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VISIONARY BRANDS

The Brand Wars are happening right now.
The battlefield is the global marketplace and your future is at stake. If you wait around and react to the competition you’re finished.

This year alone $630 billion dollars will be spent marketing brands around the world.

The United States will spend $100 billion dollars less than that on defence this year and everyone has an opinion about their policies.

But ask the average person in the street what brands mean to them and they’ll shrug their shoulders because most brands have become meaningless to people.

Some brands get it right, though. Some brands speak to people. These are what I call the VISIONARY BRANDS.

THE DILEMMA:
TRADITION VS. INNOVATION
The old tactics were simple: spend boatloads of money to create brand awareness, grow in multiple markets, outsmart the competition then take the money and run.

To succeed today a company must set itself apart from the army of clones that make up the corporate landscape. It must create real sustainable value for its people, internally and externally. It has to be the company people talk about at dinner parties and around the water cooler. To win the Brand Wars you must improve the world around you.

ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Your customers are under constant attack. They’re inundated with so much marketing that the messages blend into one. They can’t escape it, it’s in every part of their daily lives. It infiltrates their dreams. Women are bombarded with ads for hair loss treatments, men have tampon ads thrown in their face. It’s a constant clamour of irrelevant information.

That’s the marketing of the past and if you think it will help you in the future then stop reading now. You’ve already lost the war.
If you want to see how the Brand Wars are really won, read on.

YOU CAN‘T WIN TODAY’S WARS WITH YESTERDAY‘S WEAPONS
Neuroscientists Estimate that the average brain holds 10,000 “Brand Files” but only a few hundred make a strong enough connection to live in our Long Term Memory.

In the past it was o.k. to be reactive. It was o.k. to spend endless hours in committee meetings coming up with a “me too” product. It was better to stick to traditional techniques and fail than to try something innovative.

That won’t work in today’s global marketplace. People have been inundated with traditional marketing for so long that they have built up defences to help them ignore the messages. These days we can even use products like Tivo and internet pop-up blockers to avoid the old style of advertising.

To succeed today you need vision, great strategy and ethical leadership. You must transform society for the better so that people will see your brand and know that it will transform their lives. Your corporate culture has to represent what you say to the world. Consumers have caught on to the old tactics and they will no longer stand for hypocritical corporations.

If you say one thing and do another you’re dead in the water.

CHANGE IS NOT ENOUGH
You can’t just change to meet the future. Change is not enough. First you need to know who you are then you must envision your future. Once you’ve done these things you can TRANSFORM.

If you’re not prepared to transform you’re in for a long and bumpy ride to the bottom. It’s happening everyday. Companies that once seemed invincible are crumbling. Ford used to be synonymous with automobiles. Now when people think of them they think of factory closures and declining stock value. Why? Because Ford lacked the vision to transform.

Your company must think to the future. Not in terms of what we don’t know but in terms of what you can envision. If yours is a visionary company you can start creating a better tomorrow not just for your company but for your customers and for the world.

The company’s that will win the Brand Wars are asking themselves different questions than the companies that are doomed to fail.

Ask yourself where your company will be when the world runs out of oil, or whether we’ll have new ways to communicate or what will change about the way we eat, sleep or travel.

It’s a brave new world and you need a brave new way of thinking. You need the most powerful weapon of all. You need Vision.

WIN THE WAR, CONTROL THE FUTURE
The Brand Wars are fought one person at a time. You have to connect with people emotionally. Be passionate and you will win the hearts of the consumer. You have to think harder, work harder and transform into a different animal because the market is getting more and more difficult everyday:

• Categories are becoming increasingly complex and fragmented.
• There are more and more competitors in the market. In the past no one worried about China. Tomorrow they might be eating your lunch.
• Communication and marketing channels are increasing. Not even your media agency can keep up. They’ll tell you have to spend more and more but they can’t tell you how to create the future you want.
• Innovation is increasingly short-lived. Apple launches a new iPod every 6 months.
• Offers and promotions are too easily matched. If you’re still doing promotions you’re going to be left behind.
• Brands are increasingly expensive to build. You need to create something that markets itself by winning the devotion of the consumer. People must love what you have to offer.
• Consumers are becoming more and more savvy and, as a result, a more and more elusive target.
• Partnership and channel intermediaries are only concerned with their own success.

MY 20 PRINCIPLES TO WINNING THE BRAND WARS:

1. Define your vision, invent your own future and make a plan to get there. What is your destination and which type of ship will you need and what kind of crew?

2. Become indispensable to people with your products and services. Trust is everything. You need to deliver something unique that consumers need, value and trust.

3. Pick your vision, make a plan and get there. Make sure your entire organisation understands the strategy, the destination and the business objectives. Then set them free.

4. Brands define the essence of your company. Your brand sits on the centre of your strategy. It expresses your true values. It is what makes you unique.

5. Create the future. Invent it. Find out what customers really want in your category and deliver it. If you can’t do that, transform your business to serve another category and deliver what the consumer needs. Drive your own demand. Innovate. Expand your own market by redefining it. If you’re a me-too company you might as well kiss your future goodbye.

6. Create a new category or niche. This is difficult but not impossible and it is absolutely vital. Position yourself before your competitors do and you will always be the first brand that comes to mind in that space.

7. Understand and value segmentation. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Understand people, their motives and what role you play in their lives. They will pay you handsomely for improving their lives.

8. Creating awareness is not enough. Anyone can buy media but just because people are aware of your brand doesn’t mean they will want your product. Go back and recreate your product so that sells itself. This means real innovation.

9. A good brand won’t save a bad product or a bad company. You need to see the big picture. What makes your brand successful are great products, a culture of innovation, great people, outstanding logistics and a true understanding of what people want. You must also have a dream and a strong value system that your people can believe in.

10. Unity is crucial. Does everyone in the organisation understand your strategy, your value system, your destination (your dream) and their role in the game?

11. Your products and services make or break the brand. Focus on them. See your business through your customers’ eyes and identify the most relevant customer touch points. Then create a unique customer experience across all products, services and channels.

12. People’s values and needs change due to events around them, so brands and products need to change too. Think about providing what people will need tomorrow, not what they needed yesterday.

13. Build friendships with your customers. Building strong relationships with customers means they will become suspicious of competition.

14. Help consumers choose you. Consumers know they have a choice but need help to make the decision. Help them out by identifying what they value most and addressing it.

15. Keep it simple. Make sure the message is as simple as possible. Focus communication on what you are good at then ask yourself: would people clearly tell the difference between my ads and my competitors’ if I removed the logo?

16. If it doesn’t deliver – change it. Fast. Be scientific about marketing campaigns. Test your strategies and measure results continuously. If your agency does not base their proposed plan on results (like increased sales or more customers) show them the door.

17. Don’t be a fool, price is always a factor. No matter what the product is people think about price even when they are buying a diamond or a luxury car. If your brand reflects your company’s values it can help you win a price war or increase pricing. Use it to its full potential.

18. Find your toughest new challenger. Your toughest competitor is the one you didn’t see coming. Look out for them – especially if they are outside your category. All it takes is two companies to come together to become your worst nightmare.

19. Understand what you do best, and then do it even better. The best companies compete with themselves. So challenge yourself – keep raising the bar.

20. Remember, the future is what you make it. Start dreaming now.

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