“Branding doesn’t work anymore”.
Hey, I didn’t say it! Jonathan Baskin did in his book, Branding Only Works on Cattle.
In it, Baskin challenges the relevance of traditional branding and its effectiveness in today’s digital world of fragmented media and connected consumers who “aren’t paying attention, don’t believe or can’t remember stuff, anyway.” If you are a marketing professional, or anyone involved in advertising or brand development, with an agency or in-house—go buy this book!
Tony Fortunato, interior designer and thinker here at RC, checked Baskin’s book out from the Downtown library, and passed it along to me just before Thanksgiving. A few days on a farm in South Carolina gave me plenty of time to absorb it, but it’s not going back to the library anytime soon. We snagged it for another 3 weeks and now Ed Bondi (one of the partners here), has it! So, save yourself some time and just click on the title link above and order it from Amazon. No—they aren’t commissioning me, but you might want to! Heck, Ed read about three pages, came back to my office and said he had been “liberated”! That’s the effect that this book will likely have on anyone who has made a career of developing and promoting brands, who are honest and willing to ask themselves tough, introspective questions. And while I don’t agree with every point that Baskin makes, his core ideas are fundamentally, undeniably valid.
These include the fact that there exists a dichotomy between branding and business reality that is becoming ever more noticeable. That branding over the years has mutated into a big, vague, esoteric “idea.” That somewhere along the line, branding separated itself from marketing (and hard sales absolutes) and in doing so, absolved itself from corporate culpability. That branding is qualitative, not quantitative, but there exists a “multi-billion dollar Creative Media Industrial Complex, dedicated to maintaining its status quo.”
Baskin points out that traditional branding emerged from a time when there just 3 major networks and a handful of daily newspapers. Today, there are 500 cable channels, 1,500 newspapers, nearly 18 million satellite radio subscribers and oh yeah—the world wide web, GOOGLE and social networks! So, simply telling people what you want them to think about your company and repeating it over and over through a limited number information outlets no longer works.
Most of us are really not influenced to purchase things as much because of slogans, logos or clever ads, but rather because of our experiences with products and companies.
If, for example there were no more hipster commercials with “MacGuy”, Justin Long, would that stop you from buying Apple products? Of course not, because Apple’s products and services are innovative, well-designed and consumer-friendly! Your real life experience tells you this, not Apple ads.
Baskin points out that, “we (consumers) determine what brands are”; and our experiences are based on real-time behaviors—how companies interact with us—and the experience we take from those interactions. Baskin uses a great example—Starbucks. Ever notice that they hardly even do any advertising? Instead, they simply concentrate on making the customer experience great. What this all means is that businesses need to worry more about how they behave and how we behave.
To this end, Baskin suggests that traditional branding exercises, like putting big money into silly messages that only serve to “raise awareness” or “plant a seed” in hopes that consumers might remember a brand when they are ready to purchase, might better be spent on making the reality of your product better, faster, more convenient and satisfying. Then, marketing to consumers based on a behavioral model he calls, “The Chronology of Purchase Intent”.
This references a sequence of behaviors that we all go through when making a purchase decision, including an initial information search (obviously most often via the web or friends); evaluation; alternatives consideration; purchase decision; and least we not forget, post-purchase evaluation. (You want that repeat business, don’t you?)!
So, as a marketer, Baskin says you must think about: Who your targets are; What you want them to do; Where you expect them to buy things; When you think things happen; Why the current step will lead to the next one; and How the steps will ultimately link into an expression of brand. Baskin states that you have to ask these questions, then find ways to intersect consumer behavior with your brand, in ways that compel the customer from step-to-step with the end result being the purchase of your company or product (and a genuinely satisfying experience along the way!).
He believes that integrated campaigns that use gaming as a model (where one clue or piece of useful information leads to another, with each step providing a valuable takeaway, useful towards claiming some ultimate prize—the sale), is a good one to consider when planning brand campaigns in today’s democratized world of abundant choices and information channels.
Baskin’s book is full of clear thought about the modern meaning and delivery of brand. In the very few places where you believe he might sail off into the fluffy world of theory and academia that he himself is railing against when it comes to traditional branding; he yanks you back to reality and compels you to consider brand in a tangible, quantifiable and valuable new context—one infinitely more rewarding for all of us than its current status as a underwhelming means towards “glorified name recognition.”
Check out Jonathan Baskin’s own feisty brand marketing blog at: dimbulb.typepad.com
Nice content indeed! i will visit as often as i can.
cheers