What a show!  Comic-Con 2010 was a blast.  Having heard about Comic-Con for so many years, I went to check it out for myself this year.  Not only did I want to see the crazy costumes and live panels, but I also wanted to see what was going on from a brand point of view.  I expected to see all of the network, studio, comic book, and TV show brands, but what other brands would be there?  Here’s my recap:

DLYohn Comic Con 2010 Recap from Denise Yohn on Vimeo.

Here’s some other non-brand-related stuff on Comic-Con — just fun:

• Comic-Con Crazies — a glimpse of the crazy people at the show and their costumes
• Chuck at Comic-Con — the first few minutes of the panel with the cast of Chuck
• me!

If you’ve been in the business long enough, you come to understand there are some basic rules to follow when running an ad on the Super Bowl.  Humor works best.  Use animals or big-breasted women – or both.  Wow people with extraordinary settings and production values.

Many of the advertisers on last night’s big game followed the Super Bowl advertising playbook to a tee (view all of the spots here).  And, yet, they violated some fundamental rules of advertising in general.

know thy customer

Last night there were at least three spots (I lost count after awhile) that tried to tap a certain manly spirit but failed.

Dockers called on all men to “Wear the Pants” and rebel against the growing movement of proud, but pants-less men.  In Dove’s spot for its Men+Care line, men were bolstered with the upbeat charge: “You can take on anything, of course you can — becaaaauuuse you’re a man!” The ad implied to men that although you previously felt inadequate or overwhelmed by others’ expectations, you can now “be comfortable in your own skin.” Chrysler’s manthem threw subtlety out the window with its defiant declarations of “I will drive the car I want to drive” and “man’s last stand.”

In each case, the message came through loud and clear:  Men have been oppressed and suppressed for too long.  Men, it’s time to stand up, take a stand, stand up for your rights, stand tall…in other words, be a Man!

Problem is, there is no problem.  Or at least, there’s not a problem men are willing to admit.

Such calls to arms fell flat with men because the consumer insight upon which they’re founded is inaccurate.

The movement in American culture of recent years toward Alpha Females, more matriarchal families, and Girl Power gave rise to the “I am woman, hear me roar” advertising anthems.  Ads which have resonated with women demonstrated that marketers understood their female targets and had something relevant to offer them.  Spots like Nike’s “I Feel Pretty” featuring Maria Sharapova proving that’s she’s more than a pretty face, and ESPN’s “Running Away” in which a woman goes running and leaves the burdens of her life in the dust, were inspired by years of women actually being oppressed and suppressed.

Men are in a different place.  They haven’t spent years trying to shed stereotypes and live up to impossible expectations.  They don’t feel misunderstood and misrepresented by advertisers.  There’s no widespread pent-up disappointment or resentment.  Perhaps there should be – and maybe there is, but it’s hidden.  And so rallying-cry ads don’t resonate with them.

Men don’t need to be inspired to embrace who they are.  In fact, I suspect men found such suggestions embarrassing, if not offensive.  They don’t need ads to tell them what to do – they’re men, after all.

These ads demonstrate that their creators don’t really understand their target. Instead of finding a message that resonates with men in a socially acceptable way, they simply took a formula that had previously worked on women and applied it to their male target.  Ironic, don’t you think?

know thyself

Second to knowing your customer, knowing yourself is the most critical rule for advertisers. A few of Hyundai’s spots make this point.

In one ad, beauty shots of a car getting a paint job and a voiceover talking about classical music sonatas are followed by the title card, “Better paint quality than Mercedes CLS550.”  Another spot suggests that Hyundai is the new definition of luxury.

With both of these ads, Hyundai is trying to position itself as a luxury brand — but it’s just not credible.  Comparisons to Mercedes and caviar are too far-fetched.  Given that the Sonata’s highest list price is still under $30K, it isn’t a luxury car.  Hyundai may be a very fine automotive brand, but it’s not a luxury one. It shouldn’t try to be something it’s not.

Instead it should embrace what it is – and right now, that is a superior choice to Toyota.  With all of Toyota’s recall troubles, this is Hyundai’s moment to shine.  And shine it did in its Body Pass spot.

In this ad, a Sonata is shown moving through “one of the most technologically advanced factories in the world” — but instead of machines and conveyor belts, Hyundai employees are shown passing the car above their heads like a rock star at a concert.   The spot closes with the title, “Assembled by 3,300 quality experts.”  This spot used a strong, visually-interesting way to make a credible and compelling point about the brand – it’s high quality.

I’m sure the spot was conceived and shot before Toyota’s troubles arose, but it is a brilliant execution – and, most importantly, one that is true to the Hyundai brand.

unsavory associations

The third fundamental rule broken by some of last nights’ spots relates to subliminal messaging.  Effective marketers use the power of suggestion in advertising to create associations to exist in people’s subconscious.  One might argue whether or not sexually-shaped ice-cubes and flashing images are used (and effective), but every advertising person knows to employ subtle tactics to create associations — like choosing to shoot an ad in an upscale setting in order to evoke a more premium image.

While these approaches are usually intended to create positive associations for the brand, occasionally unintended negative ones are made.  For this reason last year I criticized Cheetos for using pigeons in its Super Bowl ad – this year I have the same beef with Denny’s use of chickens.

Denny’s two spots featured lots of screaming chickens, panicked over the amount eggs they’d have to produce for the chain’s Free Grand Slam breakfast offer.  However, no one wants to think about live chickens when they think about eating eggs.  That’s why you don’t see cows in burger chain campaigns or pigs in bacon ads.

Denny’s not only made the association between their offer and the chickens their diners’ eggs will come from – they made it the core idea of their spots.  Most people might not have been turned off by the association when the ad ran, but the message was so powerful, some will likely experience a subconscious negative feeling if they recall the ad when they sit down at the restaurant.

Fortunately for Denny’s, their offer is so compelling, most people will ignore the cognitive dissonance.  But that begs the question – the offer is so compelling, why let a drove of chickens spoil it?!

Doritos is also an offender.  I don’t know which is worse — the thought of Doritos as dog food (as depicted in the dog collar spot) or the image of the gross gym guy spitting out a Dorito in the Dorito ninja ad.  Both have created negative associations in my mind that I’m not likely to forget soon.

Marketers should know better – and be more careful.

Just as winning in football requires mastering the fundamentals, winning in Super Bowl ads begins with adherence to simple, generally-accepted rules for effective advertising.

P.S. Most Super Bowl ad critiques are a matter of personal taste.  I’m hoping the above comments reflect a little less subjectivity and a little more critical thinking about advertising in general.  Having said that, I do want to give a shout-out to two spots which stood out to me simply because I liked them:

• NFL – the drama created by the super slo-mo of the tremendous play by Reggie Bush followed by the emotion captured in the multiple shots of fans made this spot captivating.  It stirred my passion for football even though I’m not a really big follower of the sport.
• Google – the Googly simplicity of this ad drew me in and held my attention.  Beyond that, it was such a great product demo:  it didn’t “tell;” it “showed” – the product wasn’t integrated into the story; it was the story.

I’m eager to hear your take on the spots.  Comment away!

related posts:

• my superbowl was filled with guacamole
• if a brand has something to say, say it

a few things that caught my eye at CES 2010

As 2009 draws to a close, I thought I’d take a quick look back at significant developments of the past year.  And what a year it’s been, hasn’t it?!

Last January, I don’t think any of us could have predicted how bad things would get (the economic downtown, collapse of the automotive industry, Adam Lambert’s American Music Awards performance – to name a few of the year’s downers) – nor what the bright spots would end up being (Twitter adoption, explosion of iPhone Apps, and Glee – some of my picks for highlights!)

A stroll through the past year’s brand as business bites ™ posts reveals some of 2009’s more memorable moments and movements:

January 5th – “no money, no problem”  I started the year with an optimistic outlook, calling the “brand as business” approach “the biggest opportunity for brands” because it transforms brand-building from a discrete, costly, and subjective activity into the most critical way of managing and growing a business.  Little did I know how many leaders would end up completely neglecting their brands for the year.

February 6th – “brand you?”  Thanks to the tanking economy, many people found themselves looking for work.  Pundits pounced on their misfortunes, promoting personal branding as a way for folks to package and sell themselves.  I became concerned that this development might trivialize brands in general, so I wrote this post to remind everyone that brand-building, whether for individuals or brands, depends on increasing the value you deliver and how you do it.

May 3rd – “5 brands we would miss: a series”  Kicking off Q2, 24/7 Wall ran an article outlining twelve brands that were likely to see their demise in the year’s downturn.  I started a blog series which highlighted a few brands from the list and explained on why I would miss them.  It’s interesting to note that only one of the five I wrote about (Saturn) ended up disappearing.

July 9th – “free to be free”  As introduced by Chris Anderson in his  book “Free,” the “free economy” took off this year and commerce will never be the same.  We’re witnesses to tectonic shifts in the way businesses make money and the innovation of brand new business models.  This post outlines my thoughts on how Free should and shouldn’t be used.

September 1st – “starbucks went changin’ — best blogpost revisited”  Starbucks made the headlines several times this year.  From starting the year off on shaky ground, to testing an unbranded re-brand (15th Avenue Coffee and Tea), to introducing VIA an instant coffee product, the venerable coffee chain sparked many a conversation.  Perhaps the most exciting for me came from this post in my best blogpost contest in which the winner stated, “Rather than trying to be all coffee shops to all people, it makes more sense for Starbucks to focus on the core of their brand, and then to make sure that they always do that well.”

October 22nd – “brand documentaries”   This post outlined an idea for a new brand tool (brand documentaries which would be used by all brand stakeholders to enhance their brand understanding) and sparked great feedback and new ideas on my blog and on Twitter – and the discussion even continues on today on LinkedIn.  And that’s what’s so remarkable.  It’s encouraging to see the widespread interest in new tools for use in today’s brand context as well as the willingness to collaborate and share ideas in order to create them.  And it’s amazing that we now have the social Web to facilitate this kind of collaboration and dialogue.

October 26th – “the business reset button”  Early signs of a recovery emerged in Q3 and as business leaders started returning their attention to growth, I returned to advocating for a new management strategy – one that’s more in tune with the changing market and optimizes the company’s core operating system in meeting demand.  I wrote a paper and introduced a new keynote presentation on “brand as business” ™ the ultimate business reset button.

November 30th – “ode to black friday”  Given the dismal results retailers posted for most of the year, many started this holiday season desperate for sales. I wrote this ditty to express my personal fatigue with their emphasis on deep discounts and deals.  We now know that business has come back at a moderate clip, but I remain concerned about the long-term damage caused by retailers’ over-reliance of sales and discounts.

And this is where we find ourselves now — on a slow and bumpy road to recovery, but a recovery nonetheless.  I hope this recap has shown that, although there was a lot in 2009 that we’d like to forget about or do over, there have been some glimmers of hope and new ways of working have emerged which will propel us forward.  As we close the books on the past year, let’s preserve the best and reinvent the rest.

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season!  (brand as business bites will resume on January 4th.)

T’was the day after Thanksgiving and all through the mall
Shopkeepers and sales staff had prepared for it all

They’d hung their over-sized sale signs and filled all their racks
“Shoppers start your engines,” they suggested, “not a moment to relax.”

Windows were a sea of red posters, red tags, and red decorations too
Promoting not the color of Christmas but the more common sale hue

Advertisers had stuffed local newspapers with flyers and FSIs
Featuring deep discounts, limited quantities, and other special buys

E-tailers stuffed my in-box full of promotional emails
Every subject line was announcing a deal or a sale

The signs of sales desperation were everywhere I looked
Even TV ads eschewed entertainment and went straight for the sales hook

Instead of enjoying shopping and having some holiday fun
Finding the best price seemed to be job number one

Looking for good gifts and their trimmings lost its appeal
Since I wasn’t sure each offer I would find was the absolute best deal

I got tired just thinking about shopping before I headed out the door
All the talk about prices made it seem like a chore

And so I decided to pass on Black Friday and just stay home
In feeling overwhelmed I’m guessing I wasn’t alone.

(the image above is a partial view of all of the FSIs from my local Thanksgiving day newspaper — the stack was almost 2 inches piled high)

Steve McKee has started a great project, Find Your Nerve, “a grassroots effort to help get the economy moving again.”  Each business day of the fourth quarter features a post from someone about jumpstarting the recovery.  Today was my day:  please check out “A Leap of Faith.”

Also I thought you might want to see a video taken during my leap of faith:

click on the image to view movie

]]> http://deniseleeyohn.com/bites/2009/10/19/a-leap-of-faith/feed/ 0 http://deniseleeyohn.com/bites/2009/09/24/my-journey-to-%e2%80%9cbrand-as-business%e2%80%9d/ http://deniseleeyohn.com/bites/2009/09/24/my-journey-to-%e2%80%9cbrand-as-business%e2%80%9d/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:12:47 +0000 denise lee yohn http://deniseleeyohn.com/bites/?p=2301

Five years ago this month, I became an independent!

Yep – back in September of 2004, I followed the advice of a book title I heard of (“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”) and resigned my VP/GM Brand and Strategy post at Sony Electronics, Inc. to hang out a shingle as an independent brand consulting partner.  I thought I’d take this occasion to recount some of the milestones on the journey I’ve been on since that crazy moment.

For those of you who don’t know me well, I hope this post will explain why I believe so strongly in “brand as business” – and for those of you who have been my support and guidance, partners and clients over the last 5 years, I hope you will be able to see how you’ve helped get me to where I am today.   

September, 2004 – I started out with a business card, a hope and a prayer.  I wanted to share with the world all that I had learned about brand development and be able to have more impact and help more companies than I would if I had stayed at Sony or any other corporate job.

October, 2004 – I got my first gig.  I served as an advisor to an advertising agency that was pitching a piece of new business and that wanted to tap my experience in the category and my insider’s knowledge of the client.  I was grateful to start off with such an interesting, challenging, and (most importantly) paying (!) project – but even then, I realized that I didn’t want to limit the scope of my work to marketing communications.  I was far more interested in the integration of the client’s brand with its business strategy and operations.

September, 2005 – I celebrated my 1 year anniversary, having been blessed to have worked on great brands like Frito-Lay, Jack in the Box, and Hitachi in my first year.  I learned so much from those first experiences – including that companies of all kinds and sizes struggle with how to close the gap between their brand vision and the reality of their day-to-day business. I drew upon my client-side experience base to try to help my clients navigate through budgets, politics, and processes to build their brands.

January, 2006 – I incorporated my business and officially became Denise Lee Yohn, Inc. More than an accounting change, this move signaled my intent to not just be a “freelancer” or a consultant as in I-say-I’m-a-consultant-but-I’m-really-just-in-between-jobs – but rather, I wanted to have direct, vital, and fully accountable relationships with clients.

September, 2006 – My second year included projects for Jamba Juice, Kipling, and Road Runner Sports, among others.  I drew from and added to my toolkit of methods, processes, and tools that helped companies translate brand strategy into brand execution.

August, 2007 – I took a class based on the Strengthsfinder assessment and realized what my strengths are and what gives me energy and gets me excited.  Based on this, I decided to pursue more speaking opportunities as a way to share my passion for operationalizing brands.

November, 2007 – I attended HOW’s Mind Your Own Business conference and was forever changed!  (I’m not exaggerating.)  The conference is targeted to creative service professionals, but it is a great learning experience for anyone running a professional services business.  Thanks to the provocative conference sessions and the follow-up research I did, I became convinced of the importance of specialization – that is, of focusing on one area of services and/or one market/category.

I realized I needed to narrow my scope to “brand as business” – the management approach that involves the deliberate and systematic management of the business around the brand.  Not only would this differentiate me from all the other brand consultants out there by leveraging my unique experience of having spent so many years on the client-side of business, but also it would enable me to influence and guide companies in the way they needed to grow the most.

Furthermore, I decided to more aggressively target companies in the health, fitness, and wellness categories, since I know these categories well (I’m a fitness enthusiast and a former aerobics instructor) and since I had already worked with quite a few of these companies.   The learnings I took away from conference truly helped change the game for me.

January, 2008 – I launched “brand as business briefs^TM,” periodic emailed briefings about how companies can operationalize their brands.  I wanted a way to share with and get feedback from others on my thinking about “brand as business.”  I wanted to know if other people agreed that while breakthrough brand strategies and messaging are important, companies needed to make their brands the central organizing and operating idea of their businesses.  People did indeed agree and encouraged me to continue working on and sharing about this.

March, 2008 – I started down the path of writing and publishing a book.  Based on my desire to evangelize “brand as business” and to establish a more regular speaking business, I was advised to write a book.  So I engaged a marketing mentor to help me write a book proposal and I asked a presentation consultant to help me package “brand as business” into an argument that could be made in presentation or book format.  (Little did I know then how long and hard of a road it would be to even get the book off the ground.  But now, a year and a half later, I’m closer than ever to securing a publisher and I’m planning to publish “Reset: Re-Ignite Your Business with the Power of Your Brand” in 2010!)

August, 2008 – “brand as business bites,” my blog, launched.  I had gotten such positive feedback on my newsletter that I felt there might be a desire for more ongoing communication with my network.  Plus, it seemed a blog would provide the venue through which I could share insights with the broader brand and business community.  For awhile I have to admit I felt like I was writing into the wind – maybe connecting with a handful of readers.  But the process of writing the blog as well as following other bloggers helped to sharpen my thinking and writing, so I kept at it.  And, now, I suppose if you’re reading this, then that means I’ve reached a few more folks and hopefully I’m advancing the conversation about brands and how we build them.

April, 2009 – I took the Twitter plunge.  And lo and behold, it’s been a godsend!  I have been exposed to far more people, resources, and ideas through Twitter than anything else I’ve done.  I feel much more engaged with current business issues and the latest thinking on brands, and I’ve enjoyed meeting and learning from folks from places as far away as New Zealand and Brazil.  I also am learning from how businesses of all kinds are using Twitter to connect with customers and achieve their objectives.  All of this, I believe, has helped me be a better resource to my clients as I help them operationalize their brands to grow their businesses.

September, 2009 – Today! It’s been 5 years – woo hoo!  Thank you so much to everyone who has helped me along on this journey.  I’ve purposefully not mentioned specific names of resources, partners, and other folks who have supported me through this journey only because I fear I would offend people by forgetting or excluding them.  But please know that I am fully aware of the many people to whom I owe the success of my business.  I am extremely grateful for you – I hope you know that.

Now as I turn to the years ahead of me, I’m excited and (cautiously) optimistic about what the future holds for Denise Lee Yohn, Inc. and “brand as business.”  I’ve made some plans and set some goals – one of which I’m delighted to announce today:  I’ve started a podcast, the “brand as business bites podcast.”  The podcast features a mix of current blogposts and revisits of past blogposts, along with occasional bonus content and (hopefully in the future) interviews with brand and business thought-leaders. It’s available on iTunes and I would love for you to subscribe and give me feedback.

Once again, thanks for everything!

p.s.  the picture above is of the pink slippers my Sony colleagues gave to me when I left — as you can see, they’ve been worn a lot and so 5 years later, I’m finally going to retire them!

The TV show The Biggest Loser started up again this week.  The show features contestants who train, diet, and compete in challenges to see who can lose the most weight.  I started watching the show last season because a client of mine is a sponsor and I got hooked – not only is it inspirational to see how the contestants’ lives are completely transformed, but also the show teaches some great lessons about competing and succeeding in business.  

Last year I did a short Twitter series on the business lessons I learned from the show – here’s a more complete list of the 9 things I’ve learned about business from The Biggest Loser:

1:  keep metrics simple – the show uses only one measure (pounds lost) to evaluate the contestants’ progress.  Clearly they are improving their health and their lives in so many other important ways, but the one number makes tracking easy.  Likewise, in business we should use metrics that are easy, clear, and memorable.

2:  success requires both mental and physical strength – the most successful contestants are those who are mentally tough enough to withstand the politics and emotions of the show, as well as physically strong enough to compete in the challenges.  In business, I think mental strength is strategy and physical strength is execution; we need both.

3:  don’t get distracted from the goal – some contestants make the mistake of emphasizing winning a particular challenge just because they want to beat the others, when they should instead be focused on the end result which is weight loss.  It’s just as easy for us businesspeople to get distracted by small issues or fads or personal agendas.

4:  the tortoise always beats the hare — time and again, taking a steady and sure approach in the challenges wins over starting strong and then flaming out.  In business, consistency and the wise use of all of our resources ensures we cross the finish line too.

5:  excel at what you can control – when competing, it’s tempting to fixate on what the competition is or isn’t doing.  Problem is, we can’t control what others do.  Our competitive strategy should be grounded in focusing on our own excellence and playing to our strengths first.

6:  be prepared – like most shows, The Biggest Loser surprises the contestants with challenges at random times.  Likewise, we never know when our businesses will be tested by customers, competitors, or even market conditions.  We should always have our game on and never think that something we do won’t get noticed or won’t matter.

7:  up your game – just as our bodies get used to exercising over time and so they need increasingly harder workouts, business needs innovation and continuous improvement.  How many companies have lost important ground while they were resting on the laurels of their last successful new product?

8:  ask for help – the contestants who sought out extra support from the trainers and their friends seemed to have more success.  Likewise, collaboration and partnerships are important to businesses now more than ever.  Companies that try to go at it alone miss out on the resources, ideas, and support that business partners, customers, and even competitors can provide.

9: test your limits — we won’t know what’s possible until we do.  Some contestants pushed themselves beyond what they perceived their limits to be and were able to do things they never thought they could.  Businesses should also challenge the past. Calculated risk taking is the key to growth.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the show!

The folks at BLACKCOFFEE have been inviting folks to complete the thought, “A Brand Is…” I was so fascinated to read the range of responses that I decided to take a closer look.  I wanted to see what common themes emerged among people’s definitions of “Brand” and what we could learn from them.
Here’s what I did:

• I collected all of the responses that were on the site as of this past weekend – there were over 170 of them.

• I culled out the ones that I didn’t understand (e.g., “A brand can be anything, just not ‘like that.’”) and ones that didn’t provide a helpful answer (e.g., “A brand is an elusive concept that many brand professionals can’t define.”)

• I sorted the remaining answers into groups/themes.  (I had difficulty classifying some of the answers because I wasn’t sure exactly what some people meant, so I apologize in advance if I mis-grouped yours.)

Here’s what I found:

1.    Some used the historical definition of a brand when branding was used on cattle, or suggested a brand is something which functions like a brand on cattle.

A brand is a label created by a company.—lix
A brand is a mark made by burning with a hot iron to attest manufacture or quality or to designate ownership—Bill
A brand is a different name for the same product—yo
A brand is a mark made by burning or otherwise, to indicate kind, grade, make, ownership—@SIGEPJEDI
A brand is a logo, a font, a long-standing celebrity spokesperson. It’s a memorable commercial. It’s a quality product with quality ingredients. It’s consistency.—Jocelyn Geboy
A brand is an iron tool heated in the fire and used to indicate ownership of cattle.—Stephen

2.    Some chose simply to say what a brand is not.

A brand is not merely “something that’s nice to have” any more than air is something good to inhale once in a while.—David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer
A brand is more than a logo.—Brad C
A brand is not a logo, unless it is on a cow.—Misc
A brand is much more than a logo.—Erick Straghalis

3.    Some responses were negative towards brands.

A brand is a fake image—anon
A brand is unfortunately bullshit a lot of times.—unknown
A brand is a set of lies we convince ourselves to believe in and hope the public will to.—HMMM
A brand can be fake—http://sidere.wordpress.com
A brand is a terrible lie.—Craig Elimeliah
A brand is a relic of an illiterate culture.—Bud Caddell
A brand is gay—Nicole

4.    Some people spoke of the financial value of a brand.

A brand is something you pay extra for—Mark
A brand is the difference between a 99¢ cup of coffee $4 venti, foamy, ristretto, doppio expresso con panna cappuccino.—Ken Peters
A brand is your most important asset if you own it or rely on it for income.—Kendall Langston

5.    Many people suggested a brand is “in the eyes of the beholder,” not under the control of the companies or marketers who promote it.

A brand is something companies try to control but often can’t—Jordan
A brand is perception—accidentalthinking
A brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what consumers say it is – and you’d better listen, because they’re vocal.—Ken Peters
A brand is a set of associations the audience has and how they see your business activities—@alexisvandam
A brand is a user generated meaning—Luis Miranda
A brand is the sound of your voice coming out of someone else’s mouth—Bill Gathen
A brand is what people outside a company perceive it to be based on everything they hear, read and see about that company.—Lewis Green
A brand is a recipient built by marketers but filled with people’s thoughts, frustrations, use, likes, dislikes… experience.—Rafael Lizárraga
A brand is perception—@kandacehudspeth
A brand is a collective perception in the minds of consumers—@faris
A brand is whatever I perceive it to be—Arvind
A brand is perception—Kandace
A brand is the sum of audience associations and expectations, both tangible and intangible, that surround your offerings.—@ericbrody
A brand is what everyone else sees—vera
A brand is how you are perceived by others and you get the opportunity to build your brand up – or tear it down with every customer interaction.—Stephen Lynch
A brand is the perception of a product.—David Mitchel
A brand is what they say about you after you have left the room…—Rob Levinson
A brand is everything people believe about your product, real or imagined, true or false.—Roger Dooley – Neuromarketing
A brand is the collective views of the people who care.—David Meerman Scott
A brand is the idea held in the minds of the customers of the experience they’ll have, and in some case what they will become, by purchasing your product.—Steve Farnsworth (@TheRealPRMan)
A brand is your reputation, your legacy. It is how you are perceived by an audience that must find you relevant.—Lida Citroen, LIDA360.com
A brand is how you are perceived by others—Stephen Lynch
A brand is useless without consumers.—Bryant Florez
A brand is what the public believes it is, not what companies say it is.—Jonathan Moore
A brand is what customers buy, not what businesses sell.—David Brier
A brand is all that stuff in the head of people ‘out there’ that you often have very little control over—Jon Howard
A brand is about people’s reactions to an organization’s actions.—Mark Gallagher—Brand Expressionist®, BLACKCOFFEE
A brand is a perception in the minds of others. It’s what they think you are, not what you think you are. It can be an image, a voice, a personality or a product/category, but it boils down to whatever people think when they hear the name.—Janice Dottin
A brand is [mine]—Kevin Gatta

6.    Yet, others responses spoke about a brand as a company’s values and/or corporate culture.

A brand is vision-led culture.—Steve Barnett
A brand is much more than a logo. It should represent the core values of your company, product, or service. A good brand should lead your organization internally, and clearly represent what you stand for to consumers.—D.K. Smith
A brand is your company’s DNA.—Nicho Valadez
A brand is a set of values you agree with.—Michael Ancevic

7.  A lot of people’s responses were about feelings – either saying a brand evokes feelings or that a brand is a feeling itself.

A brand is the feeling I get when I think about a company.—Jon
A brand is my connection to the product.—Missy
A brand is a gut feeling—luke
A brand are the hopes and expectations you have of a product and the company that makes it.—edward boches
A brand is the emotion invoked by a product—Mansi
A brand is a feeling evoked by simply thinking of the brand name.—Greenwala
A brand is an evocation—http://sidere.wordpress.com
A brand is how it makes you feel—Ld
A brand is butterflies or knives in your stomach—David Armano
A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.—Marty Neumeier, Neutron
A brand is a perception and lingering feeling that lives in the minds of your market. It’s based on emotion and defined by the experience people have with your brand.—Carol Chapman
A brand is an emotional short-cut to feeling good.—Anthony
A brand is what captures a consumer’s heart, not just a mind—Heidi Foreman
A brand is a collective emotional response.—Michael Troiano
A brand is something that evokes everything from DESIRE … to HATE.—Stephen Cocca
A brand is an expectation of receiving a feeling by way of an experience.—Tom Asacker

8.    Many people offered up answers describing what a brand does – e.g., generate demand.

A brand is what my teenage son is always talking about when he wants my money.—Eric
A brand begets preference, sometimes without actually being better.—@RJ_in_SF

9.  Some explained a  brand functions like a memory tool.

A brand is something people remember.—EV
A brand is what you would want another person to remember first thing in the morning and think of just before he or she goes to bed.—Strategic Growth Advisors
A brand is the scar left behind on a person’s brain.—Zach K.
A brand is a concept seared into the mind.—Mark
A brand is like knowing exactly what to reach for when you cut your finger.—Jordan Julien
A brand is a product idea/vision that gets burned into consumers’ minds.—RcSim

10.    Others described the differentiating function of a brand.

A brand is what you have when everything else is equal.—Michael
A brand is unmistakable and unique.—@bradleyphoto
A brand is a developed and distinctive concept—-unknown
A brand is all you put on something that is equal to everything else in order to make it different—sg
A brand is a how people identify and differentiate goods and services.—Bobby
A brand is a token of difference.—Minko Dimov, creative director at protobrand
A BRAND IS THE RECOGNITION THAT ADDS SUPER-VALUE TO A PRODUCT THAT COULD DEFINE THE UNIQUENESS IN IT!!—Naveen Kumar
A brand is your face in this world to differentiates you from others—Karl Varley
A brand is a unique and deliverable claim of distinction supported by evidence of performance.—Ro Breehl

11.    A brand is an image or personality to some folks.

A brand is PERSONALITY!—Trish
A brand is the face you put on when you go out in public—Doug Besser
A brand quite simply is your voice, your vibe, your essence. It’s how you’d like to be perceived you in your ideal reality. There are three views: How you see yourself, how others see you and how you really appear. In many instances, companies use the equivalent of plastic surgery, attractive lighting and couture to craft their personae. Standards and guidelines aside, Few rarely “live” the brand, which in itself is a somewhat overused term.—David Weinstein
A brand is like a purpose-led person’s personality.—Harasha Bafana
A Brand is Attitude. It’s what you stand for, illustrate in visuals, sound like, how you act, what you stand for and how you communicate. It’s the sum of all impressions perceived in every brand channels.—Karsten Kjems
Very simple…an IMAGE of what your product/service is conveying to the masses.—Judy
A brand is your first impression—Joel Beukelman
A brand is what people see when they look at you and your product—Aaron Irizarry
A brand is more than a logo or a website. It’s a complete personality. One that drives the focus of the audience and engages them on a personal level.—Troy

12.    It’s an identity to others.

A brand is who you are.—John Turmelle
A brand is…expressing your own identity.—Kim Brown Irvis
A brand is establishing your sense of identity—MIke B
A brand is a part of someone’s identity—Mark Begin

13.  And a story or drama to still others.

A brand is a fairy tale.—@issamheddad
A brand is a story in which the author and the audience are both in control.—@mattquint
A brand is story or association in the mind of consumer.—Ritu Sinha
A brand is performance art.—Mike Wagner, CEO White Rabbit Group
A brand is part theater, part magic, part inspiration and whole-hearted passion. The stage is the mind of your audience. Let the production begin.—David Brier, Chief Gravity Defyer
A brand is a story told in the marketplace. Customers are telling your story with or without your help. Align the right brand message to the right channel of the consumer’s social grid to provide a multi-touch experience.—Matthew Kruchko, Applied Storytelling

14.    Some responses spoke of a brand as a promise.

A brand is a promise—@brennahanly
A brand is why I keep coming back, when that brand keeps its’ promise.—Dave Bradley
A brand is a promise, not something that happens when you spend mountains of money advertising.—Restaurant Marketing
A brand is delivering on a promise – perhaps inspired and initiated by a Company – but driven & actualized by the customer.—Robert Collins
A brand is a promise which when kept creates preference—Justin Basini (although not my defnition but I love it)
A brand is promise delivered to your customers.—Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO, Kodak
A brand is a promise fulfilled—Lauren Hughes
A brand is a promise of performance in the mind of the consumer.—Jack Birch
A brand is the equilibrium between people’s emotion and a company’s product, service; in short, a brand is the value a company promises to its clients—Colin
Some thought a brand is more of a relationship.
A brand is meaning & relationships—Juanjo
A brand is a mutual friend.—farfariya
A brand is a relationship driven by the customer experience—Fred Page
A brand is a relationship.—Dave Bradley
A brand is a long term profitable bond between an offering and a customer. This relationship must be based on economic, experiential & emotional value. Backed up by operational excellence & consistently monitored, measured and improved.—Marcus Osborne, Malaysia
A brand is a connection between the company and it’s customers—Stephan Lenting
A brand is a proxy for a relationship.—Ben Kunz
A brand is an experience to be shared with others or kept to ourselves. A brand is the personal interaction we have with a product, service or person. A brand is as fragile or as strong as friendship. If it breaks its promise, the relationship may be in jeopardy.—Kneale Mann

16.    And some offered that a brand is an experience.

A brand is what i experience when i get in touch with its products and with it communications efforts—maria
A brand is something you trust because it gives you lifestyle experience—http://scratchvertise.blogspot.com/
A brand is a customer experience — including perceptions, like, dislike or apathy — of a product or service.—jeff
A brand is the reaction one has to a company, product or service based on the sum total of experiences, directly or indirectly, said person has had with company, product or service.—Joel Mier
A brand is the entire experience a consumer has with every touch-point of your brand, the emotional connection they have with it and the interaction itself represents the opportunity for a brand to transact an experience with the consumer that will not only deliver the delight they expect but also provide them with unexpected value and satisfaction that is unique unto your brand alone.—John Walsh – FlyLite
A brand is a summary of thousands of touchpoints.—Tyrale
A brand is the aggregate of all the tangible and intangible interactions one can have with it.—John Schneider
A brand is the emotions, feelings, and thoughts generated from the experience of a place, idea, or product.—Seth Hosko
A brand is an experience that is shared between customers.—Kneale Mann

17.    Some responses didn’t fall into one of the above groupings – either because they spanned multiple themes, or because they introduced a different thought.

A brand is the vision behind a logo—Digdamao
A brand simplifies the complex.—Dava Brada’lei
A brand is where an object or a service meets culture—Carito K
A brand is our imagination.—@maharis
A brand is a reflection of how effectively we are communicating our passion.—@mpack7
A brand is simply what we apply to things to make them more human.—Dom Rodwell
A brand is simply a mental construct. What you DO with that mental construct, after it has been created, is up to you.—Tom Asacker, author of A Clear Eye for Branding
A brand is a miracle with a name.—Mr. Markenlexikon
A brand is…the truth about you, well told.—Michael DiFrisco
A Brand is a journey of a product/service which starts at any company and ends in consumer mind.—Gaurav Nadgouda
A brand is living entity, always changing and open to individual interpretation.—Paul Coles
A brand is like a human being. It has emotions and evolves with changing environment.—Ashish Shah
A B.R.A.N.D. is Being Recognized And Never Doubted—Derrick Hayes
A Brand is about continuity not consistency.—Ed Walter
A brand is my constant puzzle because no matter how much I work on all the support elements, it’s completely in the hands of our front-line employees.—Julia Carcamo
A brand is the shadow of your profile—Gianni Tolu
A brand is like a human being. It has emotions and evolves with changing environment. A corporate identity is a reflection of what company thinks about itself; a brand is what target audience thinks about the company.—Ashish Shah
A brand is a company’s most valuable asset.—Robert A. Miller
A brand is a marriage between the rational (your positioning) and the irrational (the emotional response to you).—Karen Kang Consulting @ Kang.com
A brand is shorthand for a winning company & products. Losers don’t have brands…—Bill Hawe
A brand give a sense of belonging—Mark Cameron
A brand shouldn’t need to be explained.—Erick Straghalis
A brand is a manifestation of the hopes, expectations and aspirations between consumer and provider.—Jason C. Otero
A brand is a blank canvas with guidelines—Andrew Wendling
A brand delivered is the result of the steady iteration of a message over time. A brand received is another story. “National health care” vs. “ObamaCare”.—John Burnham
A brand is, and should be timeless.—Hee Chung
A brand is a collection of experiences, stories, and associations that create a perception about a product, service, or company.—Steve Jones – brandlikearockstar.com
A brand is a living, breathing representation of the lifestyles, emotions and values of the audience it serves.—Gennefer Snowfield
A brand is [true to self]—Kevin Gatta
A brand is [familiar]—Kevin Gatta
A brand is consistent.—Heidi

A brand is co-created by the brand owner and its audience.—Laura Savard—Brand Expressionist®, BLACKCOFFEE

A brand is a company’s most valuable asset!—Laura Savard—Brand Expressionist®, BLACKCOFFEE

A brand is everything you can control about how it looks and acts and nothing about how people feel about it and react to how it acts and looks.—erich nolan bertussi

18.    And some offered up definitions similar to mine:

A brand is what a brand does or doesn’t do.—Martha
A brand is a desirable and exclusive idea integrated in products, places, services, people and experiences.—@designdamage
A brand is not what you say, it’s what you do.—The Australian Centre for Branding
A brand is everything you do and don’t do.—Jason
A brand is what a brand does.—Edward Boches

My response:
A Brand Is… a bundle of values and attributes that define:
•  a product or service’s value which is delivered to its customers, and
•  the way of doing business which is the basis of a company’s relationships with its stakeholders

What can we learn from all of this?

Here are a few of my observations and thoughts:

•    There’s a lot of passion for brands.  The BLACKCOFFEE site got over 170 responses in what I believe was less than a week — and there are already so many more responses that have been entered than when I started this analysis only a few days ago.  And I love the many thoughtful, interesting responses.  Thanks to BLACKCOFFEE for starting what I hope will be an ongoing conversation about this thing, Brand!

•    Two of the groupings that include the most responses are the one that explains a brand is not something companies/marketers can control and the one that speaks only of feelings.  This concerns me.

Although some of the responses in these groupings came from folks I have a lot of respect for, I have to disagree with them.  I believe a brand is something that a company creates and actively nurtures and builds – certainly a brand’s success is dependent upon customers’ reaction to it, but there must be strategic intent and active leadership to determine which customers the company wants and why and how they want them to react.  Likewise, a great brand certainly sparks emotions – but feelings alone do not a business make.  The point is to translate feelings into actions (buy, make, change, do…).

I expect people to disagree with me on this, so please do share your comments.

•    There are a lot of definitions and interpretations of what a brand is.  This makes brand-building ripe for confusion – which is a barrier when we talk about it with business leaders and try to make the case for investing in it.  I’d like to see more clarity and alignment within the business community about what a brand is – I’m not sure how to get there, but I believe doing so is important to the future effectiveness of brands and brand-builders.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we might go about addressing this.

Comments open!

Congratulations to Jon Galloway, the winner of the “vote for the best blogpost” celebration I held to mark the 1-year anniversary of my blog!

Jon voted for “don’t go changin’ to try to please them,” a post I had written about why brands shouldn’t go chasing after customers.  Jon explains his choice:

This really resonated with me since I’ve seen this mistake made so many times from a product development point of view:  “let’s add a splash of social media, a dash of what’s trendy this week, and a little bit of what the boss read about in an airplane magazine last week…”  Eventually you end up with an incoherent mix that doesn’t make anyone happy. Your post really summed this up well – rather than trying to be all coffee shops to all people, it makes more sense for Starbucks to focus on the core of their brand, and then to make sure that they always do that well.

To explain, I wrote in the post that if Starbucks were to heed the advice of a recent Harvard Business Review article, they would try to steal some of my visits to a local independent coffee shop, Mystic Mocha— but it would be a fruitless and senseless effort.  Fruitless because I like visiting Mystic Mocha regularly and don’t want to stop going there; senseless because Mystic Mocha meets a very different need from Starbucks and I value each brand for fulfilling each unique need.  Instead, I advised, Starbucks — and all companies really — should focus on the elements that are at the core of their brand and invest in excelling at those.

Interestingly, in the time that has transpired since when the post was published back in early April, Starbucks has indeed gone “changin’ to try to please them.”  The company’s debut of 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea features equipment, product, and design changes to give the stores a locally-themed and less uniform look.  By serving wine and beer and to hosting live music and poetry readings, the new stores are intended to attract an older, more upscale, and perhaps more elite customer.  The change has been critiqued and criticized by many, including me.

In my mind, the reasons why this latest move from Starbucks’ doesn’t make sense all boil down to the thinking I shared in the post our winner Jon selected.  So, thanks, Jon, for drawing our attention back to the post, and congratulations once again.

Jon is Senior Software Engineer with Vertigo Software.  He works with cutting edge technologies, like Silverlight and Microsoft‘s latest web frameworks.   Check out Jon’s blog and podcast for a full immersion into the world of programming.

Jon’s favorite brand is StackOverflow (a programming Q&A website) — because, he says, “they’ve got such a clear focus on making their customers successful.  I think they do a great job of saying who they are and what they’re trying to do, then really delivering.“  Sounds like my kind of brand (if I were a programmer!)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.  (The winning vote was selected at random; the post that actually garnered the most votes was “brand inspiration” — more on this to come.)  I’ve enjoyed hearing from all of you — I so value your readership and our connection.

I’m looking forward to a great Year 2!