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BrandSimple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed
In an era of mixed media messages, in which brands are extended to the breaking point and complex marketing theories compete for attention, it is more difficult than ever to create effective brands. Allen Adamson offers a refreshingly simple Bring back the basics of good branding and ensure success. Build a brand on a good idea that you test. Make sure the design and message of your brand fits the brand’s true meaning, and stay away from unnecessary and complicated strategies. Drawing on his years of experience working with some of the world's top brands, from GE to IBM, Adamson shows how to communicate with customers and make your brand resonate. He also gives a behind-the-scenes look at his work with traditional names like Maxwell House as well as newcomers like JetBlue and iPod, explaining what they do right--and wrong.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 22, 2006
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271 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 8, 2008
Summary: To build a great brand, pick something different and important about your product, create a simple branding message around it that generates an emotional response, and then stick to it!
Recommended? Eh, not really…you’ll get the gist in this blog post (you’re welcome).
Key takeaways:
What is a brand?
* “A brand is what your product or service stands for in people’s minds; it might be an image or, perhaps, a feeling. Branding is the process of executing and managing the things that make people feel the way they do about your brand.”
* A brand is a “promise that links a product or service to a consumer.”
* “A brand simplifies choice. ‘Let’s go to Subway’”
What makes a strong brand?
* “It has been proven time after time that the strongest brands are built on simple, compelling ideas that grab people by signaling that something is different from what they’ve heard and seen before and is relevant to their needs.”
* “’Brevity is the soul of brand.’”
* “The best brands connect on an emotional level, not a rational level.” Why? “Emotion almost always wins over function, even in the most commonly used or ubiquitous products.”
* “For a brand to be successful it must stand for something different, and this difference must be relevant to its users.”
* Brands transcend the category. Think Kleenex for tissues, Virgin for airlines, etc.
How do you figure out your brand?
* “If you want to win you must know what you’re selling, find a way to prove that what you’re selling is different, and distill this difference into a focused idea that can drive and unite everything associated with your brand.”
* Understand the market, the consumer, and the competition, and figure out what factors can enhance the product’s point of differentiation.
* Speaking of competition, figure out what they say they do better then you, then make sure you communicate to the customer that you do these things at least as well as they do to get to parity. Then tell them what you do better or different.
* Make a list of desired – and undesired – associations (and their relative importance), to help you figure out your “brand driver.” What’s a “brand driver”? It’s what your brand stands for. Find something different to say about your brand, make it simple and focused, and align it with your business strategy. When finding something different, try to look for “an obvious and universal truth that no one else has seen.”
* The author talks about something called a “BrandAssetValuator,” which is a fancy tool based on the interrelationships of four brand dimensions:
1. “Differentiation – what makes your brand unique
2. Relevance – how appropriate this difference is to the audience you want to reach
3. Esteem – how well regarded your brand is in the marketplace
4. Knowledge – how well consumers know and understand your brand”
Branding starts with the team
* “Everyone on the…team understands the simple idea on which the brand is based and knows how to bring it to life.”
* Map the customer journey so employees know where and how customers interact with your brand. If you have partners, resellers, etc., make sure they know how to communicate your brand as well.
* You need a “brand driver” for external and internal use; the short phrase that captures the essence of your idea. For example, take GE: “imagination at work.” This is important so employees know how to make decisions that align with the brand. FedEx is great example…what’s their promise to customers and to them selves? On-time delivery by 10:30am. If you ever watched Castaway, remember the way that brand promise unified everything for everyone in the early scenes? And that last scene where he delivered the package: that’s delivering on the brand promise.
Alright, those are my notes from the book. At then end he’s got a summary, which I..umm...summarize here:
1. “Understand that brand and branding are different concepts.”
2. “Establish a differentiated meaning for your brand that the consumers you want to reach care about—find relevant—before you try to begin branding.”
3. “Know exactly who you want to talk to—that is, know your audience.”
4. “To find a different and relevant brand idea, look for the obvious.”
5. “Make sure your brand idea aligns with your business strategy.”
6. “Capture the essence of your brand idea in a brand driver—a simple statement of what your brand stands for.”
7. “Draw a map of the customer’s journey with your brand.”
8. “Remember that brand building is a marathon event.”
Recommended? Eh, not really…you’ll get the gist in this blog post (you’re welcome).
Key takeaways:
What is a brand?
* “A brand is what your product or service stands for in people’s minds; it might be an image or, perhaps, a feeling. Branding is the process of executing and managing the things that make people feel the way they do about your brand.”
* A brand is a “promise that links a product or service to a consumer.”
* “A brand simplifies choice. ‘Let’s go to Subway’”
What makes a strong brand?
* “It has been proven time after time that the strongest brands are built on simple, compelling ideas that grab people by signaling that something is different from what they’ve heard and seen before and is relevant to their needs.”
* “’Brevity is the soul of brand.’”
* “The best brands connect on an emotional level, not a rational level.” Why? “Emotion almost always wins over function, even in the most commonly used or ubiquitous products.”
* “For a brand to be successful it must stand for something different, and this difference must be relevant to its users.”
* Brands transcend the category. Think Kleenex for tissues, Virgin for airlines, etc.
How do you figure out your brand?
* “If you want to win you must know what you’re selling, find a way to prove that what you’re selling is different, and distill this difference into a focused idea that can drive and unite everything associated with your brand.”
* Understand the market, the consumer, and the competition, and figure out what factors can enhance the product’s point of differentiation.
* Speaking of competition, figure out what they say they do better then you, then make sure you communicate to the customer that you do these things at least as well as they do to get to parity. Then tell them what you do better or different.
* Make a list of desired – and undesired – associations (and their relative importance), to help you figure out your “brand driver.” What’s a “brand driver”? It’s what your brand stands for. Find something different to say about your brand, make it simple and focused, and align it with your business strategy. When finding something different, try to look for “an obvious and universal truth that no one else has seen.”
* The author talks about something called a “BrandAssetValuator,” which is a fancy tool based on the interrelationships of four brand dimensions:
1. “Differentiation – what makes your brand unique
2. Relevance – how appropriate this difference is to the audience you want to reach
3. Esteem – how well regarded your brand is in the marketplace
4. Knowledge – how well consumers know and understand your brand”
Branding starts with the team
* “Everyone on the…team understands the simple idea on which the brand is based and knows how to bring it to life.”
* Map the customer journey so employees know where and how customers interact with your brand. If you have partners, resellers, etc., make sure they know how to communicate your brand as well.
* You need a “brand driver” for external and internal use; the short phrase that captures the essence of your idea. For example, take GE: “imagination at work.” This is important so employees know how to make decisions that align with the brand. FedEx is great example…what’s their promise to customers and to them selves? On-time delivery by 10:30am. If you ever watched Castaway, remember the way that brand promise unified everything for everyone in the early scenes? And that last scene where he delivered the package: that’s delivering on the brand promise.
Alright, those are my notes from the book. At then end he’s got a summary, which I..umm...summarize here:
1. “Understand that brand and branding are different concepts.”
2. “Establish a differentiated meaning for your brand that the consumers you want to reach care about—find relevant—before you try to begin branding.”
3. “Know exactly who you want to talk to—that is, know your audience.”
4. “To find a different and relevant brand idea, look for the obvious.”
5. “Make sure your brand idea aligns with your business strategy.”
6. “Capture the essence of your brand idea in a brand driver—a simple statement of what your brand stands for.”
7. “Draw a map of the customer’s journey with your brand.”
8. “Remember that brand building is a marathon event.”
July 1, 2024
The bav is more than a report card - it can gauge current brand health, project its future health, and indicate prescriptive actions.
Upper left is filled with strong brands that are simple but highly differentiated.
4 pillars:
- differentiation - what makes your brand unique
- relevance - how appropriate the difference is to your audience
- esteem - how highly they think of you
- knowledge - how well they know you
Brands start out simple. They don't start out saying they'll sell lots of things to lots of different people.
Strong brands have higher degree of differentiation than relevance. - because they have room to grow.
Brands that have more relevance than differentiation become a commodity (Kmart, energizer, bic etc) difference faded and price becomes the primary reason to buy.
Esteem+knowledge = stature
More esteem than knowledge = good reputation, and room to teach more (B&o, movado, Barilla, coach)
> Consumers: i hear good things, tell me more
More knowledge than esteem = danger
> Consumers: hey i know a lot about you and you're not special
( National Enquirer, spam)
Bav uses knowledge instead of awareness. Better insight into intimacy of brand.
Leadership brands have all 4- Disney, IBM, Coke
Successful new brands will have differentiation as the highest pillar, and knowledge as the lowest.
Examples include webmd, IKEA, JetBlue.
Start brand building with a simple, meaningfully different idea - and only once this is done - start telling people about it.
> Sentius creative
Differentiation: low
Relevance: medium
Esteem: low
Knowledge: low
Brand signals:
Logos, colours, operations (Netflix), easy button (staples), Gatorade bolt ⚡ , name (Google ⚡), swoosh ⚡, iPod single hand use (factored in use case) page 24
Starbucks environment ⚡
Crest whitestrips ( name indicates what it does)
A good branding signal is intuitive.
Colonel for kfc
Speed of Google results
Something proprietary.. only you can own.
Consumer won't be fooled and should trust what the brand is promising.
-
One quarter cleansing cream was successful by Ogilvy's agency for a long time.
It worked on TV ads and print
Velvety cream was what everyone wanted.
-
Unilever (Lever Brothers at the time) was killing it with fabric softener: downy
The name, the soft fluffy look of the packaging.
Lots of time spent on a competing signal, ultimately after rnuch deliberation, a fluffy cuddly bear was chosen to represent snuggle.
-
Lemonade lessons
Kool aid struggled to sell to adults
General foods interviewed.
People thought of old time original lemonade
They created Country Time - strong brand signal for original lemonade
Had an ad with an old man on a porch with ice cold lemonade
It sold well
Until minute maid laid out 3 tins: minute maid 20 lemons, Wylers 2 lemons, country time no lemons
That killed it for Country Time, no way back.
It broke trust of consumers.
Though they don't care for facts and figures, they care for authenticity.
-
AOL
Simple messaging for a complex offering
"So easy to use, no wonder we're number one"
Brought back the simple yellow man and ran with it.
-
Page 61
Research -feedback is only as good as the stimuli you give people
Dawn dishes, grease etc.
-
P64
Ask questions about things people accept without liking
> Pepsi realised people would buy spring water and then refill the bottles with tap. So they researched it people care if it's spring water. It turns out they don't. So they sold Aquafina for much cheaper.
-
Battle plan p82
Find your brand enemy. Which competitor do you hate.
You want to stand apart from it.
What do they do. Where do they invest in branding. What's their edge- distribution channel, customer service, new tech etc?
Find it and analyse if it's proprietary.
-
5 lessons in search for a brand idea
1. There are no magic bullets: good products =/= good sales (smokeless cigarettes rjr Nabisco)
2. Don't follow the crowd: the are no statutes of committees - Ogilvy. Too many revisions can dilute a great idea. (SCR - METHOD FOR LIMITING REVISIONS)
3. Durability of ideas: ge in ch5
4. Make a clear choice: Dyson made a suction-less vacuum which was exy but it was a good brand signal. ( Lg $10k fridge with a screen ⚡)
- Nikon de-niche - to understand their key influencers, they went to the magazine cover photographers and journalists (wars etc p93). Approachable Authority (strong niche to broad)
- by
5. Align business strategy and brand idea
- tivo had the brand idea but the business strategy didn't keep up. How to explain it and what to offer, hardware or software.
Iridium - branding can't fix business strategy. Executives didn't want super expensive, clunky devices and they didn't really need them.
They went bankrupt and new management changed the positioning.
Iridium was the reliable source for those that must get in contact, even during mission critical.
Oil rigs, military, freight containers paid and didn't care about the clunkiness or cost.
Branding couldn't solve bad business strategy.
-
P107
Nothing kills your brand faster than not delivering on your promise.
United airlines, a low-cost airliner, came up with a brand driver 'rising' - no one knew what this meant. Though it referenced rising above competition, service was poor and only the prices seemed to be rising.
Fail.
mb thoughts:
Disney delivers on their brand driver: where dreams come true- have a magical day.
Everything Disney does in their parks deliver on this brand driver.
Safety, costumes, service, rides, merchandise. It's all part of the magic.
-
P128
Free thinking of intellectuals causes an amalgamation of ideas that stand for nothing. Better to simplify focus and pay attention to what we leave out, not just what we include.
USE PICTURES 🖼️ TO GAIN ADJECTIVES
- Random photos? I guess that evoke certain emotions and have a tie in with the brand / expected adjectives. - as well as the opposite
Frito lays had a photo of 4 mischievous boys in a treehouse pulling a rope tied to a bucket with a dog with a bag of chips in his mouth.
> Worldwide relevance and great pick to help people discuss the essence they want to capture.
> Simple pleasures that unite the world (BRAND DRIVER)
GENIUS!
.
Prompting words for brand
Start with general attributes by the yeah participants (client + agency)
Determine brand attributes that are:
• necessary
• nice to have
• truly different
General attributes are usually: innovative, functionality accessible, intelligent performance etc
Good but not motivating brand drivers
-
Ch 6
1. Brand simple idea - differentiated, relevant
2. Brand driver - a phrase that is the cornerstone for all brand signals
3. Internal engagement
4. External engagement
-
Customer journey
- great to communicate to employees
- decide what's in your control and out of your control
-
BIG TAKEAWAY:
1. Establish brand
2. Capture the essence of your brand idea
3. Get employees engaged in brand idea
-
Hsbc
Make global feel local.
Brand driver - the world's local bank
-
JetBlue p154
"Put the humanity back into flying"
Everyone is enjoying the human experience.
No food as it takes away from interactions with staff.
Easy to use website
Reduce stress:
- 2 types of planes only to minimise delays (spare parts etc)
- Baggage drop off and check-in very easy etc.
The airline industry became stale, cutting costs, squeezing people and benefits.
Far from the glamourous days of flying in the 80s.
As a result, less care was given. Less humane.
-
Upper left is filled with strong brands that are simple but highly differentiated.
4 pillars:
- differentiation - what makes your brand unique
- relevance - how appropriate the difference is to your audience
- esteem - how highly they think of you
- knowledge - how well they know you
Brands start out simple. They don't start out saying they'll sell lots of things to lots of different people.
Strong brands have higher degree of differentiation than relevance. - because they have room to grow.
Brands that have more relevance than differentiation become a commodity (Kmart, energizer, bic etc) difference faded and price becomes the primary reason to buy.
Esteem+knowledge = stature
More esteem than knowledge = good reputation, and room to teach more (B&o, movado, Barilla, coach)
> Consumers: i hear good things, tell me more
More knowledge than esteem = danger
> Consumers: hey i know a lot about you and you're not special
( National Enquirer, spam)
Bav uses knowledge instead of awareness. Better insight into intimacy of brand.
Leadership brands have all 4- Disney, IBM, Coke
Successful new brands will have differentiation as the highest pillar, and knowledge as the lowest.
Examples include webmd, IKEA, JetBlue.
Start brand building with a simple, meaningfully different idea - and only once this is done - start telling people about it.
> Sentius creative
Differentiation: low
Relevance: medium
Esteem: low
Knowledge: low
Brand signals:
Logos, colours, operations (Netflix), easy button (staples), Gatorade bolt ⚡ , name (Google ⚡), swoosh ⚡, iPod single hand use (factored in use case) page 24
Starbucks environment ⚡
Crest whitestrips ( name indicates what it does)
A good branding signal is intuitive.
Colonel for kfc
Speed of Google results
Something proprietary.. only you can own.
Consumer won't be fooled and should trust what the brand is promising.
-
One quarter cleansing cream was successful by Ogilvy's agency for a long time.
It worked on TV ads and print
Velvety cream was what everyone wanted.
-
Unilever (Lever Brothers at the time) was killing it with fabric softener: downy
The name, the soft fluffy look of the packaging.
Lots of time spent on a competing signal, ultimately after rnuch deliberation, a fluffy cuddly bear was chosen to represent snuggle.
-
Lemonade lessons
Kool aid struggled to sell to adults
General foods interviewed.
People thought of old time original lemonade
They created Country Time - strong brand signal for original lemonade
Had an ad with an old man on a porch with ice cold lemonade
It sold well
Until minute maid laid out 3 tins: minute maid 20 lemons, Wylers 2 lemons, country time no lemons
That killed it for Country Time, no way back.
It broke trust of consumers.
Though they don't care for facts and figures, they care for authenticity.
-
AOL
Simple messaging for a complex offering
"So easy to use, no wonder we're number one"
Brought back the simple yellow man and ran with it.
-
Page 61
Research -feedback is only as good as the stimuli you give people
Dawn dishes, grease etc.
-
P64
Ask questions about things people accept without liking
> Pepsi realised people would buy spring water and then refill the bottles with tap. So they researched it people care if it's spring water. It turns out they don't. So they sold Aquafina for much cheaper.
-
Battle plan p82
Find your brand enemy. Which competitor do you hate.
You want to stand apart from it.
What do they do. Where do they invest in branding. What's their edge- distribution channel, customer service, new tech etc?
Find it and analyse if it's proprietary.
-
5 lessons in search for a brand idea
1. There are no magic bullets: good products =/= good sales (smokeless cigarettes rjr Nabisco)
2. Don't follow the crowd: the are no statutes of committees - Ogilvy. Too many revisions can dilute a great idea. (SCR - METHOD FOR LIMITING REVISIONS)
3. Durability of ideas: ge in ch5
4. Make a clear choice: Dyson made a suction-less vacuum which was exy but it was a good brand signal. ( Lg $10k fridge with a screen ⚡)
- Nikon de-niche - to understand their key influencers, they went to the magazine cover photographers and journalists (wars etc p93). Approachable Authority (strong niche to broad)
- by
5. Align business strategy and brand idea
- tivo had the brand idea but the business strategy didn't keep up. How to explain it and what to offer, hardware or software.
Iridium - branding can't fix business strategy. Executives didn't want super expensive, clunky devices and they didn't really need them.
They went bankrupt and new management changed the positioning.
Iridium was the reliable source for those that must get in contact, even during mission critical.
Oil rigs, military, freight containers paid and didn't care about the clunkiness or cost.
Branding couldn't solve bad business strategy.
-
P107
Nothing kills your brand faster than not delivering on your promise.
United airlines, a low-cost airliner, came up with a brand driver 'rising' - no one knew what this meant. Though it referenced rising above competition, service was poor and only the prices seemed to be rising.
Fail.
mb thoughts:
Disney delivers on their brand driver: where dreams come true- have a magical day.
Everything Disney does in their parks deliver on this brand driver.
Safety, costumes, service, rides, merchandise. It's all part of the magic.
-
P128
Free thinking of intellectuals causes an amalgamation of ideas that stand for nothing. Better to simplify focus and pay attention to what we leave out, not just what we include.
USE PICTURES 🖼️ TO GAIN ADJECTIVES
- Random photos? I guess that evoke certain emotions and have a tie in with the brand / expected adjectives. - as well as the opposite
Frito lays had a photo of 4 mischievous boys in a treehouse pulling a rope tied to a bucket with a dog with a bag of chips in his mouth.
> Worldwide relevance and great pick to help people discuss the essence they want to capture.
> Simple pleasures that unite the world (BRAND DRIVER)
GENIUS!
.
Prompting words for brand
Start with general attributes by the yeah participants (client + agency)
Determine brand attributes that are:
• necessary
• nice to have
• truly different
General attributes are usually: innovative, functionality accessible, intelligent performance etc
Good but not motivating brand drivers
-
Ch 6
1. Brand simple idea - differentiated, relevant
2. Brand driver - a phrase that is the cornerstone for all brand signals
3. Internal engagement
4. External engagement
-
Customer journey
- great to communicate to employees
- decide what's in your control and out of your control
-
BIG TAKEAWAY:
1. Establish brand
2. Capture the essence of your brand idea
3. Get employees engaged in brand idea
-
Hsbc
Make global feel local.
Brand driver - the world's local bank
-
JetBlue p154
"Put the humanity back into flying"
Everyone is enjoying the human experience.
No food as it takes away from interactions with staff.
Easy to use website
Reduce stress:
- 2 types of planes only to minimise delays (spare parts etc)
- Baggage drop off and check-in very easy etc.
The airline industry became stale, cutting costs, squeezing people and benefits.
Far from the glamourous days of flying in the 80s.
As a result, less care was given. Less humane.
-
July 21, 2017
BrandSimple amazes you with every page as you progress through the journey of the book, it does a wonderful job of first getting your attention. Then holding it by providing valuable insights drawn from an interesting list of case studies. The author holds an impeccable understanding of what goes into creating a brand which is simple enough for people to remember it. It's a lesson in simplicity & how effective it can be.
November 29, 2018
Great for insights for those that are giving first steps on branding.
December 20, 2014
o carte scrisă ca să fie înțeleasă. de-aia îi prefer pe americani când e vorba de cărți din care înveți ceva. europenii fac mai mult sinteză, teoretizează, nu urmăresc să fie ușor de înțeles, nu dau suficiente exemple, dar umplu pagini cu bulleturi.
am citit-o încet, pentru că am citit-o aplicat pe minibrandurile de care mă ocup. mi-a făcut plăcere să mă întreb cum aș putea eu să fac una sau alta sau să analizez ce fel de decizii am luat.
e bună și pentru cine n-a mai citit despre branding și pentru „clienți”, pentru agenții e probabil prea puțin.
o traducere uimitor de proastă pentru o carte de specialitate - relații cu publicul când e vorba de PR, comunicații când e vorba de comunicare șamd. n-a recitit nimeni traducerea? poate vreunul dintre cei 3 editori sau redactorul trecuți în caseta tehnică?
am citit-o încet, pentru că am citit-o aplicat pe minibrandurile de care mă ocup. mi-a făcut plăcere să mă întreb cum aș putea eu să fac una sau alta sau să analizez ce fel de decizii am luat.
e bună și pentru cine n-a mai citit despre branding și pentru „clienți”, pentru agenții e probabil prea puțin.
o traducere uimitor de proastă pentru o carte de specialitate - relații cu publicul când e vorba de PR, comunicații când e vorba de comunicare șamd. n-a recitit nimeni traducerea? poate vreunul dintre cei 3 editori sau redactorul trecuți în caseta tehnică?
January 1, 2016
I've learned quite a few things from this book - it has plenty of examples and stories, as well as some very good analogies. The explanations are clear, the language is accessible and it is overall a pleasant read.
My only problem is that it is a bit repetitive at times. The main message is clear - you need to define your brand as simply as possible - and this is repeated throughout the book.
But besides this, the book also explains how you can develop this brand in the minds of the employees, customers and anyone else involved with the company. I especially enjoyed the examples related to social campaigns and research facilities. They gave a new perspective on the understanding of brands, which are usually associated directly with Apple or Coca Cola. The world is much more complex however and it's worth looking into.
My only problem is that it is a bit repetitive at times. The main message is clear - you need to define your brand as simply as possible - and this is repeated throughout the book.
But besides this, the book also explains how you can develop this brand in the minds of the employees, customers and anyone else involved with the company. I especially enjoyed the examples related to social campaigns and research facilities. They gave a new perspective on the understanding of brands, which are usually associated directly with Apple or Coca Cola. The world is much more complex however and it's worth looking into.
August 25, 2008
Great book on understanding the definition of 'brand' and the importance of it. Brand, from my understanding, is the perception people of have you, your company, your country, etc. Being able to take steps to understand how other people think of you is the first step of being able to control and thus benefit from your brand. I've been in a business reading mode lately so it was a fun read for me.
January 31, 2008
It's a good treatment of brands, with some interesting historical anecdotes. It could have been better written and is about half a step behind the times, but overall one of the better books on brands and branding.
June 14, 2009
OK. Not awesome. Just OK. Kind of repetitive and sometimes obvious for someone who is already a brand marketer. Probably best for marketers who need to learn about branding, not for those who are already good at it and have had brand marketing training. For veterans, there is very little new here.
Read
November 1, 2014I read this book a few years ago. Recently I have been thinning out my books and came across this again. It is the most highlighted book I have ever read. If you read one book on branding, this is the one. It will stay on my top shelf and be something I re-read very soon.
June 12, 2008
Should have kept the book simple.
April 23, 2011
great book about branding. amazing read for anybody in the brand creation / strategy field
January 28, 2013
Best book in the field!
March 30, 2013
An optional-read book on branding for the knowledge worker, manager, executive, or entrepreneur.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews