2429 Nicollet Ave. | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com
The Evolution of Modern Brands
MARCH 22, 2018

DIGITAL HAS TRANSFORMED THE NATURE OF BRANDS

BENEFITS
ATTRIBUTES
VALUES
PERSONALITY
ESSENCE
Traditional brand models

Built for traditional media

BENEFITS
ATTRIBUTES
VALUES
PERSONALITY
ESSENCE

First disruption: traditional media…

NCSA Mosaic Web Browser
Becomes interactive

Product Dominant Logic
SUPPLY CHAIN COMPANY VALUE CUSTOMER
Brands are a form of value, and traditional brands were built upon
a one-way transmission of value from company to consumer.

Service Dominant Logic
RESOURCE INTEGRATION RESOURCE INTEGRATION
COMPANY VALUE CUSTOMER
Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch. Journal of Marketing, January 2004
With the proliferation of interactive media, academics realized
that one-way value models needed to evolve.
This gave rise to a new model of co-created value.

BENEFITS
ATTRIBUTES
VALUES
PERSONALITY
ESSENCE
In 2008 at Zeus Jones, we replaced our
outdated, one-way branding models…

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
PURSUIT PURSUIT
PURSUITPURSUIT
…with a “modern brand“ model, built
around collaboration with groups of
consumers and communities.

NCSA Mosaic Web Browser
But in recent years, that company-to-consumer interaction
has dramatically magnified and fragmented.

Now, a wide range of different voices impacts and shapes a brand’s perceived
value. These can change how people feel about your brand over night.

Service Dominant Logic
RESOURCE INTEGRATION RESOURCE INTEGRATION
COMPANY VALUE CUSTOMER
Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch. Journal of Marketing, January 2004
So, in the last two years, a new model of value has arisen,
and it’s moving from co-created value…

Customer Dominant Logic
RESOURCE INTEGRATION
COMPANY VALUE CUSTOMER
Kristina Heinonen and Tore Strandvik Journal of Services Marketing, 2015
EXPERIENCE CONTEXT CULTURE
…to a world where consumers, their past experiences, their context and their
culture have a much larger impact upon value than the company’s activities.
Value today is created by consumers and given to brands.

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
PURSUIT PURSUIT
PURSUITPURSUIT
So, at Zeus Jones, we’re evolving our
thinking about brands again. We’re moving
from isolated, stand-alone brand models…

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
PARTNER
PLATFORM
OWNED
PLATFORM
OWNED
PLATFORM
PAID
PLATFORM
PARTNER
PLATFORM
PAID
PLATFORM
PARTNER
PLATFORM
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
…to networked or ecosystem models - models that
recognize the fact that your brand sits within a world of
explicit and implicit relationships that have huge
impact on how people feel.

DAVID OGILVY
—
The intangible sum of
a product’s attributes.
OWNED BY COMPANY CO-CREATED OWNED BY CUSTOMER
JOHN GRANT
—
The sum of the great
ideas used to build
that brand.
ZEUS JONES
—
The sum of the assets
and networks that are
owned by the brand.
BRANDS AS IDEAS BRANDS AS ACTIONS BRANDS AS ECOSYSTEMS
We’re entering the third wave of brand

Characteristics of a brand ecosystem:
Complex and diverse. They exhibit emergent properties that
aren’t planned and can’t be controlled.
• Different processes at different levels of scale
• Share a common purpose, aligned around mutual success
• Living, evolving, adaptive organisms

PROCESSES WITHIN BRAND ECOSYSTEMS

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
PARTNER
PLATFORM
OWNED
PLATFORM
OWNED
PLATFORM
PAID
PLATFORM
PARTNER
PLATFORM
PAID
PLATFORM
PARTNER
PLATFORM
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
1. Owned platforms
2. Shared platforms
3. Paid platforms
4. Business ecosystem

Three kinds of
owned platforms:
1. Engagement
2. Loyalty
3. Mass

Properties of an
Engagement Platform
—
Primary growth engine for
the company
Based upon an operational
asset
Delivers an exchange of value
Acquisition tool that often
generates WOM
Engages collaboration partners
Increased usage builds its value
Delivers marketing benefits as
collateral, not primary, purpose

Properties of a
Loyalty Platform
—
Generates frequency of usage
Leverages external content
creators for efficiency
Assembles brand and partner
assets into a cohesive
“media” network
Optimized for traffic/SEO and
user experience
Can contain both digital and
physical assets
Fed by other platforms

Properties of a
Mass Platform
—
Aggregates advocates and
media to drive scale
Operates on the company’s
calendar
Works in pulses or bursts
that are timed to big news
Often has its own marketing
program built around it
Highly connected to other
platforms

Shared platforms
• Bring new ideas and audiences to brands
• Helps them extend into areas of culture
that they can’t access alone

Properties of
Shared Platforms
—
Delivers something entirely new,
not old things in combination
Brings different ideas together
Cultural freshness and
relevance is a key output
Contains multiple levels of
engagement
Virality built in, not about
catering to a mass audience

Paid platforms
Traditional and digital
media platforms
Traditional and digital
distribution platforms

Small brands suffer from lower market share and
lower loyalty (purchase frequency).
Loyalty is an outcome of market share - not the
other way around.
The surest way to gain
market share is to increase
your penetration (make your
product more available).
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
PROF. ANDREW EHRENBERG

Mass awareness is not mass penetration

Paid Platform Strategy
—
Availability, not interruption:
Make it really easy to buy your
product/service.
Don’t interfere with other
actions users are trying to take.

Business ecosystem
The relationships and partnerships within your supply,
manufacturing, services, distribution and retailing chain.
The individuals in your organization and partner
organization and their personal, business, political and
spiritual affiliations.

Your brand can change over night.

Business Ecosystem Strategy
—
About reshaping value,
perception and industry.
Achieves commercial, social
and environmental goals
simultaneously.
Makes ecosystem owners
incredibly difficult to unseat or
disrupt.

CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
CORE BELIEF
& PURPOSE
1. Owned platforms
2. Shared platforms
3. Paid platforms
4. Business ecosystem
Increase distribution
Increase awareness
Increase engagement
Organic growth
Communication of news
Value enhancement
Reputation change
Business transformation
Gain or increase relevance
Meaning or image extension
Audience extension

PURPOSE IN A BRAND ECOSYSTEM

Those companies holding leadership roles may
change over time, but the function of ecosystem
leader is valued by the community because
it enables members to move
toward shared visions to align
their investments, and to find
mutually supportive roles.
THE DEATH OF COMPETITION
JAMES F. MOORE

Society is demanding that companies, both public
and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over
time, every company must not only deliver
financial performance, but also show how it makes
a positive contribution to society.
Companies must ask
themselves: What role do we
play in the community? How
are we managing our impact
on the environment?
LETTER TO CEOS
LARRY FINK CEO BLACKROCK

Brand Purpose Strategy
—
Corporate social
responsibility is not an add-
on to purpose.
It needs to be a central part
of the mission.
It must be aligned with and
integrated into the business
overall.

Business aligns to purpose.

BRANDS & EVOLUTION

Julien Malland

Culture’s role is progress
http://www.today.com/video/crowd-turns-its-back-on-hillary-clinton-to-capture-selfies-773131843750

Conducted a study to examine the relationship
between cultural evolution and human evolution.
Culture is essentially a
second inheritance
mechanism that operates
in conjunction with our
genetic system.
PROFESSOR IN HUMAN EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE
CHARLES PERRAULT

Culture helps us evolve
when biology can’t keep up.

Brands help us live in the future.

DAVID OGILVY
—
The intangible sum of
a product’s attributes.
OWNED BY COMPANY CO-CREATED OWNED BY CUSTOMER
JOHN GRANT
—
The sum of the great
ideas used to build
that brand.
ZEUS JONES
—
The sum of the assets
and networks that are
owned by the brand.
BRANDS AS IDEAS BRANDS AS ACTIONS BRANDS AS ECOSYSTEMS
We’re entering the third wave of brand

Modern brands
Guided by a purpose
Internal culture
Multiple coherent ideas
Deliver an experience
Trust through transparency
Progress by iterating
Empowering
Marketing is built in
Create a community
Ecosystem brands
Aligned around a purpose
Relationships and assets
Multiple coherent platforms
Coordinate an ecosystem
Shared destiny
Constant evolution
Sustaining
Marketing is invisible
Support their community

@ADRIANHO