The document discusses the essence of branding, emphasizing that a brand is a relationship influenced by customer perception and organizational actions, rather than just deliverables or a logo. It advocates for a customer-centric approach that focuses on understanding and improving customers' lives, fostering agility and adaptability in branding strategies. Key elements include the importance of brand storytelling, meaningful metrics for assessing brand love, and engaging with communities to build genuine connections and loyalty.

1. “Any damn fool can put on a deal, but
it takes genius, faith and perseverance
to create a brand.”
David Ogilvy

2. Honestly, brands do not need
geniuses, prophets and not even faith.
What about perseverance ? More
needed are agility and adaptability
indeed.

3. What is not a brand ?
Brand is not....
● a checklist of deliverables
● a logo
● the domain of one department
● a thing you can control alone
● a static idea
● the result of pure creativity
● a promise, just a promise
What is a brand ?
Brand is....
● a relationship
● that takes place every day
● what people feel and say about you
● something you cannot fully control
● the result of a whole organisation
● a living idea incorporated into
actions, words, visuals, people

4. Approach. Develop brand as
relationship and inspire (true)
love.

5. Customer centric
Brands are about people, not
products. Brands are about
customers, not companies.
You start from a deep dive into the
life of your customers. What do you
enable them to do ? How will your
brand improve their lives ? How will
you make them feel better ?
Lean and agile
Not obsessed by big deliverables,
you focus on what matters.
You develop an agile brand, that can
evolve and adapt as markets and
customers evolve, with ability to
move easily into new markets.
You develop a light set of ideas and
artifacts, that can be digested and -
what´s more - inspire all the people
of your organisation. Not a bible, but
more of a compass.
Measurable
You go for relevant metrics, and
leave behind the pure vanity
metrics.
You define core metrics that you can
use to evaluate your brand health
ongoing, with focus on consumer
engagement, participation, trust
and... love.
And yes, that is all valid for B2B
brands too.
Let your brand be...

6. The approach,
step by step.

7. CUSTOMER
STORY
BRAND
AUDIT
BRAND
STORY
MINIMUM
VIABLE
BRAND
TEST &
ITERATE
ACTIVATE
BRING THE
BRAND TO
LIFE
ARTIFACTS
PEOPLE &
CULTURE
METRICS
PLAY
GROUNDS

8. An outside-in (i.e. customer driven) point of view on...
● Competition Who your customers consider as your competitors ?
● Perception Which values do they associate with you ?
● Audience Who are your customers ?
● Resonance Do you have brand lovers ?
...and some groundwork of course: surveys, social media research,
collection of messages and visuals currently sent out a/o shared
with customers.
BRAND
AUDIT

9. Competition reality check
Your competitors are not who you think
they are, but who your target audience
considers in competition with you.
E.g. lastminute.com vs. Trivago vs. Airbnb.
As business model, they are not competitors at
all. But they all belong to the same repertoire of
services customers reach out when they look for
travel. They compete on attention, trust,
memory.
Customer segments
Use the audit to verify the consumer
segmentation, so to increase relevance,
define the appropriate brand story and
how to engage with them. Go for
behaviors, rather than demographics.
E.g. lastminute.com
More singles or more family ? More city
explorers of pumpered relaxers ?

10. The elements of value How much love do you inspire ?
Three statements that allow to build a "Brand
Passion Score":
● X is a brand for me - the strongest
measure of resonance. Do customer
perceive a real, personal, specific bond
with the brand ?
● X is a brand I can trust - in an age
when people do only trust their peer,
this is a crucial metric
● X is a brand I enjoy introducing other
people to - if they´re really in love with
you, they´ll recommend you. The Net
Promoter Score is all about this... the
Holy Grail of Brand Lovers

11. CUSTOMER
STORY
Empathise and understand...
● The job to be done.
What do customer want to achieve with your product ?
● Aspiration.
What is your customer ultimate aspiration? Be more, do
more, become more, belong more? Focus on that !
● Your customers´ world.
What do they see, say, do, feel?
The not-so-secret sauce of this recipe is etnographic research.
The outcome are Personas you can use to write your brand story and
validate as long as you activate the brand.
BRAND
AUDIT

12. The job to be done. What your customers want to achieve ?
Your product is just the beginning of the story...
Purchase and delivery of the goods bought (or service delivered), that´s relatively unimportant
compared to what customer want to achieve.
What for are you going to buy running shoes: to start with fitness and lose some weght ? Or to outperform your next
marathon ? Why as a woman do I want to go solo travelling ?
Why do I want to adopt a new helpdesk software ? To save costs, to streamline
processes, to better manage multinational customer care ?

13. The key aspiration of your customers
DO MORE Achieve more practically
e.g. Odlo for athletes to be fit for high performance
e.g. Velux, "better living"
BE MORE Confirm who you are
e.g. Dove, "you´re beautiful"
e.g. Always, "like a girl"
BECOME MORE Achieve more emotionally
e.g. Red Bull "gives you wings" (attitude to life)
e.g. Diesel, "for successful living"
BELONG MORE Connect with others
e.g. AirBnb "sense of belonging"
e.g. Harley Davidson "a tribe, a brotherhood, a club"
Think your brand as a propeller,
an enabler, a shorthand for your
customers to pursue their key
aspirations.

14. Deep dive into the life
of your customers

15. CUSTOMER
STORY
BRAND
AUDIT
BRAND
STORY
● WHY The brand purpose
● WHAT Brand as enabler:
the role you play in the life of customers
● HOW The Brand difference:
what makes you special ?
● WOW How will the Brand inspire love ?

16. You have captured the customer story.
For defining a brand story that resonates with the story of
your customers, you need to elaborate on few key ideas.
These ideas will define the core of your brand concept.
Vision and purpose. This is your "why": is is about
dreams, ambition to change the world (for the better of
course), the reason your brand to exist.
The role of your brand in the life of your customers as an
enabler (propeller, enhancer, facilitator...).... What are you
enabling them to do/be/become/achieve more ?
The Brand Difference. This is your "how" and is about
how does the brand enable people better then they could
otherwise?
The (expected) emotional benefits. How will people feel
about the brand as a result ? Why would they recommend
our brand to others, what will they say about us ?
The "Why"
Vision and
purpose
The
"How
"
How
betterdo
you
enable
custom
ers?
The
"W
hat"
The
enablerjob
The "WoW factor".
Why will they
recommend us ?

17. Reframe: what is your job about ?
Online survey tools and customer feedback colletion < Voice of
Customer Rooftop windows for family homes < Quality home living.
Online travel agent < Lifestyle enabler
Online shoes shop < Delivering happiness
The "Why"
Vision and
purpose
Your purpose, vision, dream.
Do you have a founder story to share ?
What you stand for ?
How to you aim to change the world, by doing what you do ?
What do you want to achieve, beyond making profits ?
E.g. Apple vision was to challenge the status quo:
producing beautifully designed electronics was a mean to that.

18. Your role to make the life of
your customers better.
What kind of enabler are your ? What is your role in
helping people to do more, live more, be more, become
more, connect and belong more with other people ?
The
"W
hat"
The
enablerjob
The
"How
"
How
betterdo
you
enable
custom
ers?
What makes your brand special
and different.
What makes you special ? Is it about beautiful design ? ...or
brutal simplicity ? Is it about the friendliest customer service
? The most intuitive interface ? Extremely flexible pricing
scheme? Abundance of choice ? Physical proximity ?

19. How will people feel
about your brand as a result ?
How will your brand go beyond
"like" and inspire "love" ?
Key questions / desired outcome
● How will people feel about the brand as a result ?
● Why would they recommend us to others ?
The "love factor".
Why will they
recommend us ?

20. CUSTOMER
STORY
BRAND
AUDIT
BRAND
STORY
● What do you need to learn ?
● Develop hypothesis
● How will you measure results
● Goal metrics
● Develop artifacts
● Test and iterate
● Is there product-brand-fit?
MINIMUM
VIABLE
BRAND
TEST &
ITERATE

21. Focus the test on what you need to
learn and develop hypothesis
"If we change our brand story to X, customers will behave like Y"
"If we engage potential customers with this channels, they will.."
"If we change our brand name like this, existing customers will..."
"If we send this message in X, we will position the brand like Y"
MINIMUM
VIABLE
BRAND
TEST &
ITERATE
Select measures and set goals for
testing the brand elements.
"If we engage potential customers with this channels, they will.."
conversion metrics - sentiment metrics - engagement metrics

22. Develop the minimum set of artifacts
needed to run the test.
A test can be an ad campaign targeted at small consumer group
- branded content experiment - and/or - A/B testing landing pages -
and/or - pop-up store at selected location - and/or - event, workshop,
meetup testing brand experience - and/or - invitation to join selected
group for co-creation ....
MINIMUM
VIABLE
BRAND
TEST &
ITERATE
Check the product-market-brand fit.
Key questions
● Does the brand reflect the product value proposition ?
● Does the value proposition fit to the target market ?
● Does the brand emotional values resonate
with the target audience ?

23. CUSTOMER
STORY
BRAND
STORY
ARTIFACTS Text, visuals, story
themes, guidelines, templates,
handbooks, mission statements....
focus on what matters.
METRICS Attitude to brand: from
liking to loving, from awareness to
active advocacy.
PLAYGROUNDS Where can you
connect with customers, how can you
foster community and influencers ?
PEOPLE AND CULTURE Make the
brand the soul of your company.
MINIMUM
VIABLE
BRAND
ACTIVATE
BRING THE
BRAND TO
LIFE
ARTIFACTS
PEOPLE &
CULTURE
METRICS
PLAY
GROUNDS

24. Actionable. Made to
be applied. Now.
Focus more on practical artifacts:
e.g. key messages and storylines,
brand words, content themes and
story angles, tagline, sample
messages for the customer
communication, does and dont´s for
imagery and text....
Leave behind self-referential fluff
like mission statements. On "Brand
Personality" or "Tone of voice" docs,
avoid ambiguity: each personality
trait must be 100% clear on how it
will translate into brand
experience.... if they are not crystal
clear, better not to write them down.
Versatile and made
to evolve.
New screens, new surfaces, new
channels, new applications.... all
visuals need to be easy to adapt
and to extend based on each new
moment where they will be in front
of customers.
Versatile. E.g. dynamic logos, that
can live and fit to more and
different contexts: Accenture,
AirBnB...
Relevant for the
organisation.
A good brand story can be
extraordinary motivational tool: it
provides a purpose, a common
understanding of why we do our job.
Messages, content, artifacts must be
up to applied along the whole
customer journey and across all
departments consistently.
Any internal communication must
come under the same umbrella.
Jeremiah Gardner, The Lean Brand
Brand artifacts

25. Measuring brand love: attitudes.
Netlölöä
Net Promoter
Score
% promoters
% detractors
Netlölöä
Brand Passion
Score
X is a Brand for me
X is a brand I trust
X is a brand I recommend
Netlölöä
Love Index
by Accenture
Five dimensions
to measure
attitudes
FUN
it entertains me
RELEVANT
Specific and
personal
HELPFUL
Fast,
convenient,
intuitive
SOCIAL
It lets me to
connect with
others
ENGAGING
Instant,
anywhere,
anytime

26. Measuring brand love: social behavior.
Hand raising
Like the page, follow the account
Lowest engagement = liking
Consuming
Actually consuming the content
Views, downloads, completion rate..
Responding
Take action, engage with brand
Comment, give feedback, rate....
Sharing
Share the brand message w/friends
Shares, recommend
Creating
Creating branded content
Brand fan, brand advocate

27. Playgrounds, communities, movements
For millions of years, hman beings have been part of one tribe or the other.
A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. Seth Godin
A playground is a scene, a community
of interest, a group of like-minded
people to whom your brand can
resonate and for whom it can play a
supporting (enabling, promoting) role.
It is not about creating artificial
communities around your Brand,
but about engaging with people based
on common vision and values.
Lego and the community of adult fans
Red Bull and action sports scenes
Airbnb and the hosts meeting at "Airbnb Open"
Adobe´s "CMO.com" and forward thinking marketers
Qualtrics and academic researches
Kickstart and the "Kickstarters"

28. From community platform to movement
Building a community platform
Creating platforms in which people
connect with other people like them,
trust and support each other, drvien by
their vision and values, structures and
rules. (In relation with the Brand but
not owned by the Brand)
Connections to peers
How to help customers connect
with other people like them, to
share their passions ?
Connections to brand
How can the brand add value in
this community: facilitate, support
and enhance it ?
Networks
Which networks - from social media to
physical meetings - are most effective
at facilitating connections between
people ?
Loyalty to brand
How to evolve support into positive
loyalty, builds retention and
collaboration ?
Loyalty to peers
How to turm trust and loyalty for each
other, into brand advocacy ?
Building a movement
Inspiring an active movement of people
who come together with a common
purpose to acheve more (do better,
improve themselves, create change)...
enabled by the Brand, but not directed
by the Brand.

29. Back to your people. Where the brand starts.
PEOPLE &
CULTURE
Start from the frontline.
● call centre
● retail stores
● sales force
● crm
Review and align each customer touchpoints:
- how to interact ?
- how to engage ?
- how to outreach ?
Map the customer journey
to a brand journey.
Go to your people
● performance management
● behaviors and rituals
● hiring strategy
● employer branding
● Measure long-term goals
● Promote self-starters
and brand advocates
● Look for like-minded people (but
not fall in the trap of uniformity)
● Make your leaders
lead by example

30. Let´s start a brand conversation
valentina.giannella@com
www.lagiannella.com