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Defining Brand Identity

Spring, 2012

Judy Hopelain and Carol Phillips

Brand Amplitude, LLC

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Adapted from Lectures at UC Berkeley and University of Notre Dame

Business Schools

Copyright ©2012 Brand Amplitude, LLC All Rights Reserved

Today’s Topics

What is Brand Identity?

The Brand Identity Framework

How to Apply the Framework

Examples

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What Is Brand Identity?

“Brand Identity helps to define how the company plans to leverage its brand in order to

Reach its corporate vision, Uphold its corporate values and Achieve its corporate mission…

“It forces senior management to reach consensus on longer-term growth objectives and stake out where that growth could and should come from.”

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--Scott Davis, Brand Asset Management, 2000 p. 38-39

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Why Brand Identity?

“The more meaningful people find your marketing, the more they’ll be willing to pay for your stuff, and the more loyal they’ll become to your brand. They’ll make more of an investment in your brand emotionally, and they’ll be more motivated to choose it and spread the word about it.”

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--Bob Gilbreath, Marketing with Meaning: The Next Evolution of Marketing, 2010, p. 3

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Brand Platform = Brand Identity + Brand Image

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“The brand platform is the cornerstone of brand management.

Each brand should have its explicit, concise and sharp written brand platform, making clear what it wants to stand for.

The brand platform is the normative blueprint of the brand the company wants to build.

It summarizes the two key pillars of brand management: Brand Identity and Brand Positioning.”

-- Jean Noel Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 2012 p. 170

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Brand Identity = Positioning

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Positioning is…. Focused on distinctive characteristics, the

‘discriminator.’ A comparative concept, relative to

competitive set. More about product(s) than the brand as a

whole Shorter-term in outlook and less stable,

lasting, and enduring. Less rich in meaning. Specific to a target market and time. Used to support external communications

while the Identity is mainly used internally.

When you know (and the organization agrees on) the answers to the following questions, your Brand Identity is clearly defined:

1. What is the brand’s particular vision and aim?

2. What makes it different?

3. What need is the brand fulfilling?

4. What is its permanent crusade?

5. What are its values?

6. What is its field of competence? Of legitimacy?

7. What are the signs which make the brand recognizable?

Seven Signs You’ve Developed a Brand Identity

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A well-defined Brand Identity helps answer many questions that arise inside companies every day, such as:

Can the brand sponsor a particular event or sport?

Does the advertising campaign suit the brand?

Is the opportunity for launching a new product inside the brand’s boundaries?

How can we change the our communication style while remaining true to the brand?

How can communications decision making be decentralized regionally or internationally, without jeopardizing brand congruence?

Brand Identity Addresses Executional Questions

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Internal Culture & Values Note: Kapferer puts “Relationship” here

CapabilitiesNote: Kapferer calls this “Physique”

Personality

Noble PurposeNote: Kapferer puts “Reflection” here

Shared Values & CommunityNote: Kapferer puts “Culture” here

Aspirational Self-Image

Brand Identity Prism - Elements

Adapted from the ‘Brand Identity Prism’ by Jean-Noel Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 2012, p.156

Rallying Cry

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This element answers the question: What do we do?

Many brands have problems with their physical facet because their functional added value is weak. Even an image-based brand must deliver material benefits. We focus on capabilities, which are about the brand’s value-added.

Example: Foster Farms Frozen Cooked Chicken

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Prism Element: Capabilities

Capabilities:• Chicken – Highest quality• Cooking – Making perfectly cooked chicken• Resource – Helping you make successful

dinners

This element answers the question: Who are we?

Strong brands are built on a strong culture and a clear set of shared values.

• Brand’s core beliefs and way of operating.

• Unwavering, and and uncompromising.

According to Kapferer: “The cultural facet of brands’ identity underlines that brands are engaged in an ideological competition.”

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Prism Element: Internal Culture & Values

Example: Nike

Nike champions ‘solo willpower’ with a dose of optimism, and addresses a major sociological insight:

Millions of people in the world today know that they can count only on themselves.

This element answers the question: Why do we exist?

Strong brands are a vision of the world. The idea of ‘Being of Service’ underlies this facet of the Brand Identity prism. It is meant to be motivating to employees, and important to customers and other external stakeholders.

Noble Purpose refers to the larger goal or cause the brand aspires to serve. It is about the brand’s ambition -- what the brand wants to change in peoples’ lives; how it aims to make their lives better.

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Prism Element: Noble Purpose

The Usual Suspects• Patagonia• Body Shop• Ben & Jerry• Newman’s Own

Newcomers• TOMS• Innocent

Examples:

Surprising Addition?• P&G

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BANpF-6ybuY

Source: Jennifer Aaker2 1.13 13

This element answers the question: How do we deliver?

Some brands are incredibly earnest, others are super smart. By communicating their personality, brands build character. Consumers identify with the brand’s personality or project themselves into it.

Prism Element: Brand Personality

This element answers the question: What do we have in common?

Brand loyalty provides a sense of belonging. Whether it’s formal or grassroots, that connection provides a powerful bond and source of distinction.

Example: Harley Davidson’s creation of a brand community was central to its turnaround • Created a group of ardent consumers organized

around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of the brand

• Retooled every aspect of the organization—from its culture to its operating procedures and governance structure—to drive its community strategy.

• Made Harley into one motorcycle manufacturer that understood bikers on their own terms.

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Prism Element: Shared Values & Community

“Shared value suggests that profits that are imbued with a social purpose can enable companies to grow while advancing society. It frames the enterprise mission and objectives in a new way. All profits are not equal. Those that advance society are better, and those that detract from society are inferior.”

-- David Aaker, “Creating Shared Value vs. Leveraged Social Programs”, Harvard Business Review, 6.30.11 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/creating_shared_value_vs_lever.html

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Prism Element: Aspirational Self-ImageThis element answers the question: What do customers want their use of the brand to say about them?

• Repeated use and reliance on a brand demonstrates its value to the user.

• Brand loyalty provides an emotional or self-expressive benefit.

• Use of the brand tells others something about the user, and it tells the user something about her/himself.

Example: Lacoste

• Users see themselves as members of a chic sports club – an open club with no race, sex or age discrimination, but which endows its members with distinction.

• This works because sport is universal.

This element answers the question: what does all this add up to?

The Rallying Cry is 3-5 word shorthand encapsulation of your brand identity.

• Defines the category of business for the brand, sets boundaries and clarifies what is unique.

• Should be memorable, crisp and vivid.

• Stakes out ground that is personally meaningful and relevant to employees.

• Not an advertising slogan, and, in most cases, not used publicly.

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Prism Element: Rallying Cry

Emotional Modifier

Descriptive Modifier

Brand Category/Industry+ +

Disney: Fun Family Entertainmenthttp://youtu.be/MAE_OgMrkaQ

Ritz-Carlton: Ladies & Gentlemen Serving Ladies & Gentlemenhttp://youtu.be/AANS1QlS6kQ

BMW: Ultimate Driving Machinehttp://youtu.be/NJ81ivxPl20

Betty Crocker: Homemade Made Easyhttp://youtu.be/qm-_TIE2w2Q

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Rallying Cry - Examples

Emotional Modifier

Descriptive Modifier

Brand Category/Industry

+ +

Most powerful when it articulates the DNA of a company and is used as a touchstone or North Star when making difficult decisions e.g., about business strategy, crisis management, acquisitions, new product introductions.

Internal Culture & Values • Embrace and drive change• Create fun and a little

weirdness• Be adventurous, creative and

open minded• Pursue growth and learning• Do more with less

Capabilities• Service that delights

customers• Quality products• Deep selection and broad

assortment

Personality• Empathetic• Open and honest• Positive• Passionate and determined• Humble

Noble Purpose• Deliver WOW!

Shared Values & Community• Easy • Responsive

Aspirational Self-Image• Discriminating, smart

Zappos Brand Identity

Rallying Cry:Powered by

Service

2 1.18 18http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WHAfWqX3s

Internal Culture & Values • Joy of individualism• Commitment to

adventure• Reward of fulfillment

Capabilities• Inventive design• Custom cruisers• Loud & powerful engines• Dealer development

Personality• American spirit• Individuality• Rebellious• Freedom

Noble Purpose• For love of the open road

Shared Values & Community• Harley Owners Group

(HOGs)• Harley is not for everyone

Aspirational Self-Image• Rebel/ “Bad Ass”

Harley Davidson Brand Identity

Rallying Cry

Live the Cruiser Lifestyle

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Internal Culture & Values• •

Capabilities• •

Personality• • • •

Noble Purpose•

Shared Values & Community• •

Aspirational Self-Image•

Adapted from the ‘Brand Identity Prism’ by Jean-Noel Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 2012, p.156

Rallying Cry

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Your Brand _______________________Hint: Fewer bullets per prism element for greater focus.

Expected Benefits of Brand Platform Energize – Set a high level of ambition for the brand.

Inspire – Identify the deep consumer insight or societal tension to be addressed

Passion – Focus the brand on the big ideal or crusade

Consistency – Provide a common creative activation all across the range of portfolio brands and activities

Deliver – Match products with real needs, with passion and ‘edge’

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Key Takeaways ‘Passion Brands’ are engaging brands with a

deep inner inspiration. They also have character, their own beliefs, and help consumers in their life and to discover their own identities.

An effective Brand Identity underlies strong brands and helps organizations keep them vital

The Prism is an effective tool for Brand Identity development

Each element in the Prism requires elaboration

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Resources to Go Further Jean Noel Kapferer, The New Strategic Brand Management, 4th

edition, 2012, Chapter 7: Brand Identity and Positioning

Simon Mainwaring, We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Create a Better World, 2011

Douglas Holt and Douglas Cameron, Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands, 2010

John Sherry, “Brand Meaning”, Kellogg on Branding, 2005 (Book edited by Alice Tybout and Tim Calkins)

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Carol Phillipscarol@brandamplitude.com269-429-6526

Judy Hopelainjudy@brandamplitude.com

415-810-8268

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