Here at The Ad Contrarian Worldwide Headquarters, we have always taken a skeptical view of brand babble.
While we appreciate the value that certain types of brand equity confer, we are appalled by the misunderstandings and misrepresentations of how brands are built, and the dreadful lexicon of "branding."
Our views on the topic are summed up in a few little axioms we trot out whenever the subject surfaces:
"We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product."Now, when you're a dumb-ass blogger, it's nice to have pithy little statements like that. But it's a lot nicer when you find that your views are shared by someone with actual, functioning brains.
"A strong brand is a byproduct. It comes from doing other things right. Make sure your product is excellent. Make sure you're taking good care of your customers. Make sure your ads differentiate you. That's what builds brands."
That's why an article I came across recently was particularly gratifying.
The article, at Business Insider, was called "The Two Most 'Dreaded, Hated' Words At Steve Jobs' Apple."
And what were these two words? According to Allison Johnson, VP of Worldwide Marketing at Apple from 2005 to 2011...
"...the two most 'dreaded, hated' words at Apple under Steve Jobs were "branding" and "marketing."The article goes on to quote Johnson...
"...we understood deeply what was important about the product, what the team’s motivations were in the product, what they hoped that product would achieve, what role they wanted it to have in people’s lives
...The most important thing was people's relationship to the product. So any time we said 'brand' it was a dirty word."Back in 2009 I wrote a post that included the following
Apple’s advertising is always about product benefits and differentiation. It is never idiotic “branding”... No lifestyle bullshit... And always done beautifully.Just goes to show, sometimes even bloggers can be right.
Well there was the "Think different" brand campaign.
ReplyDeleteBut, to be fair, that came about to hold the fort until the new products came on line. (After Job's return / before iMac & Macbook).
The history of the world and industrialisation and progress will be and is told in terms of inventions and products. The horse and cart, the car, the plane, the space shuttle etc It will not be told in terms of emotionally engaging branding.
ReplyDeleteBrands do not benefit consumers. Products do. Talking about the brand instead of the product is like (insert clever analogy here).
ReplyDeleteYou're dead right but the "This is it. This is what matters" campaign was dangerously close to "brand bullshit" country
ReplyDeleteIt is lifestyle, but through product use (think ipod ads)
ReplyDeleteMaybe so, but it is also c**p - similar to this
ReplyDeletehttp://vimeo.com/89527215
Nope, i was thinking about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQw3mVWXncg
ReplyDeleteand not the last ipad one
Ah yes - much better - more producty - less syrup
ReplyDeleteYep, but definitely a defining moment for the Apple brand (in the meaning people put behind it).
ReplyDeleteThe "Think different" line only worked 100% if you knew that IBM's line was "Think". Which most people didn't.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. When I saw this ipod spot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaVFCdwT0hk I went out and bought the Jet CD - not an iPod.
ReplyDeleteHow do we explain that?
Absolutely. Beside, what leaves behind a stronger emotional footprint? Buying a product & succeeding with it? Or someone's hots..t ad? The product.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, a moment of silence... Because the latest Apple ads seems to be forgetting all this... The product is now beginning to be lost in the lifestyles portrayed in the ads...
Really? I never made that connection, never thought of it as 'sniping' at the opposition, and it made no difference to my appreciation of the idea. I guess I was only working at 90%.
ReplyDeleteThe best lines don't position the brand, they position the user. That one certainly rekindled the fire and kept the faithful loyal at a time when there wasn't much of a product reason to stay with Apple.
(And no, I wasn't one of them).
I didn't know at the time either, it was pointed out to me later. But I thought the campaign silly. I was a long time Mac user and the single point of difference that most of my PC using friends commented on, was the lack of fan noise, which the gnomic TD campaign made no mention of.
ReplyDelete