Most small to mid-sized companies (and a surprising number of non-profits) view their outreach exclusively through the lens of traditional marketing. They conceive of branding as a direct selling effort, a straightforward presentation of the purely practical utility of what they have to offer. Fundamentally, they`re not entirely wrong. By answering the question “what practical value will you realize through our offerings?,” an organization effectively establishes a baseline for demonstrating the concrete benefits it can deliver to its publics.
But other organizations see marketing communications and branding less narrowly. For them, crafting a selling proposition anchored in practical benefits is only a single facet in the outreach cycle. They set out to elevate public associations with their brands to levels of perceived value beyond here-and-now satisfaction when the offering delivers on its performance promises.
By linking the inner experience of the brand to more personally meaningful ideals, the brand-conscious organization creates the foundation for a more expansive and deeply felt value proposition. The brand is a success when a critical mass of influencers and customers identify with the spirit behind it. Word-of-mouth (and more subtle, less conscious transmission) builds this brand community. The brand-aware organization sets the thematic baseline for brand contagion, and then reinforces its resonance as the brand takes hold.
Consider Nike’s decades-old Just do it theme, an evergreen clarion call to a level of independence and self-confident achievement well beyond shoe-power. Think vanity brands like Burberry or Neiman Marcus, where the perception of quality and distinction threads together expansive ad hoc communities of adherents who feel “special” through their association with each brand and the values it represents.
Examples
of these personally-invested, self-organizing communities of brand loyalists
are legion, from Apple Computer, to Disney, to Oprah, to NASCAR, to Pabst Blue
Ribbon beer. All of these brands are energized by a “big idea” that frames the
brand --like creativity, or non-conformity, or the thrill of a shared
experience or point of view. The most committed adherents of big idea brands find
their satisfaction in the emotional charge behind the brand or brand
experience, and—most tellingly--in the community that embraces the brand’s
values.
The big idea premise of a brand should certainly support the concrete benefits of the offering, but at the same time it should transcend its purely practical value. It should focus on the power of a central idea(l) to galvanize communities of individuals who share the brand’s values.
This is a lesson that particularly should not be lost on the not-for-profit institution aspiring to build its brand today.
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