Jon Steel is a rare breed of truly smart, creative thinkers. Though originally from an advertising background, Perfect Pitch is by no means simply an “advertising book.” It is a book about ideas and how to sell them, regardless of your business.
Amongst many accolades Jon Steel is credited with helping growing San Francisco “fledgling” agency, Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein, from $35 million in billings to more than $750 million, becoming a partner and vice-chairman along the way. In the course of his career Job has won more than 90 percent of the client business he has pitched for.
Jon debugs the “Death by Powerpoint” message, as many of us all to often rely on an unengaging wordy series of slides crammed full of irrelevant copy.
Jon believes that in business we all too often hide behind boring Powerpoint slides when we pitch. It is easier to simply read from a slide than step out and actually engage with your audience. He believes in finding an active insight from which to base the strategy and thinking and from there, developing an engaging and motivating story.
Through numerous high profile examples like the OJ Simpson trial, a pitch for the Sega business, the infamous “Got Milk” and “Dirt is Good” campaigns, and his assistance with England’s bid for the 2012 Olympics he highlights the importance of finding the hook that captivates and motivates your audience.
In much the same way that Wasabi will emphasis the importance of focus in our creative work, Jon stresses the importance of that “single idea”, or “big idea” or “core idea”. In his words it’s the only way of building a strong body of work that has really been thought through – because with multiple ideas efforts are obviously diluted.
This book is an essential tool for anyone who is ever in pitch situations with their clients; agency or otherwise.
A brand is a promise: a promise of specific benefits and value; a promise that is meaningful and relevant to the user; and a promise that is different from your competition. It’s a gut feeling a consumer has about your product, service, or company.
Brand essence is the single most compelling thing we can say about the brand that differentiates it from competitor brands as perceived by the consumer. The most powerful brand essences are rooted in a fundamental consumer need.
It’s best stated in just a few words. Classic examples are “Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance,” “Disney: Fun Family Entertainment,” “Starbucks: Rewarding Everyday Moments,” “Volvo: safe,” Sanitarium: Good Wholesome”.
Your brand essence will serve as your measuring stick in evaluating your marketing strategies and materials. The brand experience is strengthened when it is instilled into all your products and services–and at every customer touch point–including packaging, logos, your tagline, your corporate culture, in employee training, etc. The brand experience is weakened when it is ignored, or worse, through inconsistent usage, mixed messages, uncaring attitudes, and impatience.
The 7 essential ingredients of a strong brand essence are:
Single-minded – a brand essence must rely on just one absorbing thing to say about the brand otherwise it will lack focus. It’s not written to pamper the clients desire for a list of apparently inadmissible features.
Unique – we notice what is different about something; not what is the same. At the heart of a strong brand is how it is different from competitors. We don’t buy a dress because everyone at work is wearing it.
Experiential – a brand essence captures what the consumer feels during an experience with the brand. It’s a consumer’s definition; its not internal jargon.
Relevant – the essence must be relevant to the consumer – a brand’s essence must be desirable and vital. It’s what matters to them; not what you say it is.
Consistently delivered – If the core audience doesn’t consistently experience it then practically it isn’t the true essence. The character of a brand must be consistently represented across all company operations and marketing mediums.
Authentic – the brand essence must be believable or the brand will be rejected. Its allowed to be aspirational as long as the consumer believes you can deliver on the promise. Consumers expect the truth and the real thing from brand owners.
Durable – the brand essence will stand over time. It doesn’t change. Ever. Logos may come and go, packaging may change but the brand essence remains.
Because brand positioning is centred on emotions, not products, we shouldn’t ask “what business is the company in,” but rather “what is the company known for?” A strong brand is not tied to a product; a strong brand can transcend the products purpose. A strong brand can evoke the same reputation and emotion when applied to another product type. It’s more about what the current consumer expects from the brand and whether that reputation can be delivered with the new product.
I saw Samsung largely as an innovative, rather well designed brand of TV. In what seems like a short space of time they have successfully made the leap to leading edge Smart Phones. New technologies have helped but the brand has carried the product to front of market. Hyundai has rebuilt its brand status from its satellite and ship-building businesses and applied this reputation to a burgeoning car market share.
New brands need tight focus. Pick one problem that needs solving and build a reputation for solving it.
As a brand becomes better known it earns the right to expand its influence on a wider group of products or services. As consumers we grow to trust the brand to deliver from a wider gamut. Google built a reputation on accurate and reliable online search and has earned our trust to offer extended online services including storage and word processing. Apple has extended its innovate and cool computing ways to further innovate and cool digital tools – we trust that something from Apple will deliver on other digital fronts – its earned an enviable reputation for innovation and design as a brand far beyond the function of the product.
Sometimes brands can expand too far from their origins and reputation. Porsche to me was always a “luxury sports car” but now it’s a SUV and 4-door sedan. I think this sort of extension can take the gloss off the brand essence but perhaps to the core target its growing and developing with them – its still “luxury sports” but it accommodates wider functions, fashion within the actual consumer’s life.
That’s not unlike Prego, a popular upmarket restaurant in Auckland – it still makes the best gourmet pizzas as it did 20 years ago, the ambiance is still trendy and lively but heaven for bid, it caters for children now, with a kids menu and colouring-in sheets and crayons – its continued to grow with its original fans who now bring their young families.
Brands are living entities that must adapt to consumers preferences and fashions that evolve over time.
Often the dilemma of brand expansion can be confined by our definition of brand focus. As brand consultants we’re driven by the mantra; “narrow the focus to build the brand,” but that doesn’t mean we advocate narrow thinking. Narrowing the focus is about an organisation or brand building a reputation around a singular and compelling advantage; the brand essence.
Here’s an example… As an agency we may be hired for web design. If we positioned ourselves on what we did, say “bespoke web design”, then the client may be reluctant to think of us performing other marketing tasks. But if we position ourselves on how we work, “creative thinkers”, then the client may be more disposed to us taking on her brand advertising work.
A narrow focus doesn’t necessarily limit our brand evolution but its important to define the focus around the right dimension – in our case, how we go about our work, rather than what we functionally do. Virgin could not be confined to being a music brand because its reputation is not based on what it does (producing records) but on how it does it (innovation). The Virgin brand embraces a wide gamut of operations because it consistently stands for innovation as its brand focus.
Isn’t this easy when we refer to big brands with hindsight? The truth is that brand focus on a higher level (e.g. Apple – cool, Virgin – innovation, Coke – fun, Volvo – safe) isn’t always practical or effective. Too much high-level brand focus and flexibility can thin a brand to the point that it stands for nothing. For example, could a successful wine label position itself on “exquisite taste” and then extend its brand to a range of chutneys, a restaurant and a clothing label?
Just a week into their new website release, Hot Spring Spas are already experiencing a significant lift in lead generation. Wasabi Digital was charged with designing a fresh website; slimmed down from the copy-heavy old site and focused on strong Call to Action objectives.
The new site design pulled from old site analytics which, not surprisingly, showed a propensity for visitors to seek out product info and dealer locations. So the new site makes it easy to get to those pages and encourages requests for info from an innovative contact form. Check it out at www.hotspring.co.nz
We’re in a marketing age where normal is boring and standard won’t beat a dominant competitor. You’re not going to convince a strong advocate – of a brand she’s passionate about – to try your product, let alone swap sides, but you might be able to grab the attention of the people without strong ties; the consumers on the fringes. By very definition, though, those consumers at the fringes aren’t necessarily looking for normal; otherwise they’d be more like the big middle going for the market leader and average.
So if a second tier brand or new entrant is to break into a market and hold a sustainable volume and profit they are more likely going to do it with welcome innovation – something that the fringes or they not so committed might respond to.
Take the newly released Sauvie Vodka. The newest Vodka on a cluttered international stage but it’s different. It’s an upmarket vodka in a classy minimalist bottle made from grapes, Sauvignon Blanc grapes, the best Sauvignon Blanc grapes in the world, Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Marlborough, New Zealand. Very Sauvie!
What is the story that you are telling with your brand? What words are you using within your story? Should we believe you? Is your story credible?
A recent Citroen campaign tells us to “make history, don’t repeat it“. Hmmm, something doesn’t sit well with me with this particular campaign.
A Citroen DS3 is still a typical car. Four wheels, chassis, exoskeleton, forward and backward motion. The basic concept hasn’t changed since Karl Benz’ first gasoline automobile. Between Karl Benz and Citroen, which is the “history maker”? In 100 years time, will students be reading about the DS3 in their history books? I look at that billboard and – rather than thinking Citroen is a “history maker” - I distrustfully think “yeah, right”…but, maybe it’s just me! I recently read about a spherical concept car…now THAT could be a history maker!
It’s tempting to throw some punchy copy – or a cliche - into a marketing campaign without thinking through the words that are being used. They might sound good/powerful/motivating/convincing, but are they relevant or appropriate? Will the story stand up to scrutiny? If not, then there is a danger of undermining the brand you are trying to build, protect and promote.
Brand guardians need to be mindful of how their brand is being projected into the marketplace – the words and images used, the concepts conveyed, the promises made or suggested. A happy and loyal customer-brand relationship is ultimately built on trust. Let’s give our customers a brand campaign to talk about…in a good way!
