No Comments Written by Robert on July 1, 2008 – 10:37 pm

Write down a list of your favorite brands. What do they all have in common? Strong brands share many key traits, but there are six traits that distinguish most of them.

Strong Brands Are Well-Known

If I have never heard of your brand, it is hard for me to have any feelings about it. I don’t know who you are, what you stand for, or what benefits you offer me. Simply building awareness of your brand can be a powerful way to grow it. Ten years ago, almost nobody had heard of a supplemental insurance brand called AFLAC. Today, you not only are aware of it, you probably get a smile on your face when the AFLAC duck comes to mind.

The role that the duck campaign played in AFLAC’s business growth is well documented. If you ever happen to be in the market for supplemental insurance, and you are offered three insurance brands, Jim’s, Dave’s, and AFLAC, you will naturally choose AFLAC. You have heard of them. They sound familiar. Therefore, they must be reputable.

Strong Brands Stay Relevant

Apple is a great example of a brand that has managed to stay relevant to its fans through a constant stream of amazing product innovations and very cool, very insightful advertising. All successful brands were relevant at one time, even Oldsmobile. The trick is staying relevant. Innovation in your products, services, and messaging go hand in hand. It is hard to make your brand relevant without some tangible news. Motorola was quickly losing the cell-phone battle to Nokia for a time. When they launched the RAZR phone and combined it with their “Hello Moto” campaign, it made the brand relevant again.

Strong Brands Are Differentiated from Their Competitors

Harley-Davidson motorcycles are not any faster, more reliable, or more efficient than other brands of motorcycles, but they sure are different. When you hear that “hog” sound, even before it comes around the corner you know that a Harley is coming.

Strong Brands Are Authentic

Authenticity has become more and more important as consumers have access to more information and have become more cynical about marketing messages. There was a time when you could just make up a brand story, like Betty Crocker, and consumers would relate to it.

Today, we are much more cynical about such made-up stories. We connect much more readily with a retailer like REI, which was founded by folks who actually climbed mountains. Ben and Jerry started a wonderful little ice cream company in Vermont.

A very authentic story. It will be interesting to see how the brand holds up now that the company is in the hands of Unilever.

Strong Brands Espouse a Worldview

When we do seminars on branding, we will often ask the audience if they believe that hunting promotes good family values. Most people line up pretty firmly on one side or the other. For hunters, it is a bonding experience and even a rite of passage for fathers and sons (and even for some mothers and daughters).

For nonhunters, it can seem abhorrent. If you believe hunting promotes good family values, you are probably a big fan of Gander Mountain, a successful retailer for outdoorspeople. If you don’t believe hunting is a good thing, you wouldn’t be caught dead there. The retailer Target subtly espouses the belief that you don’t have to be rich to enjoy good design. This belief is shared by their customers.

When Nike says, “just do it,” they are sharing a belief that complaining and excusemaking don’t help you get in shape or achieve athletic goals. Only hard work and sacrifice can get you there. For those lacing up Nike shoes to go for a run on a cold morning, it is a belief they truly understand.

Strong Brands Tell Stories That Connect Emotionally

Humans are storytellers. Since the beginning of time, we have been telling each other stories to explain the world. When there is information missing in the story, we fill it in. We create our own stories to explain the world. We do the same thing with brands.

A company gives us some clues about the branda product, an ad, an experience at the storeand we fill in the blanks to complete our story about the brand. The important thing is that this story exists in the mind of the customer, not in the marketing document of the company.

Go back to that list of your favorite brands. Why are you loyal to them? What did they do to hook you? You may not even be able to express why you feel the way you do about them, but deep down they make you feel good about something. Maybe they remind you of a special time you had with your mom or dad, maybe they evoke an exciting time in your life.

Whatever the connection, strong brands understand this and strive to reinforce the emotional connections. Stories are one of the most powerful ways we have found to connect emotionally. The Green Bay Packers are one of the National Football League’s best-loved franchises. Here is a team in the smallest market in the league, owned by the residents of Wisconsin. And yet they have had remarkable success.

They are also a brand. The Packers consistently sell more merchandise nationally than most other teams in the NFL. For us, the Packers are more than a football team.

They evoke memories of watching games on a little black-and-white TV with our dads during the Lombardi era. Consumers don’t remember bullet points. They only remember facts when they are attached to a framework they understand. Stories are often your best framework.