Teacup

An interesting talk from advertising guru Rory Sutherland at the TED Talks 2009.

Rory talks about how changes in perception can influence the value your product provides to your customers. What constitutes value in the eyes of the consumer however is a mixture of various criteria including price, quality, features and service received.

Before potential customers even walk into your shop, they will see whether they identify with your brand personality and what overall value they expect to get from your brand. They would have already made prejudgements about your brand based on your prior marketing, your shop window and demographics of your existing customers. So you must portray compelling value to seduce customers into your shop and work even harder to maintain your value levels for existing customers.

How do we provide value?

Research by Cotton Incorporated in their Lifestyle Monitor shows 3 key trends during the recession times. We are more likely to:

• invest in durable, classic pieces that will last several seasons,
• purchase as many trendy items as our budget will allow, and
• stick with our favourite brands regardless of price, but buy less of them.

Although traditionally, we have worked to provide tangible value to customer through tactics such as sales, free gifts with purchase and two for one deals, Rory suggests that providing intangible value should constitute a greater proportion part of overall value as it will build a long term connection with the client.

Branding of your label adds to your overall value

The branding of your label has a lot to do with the value you will provide: it affects your pricing strategies, promotions, locations, product designs and storefront.

Reporter Bobby Riley writes: ”A good brand strategy creatively reframes what the brand stands for in culture beyond a product description and tactical marketing ideas. It’s a directional creative idea that drives everything the brand does, and goes much deeper than the surface aesthetics of the fashion business.”

Your branding is the public face of your label. Thus, you must show your message, values, philosophy and personality in a relevant and unique way.

Becoming a Purple Cow

To ensure your brand is continually growing, you need to be outstanding – stand out from the crowd, and as marketing guru Seth Gordon puts it, be like a purple cow in a herd of brown cows.

When you cater your promotions to the masses, you typically end up creating campaigns that is like vanilla: easy on the eyes but safe and generic. By doing this, you are inadvertently creating something that may be adequate, but is not remarkable to anyone. Have a look at the advertisements below from various fashion and beauty houses. Which of them do you actually take notice of and will remember?

Now look at the ones below. If you saw these ads in a magazine, would they stand out?

These ads were spotted by consumers around the world, taken note of, remembers and passed on through word of mouth. The video below from TrendHunter TV shows the top 10 innovative fashion campaigns that has been passed on to them from consumers themselves.

Providing a memorable brand experience

In a world that is so cluttered by advertising, like the brands featured in the TrendHunter TV video above, we need to make sure that our customers are able to pick out our brand from the the chaos. This is why we need to be innovative and start thinking outside the box as to how we can present our thoughts in a distinct and entertaining way.

Tonight, I leave you with a remarkable brand experience from Philippe Meyersohn, Brand General Manager at MABE Canadam, from visiting an Aveda store. He writes:

“As I came through the door, I was greeted with an offer of a relaxing cup of tea. From the start, I was given the impression that the sales people wanted my visit to be stress-free. Throughout my time spent there, the sales people were friendly, offering me help in selecting products. The surprising moment came at the end after my purchase – I was given a hand massage! This unexpected service at the end made my experience at Aveda very memorable.”

Thanks to this unique experience that Aveda has created, he was pleasantly surprised with the value that he received and he had shared this joy with an infinite number of customers (including myself and now you as well) through the power of the web. After reading his testimonial, I know that I can now happily go visit an Aveda shop to get the same experience without having doubts about what kind of value I will receive.

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Have you had an exceptional brand experience?
Comment below and share your thoughts!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 PM and is filed under Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.