Why am I so obsessed with this business of brands and communication? And exactly what is it that I’m doing? I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I think I’ve figured it out.
I’m in the business of Brand Attraction. When I think about it, that’s really what it boils down to. So whenever someone gets confused about what it is that I’m doing (I get the question a lot since I’m mixing up PR, advertising, design, technology, etc) I now have an answer for them. I do whatever is necessary to increase the level of attraction between a brand and a target audience.
And from there my attraction model suddenly makes sense on a different level. Brand Attraction is built in three phases:
1. Create a receptive emotional state. That is used A LOT in advertising today. The dominating strategy is to use humor, but occasionally you see the use some other state like love (i.e. Saab’s Release Me).
2. Display brand value. This is much less common in advertising today than ten or twenty years ago (pre Lemon). A common misconception is that the display of brand value is an old and not as effective method of advertising. But really, it’s not a method, but a phase. And if you skip phase one, going straight to phase two will be met by skepticism.
3. Limit your availability. This is best explained by examples, and there are thousands – from night clubs, to movie premiers, to limited betas, to H&M Designer collections, etc. People are attracted to things that are not available to everybody, mainly because it creates a feeling of higher value for themselves. But it is also because there is no fear of loss involved when availability is endless. That is why people visit museums abroad and rarely go to museums in their home town (hey, we can do that ANY day).
These three phases basically explain the process of creating Brand Attraction. It is often an ongoing process that iterates over and over again. And it is not an absolute truth, but a nice frame to work with when building strategic concepts. Phases can also in some cases compensate for each other. Facebook for example is high on phase two, while being low on phase three. Small World is the other way around.
It is also important to understand that not all phases have to be present everywhere, but can very well be spread out over different parts of the customer path (the Cadbury’s Gorilla is all phase one for example). The same goes for the team. Certain creatives (no names, don’t want to piss people off) have a very narrow focus on phase one, and that can work out fantastically if you team them up with the right strategic mind. As you know already, I don’t believe in dividing up strategy and creative in a linear way, but rather iterating and mashing strategy and creative.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
interesting….as im doing my honours research on brand attraction.