Five tips that can help make your brand more valuable.

WHETHER YOU’RE IN SALES OR FINANCE, THE CEO OR the CTO, the care and feeding of your company’s brand is a responsibility you share with everyone else in your organization. After all, the reputation and goodwill of your company is really everyone’s business.

So, how can you create a brand that inspires loyalty, fends off competitors and protects margins? You can start by learning from the Superbrands.

Why isn’t Harley–Davidson just another motorcycle? How did Starbucks and Nike turn coffee and shoes into global cultural icons? Why are Apple users like myself so fiercely loyal, in spite of our miniscule number?

All of these brands have come to represent an ideal that is bigger than their products. Sure, Harley–Davidson offers motorcycles. But what they really sell is a sense of rebellion and freedom to overburdened executives. Likewise, the $4 you paid for your latte is really just the rent for Howard Schultz’s “Third Place”—that welcoming refuge between home and work—even if you get your coffee to go.

Today’s most valuable brands satisfy needs that go beyond traditional product benefits. By doing so, they differentiate themselves in ways that are meaningful to consumers. And they achieve the holy grail of all marketing: intense customer loyalty—and the profitable growth that goes along with it.

Of course, the companies I just mentioned have spent heavily to get where they are today. But here are a few lessons that any business can learn from the
Superbrand’s experience:

1. Make branding everyone’s job.

Brands are built at every touchpoint. So make sure every person in every department understands what you’re about, and look for examples to walk the talk every day—just as you would with your mission statement.

2. If you think your brand stands for convenience or value or service, keep thinking.

These attributes may be important, but they are hardly unique. What really drives your organization? What are people passionate about? What are your values, and why do these matter to customers and prospects? A good brand development firm can help you ask the right questions and uncover more
insightful, potent answers.

3. To make your brand a weapon, use it as a rudder.

A clear brand strategy helps you do the right things more often. This is why Starbucks knows that playing (and selling) jazz in their stores will work, whereas heavy metal won’t.

4. What you do matters more than what you say.

Encourage your operations and marketing people to work together to make sure that your organization delivers an experience that is consistent with the expectations set by your advertising and other communications. And vice versa.

5. Stay close to your customers.

Pay attention to what their lives are really like, and how your product really fits in—or doesn’t. Pretend you’re a customer, and see what the experience is like. Try to return a product or special order an item. Call for tech support. Listen in on a sales call. Try to watch your product in use.
You might look at the phenomenal success of Nike or Disney and assume that the same thing can’t happen in your business. But here’s a story that might help you see things differently:

Two friends were fishing when a bear came rushing at them from across the river. One angler takes off as fast as he can in his waders while the other sits down and calmly puts on a pair of running shoes. “What are you doing?” asks the friend. “You can’t outrun a bear!” To which the other friend replies: “I’m not going to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.”

You don’t have to “outbrand” the Superbrands. Put these principles into practice, and you’ll be running faster than 99 percent of your competitors. And someday, who knows?

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Dan Gross is a principal at DNA Brand Mechanics (www.dnamechs.com). Email Dan at editor@executivetravelmag.com.