enjoyed the break. Here’s to a 2013, filled with happiness and joy.
During one of the quieter nights of the break. I was looking for a DVD and decided to watch ‘The Kings Speech.’ Apart from being a wonderful tale of the Kings battle to overcome his stammer, there was a part of the film that served as a wonderful reminder to me of the art of positioning.
At the height of the Kings despair with his speech problems. His wife, the duchess of York, visits a small, self-assured therapist named Mr Lionel Logue. In the introductory scene, what impressed me the most was the way, in which Mr Logue held his position and dictated the terms to his supposed superiors. Regardless of who they were.
Yes, he could fix the Kings speech but only in the solace and safety of his own office, they would work in complete privacy and he would not accept calling the future king his ‘Royal Highness’ during treatment. Just ‘Bertie.’ A privelidge offered to few.
“My house, my rules!”
I couldn’t help but thinking I was watching a positioning masterclass. Who gets away with talking to the future king in such a way?
Mr Logues ability along with the Kings desperation undeniably played a part. But the way he set out his stall was magnificent.
He stood his ground. And the rapport he eventually develops with the king over a long time is one that is founded on mutual respect not of master and slave.
Too many businesses continue to undersell themselves. Not only in price but also with their terms. Not everybody has the unique ability to solve distressing problems like in the film which has a clear emotional value. But those with a more valuable proposition should consider whether they have a stronger hand.
Brand communication has a lot to do with it but brand behaviour is even more critical. Does your actions befit the brand that you work for? If I go into a McDonalds restaurant, I expect to be given precisely everything I want for that price.
Its what I am paying for.
Go into a Michelin starred restaurant and I need the chef to take the lead. To educate me and to blow me away with the quality of food and service. Anything short of that is going to be a betrayal of the business, the brand and its accreditation. Its where branding begins to fail. Similarly if I walk into a tailor in Saville Row, I fully expect them to use their expertise, skill and experience to know what works for a man of my height, proportions, skin colour, etc, etc. There is no way I should be dictating terms to them. I am paying them a premium for their valued expertise.
With that in mind, two big positioning trends to look out for this year. Particularly with today’s economic conditions…
Seeing past the want and into what consumers need is already important but it will become even more so as just about every traditional trade/service from website design to accountancy to plumbing reaches a saturation point with premium/specialist brands being FORCED to further differentiate themselves from more commoity based offerings.
Secondly and in a similar vein, information is cheap. With the internet it’s as much a commodity as anything else. However, there is a demand for bespoke assistance. For example, selling generic ‘social media training,’ with every social site from LinkedIN to Youtube sharing the main info on the website themselves for free, is a hard sell. Bespoking that advice for your clients does have value.
Changing tact slightly…
I dont like ‘nice.’ It’s dull!
People can get ordinary, convenient and nice in abundance, anywhere. But where there is value (and healthy profit margins) to be had is in the exceptional, special and outstanding.
The special business’s get paid more to do what they do best. But they first need to position themselves accordingly. It means not appealing to everybody, being picky about who you work with and remaining true to your position.
Before doing that, dig out the Kings Speech and watch that first scene I mentioned.
Positioning brands to succeed in the marketplace is one of our core services. If you want to know how to do it better?
Give us a bell.
Benedetto
About the Author
Benedetto Bordone
Creative Director of the loft.
Benedetto runs the creative design consultancy, the loft. Based in the centre of Glasgow, the loft creates emotionally engaging brand identities.
Benedetto began his design career aged 9, sketching cars in the loft bedroom of his parents house. Even then he realised some eternal truths. Alfa Romeos are infinitely cooler than Ferraris and always have been. Time has only hardened this opinion. Since then, he has been on a journey taking him from his hometown in Kilmarnock to Coventry, studying car design aged 17, three separate spells in Italy followed where he interned, worked & freelanced for distinguished design companies – BeeStudio, Alfa Romeo, Honda Advanced design & Stile Bertone.
Setting up his own business was a natural step for somebody as independently minded as Benedetto. The loft was set up in 2008 and offers a comprehensive branding and communication service to its clients. The company combines a deeply analytical approach into the clients culture and commercial targets before engaging in creative design work to build emotive brands.
Oct
Emotive Branding
Posted by benbordone / Comment, News
I have toyed a great deal with this phrase over the last couple of weeks. You see, I am in the process of writing an e-book at the moment. And the title has changed so many times now, I am thinking of just leaving it blank. The e-book will explain the importance of branding and giving some advice on the subject. You see, when I am writing, the subject continuously return to ’emotion.’ Now this is a difficult one. We in the west of Scotland, are not known for indulging in the ‘e’ word a great deal, and its probably a bit too ‘heart-on-the-sleeve’ for anybody that isn’t American as well. That’s before even considering how to discuss the subject amongst calculating business people.
Now, the draft title may change but one thing that remains central in the e-book is that generating an emotional response is central to the branding process. In fact, its the most important thing. When I began to learn about branding, one of the first things I learned about was psychology, understanding the brain and how it works is critical to understanding why certain brands work and why some don’t. I always loved great design but was eager to learn more. Some elements of design worked better commercially than others and I was desperate to work out why. Commercially, the main reason for a strong brand is to be both recognisable and memorable. To build a successful brand long-term, the emotional responses to the brain (not the heart, as many would think) should be consistent. Very few people will take the time to learn your business intimately so like a Shakespeare Sonnet, you have to make the largest impact in the shortest space of time. The only way to achieve that is through creating an emotional response in your communications; be it excitement, happy, joyous, informed, energised etc. The great brands understand what emotional response they want to create and create both products and communications that will convey this emotion. The ones that do it really, really well will know what they are doing and charge you extra for your pleasure (Apple, for example.). The problem is that most tend to fall short, make lots of noise, give lots of mixed signals without consistency and they therefore struggle to gain any traction regarding their brands. And anybody that has a business has a brand, it may not be a heavily marketed effort but anything from your local chippie to you multinationals have a brand. Its just that few would define it as such. The ones that are rock-solid in their consistency are those that develop the best results for their business. The companies that consistently deliver the same emotional response will be more memorable and easier for people to index in their thoughts. Its why engaging an emotional response is the easiest way to build a great brand.
It is as true of personal brands as it is with corporate brands. And interestingly, people may not realise they know this but they tend to be able to feel something that isn’t quite right. I think the perfect example is David Cameron, the man who still struggles to convince a nation. Why? Well, there is no politician in recent times that has conveyed such a mixed range of messages – none of which define him. And for this, people struggle to believe and follow him. Nobody is buying into the Cameron brand because nobody knows what it is. I doubt he does himself. Boris on the other hand is entirely consistent which helps massively when you need a group of people to buy into you. Liking him or believing he would make a good PM is a different question, but a huge number of people buy into brand Boris.
Returning to business. The funny thing is that design is king in all this. The consumer will have made their mind up about your product/service in milliseconds. Having seen your website, met your sales people, or seen your promotional material. The emotional side of their brains will have decided whether it wants to engage with your company before the logical bit even has time to process it. That means you have mere milliseconds to engage. Only the very best understand this and can design accordingly.
Fortunately, we just happen to be one of the few companies that can do this. If you would like to know more about how your brand can engage an emotional response to help your business give us a bell…
Oh and I think I will risk ’emotive-branding’ as the e-book title. Rule no1, be authentic even if the terrain is hostile or is that rule no2?
Benedetto