Finding the heart and soul of a brand sounds all warm and fuzzy. Some like to call it a brand’s purpose. I prefer heart and soul because 1) It sounds cooler and 2) It suggests something more human and meaningful.
Semantics aside, finding the heart and soul of your brand is the single most important thing you can do for your business. That’s because people don’t buy brands. They join brands. Brands that reflect their values and beliefs.
Is it really that important?
I’m going to lay some numbers on you. After analyzing more than 50,000 brands, then narrowing it down to the top 50 with extraordinary growth relative to their competition, Kantar Millward Brown found that great brands grow the way they do because of one key differentiator: They connect deeply with people.
They also found that over 50% of buyers, in almost every category, select brands first and then consider price. It concluded that, “On average, consumers pay 14% more for brands that they perceive to be meaningfully different.”
So how do you find the heart and soul of your brand?
Now that the “is it good for business” question is out of the way, let’s move into finding the heart and soul of your brand.
I’ll start with the usual suspects: Nike, Dove, Starbucks, Lululemon, Lego, Walt Disney. All admired brands. All successful. Why? Because it’s not just what you do. It’s why you do it. Each one of these brands transcend the functional aspect of what they do and make an emotional connection with people because of what they stand for.
Here are three examples from my experience. The “Thrive” campaign for Kaiser Permanente came from the fact that people want someone to not only care for them when they’re sick, they want a partner to help keep them from getting sick. Kaiser Permanente stands for health. That’s their north star.
At USAA, the heart and soul of the brand comes from a profound understanding of military life. USAA members know that the person they’re talking to on the phone “gets me.” “We know what it means to serve,” is more than a tagline. It’s a promise. It guides every decision they make as a company.
The “Take Time To Be A Dad Today” campaign for the Ad Council could have simply become a list of activities for non-custodial fathers to do with their children. Instead, they tapped into a powerful insight that the smallest moments can have the biggest impact in a child’s life. They’ve been helping men become better fathers for over 20 years.
Everybody’s got their something.
Start by answering these three questions. Why are you in business? What’s the one thing that makes your brand different from everyone else? How does your brand reflect the values and beliefs of the people you’re trying to reach?
Now, more than ever, brands need to demonstrate a greater sense of understanding. Those brands that help to make people’s lives better are the ones that will succeed.
Mark Simon, brand soul searcher
