The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands that Lead by Allen P. Adamson

Author:Allen P. Adamson [Adamson, Allen P.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2013-01-07T14:00:00+00:00

Looked at from a branding perspective, this means that you must be able to define your brand’s meaning as crisply and precisely as possible. You must get to its core essence in such a way that you’d be able to do a casting call for the brand and know instinctively which actor to choose for the role. You’d be able to pick out the clothing this actor would wear. You could pick out the house or buy the furniture that would, without a doubt, represent the brand. It’s only after you get to this crystallization, this core meaning, that you can align every expression of the brand against it. Once you do this, everything will hang together and give the brand the authenticity required to be seen as credible and authentic. Consumers know authenticity when they see it. And they know when it’s missing.

While I hope the situation will have changed by the time this book goes to print, the Gap has been lagging in its category as the result of losing sight of its brand’s essential meaning—what it stands for or wants to stand for in the minds of consumers. You can sense this lack of brand definition in the uncertainty of its merchandising, advertising, store designs, and window dressing. Ask someone to define a typical Gap outfit and they’ll likely scratch their head. On the other hand, on a recent trip with my family to Orlando and the Universal Studios, I witnessed or, rather, experienced a brand that knows precisely what it stands for when I accompanied my kids to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. From the corridors of Hogwarts castle, to the incredibly authentic “wand shop,” to the Cauldron cakes and Butter Beer, everything was in magical alignment with the Harry Potter brand, including the actors who strolled the area portraying the iconic characters. It was the incredible attention to every detail, the way the whole experience was woven together, that delighted this branding professional. (The kids were equally delighted, of course.)

Another example of a brand that has gained an edge as the result of getting to a precise definition of its meaning: This year while attending a marketing conference in Greenville, South Carolina, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at the BMW Performance Driving School, which is close by one of their manufacturing plants. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I do not own a BMW, but it took only a short time behind the wheel of one of these incredible driving machines, whipping around curves, swerving back and forth between the cones on the track, skidding, and being able to fully control the spin on wet roads, to understand what makes BMW the “Ultimate Driving Machine.” And it wasn’t just the performance. From the inside out, the comfort of the seats, the dashboard design, how the stick shift felt in my hand, everything was tied to the idea that drives the BMW brand. The only advice I have for BMW is to consider putting a Performance Driving School in every area of the country.

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