A great educational presentation on explaining what a brand is.

1. Welcome
Shift: Bringing brand purpose to life.

2. FACT: Business is speeding up.

3. 1965: Gordon Moore said the number of computer chips would double each year, and the
cost of each chip would decrease while its speed would increase.
Today: More financial transactions in one day than all of 1965.

4. CHEAP FREE
GOOD PERFECT
FAST
NOW
1965: Companies gave customers a choice:
Cheap, good, or fast—pick two.
Today: Customers are giving companies a choice:
Free, perfect, and now—or else.

5. FACT: The market is cluttered.
Understatement.

6. In the US alone, the number of trademarks has quadrupled
since 1983.

7. TODAY, THE REAL COMPETITION
DOESN’T COME FROM COMPANIES.
IT COMES FROM CLUTTER.

8. A WEALTH OF INFORMATION
CREATES A POVERTY OF ATTENTION.

9. WE’RE HARDWIRED TO NOTICE ONLY WHAT’S DIFFERENT.
Quick. What did you see first?
WE’RE HARDWIRED TO NOTICE ONLY WHAT’S DIFFERENT.

10. By nature, we filter out all but the most interesting stimuli.
When the brain does find something interesting, it labels it,
and stores it in a little mental box.

11. These mental boxes have become the new barriers to
competition.
Allow me to illustrate with a short history of the barriers to
competition.

12. FACTORIES
CAPITAL
PATENTS
BRANDS
Industrial revolution: Means of production.
When machines became more affordable: Access to capital.
When capital markets became common: Intellectual property.
Now, in an era of accelerating change: Branding.

13. The walls we build in our minds are the boundaries of brands.

14. FACTORIES
CAPITAL
PATENTS
BRANDS
Notice: The barriers to competition have moved from the
physical to the intellectual, and from within a companies
control to outside it.
Which brings us to brand.

15. So what is a brand exactly?

16. LET’S START BY DISPELLING SOME MYTHS.

17. FIRST
A brand is not a logo.

18. Many people confuse logos or corporate identity with branding.

19. SECOND
A brand is not an identity.

20. X
Branding isn’t governed by identity manuals.

21. FINALLY
A brand is not a product.

22. Some people refer to products as brands, but they’re just
vehicles.

23. A BRAND IS A PERSON’S
GUT FEELING ABOUT
A PRODUCT, SERVICE,
OR ORGANIZATION.
Simply put, a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It’s a
GUT FEELING, because people are intuitive, not logical. It’s a PERSON’S gut feeling,
because a brand is owned by people, not companies.

24. In other words...

25. THEY
IT’S
IT’S WHAT NOT WHAT YOU SAY IT IS
SAY IT IS

27. SI TI YAS
YEHT
You have to look at brand from the opposite perspective.
TAHW S’TI

28. OLD PARADIGM:
Control the
LOOK AND FEEL
of a brand.

29. NEW PARADIGM:
Influence the
PURPOSE
of a brand.

30. A PURPOSEFUL BRAND is a product,
service, or organization for which
people believe there’s no substitute.
it’s a pattern of behavior,
not a stylistic veneer.

31. QUIZ:
Which of these brands are purposeful?
JETBLUE
HITACHI
PEPSI-COLA
EVEREADY
BMW
OXO GOODGRIPS
CITIBANK
KMART
DISNEY
GENERAL ELECTRIC
BURGER KING
PRELL
KRISPY KREME
LEVI’S
RUBBERMAID
APPLE
HOME DEPOT
RCA
DASANI
LONGS DRUGS
MACY’S
UNITED ARTISTS
IKEA
SAFEWAY
CHARLES SCHWAB
REEBOK
GOLDMAN SACHS
SAMSUNG
NEWSWEEK
SEARS
FORD
GOOGLE
MINI COOPER
NISSAN
NORDSTROM
VIRGIN

32. QUIZ:
Which of these brands are purposeful?
JETBLUE
HITACHI
PEPSI-COLA
EVEREADY
BMW
OXO GOODGRIPS
CITIBANK
KMART
DISNEY
GENERAL ELECTRIC
BURGER KING
PRELL
KRISPY KREME
LEVI’S
RUBBERMAID
APPLE
HOME DEPOT
RCA
DASANI
LONGS DRUGS
MACY’S
UNITED ARTISTS
IKEA
SAFEWAY
CHARLES SCHWAB
REEBOK
GOLDMAN SACHS
SAMSUNG
NEWSWEEK
SEARS
FORD
GOOGLE
MINI COOPER
NISSAN
NORDSTROM
VIRGIN

33. $
Does a purposeful brand have a dollar value?

34. AND HOW.

35. B
=
S
b
BANG
SUCCESS
BUCK

36. QUICKIE TEST:

37. $27,000

38. $29,000

39. Meaning is the new money.
put succinctly: meaning is the new money

40. QUESTION:
HOW DO YOU SHAPE THE MEANING OF A BRAND?
So... How do you shape the meaning of your brand?

41. is why your company
is in business beyond making money.
CORE PURPOSE
First, you have to clarify what business you’re in—your core
purpose: why you do what you do beyond making money. It’s
your reason for being, not selling.

42. are ideas, gestures,
activities, or experiences that embody
your purpose and change behavior.
BRAND ACTS
But you also have to define your brand acts: all the ways your
purpose is expressed. The ways in which it comes to life in an
organization.

43. PURPOSE + ACTS = BRAND SUCCESS
The combination of purpose and acts is integral to brand
success because it defines how a company expresses itself.

44. HAS PURPOSE
LACKS ACTS
HAS ACTS
LACKS PURPOSE
If we were to chart purpose and acts on an axis, here’s what a
familiar reference might look like.

45. What’s their purpose?
What are their acts?
Now let’s apply that same thinking to a few consumer brands

46. What’s their purpose?
What are their acts?
Sesame Street
Nike +
Lego
Purpose: To create a world
where all children can go to thrive
Purpose: To reinvent the
motivational drive for running
Purpose: To build a world
through imagination and play
Acts: Sesame Street Workshop,
engaging content that’s both
educational and fun
Acts: Human Race events,
Nike Coach-Online runner’s log,
Running chip technology
Acts: Larger than life
installments and exhibits,
Lego stores, contests that
inspire ideas and participation
Target
Google
Al Gore
Purpose: To deliver design for
all through function and value
Purpose: To organize the world’s
information and make it accessible
Purpose: To steward the world
toward reversing global warming
Acts: Partnering with couture
stylists and designers;
developing new, humancentered medicine bottles
Acts: Working in perpetual
BETA, Google Labs, flat
organizational hierarchy
Acts: Thought leadership
brought to life through
cross-media experiences
like Inconvenient Truth

47. MYTH
BRAND IS ONLY EXPRESSED
THROUGH EXTERNAL ACTS.

48. EXTERNAL BRANDING
INTERNAL BRANDING
collateral
advertising
partner communication
photography
web presence
positioning advertising
action advertising
point of sale
user interface
leader’s vision
employee training
pricing strategy
customer relationships
new employee orientation
sales force communication
sponsorships
media relations
vendor relationships
Here’s how brand is manifest both externally AND internally

49. Why is it important to clarify these expressions? Because the realty is, a company has a reputation whether it actively tries to
shape it or not.

50. IS THIS HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS SEE YOU?
And the last thing you want is for your customers not to be clear about what your brand means. The good news is that any
brand can be purposeful. The more you try and focus the meaning of your brand in customers’ minds—developing specific
brand acts—the more mindshare you can occupy. What’s the best way to be memorable?

51. REALLY
BE DIFFERENT.
NO,
DIFFERENT.
Be different. REALLY DIFFERENT. In today’s super-fast,
super-cluttered marketplace, you need more than
differentiation. You need RADICAL differentiation. Acts that
stand out—above the clutter.

52. QUIZ:
Which of these acts embodies the brand’s purpose?
Target
Nike +
Lego
Purpose: To deliver design for
all through function and value
Purpose: To reinvent the
motivational drive for running
Purpose: To build a world
through imagination and play
Act: Partner with Prada to
develop a handbag line that
starts at $200.
Act: Facilitate free, weekly
running club events with
professional coaches
Act: Train customer service
representatives with formulaic
answers to questions.
 

53. Your purpose can be abstract...
While a company’s purpose can be abstract...
NASA’S: ADVANCING MAN’S CAPABILITIES TO EXPLORE THE HEAVENS

54. but your acts must be specific.
but its acts—whether internal or external—must be specific.

55. YOU
MATTER
Your acts define the brand