Art is the elimination of the unnecessary ? Pablo Picasso, painter, and sculptor (1881-1973)
With brands becoming as ubiquitous as the reach of our sensory ?experience?, we?ve grown to live, eat, sleep brands all the time. Our minds are so cluttered with brands that a marketer has to rid us of the irrelevant, to conceive a brand which easily resonates with the consumer. In today?s information era, simple design experience, communication and absorption are key to addressing the problem of sensory overload.
The best brands speak to the consumer without taxing the mind?an insight capitalised on by the most successful brands of today. These brands have mastered the art of evoking semantic associations with senses to convey a promise. In only a single word, they represent a larger meaning to consumers by conveying a commitment, a promise, for example, Apple or Nike. The Picasso quote reflects this ideology of minimalism ?which today stands as an important principle of branding. With some basic principles listed below, companies should attempt to drill down to that one core value of the brand, which can speak to the consumer.
Who am I?
Many companies make the mistake of trying to articulate their brand?s promise before fully defining it. Figure out what you want your brand to stand for and “own” that idea in the mind of the customer.
Before India opened up to global brands, it saw an abundance of local brands born out of functionality. At that time the idea was not to establish a unified brand reflecting a greater vision of the company, but multiple names designated to the businesses which drove it. This confused identity led to limited resonance with the consumer, who only witnessed a fractal organisation driven by numbers and not a promise of a value proposition.
As we ride on into an ever more crowded market place, companies and brands need to continue to fundamentally debate and ask themselves ?Who am I??
Why buy me?
Why should the consumer hear, and more importantly, buy me? In a market characterised by increasing commoditisation, it is becoming ever more difficult to stand out. What were once key differentiators?such as technology and product innovation, are no longer enough to set you apart from the crowd. Amidst all this noise, the need is to sharpen focus to seduce the target consumer, rather than preach. The complex principles which make the brand need to be broken down to render a simple playback of perception through concise messaging. Messaging should embody very simple and clutter-free design principles without carrying the complex baggage which went into making the product, because the moment it gets complex, people forget. For instance, among sports brands, Nike stays top of mind because it embodies its spirit in one simple swoosh? ?Just Do it?. Although Nike has robust and complicated back-end sourcing, what the consumer sees is only simplicity – in look and in spirit.
Technology brands face this predicament most often. The worst thing about technology is its complexity; ironically, the best thing about it is that it makes life simple. As an architect, and not an engineer, Steve Jobs did an excellent job of incorporating this as a core principle in his brand. To a consumer, Apple has transformed a high-tech engineering packed product into an experience. The brand brings the most complex of technologies snuggled behind a simple user interface – a spirit which is reflected across all Apple?s touch points, from its products to its stores.
Creating a sensory brand As marketers we know that a brand is built on insight delivered from the right brain. The best advertising appeals not to the left brain, but the right. It must communicate to the senses. In the mind, this sensory perception reflects the philosophy of a brand. BMW for the longest time didn?t have the appeal of a Mercedes. It took time to evolve from a left brained German car focusing on engineering to become the ?ultimate driving machine?. During this transformation even the product saw a softened design which reiterated its claim to be the ultimate driving experience. Globally, today BMW is the largest and most valuable luxury automobile maker, larger than Mercedes and BMW, certainly apart from a great business model, also owes this to its ?experiential? advertising which simply talks today about the ?joy of driving?, whereas the Merc advertising focuses on technology. In my view, the Merc continues to clutter the mind with technology and engineering whereas what the mind seeks is simple metaphor.
Many believe that brands are all about perception, but brands are actually highly sensory. Perfect example is the Apple iPad which has been designed for the human touch. Airtel doesn?t talk about offering better call drop rates; rather their ?Har ek friend? campaign is based on the concept of friendship. A brand comes of age when it starts associating itself with values which sit above all literal principles or benefits, to cater to the senses of the consumer. Think of the best things you have and you will be surprised to realise how they all engage your senses.
It is only when you develop your brand on a foundation of simple sensory experience, consumers don?t just hear, they listen. This is where we find a deep association between art and branding. A good piece of art always appeals to the intellect and a simple principle follows: The more complicated a piece, more limited the audience, and vice versa. The mantra should always be to regain control of the vital and get rid of everything else.
The writer is president, corporate strategy at HCL
