Three key building blocks of brand strategy

Building block number one is authenticity. I believe that great brands are built on the truth and it’s an important principle which is easy to forget when we mistakenly think of branding as a subset of marketing. Branding isn’t a subset of marketing. In fact it’s the other way round. Marketing is a subset of brand. So when you set about turning your business, or organisation, or even yourself, into a brand, look deep into what is true before you begin.

Look into your history, into the quality and integrity of your product or service or behaviour. Or look into your customers’ lives, needs, desires, hopes and aspirations. There you will find the authentic truth on which you can build a brand. By way of example, my client Hemsby, the little traditional seaside resort in Norfolk, was settled by Vikings 1200 years ago. Were it not for the Vikings this little resort on the eastern edge of England wouldn’t exist.

That’s its truth and its uniquely authentic foundation. It’s on that truth that the Hemsby brand can be built. Authenticity doesn’t always lie in history of course. It might lie in ingredients, or skill, or an aesthetic, or a philosophy. Wherever, it’s important that you find and identify it: because that will be the bedrock of your brand. Without it you have only marketing!

Building block number two is values. It’s so easy to talk about values and so hard to make them the core of what you do: incredibly easy to pay lip-service to them in other words. But a small (very small) set of absolute values are crucial to a great brand.

Interviewing Swedish brand leaders recently for The Brand Effect series I found that every one spoke with utter conviction about values. With Volvo for example the simple value of ‘safety’ has been their guiding light for more than 80 years. Everything that Volvo does is guided by an obsession with safety. And this wasn’t created by a marketing team: it was a stated passion of the founders in the 1920s. Now Volvo has extended the meaning of safety to embrace the safety of pedestrians, to cover active as well as passive safety (i.e. accident prevention not just protection) and to embrace the safety of the environment.

A strong simple value is like a puppy: for life not just for Christmas. But like a puppy it grows and becomes stronger if you nurture it. So choose your values very carefully: and if they don’t have the power to motivate and guide your behaviour then choose again. For my clients in Hemsby the value is simple: community. Because the traders of this resort know that it is impossible for one of them to succeed while the others fail: they all must succeed together. That simple understanding is driving their brand efforts.

The third building block of great brand is narrative. Humans love and need stories. Stories are how we make sense of the world, how we comfort and thrill each other, how we teach our children. Great brands have great stories. Think of brands that you really admire. Apple, Innocent, Oxfam, Virgin, The Co-op Bank, whoever are your favourites. You’ll be able to tell a story of some kind about every one. Something about their origins, their triumphs and trials, the personality and reknown of their founders, the way they treat their customers, their great advertising, their shops, their ethical stance etc.. Great brands have a way of creating and communicating compelling stories that affect our emotions as much as our intellect. And that way lies brand success.  Think of the brands that you take for granted or actively dislike (I won’t list any here): and ask what do they have in common? No stories. It’s counter-intuitive perhaps when we have learned to mistrust spin. But I’m not talking about spin, I’m talking authentic, values-based story. I’d go so far as to say never trust a brand who doesn’t have a good story. Chances are they have no soul.

That’s the three key building blocks of brand then, but what of the fourth piece I mentioned, the strategic action. I learned this most clearly from Simon Anholt, the nation brand expert, who talks of a concept called ‘symbolic action’. A symbolic action isn’t the be all and end all of brand of course, and it must come after the establishment of authenticity, values, and narrative. But a symbolic action can focus the attention of audiences and galvanise the people in your team with great power. A symbolic action is not a PR stunt, but something more significant and lasting, something meaningful which indicates through a brand’s behaviour, what it is about and what it intends to mean to the world.

For Hemsby the symbolic action which marks the resort’s new attitude and new confidence is the foundation of East Anglia’s first Festival of Scandinavian Culture, which marks and celebrates the strong links between our part of England and Scandinavia which go back 1200 years. This festival, which launches in 2010 will put Hemsby on the map because it is something of authentic power and value, sustainable and compelling and with a great story. What symbolic action can your brand undertake?

The Brand Strategy Guru says: “Combine Authenticity, Values and Narrative with brilliant Strategic Action to form the basis of a great brand.”

Date posted: Friday 22nd May 2009Back to news home page >