It’s relatively easy to arrive at a one-sentence description of what your product does. But that’s not a brand idea. The best brands, the strongest brands, the ones that everybody loves, stand for a concept that is much greater than the product itself. To use two well-worn examples, Nike isn’t about sneakers; it’s about performance. Apple isn’t about computers; it’s about creativity. Perhaps the car stands for freedom. But you won’t arrive at that conclusion by starting with your product. You get there by starting with people. What do people need, what do they care about, what are their
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