BrandDigital | BrandSimple: The Blog

Don’t interrupt me unless you’ve got something meaningful to say. This cardinal rule of brand building has become both more important and more challenging in this age of digital connection. With the multiplying ways consumers can see and hear about and experience brands, the chance for interruption by some form of irrelevant branding message has become greater than ever. If consumers thought branding interruptus was maddening in the days before TV remotes, imagine what it’s like for them today.
I was reminded of this the other day when I had the opportunity to attend the U.S Open. For those of you who have never seen this tennis event live, it’s a wonderful experience. However each time I return I am amazed to see how much it (and other athletic events, for that matter), continues to become more and more of a marketing event. Lexus was one of the dozens of sponsors making an appearance and, from my professional standpoint the company got it about half right in terms of making their branding efforts relevant and not interruptive. The half-right part: Those of us lucky enough to drive a Lexus were offered free parking and a free program. That’s what I call a meaningful branding initiative. It made me think good thoughts about the brand. The company also had their newest lineup of cars on display. While this wasn’t necessarily relevant to the venue, it was entertaining in a non-intrusive way. One could choose to look, or not. Okay, the not-so-right part was that the Lexus logo was sewn onto both sides, and on both ends of the net over which tennis balls are being lobbed. This means that everyone watching this event, in person or on screen, television or Internet feed, is forced to look at the Lexus mark. As pleased a Lexus owner as I am, I found this net presence extremely distracting. It did not make me think good thoughts about the Lexus brand. I know that sporting events have always relied on brands to help support their efforts and brands have gladly obliged. Eyeballs are eyeballs. However, with the deluge of digital media, with the increasing opportunity for consumers to turn on and then turn off or away from branding initiatives that offer no relevant value, I’d recommend that brands focus more attention on branding efforts that lead to meaningful engagement.

Seek and ye shall find. Marketers seeking an even better way to hone the right message to the right person at the right time need seek no further than Google’s newest service called Insights for Search. As a marketer, I’m fascinated by this latest tool of the trade which allows us to analyze search engine queries to help determine who’s buying what, where, when, and why. As a brand professional, I’m fascinated by Google’s ability to continue to hone its simple brand promise to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It’s a branding truism that the best brands on the planet are built on simple, focused ideas. When you identify a simple idea on which to base a brand, it’s easy to brilliantly execute against it. It’s also a branding truism that the best brands stay the best brands because they identify new and innovative ways to keep their simple ideas relevant, even as the world turns and times change. They do so by finding even more brilliant ways to bring their simple brand ideas to life. Google’s launch of Insights serves to strengthen the idea we have of Google as the go-to brand for the answers to all of our questions. And therein is the value of this new service to smart marketers. You can get more insight about people by the questions they ask than by the answers they give. Yet another branding truism is that to serve your customers better than the competition you have to get meaningful insight about what they want and use it to deliver what they want. Being able to track and analyze the questions consumers are asking about a given topic is a powerful way to get insight about what’s really on their minds, what desires, fears, interests, pastimes, hobbies, or endeavors. The collection of search queries that people type into Google has been called a “database of intentions,” a window into what they’re interested in learning about. Insights is great for marketers because its functionality allows us to determine more precisely what consumers want. Insights is great for the Google brand because its insight into what marketers want has only further secured its place in our minds as the leader in its category.

Perhaps no industry has been transformed more quickly by digital technology than the music industry. From the CD to the introduction of the MP3 player to cell phones with the ability to upload and download new tunes at Starbucks, the tools of this trade have been forever changed. This is one of the reasons the musician Neil Young was a featured speaker at the recent Fortune Brainstorm: Tech conference. While he applauded the fact that digital technology has made it easier for more people to listen to their favorite music whenever and wherever the spirit moved them, he wasn’t quite as complimentary about what the industry has done to the audio quality of this music. In fact, he used the phrase “dumbed down” as a descriptor. I have to agree that for a purist like Neil Young this comment has merit. No MP3 player is going to produce sound quality equal to a Bose-inspired living room, let alone a symphony hall. But from a pure branding perspective, Mr. Young is missing the point. While music connoisseurs might turn up their noses at the audio quality of on-the-go musical devices, these digital devices were designed with a completely different benefit in mind: to listen to music while running, while hanging out at Starbucks working on their term papers, or while riding the subway to work. The first step in any good brand strategy, the first step to becoming a successful brand, is to get significant and useful insight about your customers. What, as a brand, can you offer that is relevant to them and is different from what they already experience? Apple and every other brand in this category recognized that people love music and that it would certainly be convenient and a whole lot of fun if people could take their favorite music with them wherever they go. The likes of iTunes were developed with this in mind, convenience and fun. There is no doubt that the industry has struck a very positive chord with its target audience. While I appreciate Neil Young’s point and I appreciate great sound quality as much as the person next to me at Carnegie Hall, my contention is that the quality of the music on our ubiquitous digital music boxes is not as relevant a benefit for us as convenience. In the brand world, understanding what the people want and delivering it better than the next guy is the real heart of gold.