Brand Key Workshop
Brand Key
The key to unlock brand secrets
A way of expressing brand positioning so that everyone can understand the brand
It establishes a shared framework and common language for all to use
It defines how brand adds value
Brand Key nd a s lity e lu ona a V s 5. Per
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3. Insight
1. Competitive Environment
2. Target Audience
It’s a system that helps guide not only where the brand is today, but also where it should go
It ensures continuity in evolving brands towards a future vision
It shows why someone would want to buy!
In short, the brand key helps unlock growth!
1. Competitive Environment
Competitive environment • The market and alternate choices as seen by the customer and the relative value the brand offers in that market • It describes the choices available to the consumer, with which your brand competes • Note, it is not a description of the product category as defined by ourselves
In other words, all those who ‘lose’ when we ‘win’! ‘win’
What would the consumer consider to be an alternative choice to the brand?
For instance, what would it be for Pepsi?
2. Target
Target • Describes the chooser of the brand – Who may be the buyer or the user
• The person for whom the brand is – or wants to be – the first choice • The chooser should be defined in terms of attitudes, behaviour and values as well as socio-economics • Sometimes, it will be helpful to specify the situation in which brand will be the first choice
The tighter the target can be defined, the stronger its appeal can be
Example: McDonald • People who can relate to childhood happiness • Parents who want to treat the kids • Kids who want to have fun with their meal
3. Key Insight
Key insight is seeing ‘inside the consumer’
Aspect of all you know about the consumer: - which shows how brand can solve a problem - or create an opportunity for them
Insight expresses the totality of all we know from seeing inside the consumer
The insight is specific to the competitive situation and to the target
Key Insight ‘I wish to get married to a handsome prince’
Key Insight ‘Fragrance of my current talc does not last long and I miss opportunities to enjoy life’
Key insight: The process • Obtaining information about what people think and do • Building understanding about why they do it • Achieving insight into what the business can do to satisfy their needs & wants in new ways • Taking action to deliver these solutions in the market
How to get an insight? • What role does category play in consumer’s lives? – How can the brand improve someone’s life?
• What paradoxes of conflicting needs do people face? – What opportunities are they looking for?
• When and why is it important for product to work? – Who will notice?
• What is the standard of excellence in the category? – Who do consumers envy?
Keep asking ‘why’ to find the real need behind an obvious insight
4. Benefits
Benefits • These describe the ways in which the brand solves consumer problems or offers an improvement in some aspect of their life – The reasons to buy
• Brand benefits will be functional, emotional and self-expressive
Functional benefits • Benefit based on a product attribute that provides functional utility to the customer – Most visible and common basis for value proposition
• Such a benefit will usually relate directly to the functions performed by the product • If a brand can dominate a key functional benefit, it can dominate a category – Close up and fresh breath – Surf and stain removal
Remains untouched, no matter what.
Emotional benefits • When purchase or use of a brand gives a positive feeling, that brand is providing an emotional benefit • Emotional benefit adds richness and depth to the experience of owning and using the brand • Most functional benefits will have a corresponding feeling or set of feelings – Freshness and confidence, in the case of DFT
Self-expressive benefits • A brand can provide a self-expressive benefit by providing a way for a customer to communicate his/her self-image • Purchase and use of brands is one way to fulfill the need for self-expression – Feeling ‘smart’ by buying Surf – The ‘can do’ attitude by wearing a Nike
Self-expressive Vs Emotional benefits Emotional Benefits
Self-expressive Benefits
• Feelings
• Self
• Private products viz., books, soaps etc.,
• Public setting / products viz., cars, apparels etc.,
• More transitory
• Permanent, linked to consumer’s personality
• Consequence of using the product
• Act of using the product
Remember these should work together, one flowing from the other. E.g., Volvo is a safe car that makes you feel responsible
5. Values and Personality
Values and personality • Values are what the brand stands for and believes in • Personality is how the brand behaves • The brand’s personality is the weighted average of previous impressions • In consumer’s mind, these impressions merge to form an overall concept of what to expect from the brand
Value and personality traits are what the brand will live and die for!
6. Reason to Believe
Evidence of why the brand is better than alternative brands
Superior product details
Expert endorsements
Emotional reasons related to the values of the brand
Demonstrations
Heritage
7. Discriminator
Discriminator • The single most compelling reason for the consumer to choose the brand • Selected from all the elements of Brand Key – But by not using them all
• It expresses in one brief sentence what gives the brand its competitive edge
• In choosing a discriminator, the criteria to apply are: – – –
Is it unique and differentiated? Is it really relevant to the consumer insight? Is it consistent with all other elements in the Brand Key even if it does not contain them all?
Make sure the discriminator is important: - to capture attention, - credible enough to be believed - and different enough to be memorable
8. Essence
The distillation of the brand’s positioning into one clear, defining thought
The discriminator tells what the brand offers that’s better than competition.
The essence is what the brand is about.
Of all components of the Brand Key, this’ll need several attempts and refinements
Dreams of beauty
Confident closeness
Style statement
Brand Key nd a s lity e lu ona a V s 5. Per
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3. Insight
1. Competitive Environment
2. Target Audience
Testing the Framework The Case of Dove Soap
Competitive Environment • Dove bridges soaps and skincare • Many women consider it part of their beauty regime • It competes directly with premium soaps, such as Lux, Pears, Camay etc.,
Target • Women who want to care for their skin • Who want to look and feel their personal best • Aged 35 – 50 • Beginning to feel the effects of dry skin
Key Insight
‘Soap leaves skin feeling dry and tight’
Benefits • Won’t dry my skin like soap can • Makes my skin soft and smooth • Helps me feel more feminine
Brand Personality • Honesty • Purity • Feminity • Optimism • Inner confidence
Reason to Believe • Contains ¼th moisturizing cream • Recommended by doctors / dermatologists • Indicts other products with clinical proof • Endorsed by users
Discriminator ‘Dove won’t dry my skin like soap can, because it contains ¼th moisturizing cream’
Essence
‘Restoring feminity’
Tips: To Write a Good Brand Key
Work with a team!
Build a draft Brand Key, continually challenging the team to make it clearer and more precise
Use simple words that are not ambiguous. Keep searching for a better word to express the same idea
The guiding principle is, less is more!
It really helps to put the Brand Key away and revisit it a few days later
Positioning, like strategy, is about choice and sacrifice.
The fewer the ideas, the fewer the words, the better!
Remember, what we have seen represents just the minimum use for Brand Key.
There is no maximum.
The only limit is your own ingenuity!
Remember, like a computer, a camera, or a musical instrument, Brand Key is a tool, not a substitute for talent!
Assignment: Write a Brand Key for Raymond
Competitive Environment • Suiting and shirting fabric and ready made men’s wear from domestic and global brands
Target • Male • Sec A and B • Aged 21+ • Seeking status and lifestyle enhancement
Key Insight
‘My attire reflects my persona’
Benefits Rational • Style • Premium quality • Luxurious • Perfect fit Emotional • Stature • Elegance
Brand Personality • Confident • Arrived • Sophisticated • Discerning • Sensitive
Reason to Believe • Trusted • Premium • Lineage
Discriminator ‘Raymond makes me exude elegance, feel confident and command respect thereby allowing me to be a complete man’
Essence
‘Command respect’
Thanx!
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