Brands are everywhere! Products and services are constantly advertised to consumers through social media, mobile devices, digital signage among many other new and traditional avenues. There is more competition than ever for brand recognition and loyalty among consumers.
As consumers increase in volume and technological savvy, businesses must adapt their approach to marketing and branding to them. Creating high-quality brand visuals and messages is a must, but to truly distinguish their brands, 21st century brand stewards must go a step further. Three principles, each beginning with the letter M, will help the men and women who create brands achieve greater success in today’s market.
Meaningful
Branding for today’s audiences should, first and foremost, be meaningful, answering the question, “What is the problem that is being solved through the product or service?” Brand messaging is rooted in seeking answers to real problems. Common emotions or situations, such as humor, happiness or fear can be used and even featured in brand messaging or imagery, but ultimately if there is no need that is clear, the brand positioning ought to be re-considered.
This principle is the one of the three discussed here that is most essentially connected to both producer and consumer. To solve problems is why companies get into business, and why customers seek out businesses or organizations in the first place. This aim of branding will answer this question: “How will it meet a need in your life? How does it do it better or differently than anything else?”
Brand experiences developed for products and services give meaning by speaking to real and perceived needs and wants on the most basic human levels. Brand crafters should be able to restate their solutions as answers to problems and questions. This is important because clients and customers are more likely to return to brands that they feel excel at meeting real needs that they have.
Memorable
Secondly, brand experiences should be memorable. Children and adults love stories. We love to hear them and we love to make them up. We are always telling stories and responding to memories from childhood and other periods in life both the pleasant and painful times. This aim of branding answers this question: “How does this product or service make you feel?”
The human mind is always making connections. Brand crafters should use this to create visual and verbal links that tap into the power of stories and memories and heighten the awareness of brands to consumers. This can be done by developing visual and verbal elements (“symbols and saying”) that are either easy to remember or call to mind memories resonant with the target audience.
This principle is most important to the consumer (customer) side. Brands must seek creative ways to tell a story that is uniquely theirs in a way that is authentic and compelling. Discerning audiences can tell if the narrative being presented is not genuine. Fantasy, Future, Tradition, History, Values and Dreams are six of the most popular and common themes used repeatedly in compelling and successful branding.
Don’t underestimate how the power of stories and memories matter to consumers making sometimes difficult brand choices. Brand strategists and designers who tap into the right stories or and create the right memories can make connections with consumers that move them and motivate them to purchase a product or service. Consider the last great movie scene you witnessed and how easy it was to tell your friend about it. Consumers are far more likely to buy and share what they find memorable.
Measurable
Lastly, modern brand experiences should be measurable. Branding is a business tool, created with tangible business goals in mind, such as increased consumer awareness, expanded market share or successful entry into new markets.
After successfully appealing to the head and the heart, brand caretakers must then seek an answer to the questions, “How does it impact lives? How will we know if our initiative, rebranding, campaign is successful?” Branding strategists and designers have at their disposal many methods and tools to gather the answers, including analytics, focus groups, surveys, response cards, inbound marketing, search engine optimization and social influence among many others.
This principle is most important to the producer (the business or entity) than any of the others. Brand strategists and designers, operating as part of business teams, must use and create branding systems that produce some type of data that can be analyzed. They need to measure in a quantifiable ways the net gain in influence and value and profit for their brands and parent companies. They need to know it worked, or if it didn’t work, why was it unsuccessful. Stakeholders of all levels in an organization need to be able to determine if an expensive and expansive strategic campaign was successful in meeting its goals or not?
This principle is vital because lots of time and money is invested in branding. Failing to learn from past mistakes and misjudgments in this area can cost cash, credibility and even careers. In addition, branding is about reputation and perception and reputations and perceptions are two things that can change very quickly. In a world of constant change, data provides bankable evidence that helps brand crafters make better strategic decisions, which ultimately creates stronger businesses and brands.
Once you establish meaning and context for your branding in the everyday needs and wants of your audience, then craft a narrative that is authentic and strikes the right emotional chords, the last step is to deploy your visuals/messaging and keep track of what influence it is having on your intended audience through perception and behavior change.
As you think about the evolution of your brand, remember the 3 Ms: Meaningful, Memorable and Measurable. These are the indispensable characteristics and considerations you should use to guide successful branding strategy and create powerful and effective brand experiences.