02 Brand Building

Now Learning From Marty Neumeier

Marty Neumeier has changed the way we approach branding. Instead of simply creating and promoting visual assets (logos, colours, fonts) - he encourages us to lead the brand by first creating a strong purpose, then cultivating our customer’s perceptions to match it.

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It exists in the hearts and minds of individuals.

-Marty Neumeier

The company might own the product, but the customer owns the brand. That’s because your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what THEY say it is.

• The new brand model. A company’s only purpose is to create customers. It is your customers who build your brand through a shared conclusion about your product. That brand, in turn, sustains your company. 

• Storyframing instead of storytelling. Build a story structure that lets your customers create their own narratives. They are the heroes, not your brand. Your brand is simply their guide.

Focus on who you are, what you do, and why it matters. Clarity is a strong differentiator in a cluttered and overcrowded marketplace. 

• Create a forward-thinking brand. Combine focus with differentiation, supported by a trend, and surrounded by compelling communications.

• Use an Onliness Statement. To ensure your company has the potential to occupy a strong position in people’s minds, try filling in the blanks:

  “Our brand is the only [category] that [differentiator characteristic].”

A brand tribe is a group of customers who have similar aims, and who influence each others buying decisions. They tend to organize and self-identify themselves around the brands that empower them to achieve those aims (Apple, Nike, BMW,  Manchester United, etc).

Our brand is… The only [category] that [differentiation characteristic] for [customer] in [market geography] who [need state] during [underlying trend]

Harley Davidson is… The only motorcycle manufacturer that makes big, loud motorcycles for macho guys (and “macho wannabes”) mostly in the US who want to join a gang of cowboys in an era of decreasing personal freedom.

By understanding that our brand is a dynamic perception that can be led and cultivated in the minds of our customers - we stop trying to shape it in the isolation of our boardrooms, and instead bring it to life through every action and interaction that we make.

-Mark