The 3 Rs of a happy brand
Recall, Recognition, Resonance.
In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy famously wrote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
It strikes me that the opposite is true for brands: “All unhappy brands are alike; each happy brand is happy in its own way.”
The sea of sameness is where brands go to drown, flailing about in an eternal struggle of high effort and low returns, because deep down we all know the consumer doesn’t really need a 101th “craft” IPA brand, a 101th “small-batch” gin brand, a 101th “fairtrade” coffee brand, a 101th “organic” cotton basics brand.
Uniqueness is the key reason consumers recall, recognise and resonate with brands in the first place. Let’s call these the three R's of the happy brand: 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.
𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹
What do you blurt out when the bartender asks you what you’re drinking? The options are numerous, so what made you go for a pint of Guinness? A brand should do everything to cultivate a unique category concept in the consumer’s mind, and then develop this concept into the main reason why someone should buy something from the category at all. So, for example, it’s not so much that customers buy from UPS or DHL, but that they buy into “safety” or “speed”, and that their choice of courier is a side-effect of that “category in the mind”. A differentiated brand concept gets you there.
𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Consistent brand marketing generates recognition, which pays off greater and greater dividends over time. You can see this clearly with really big brands: they have the advantage of standing on the shoulders of giants. They can even afford to be quite boring (!) for a while and still generate the recognition they need to continue, because they have the leverage of recognition they’ve accrued in the past. Distinctive brand assets get you there: you must look like you and nobody else but you. If I added “pooh-pooh-peeh-dooh” to the previous sentence, you would immediately recognise the song and make the association with Marilyn Monroe: that's a distinctive brand asset for her.
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲
Without emotional resonance, none of the branding work you do will forge a memory path in the consumer’s mind. In fact, if you’re competing against a much bigger brand with bigger pockets, emotional resonance is the only leverage you have against them. Creative campaigns get you there: they multiply the value of your work to compete against their big budgets. So, your campaigns must trigger an emotional response. It sounds painfully obvious to point this out, and yet 9 out of 10 brands score a big fat 0 here.
With all three R’s, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗤𝗨𝗘 is what you must aim for:
- Aim for 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 with a uniquely differentiated brand concept.
- Aim for 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 with work that consistently develops your uniquely distinctive brand assets.
- Aim for emotional 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 with uniquely creative work.
Do all three, do it for a while, and soon you’ll find a way for that flywheel to spin, and keep on spinning.