The great management scholar Peter Drucker wrote a half century ago, “A customer rarely buys what a company thinks it is selling him.” What Drucker meant was that customers aren’t buying products but rather are just trying to get jobs done in their lives, and products or more frequently brands help them to do this.
Values are important because they influence beliefs. Beliefs are important because they influence our behaviour. Whether you like it or not branding tries to influence behaviour – buy more, recommend more, go somewhere, etc. The list goes on. So in that respect branding is potentially something of a dark art.
Branding is an overused, misused and even abused management term. People think brand is a quick design fix for many management ills. It’s not.
Don’t forget, a brand is far more than a logo. This is a well-worn branding management classic but worth repeating nonetheless.
For some time we’ve been keeping a secret at Wavelength. His name is Wavey. He’s the branding brains behind most of our strategy work.
Persuading the CEO, CFO and sometimes even the CMO to invest in their brands can be a tough ticket. Winning over sceptical sales teams isn’t far behind. Sound familiar? This post provides 10 practical tips that will help turn sales sceptics into brand believers. Amen to that.
To date Lynx has been driven by a simple goal. To help men become more successful with woman. Brutal? Yes. True? Yes. Effective? Hmmn, we’ll leave that one for now.
Our branding projects take us both near and far. This means spending a fair amount of time in hotels. The problem is hotels can feel a little staid, stuffy and the same. On a recent trip to the Philippines The Henry in Cebu City provided a refreshing brand experience shot in the arm.
Audi’s brand is smooth. It’s characterised by cool, product quality, sophistication and more than a pinch of panache. Sure, it can be seem as a little aloof and condescending at times but for the most part it’s highly desirable.
At Wavelength we tend to work with brands who want to differentiate through experiences. These organisations tend to underestimate the role employees play in delivering such experiences via the brand values, essence, promise and positioning.
