Beloved Brands Connect Emotionally to Lead the Pack

The emotive aspect of branding in product ideation is often overlooked. When people "feel" connected to a group or a place or in this case a brand, they can become fiercely loyal brand ambassadors. Apple and Walt Disney are perfect examples of this. Take some time to digest this well written article on the subject.

-Max Daves

CEO (idea)ology group

Beloved Brands Connect Emotionally to Lead the Pack http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237890

Beloved Brands Connect Emotionally to Lead the Pack At the end of the day, and at the end of your positioning statement, your brand must rest on an emotional benefit.

Sure, functional benefits are important because they outline what your product will do for your customer, which is critical to your success. They get you in the door of your customer, but they won’t keep you there.

The problem is that any product in a given category generally offers the same functional benefits. It’s very hard to differentiate based on a product attribute.

You may temporarily have a competitive claim that you can hang you hat on, but only until your competitors match it. It’s very easy to play catch up.

Take a look at the skin-care category. Virtually every single moisturizer in the world will hydrate your skin, minimize fine lines and wrinkles and even out texture. Every brand has a way of serving up those features differently, and that’s important, but at the end of the day they are all kind of the same.

In almost any industry, it’s about the same phenomenon.

To really differentiate, you have to go beyond product attributes and connect emotionally with your customers. That’s when you move beyond selling a product and becoming a brand.

It’s the “so that” in our classic positioning statement that we’ve been formulating.

The emotional benefit is ultimately what differentiates your brand and positions it in people’s mind. The emotional benefit is how you want people to feel about your brand, whether they use the product or not. The emotional benefit is what allows a brand to expand across product categories and customer targets. The emotional benefit is what gives the brand legs.

Take a look again at the skin-care category. While brands like L’Oreal, Neutrogena and Olay have much the same “product line” and functional benefits, the emotional benefits and the brand positioning for each couldn’t be farther apart. Take a look at their advertising messages:

L’Oreal: Because I’m Worth It (confidence, self-esteem) Neutrogena: #1 Dermatologist Recommended (security, best available) Olay: Your Best Beautiful (control, determination) While these product lines may differ, the fundamental product attributes and benefits are nearly the same -- but the brands couldn’t be farther apart.

By using emotional benefits to differentiate, each brand is positioning itself to appeal to its target audience and aligning to what’s most important to them.

It’s the emotional benefit that puts the finishing and magical touch on your positioning. Without it, you’d simply have a product, instead of a beloved brand.

From www.idea-ology.com (via Instapaper)

Look At Things (differently)

Look At Things (differently)

Apple Struggling to Regain Its Ethos

By Max Daves 

After the release of ios7, I spent nearly two hours talking with people from the engineering department at Apple. They asked me a very telling question... Do you think we are trying to hard (since Steve died)? This one statement showed me that the visionary leadership was lacking and had caused some confusion and trepidation in what direction to go. My response was, remember your compant ethos. Think different. Following google is not a innovative market leading think different ethos.  

The releases of products and the ios changes illustrates this. Added features are nice but real earth shaking market leading innovation has not materialized. However, fear of google and it's market share has. 

Recent iOS8 problems are but another symptom of a deeper problem at Apple.... Attention to detail. The devil is in the details just as the proof is in the pudding. There are cracks in the innovation, refinement development and release cycles.  

The innovation cycle at Apple has always leaned towards being longer than competitors. This allowed them to leap frog competitive innovations in other ecosystems. This process has served Apple well for years and allowed them to lead market innovation by not being led into the trap of the typical product release cycle of their competitors. Sadly this has slipped some under Tim Cooks watch. Patience is a virtue that harmoniously dwells with creative innovation in product development and refinement. 

I agree with the article link below at end of this post. It mirrors many conversations I have had with others in the recent months about a lack of focused vision, focused leadership and dedication to innovation driven refinement of various aspects of Apple's OSX, iOS applications and hardware. 

Harmonious integration of iCloud in both the mobile iOS and OSX seems incomplete and lacking creative vision in regards with applications. 

Many features like predictive type, Siri and maps seem more like unrefined betas. 

The lack of attention to detail emerges in the failure to stick with a focused refinement strategy. 

The full realization of what appleTV can be has become nearly an afterthought. This approach has carried on to software as well. 

The pieces are all there for a giant leap forward in functionality, seemless integration and high design for a truly unpresidented user experience that is so close that it feels like being teased with the potential even as it falls short. 

While it is true that Apple is still the leader, it has been losing ground to competitors simply for the reason it seems unfocused and disconnected from both its enthusiasts and its own corporate ethos. After speaking with many users of both the consumer and power user variety, I find that they both generally have one thing in common. They both are not only disappointed with the prior bugginess of iOS7 and the failed release of iOS8 but find it damn right frustrating and unintuitive as the previous iOS's had been. They also feel slighted by Apple in terms of the new versions of iWork and iLife applications being stripped of very popular functionality and familiar operations. This shows once more a disconnect by Apple HQ and leadership with their customers. Over simplification is not always intuitive and clean minimalist design. It's lack of attention to detail. 

Know thy self and know thy customer. Apple seems to be experiencing a company existential crisis. They seem to have forgotten their own ethos while at the same time have continued a troubling disjointedness in understanding their customers. 

It is time for Apple to look at things differently. Steve Jobs is gone but their are many capable visionary people out there who understand and follow the ethos that made Apple. Maybe it's time to find them and let them move Apple forward. 

Max Daves

CEO (idea)ology Group

Co-founder Safe Haven Strategic

www.idea-ology.com

(futurist | serial innovator | global strategist | visionary | socially conscious entrepreneur | radical solutionist | status quo disruptor | chief idea-ologist)

"Break the rules they taught you in business school. If it really worked they wouldn't have been teaching them to you... They would have been proving it works by doing it. Now let's go think up something new and make it happen."

The following article is old in terms if social media new cycles but it is timely in terms of the recent struggles in product releases. 

http://www.infoworld.com/d/consumerization-of-it/apps-are-apples-achilles-heel-232437?source=IFWNLE_nlt_apps_2013-12-12