Assessing the Strength of Your Brand Package

Click here or the image below to take the Brand Packaging quiz.

A brand’s package must quickly convey the brand’s personality, promise, unique position and look, preferably in the few seconds it takes a customer to scan a shelf. Of all the different touch points for telling the brand story, the package is the most engaging because it can hit all the senses and draw in the customer. The package is the ultimate test of a brand’s survivability and sustainability.

The brand package should clearly communicate and connect with your core market. More than simply capturing a customer’s attention, a package must engage their emotions by contributing to an authentic, meaningful and memorable brand story to create sustaining power. To achieve this, brands need to focus on customer psychographics rather than their demographics to know why customers buy, and to learn their values and attitudes. They need to get to the emotions and rationalizations behind why people purchase rather than what population group they represent. The package needs to speak to their lifestyle, even help solidify the mindset they use to judge the category. A package is merely a commodity if it doesn’t create a memorable experience with the customer.

Put your package to the test
So how do you know if your packaging is properly representing your brand strategy and fully connecting with your customer? As customers weigh their choices, it ultimately comes down to being able to tell a compelling brand story through packaging and presentation. Once engaged, customers will find every reason to make that brand part of their lifestyle.

While we’re drinking our morning lattes, our friends across the pond are already sipping their afternoon espressos. And we’re evolving our business to harness those 9 hours for your brand. But really, it’s about more than just time…

Brand Engine has joined forces with CB’a Brand Ignition, the first U.S. office of CB’a Design Solutions—a strategic agency with 300 employees and 9 offices in Europe and the Middle East. Together, we’ve created a cross-cultural partnership offering global perspectives, creative resources on two continents, innovative practices from around the world, and access to resources and trends data to give your brand an added boost.

Ah, the Ides of March and it is a great day to be in Sausalito. My first official ride on the MV Agusta today. Crisp, clear unflitered air under a bright full body yellow sun set against an expansive blue sky. And why am I indoors writing this post?! It’s been a while since my last post and today seemed like the best day to make my return.

Much has happened in the branding and design world over the last few months and with Brand Engine as well. Come back often over the next few weeks as I tell you more about some of the exciting changes happening at Brand Engine and share more of my personal insights and perspectives on branding and design. For now, I’ll leave you with one question to ponder: Does your brand and packaging have Spark?

Assessing the Strength of Your Brand Package
In our previous newsletters on the topic of “How is Your Brand?” we gave you some homework to evaluate the health of your brand and offered tools to develop a relevant brand strategy based on your business objectives. The next step in our brand development process is assessing the strength of your brand’s package to ensure that your package is a natural extension of your brand and communicates your brand story.

A brand’s package must quickly convey the brand’s personality, promise, unique position and look, preferably in the few seconds it takes a customer to scan a shelf. Of all the different touch points for telling the brand story, the package is the most engaging because it can hit all the senses and draw in the customer. The package is the ultimate test of a brand’s survivability and sustainability.

The brand package should clearly communicate and connect with your core market. More than simply capturing a customer’s attention, a package must engage their emotions by contributing to an authentic, meaningful and memorable brand story to create sustaining power. To achieve this, brands need to focus on customer psychographics rather than their demographics to know why customers buy, and to learn their values and attitudes. They need to get to the emotions and rationalizations behind why people purchase rather than what population group they represent. The package needs to speak to their lifestyle, even help solidify the mindset they use to judge the category. A package is merely a commodity if it doesn’t create a memorable experience with the customer.

Put your package to the test
So how do you know if your packaging is properly representing your brand strategy and fully connecting with your customer? As customers weigh their choices, it ultimately comes down to being able to tell a compelling brand story through packaging and presentation. Once engaged, customers will find every reason to make that brand part of their lifestyle.

Evaluating the strength and relevance of your brand’s package
7 questions, 7 minutes and you can give your brand package a quick diagnosis. Answer each question on a scale of 0–5, with 5 being “I strongly agree” and 0 being “I strongly disagree.”

So, how do you score our Little Bug frozen baby food redesign?
Insights from Brand Engine revealed that the original design did not communicate their core values and lacked a strong brand position. After defining Little Bug’s key qualities and brand story, Brand Engine utilized these differentiators to convey a meaningful story on package:

• The strong green background color, symbolizing the natural land connection and short-farm-to-table approach, is distinct and ownable in the freezer section.
• The illustrative “window-like” bull’s-eye treatment, representing the one pure ingredient, appeals to multiple senses, inviting you to touch and smell the fruit.
• The clean and simple design uniquely positions Little Bug in its category.
• The brand identity expresses the brand personality, targeting mothers looking for wholesome choices for their children.
• The kraft box is a unique material, fully recyclable and an eco-friendly choice for moms and their babies, supporting their values of sustainability.

If you didn’t have the opportunity to evaluate the health of your brand from previous newsletters, click here to take our brand evaluation quiz.

Of the three Detroit automakers, Ford is the only one going forward (and quite successfully) without government assistance. There are many reasons for their success. The products, the people, and their brand vison, mission and values. In a recent FORTUNE article, Fixing Up Ford, we get a behind the scenes look at how the new CEO, Alan Mulally has transformed Ford over the last 3 years.

It is clear that Mulally knows the value of brands and the value of values. On his first day, when reviewing the future product lineup, he noticed that the Taurus was missing. He asked why. The reply was that they had “made a couple that looked like a football…and they didn’t sell well, so we stopped it (using the brand) .” Mulally’s comment was “How many billions of dolalrs does it cost to build brand loyalty around a name?” The marching orders following the meeting was for the product team to “make the coolest vehicle that you can possibly make (and name it the Taurus).” His point was that poor product can easily damage or even destroy a brand and instead of abandoning the name, go and fix the real problem. And yet, the old Ford was willing to give up on the investment it had made in the Taurus brand for over 20 years and begin the process again of building brand loyalty around a new name. What waste.

Now two years later the payoff arrives with the new Taurus which has been met with postive reviews in the automotive press. Finally, the right product to deliver on the promise of the Taurus brand. The learning here is is that product and brand are inextricably linked. Both need to be in harmony with product leading the conversation. As I’ve been know to share with others, my observation is that until you get the product right, you have no brand.

Mulally also knows that for a company and brand (in this case the Ford brand) to succeed, requires focus and dedication to one vision, one mission and one set of values. He calls it ONE Ford, with the mission statement and four goals (expected behaviors) printed on two sides of a plastic card (business-card size). Every employee has one. As Mulally says, “…I wrote it, It’s what I believe in. You can’t make this shit up.” Right-on!

And finally, what has made me a fan of Mulally is his openness and complete transparency. And he uses a sentence, I’ve come to embrace. At at early meeting with employees upon joining Ford in 2006, the question on everyone’s mind was “Will Ford make it?” His reply was “I don’t know.” “But we have a plan…”

I’m still amazed – and grateful – that we continue to have real-time examples of businesses poorly executing their brand story. GM’s brand woes continue to fill the print and online space. They are trying hard to convince consumers to give them a second (or is it third or fourth…) chance at becoming their car brand. In the words of Susan Docherty, VP of Buick and GMC, “We need (Buick) to be relevant and we aren’t today.” Docherty is referring to today’s consumer – younger, more discerning, with higher expectations – that has zero loyalty to GM’s brands.

Great quote. Unfortunately you don’t change perceptions or capture these consumers overnight. The rule about brands is that if you nurture them, they will flourish and grow. If you neglect them, they whither and die. With most GM brands, it’s been a long-term case of neglect that only needed the recent financial credit crisis to push them over the edge. While the products had turned around, the brands had lost their relevancy.

What is GM to do? Well, first I would suggest ditching the advertising that talks about how we didn’t listen to our customers in the past and now we will (really?); and that the New GM will be stronger, better, more fuel efficient (really?), innovative, etc., etc. I’d call it greenwashing if we were talking about eco or sustainable products. I need a new term here – carwashing? I digress.

Instead of buzz words and 30-second sound bits, GM needs to focus on clearly defining and articulating the story of the remaining brands in the portfolio. Each brand should have a story that is authentic, memorable and meaningful to today’s consumer. Each should be clearly distinct from each other. And once the story has been penned, tell it over and over again – a thousand times.

Tell it with conviction and follow through with your products and service. Tell it with empathy and do the little things to make someone’s day. Tell with humor to show you are one of us. Tell it like you want your customers to tell it.

So, what’s your story?

Today is a big day in the business world. GM declares bankruptcy. You can read the numerous stories on the ripple affect this will have on the lives of many people beyond those employed by GM. Is it a wonder that the US government has taken a 60% stake in the “New” GM to “save” jobs. Will it be enough? Who knows. Maybe the more important question —  is GM a brand worth saving?

Looking back over the 100 year history of GM with my brand-goggles, I belive GM died over 30 years ago. It just didn’t know it. Even prior to the OPEC energy crisis in the 1970’s GM had begun to lose it’s way. The passion to create automobiles and brands people love began to fade quickly from that point on. The products were not the standard of quality anymore. For a long stretch, you could not tell a Chevrolet from a Cadillac (Remember the J-cars?). Innovation and leadership gave way to short term profit and increasing production to maintain their #1 standing as the largest automobile company in the world. While GM, Ford and Chrysler fought against higher fuel economy standards, the rest of the automotive world embraced them and moved forward. Now in bankruptcy, GM agrees with higher fuel economy standards. How times have changed.

When you look at GM from that perspective, it is not surprising that “loyal” American automoblie buyers went elsewhere. First to German brands. Then Japanese. Now Korean. Next Chinese?  Jaime Kitman, writer for Automobile Magazine wrote in this latest column that at a certain point over 87% of Saturn buyers did not know they were buying a GM product. I’m not sure if that is good or bad news.

My quick take-away is that GM has a tough road back. By shedding brands (Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Saab) and focusing on their core brands (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC) they might have a chance — if they really have the passion to built great automobiles. Having seen the new 60-sec. spot for the “New” GM by Deutsch, I’m not holding my breath. If GM has any chance at all, they need to change the conversation.

Want to read more on GM? Here are some article I found interesting:

GM turns 100, September 16 2008 , MotorTrend

GM and Me, Alex Taylor III, Fortune Magazine

When Bad Things Happen to Good Brands: Won’t Someone Save Saturn?, Jamie Kitman, Automobile Magazine

Will Burke’s article “Change the Conversation: Grow Your Business through Branding and Packaging” has been featured in Package Design’s April issue.

In the article, Will discusses the importance of reexamining your brand and its core strengths to determine what kind of conversation you need to have with your customer. He emphasizes that once you establish your core qualities, you are able to develop an authentic, meaningful and memorable brand story to guide your branding and packaging strategy and connect with your customer.

Click here to read the article on Package Design’s Web site, or click here to read the article pdf.

Last Saturday, I went to my Haas School All-Alumni Reunion Conference. This one was particularly significant as this would be 20 years since graduation from the MBA program. About a dozen of my classmates were in attendance, many I had not seen in 10+ years. I got some very surprised looks by many of the newer alumni when I told them it was 20 years ago that I did my graduate work at U.C. Berkeley. Nice to know I can still pass for my young-thirties! But I digress. We had some great speakers that day — from the faculty, alumni and our keynote speaker Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. The lecture that resonated with me the most was from Professor Rashi Glazer.

A marketing guru (my words), Prof. Glazer was able in one short hour to enlighten the audience with simple insight and clarity on the future of marketing. Gone are the 4 P’s of marketing, In are the 4 C’s. And they are: Communication, Customization, Collaboration, Clairvoyance. Easy right? Well maybe the first three. A little more about the 4 C’s in a moment. The bigger questions is why this dramatic shift from one of the fundamentals of marketing that has been the core to most strategic marketing plans?

The answer is quite simple. The world we live in has changed. You’ve read, seen, heard and experienced it. Technology has fundamentally changed the way the people interact and buy products. Daniel Pink wrote about this in his book A Whole New Mind.  And our everyday experience connecting on Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking avenues—the “crowdsphere”—confirms that. The conversation has changed, and so how you must market.

Prof. Glazer put it very simply, we have now, “evolved from Dumb Markets to Smart Markets.” Using the clinical definition of “dumb” – the inability to speak, his point was on target. In the past, the consumer was perceived to be dumb. Not that they did not speak, but rather their voice was not heard or many times ignored. Since the late 1990’s consumers have become smarter and empowered. Today they have the tools to make sure that their voice is heard. And those companies that have realized this shift from dumb to smart markets have been able to sustain themselves and even thrive during this recent downturn. IBM, Apple are just two that continue to grow market share, revenues and profits. On the other hand, those companies that have not evolved, are facing extinction. You can read their names in the paper or online everyday.

So back to the 4 C’s. The first is Communication. You have to communicate at every touch point. Not about facts, not about benefits, you have to communicate who you are on a personal, intimate level. Give your customers a reason why you matter. And conversely you need to understand your customer on the same level as well. You’re not trying to be their BFF. You just need to show that you truely care about them and are their to make their lives better.

The second is Customization. How can you make them feel your product was created just for her? It may not be your product at all that does this. You may require outside partners to achieve Customization. Take the Apple iPod for example. You can have the lastest Nano in 9 colors from Apple. Or if that doesn’t satisfy you, there are others who offer skins, cases, custom paint job, etc. to make it personal. I did it to my MacBook. The lid now sports a real teak veneer skin from iamhuman.

The third is Collaboration. Or if you prefer, co-creation. To do this, you need to be good at the first C—Communication. Invite your customers to be part of the creation process. Who knows what new opportunities they may introduce you to. Honda began over 60 years ago building motorcycles. Now they build airplanes and robots.

And finally the fourth is Clairvoyance. The best have it. The ability to see into the future, to anticipate what their customer (existing and new) will desire. The more you do the first three—Communication, Customization and Collaboration, the easier Clairvoyance becomes. Really.

I’ve just scratched the surface on Smart Marketing. There’s much, much more, stay tuned.

In-N-Out Burger celebrated 60 years of their unique burger-joint brand in 2008. On April 14, 2009, a book on the company arrives at a bookstore near you. Here is an excerpt of the Amazon review by Brad Thomas Parsons:

With In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules, BusinessWeek writer Stacy Perman presents a chronicle of how a family-run California hamburger joint went on to become an American pop culture icon. Founded in 1948 by Harry Snyder and his wife Esther in Baldwin Park, CA, In-N-Out Burger attracted a cult-like fanbase of cruising teens, surfers, and celebrities alike (who developed a secret shorthand for custom orders). As they expanded slowly over the years across California and into Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, they never sacrificed their core customer-service values and commitment to quality.

While I’m not a regular customer, I do enjoy a Double-Double with grilled onions (special order) on occasion. I was at our local Mill Valley location this past weekend with the family in the mid-afternoon for a late lunch. My oldest daughter and I on our Vespa 150 after a nice ride. I’m always amazed at how busy it is with lines usually out the door almost anytime of the day. A late Saturday afternoon was no exception.

From my perspective, In-N-Out is a great example of a sustainable business through great brand practices. Their founder, Harry Snyder, had a motto that continues to be the focus of the brand , “Do one thing and do it the best you can.” They have never had to change their conversation over time because, they changed the conversation 60 years ago and continue to have that same, unique and compelling conversation with their customers day after day. The burgers have never been frozen. The fries are hand-cut fresh throughout the day. The buns are baked using old-fashioned, slow-rising sponge dough. The menu is as basic as it gets—burgers, fries and drinks. And that is where the story and conversation gets interesting.

If you are a regular, a loyalist, you become aware of the “secret menu”, with the most popular variations now published by the company on the website, as the “not-so-secret menu.” (You still won’t find them on the menu board.) The best part is that no one knows how the secret menu ,or more correctly, the insiders code came into existence. It’s been passed on entirely by word-of-mouth through the years. By letting the customer take “ownership” of the secret menu, In-N-Out established a stronger bond with them. No menu additions to confuse the customer or employees, no more complexity to the original business formula. Just plain old-fashion conversation between friends.

As you look at your brand communications, does your customer own part of the conversation? Are you listening to them and supporting them? If you are not having the conversations you would like with your customer, maybe it’s time to stop talking, sit back, and listen.