Retail's Seismic Shift by Michael Dart

Author:Michael Dart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER 13

BECOMING A BRAND

We have discussed the concept of rational altruism as a reflection of what consumers will increasingly desire from the places they shop or the brands they buy. This concept captures the idea of truly understanding your consumers’ lives, placing their holistic needs and values at the core of your strategy and creating an organization that embraces this values-driven mission. The embodiment of this approach is antithetical to seeing your customers as mere consumers—and in many ways it is antithetical to the traditional notion of consumerism. There is nothing wrong with consumption per se, but we see a radical shift in the motivation behind consumption and the level and way in which people will consume in the future. Building a brand that embodies this shift is critical.

Becoming a brand is critical. The data support that assertion. Analysis of the top ten most valuable brands (as captured by Millward Brown’s annual BrandZ survey) shows that if they were a portfolio, they would have outperformed the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index since 2007 by 75 percent and the world index by 400 percent.1 During the next twenty years, the importance of brands is going to increase. That’s right—don’t believe anyone who suggests that brands are declining. After searching the web, gathering their peers’ opinions and checking prices, consumers are going to still buy from brands. True brands, that is. Today, almost all products and retailers claim to be a brand, but few actually attain that status.

Brands and brand value are defined in many traditional ways: awareness, loyalty, purchase intent, net promoter score, emotional connections and more. All are arguably important, but for our discussion about the future building a brand has five key dimensions. A brand (both retailers and products) must

1. Have a clear set of values

2. Raise the consumer’s self-esteem

3. Be innovative

4. Be relatively scarce

5. Have a consistent identity

Let’s start with a discussion of values.

Have a Clear Set of Values

We have written at length about the emerging importance of values and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (with its link to self-esteem and self-actualization) so we need not revisit their importance.

But reflecting on what those values might look like is worthwhile. The spectrum is wide. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) represents a clear set of values: aggression, courage, and camaraderie—and profits. Spotify was quick to issue a playlist for Black Lives Matter, followed swiftly by attempts by other favorite millennial brands—Facebook and Google—to show they supported the movement. Lush and L’Oréal were active in the support of the refugees streaming into Europe in recent years. The issue of gay marriage provided opportunities for companies like Ben & Jerry’s and American Airlines to provide vocal support. To paraphrase the opinions of the youth leader Amani Alkhat, editor in chief of MuslimGirl, the public will reward companies that pay more than lip service to values like diversity. Uber and Lyft provide other good examples—Uber has suffered some for the sexual harassment alleged by female employees, Google’s lawsuit charging theft of trade secrets and intellectual property, and the company’s use of an app to deceive city officials where its service was banned.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.