Book Review: Brand Sense

Brand Sense: Sensory Secrets Behind the Stuff We Buy
Martin Lindstrom
Free Press (2005)

Here are Lindstrom’s “Ten Rules” for creating a sensory brand:

1. Create a sense of belonging (e.g. LEGO clubs)
2. Have a clear vision (e.g. Steve Jobs and Apple))
3. Mobilize against enemies (e.g. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream)
4. Generate evangelism (e.g. Manchester United)
5. Create a sense of grandeur (e.g. Bellagio Hotel)
6. Tell an endearing story (e.g. Sony’s EverQuest game)
7. Generate sensory appeal (e.g. Harley-Davidson)
8. Celebrate rituals (e.g. Olympics)
9. Establish/sustain a meaningful symbol (e.g. Christian fish)
10. Create a sense of mystery (e.g. Coca-Cola formula)

Having been centrally involved in marketing for several decades, I have also become convinced of the importance of answering three questions. The first two can easily be answered: “Who are you?” and “What do you do?” Whether or not a brand succeeds is almost entirely determined by the answer to the third question: “Why should I care?”

I wholly agree with Landstrom that multi-sensory branding has the greatest impact. The “Ten Rules” suggest HOW to create that impact. One of the most important strategies is to make people feel that they are a valued member of a special community, of what Seth Godin characterizes as a “tribe.” However, that said, it is also important to celebrate individuality by making each brand experience intensely personal. (Note the frequent use of the possessive “My” in commercials and advertisements.) People appreciate feeling included but also hope that their participation will nourish their sense of individuality, of self-worth. They are loyal to brands that help them achieve both objectives.

In addition to revealing “the sensory secrets behind the stuff we buy,” Lindstrom also provides a brilliant explanation of the potential role of all five senses when consumers make purchase decisions; he also shares an abundance of research that quantifies the influence of the five senses. However different they may be in most other respects, the most valuable brands take advantage if all available sensory touch points; establish and then sustain a string connection across each of the touch points; reflect an “innovative sensory mind-set” that set them apart from their competitors; enable consumers to associate sensory signals with the brand, convinced that the signals are authentic; and ensure that the signals are distinct and integrated throughout the consumer’s experience.

Credit Martin Lindstrom for formulating what amounts to an operations manual and tool kit for those in need of a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective game plan by which to create or enhance a multi-sensory brand.

Language Matters!

Cheryl offers: I’ve been reading the newspaper a lot more carefully ever since Sara blogged about the Fort Hood incident. Remember the strapping brunette? I don’t watch TV so I haven’t seen any of the Olympics; instead I occasionally check the sports section of the newspaper.  What grabbed me today was the tremendous success of the US Women’s hockey team. They have now moved to the gold medal finals on Thursday of this week against old rival, Canada. Yesterday they beat Sweden 9-1. This added to their fantastic record in 2010 of outscoring their rivals 40-2. Holy smoke! Did I find this on the front page of the Sports Section as was the men’s win against Canada which only moved them to the quarter finals? No, it was on page 5. That isn’t what grabbed me though. It was the writer’s comment “A scrapbooking party couldn’t have been more competitive.” Say that about the men’s team and see what happens. This type of comment, from a female writer by the way, takes me back to Pat Heim’s book Hardball for Women. She shares “Men respond to strength and a part of your capacity to ultimately lead is a capacity for you to demonstrate your strength.”  There are players on this women’s team with degrees from Harvard and job offers from Donald Trump. These women are strong leaders, athletes, and role models for young women. What made me laugh was the image in my head of the ever competitive Donald at a scrapbooking party! Now that’s a LOL.

...not for the faint of heart and rarely mentioned by the sports guys.

Sara adds: I do watch television and saw some of women’s hockey…nothing wimpy about those women!!  What Cheryl points out,  makes me more than a little sad.  Kristen Kaufman of The Dallas Morning News is quoted in She wins, You Win by Gail Evans as saying, “Women… are not helping one another to achieve power in the work world – and they may even be putting one another at a disadvantage….”  I wonder what it will take for media in the US and Canada to become gender-neutral?

“The Growth Discovery Process” — useful wisdom from Robert Bloom’s The Inside Advantage

I’m reading The Inside Advantage:  The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in your Business by Robert H. Bloom.   (This is a “special presentation,”  requested by a client).  Robert Bloom is the marketing mind that helped us all know about brands such as:  Southwest Airlines, Perrier (in the US), and T-Mobile, Juicy Juice and Power Bar for Nestlé.

In the book, he has a very clear “Growth Discovery Process.” It really is tangible, and terrific.  Here it is:

The Growth Discovery Process:

WHO + WHAT + HOW + OWN IT = INSIDE ADVANTAGE

WHO is the core customer most likely to buy your product or service in the quantity required for optimal profit.
WHAT is the uncommon offering that your business will own and leverage.
HOW is the persuasive strategy that will convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering versus all competitive offerings.
OWN IT! Is the series of imaginative acts that will celebrate your uncommon offering and make it well known to your core customer.

——-

(I will have my synopsis of this book, with handout + audio, available soon on our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com).

Two Great Dilemmas: Ignorance and Ineptitude — insight from Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto

I never do this – but I am doing it now.  I am reading a book “early.”  I usually read books just a few days before I first present them. For example, for the First Friday Book Synopsis, I read the book the week of the event.  This keeps it “fresh” in my mind.  Besides, I do better paying attention to one book at a time.

{Aside:  I absolutely marvel at Bob Morris (our blogging colleague) and his intellectual gifts.  He reads books, plural, every week, writes reviews, and remembers their strengths and main points with extraordinary precision.  I do not have that ability…  That is why his posts are so diverse, so comprehensive, so educational – literally, it is an education to read his posts on our blog.}

Ok – back to this post…  You can guess, I am reading a book early.  It is my selection for the April First Friday Book Synopsis, The Checklist Manifesto:  How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande.  I wrote earlier that I was could not wait to read it.  Well – I couldn’t.

Here’s just one gem from the book.

There are two deficiencies that lead to a failure.  One is ignorance.  The other is ineptitude.  (This insight came from a 1970’s essay by philosophers Samuel Gorovitz and Alasdair MacIntyre).  Here’s an excerpt from the book:

The first is ignorance – we may err because science has given us only a partial understanding of the world and how it works.  There are skyscrapers we do not yet know how to build, snowstorms we cannot predict, heart attacks we still haven’t learned how to stop. The second type of failure the philosophers call ineptitude – because in these instances the knowledge exists, yet we fail to apply it correctly  This is the skyscraper that is built wrong and collapses, the snowstorm whose signs the meteorologist just plain missed, the stab wound from a weapon the doctors forgot to ask about.

For most of human history, the problem has been ignorance.  Now, the problem is increasingly the problem of ineptitude.  Again, from the book:

The balance of ignorance and ineptitude has shifted.  For nearly all of history, people’s lives have been governed primarily by ignorance…  But sometime over the last several decades – and it is only over the last several decades – science has filled in enough knowledge to make ineptitude as much our struggle as ignorance.

When ineptitude occurs, buildings can fall, companies can blow it, and people can literally die.  This book is about a simple solution to this problem – the solution of a checklist.  It fits in the category of “execution.”  And it really does provide a path to much less ineptitude – which is a very good thing!

What Makes a Book Unforgettable?

Occasionally, someone asks me what book I consider as unforgettable.  Like everyone, I have a few.  To qualify as unforgettable, I do not believe a book must have made some immediate great impact.  Those type of books typically hit the market with a splash, then peter out as someone pens a newer, fancier, and trendier concept.  And so the cycle goes.  Consider the fate of Megatrends, The Long Boom, and similar titles.

In my view, what makes a book unforgettable is its continued relevance.   A book must provide timeless messages that guide, inspire, or serve as a reference across many situations.  Certainly, the Holy Bible qualifies as one of the best.  You may consider Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as another. 

One of my votes goes to Communicating and Organizing by Farace, Monge, and Russell (Addison Wesley, 1977).  This book descibes how dynamic communicating works as a dynamic process.  Notice it is not one of the many books on “communication in organizations.”  The book is not a snapshot of a static event.  This book describes the process of organizing, viewing communicating as the vehicle to do so.

The book presents three kinds of communication challenges:  (1) overload / underload, (2) agreement and accuracy about communcation rules that govern interaction among incumbents, and (3) message distribution networks.  As I re-read portions of this book last night, I was reminded how innovative and courageous this book is.  At the time the authors created it, you would find many “stock” topics in such a book, including authority and hierarchy, small groups, meeting facilitation, Theory X and Y, and many other subjects that were lifeless and shopworn.  Even so, these topics continue to find their way into business communication books 33 years later.  Today, they are even more lifeless and shopworn, but they remain popular because they are safe.  I can read this book today and I find nothing out-of-date about it at all.

I want to thank Teri Albrecht for introducing me to this book.  Back in 1978, she was an inspiration and model for me.  I have not seen or spoken with her for many years.  I do not know where she is.  But, as this book makes clear, communicating and organizing are timeless endeavors.  Who knows – these very words may soon find their way to her.  Why?  Because Communicating and Organizing is unforgettable.