Brand Aid

Brad VanAuken's Brand Aid book has sold more than 30,000 copies, been translated into several languages and is used by many business schools to teach brand management and marketing. The substantially revised second edition of the book was published December 2014.

Brand Aid is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Here is what people have to say about this book:

'I regard the First Edition of Brad Van Auken's Brand Aid (2003) to be the best and most practical book on branding I have read. Hence, I was very keen to get the updated Second Edition to see if he could match my high expectations following the success of the first. I am delighted to report that this edition is again loaded with highly practical content that has been updated to reflect the changes in customer behavior, digital media and a host of other subjects including brand architecture. Another feature that I like are his generous use of user-friendly checklists and never talking over the heads of readers who may not have MBAs. Importantly, Van Auken is never self serving, like too many authors of marketing-branding books. This is a book, like the first, that you will always keep close at hand and read over and over again.'

Bill Baker, Amazon.com review

‘Brand Aid is an asset for the beginner and veteran brand builder alike. No matter what size your organization or how great your brand expertise, this book can provide a point of reference and new insights.’

Elizabeth A. Hunter, Senior Brand Specialist, Bank of America

‘Finally, a road map for the often treacherous journey of building and maintaining great brands. This is an indispensable tool for all marketers. Brand Aid is the essential toolkit for today’s (and tomorrow’s) brand marketers.’

Jim Harman, Manager, Corporate Advertising, General Electric

‘A comprehensive guide unlike any other on the market today. Apply what you learn to your brand building activities and watch the value of your brand and bottom line increase.’

Amy Kelm, Worldwide Consumer Brand Development Manager, Hewlett-Packard

‘Brad VanAuken has delivered one of the best brand education and reference tools I have come across. This book will always be within arms’ length from my working area for assistance in brand savvy throughout every workday.’

Carole L. Sustak, Manager, Marketing Strategy & Branding, AAA National

‘Many books have been written about branding in the past 15 years. Many are short and focus on only a few aspects of the complex process of building and nurturing a brand. With Brand Aid, Brad VanAuken has pulled it all together in one of the most comprehensive books ever written on the subject. If you work in marketing, read it. If not, make sure your marketing team has.’

Ron Dix, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Bush Brothers & Company (Bush’s Baked Beans)

‘The checklists are an incredibly effective way for any marketer to evaluate and grade their brand’s current marketing performance. Brand Aid should really be named Brands for Dummies. I’m definitely going to keep this one around and I only wish I had found it years ago.’

Dan Hucko, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Harris Interactive Inc.

‘Brad VanAuken’s practical, step-by-step guide to brand management and marketing resonates with experience and insight. Excellent refresher for the most seasoned marketer and a great introduction for those new to the field. I’m keeping my copy on my desk and giving one to everyone in our advertising agency.’

Sharon Napier, President & CEO, Partners + Napier

‘This book surprised me. It’s found a newly practical and authoritative way to describe how to do branding. In this, it is quite unlike any other 100 plus books on brand that I have read.’

Chris Macrea, Chief Brand Officer, valuetrue.com and author of World Class Brands and Brand Chartering Handbook

‘It is refreshing to read a book that is pithy, down-to-earth yet immensely insightful in demystifying the complexities of building and managing a brand anywhere in the world. Brand Aid will always be in a prime position on my bookshelf alongside books by Kotler, Ogilvy, Dru, Morgan, Ries & Trout, Temporal and Aitchison.’

Graeme Murray, Planning Director, Bates Thailand

‘Brand Aid will be the definitive work on the subject for years to come. All that’s needed now is for business men and women with creativity and depth to read it, and to work with it. When that happens, Brad VanAuken will have done the marketplace a great service.’

Peter Holloran, President, Cognitive Marketing Inc.

‘Thank you for your insight. Your book is concise and is an excellent teaching tool for the first-time and experienced brand manager.’

Ernie Avellana, Vice President of Marketing, Control Diabetes Services, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Company

‘Brand Aid is the most comprehensive of all the materials that I've read on brand management. This book should become required reading for all business leaders responsible for driving the growth of their organizations.’

Thomas J. Miller, Product Marketing, Director, Newport Corporation, Inc.

‘I've referred to the draft copy you sent in December so much that it's getting dog-eared.’

Tom Welle, Advertising Director, Potomac Electric Power Company

‘It's great to have a strong brand customers love and are happy to pay a premium for, but when a brand gets overextended, underadvertised, overpriced or develops other problems, few entrepreneurs know what to do. In Brand Aid (Amacom, $24), author and marketing consultant Brad VanAuken goes a long way toward remedying these problems.’

By Mark Henricks, Entrepreneur Magazine, September 2003

‘I found the book "Brand Aid" highly informative and I believe VanAuken has set a new standard in the study of branding. Whether it's the Case Studies, "Did You Know?" items or checklists throughout the book, he is able to provide PRACTICAL advice that can be used to develop or enhance brands. This book could very well become the "Bible" for branding now and in the future. I would give it 5-plus stars.’

Amazon.com Review

‘VanAuken’s points pack a heavyweight’s punch; he backs them up with case study summaries of the successes and failures of real brands. Chapters are packed with “Have you thought about…?” questions and checklists.’

Jim Pawlak, Biz Books, August 10, 2003

‘Quite possibly the best book I have seen on the topic of creating and maintaining a "brand" is Brad VanAuken’s Brand Aid ($24.94, Amacom). It will prove to be a powerful resource to anyone wrestling with the challenge of the entire process of building a high-impact brand and trouble-shooting the issues that come with it. If you want your company to become the next Nike, Disney or Absolut, this is the one book you want to read. And then read again!’

Bookviews by Alan Caruba, August 2003

‘VanAuken has distilled his enormous practical knowledge about the theory and practice of brand management into this smart…volume. The book is packed with information and good ideas – so many, in fact, that it is virtually an encyclopedia of brand management does and don’ts’

Publishers Weekly, June 16, 2003

‘Of all the books I’ve read on marketing and branding, this one is the shining star! I’ll also go out on a limb and assert that it’s one of the best books I’ve seen published by AMACOM.’

Roger E. Herman, Midwest Book Review

‘This is an EXCELLENT practical book in a field awash with theory and useless generalizations.’

Anne Holland, www.MarketingSherpa.com

‘You will not want to be without this book in your library.’

Laura Schneider, About Marketing (http://marketing.about.com)

‘Trying to encapsulate this truly vast wealth of knowledge, Brad VanAuken has written what promises to be the synoptic work on the subject. Brand Aid is a dense treatise that tries to make the very complicated issue of branding accessible. VanAuken's brand advice is both sound and timely.’

Brands: Case Closed by Jonathan Jackson, Critical Eye, www.channelseven.com 12/15/03

‘This is an in-depth guide to the whole subject of branding. As such, it is ideal for those who are looking to learn about branding for the first time or for the more experienced practitioner who is looking to improve knowledge in one particular area. It can help to solve branding problems through its exhaustive but easily understandable analysis of the subject. This is a very useful book for understanding branding and as such will be of interest to anyone involved in marketing generally.’

Martin Payne www.poolonline.com/books/books68.html Number 25: Winter 2004

‘This is a terrific, pithily-written book that stands head and shoulders above most other branding books currently on the market. Its fluid style and concise treatment of the major issues in creating winning brands makes most other such texts look pedestrian by comparison.’

Keith Dinnie, Book Review Editor, Journal of Brand Management, August 2003, Vol 10, Number 6

‘…Comprehensive instruction on managing and growing your brand in the usual online and offline channels. Well organized for quick comprehension; includes checklists to see if your brand is ready to go global, well positioned for an ad campaign, has an identity to work with, and a helpful “troubleshooting” chapter. Good place to start if you are still trying to wrap your brain around brand management.’ 

Reader review, www.brandchannel.com, November 2003

‘Just bought BRAND AID. THIS BOOK IS PHENOMENAL!!!! THANK YOU.’

Alexander S. Bosika, marketing manager, Phantom Fiber

'Very insightful book on brand development. Dovetails nicely with "Building the Brand Driven Business." These two books are excellent when considering developing a master brand ... the brand of the organization itself. Perfect for the CEO/Owner/President.'

Richard Gripp, Amazon.com Review

‘My desk has been home to a bumper crop of worthwhile new books on brands and branding. A standout in the group is Brand Aid by Brad VanAuken, which offers an almost encyclopedic look at every step in the brand process (designing, building, leveraging, managing). The advice is straightforward, voluminous and informed by experience. VanAuken also includes lengthy checklists at the end of each chapter that help readers assess their own situations and also serve as a good platform for brainstorming. Highly recommended.’

Joseph Rydholm, editor, Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, May 2004

‘Brad VanAuken knows his stuff - and he knows how to share it with the rest of us in a clear and concise manner that will leave you feeling: "Now I get it!" With a tremendous understanding of how to take complex marketing systems and put them into an easy to understand, universal language, VanAuken brings the reader up to speed quickly and comfortably with simple terms and concrete examples. This book will serve well as not only a quick reference, but also as a step by step tool to creating a branding identity that will stand the test of time.’

John Copeland, program manager, National Arts Marketing Project

‘I run a very small business that designs and manufactures products for a crowded micro market. We were looking for a book or resource that would help gather our thoughts into a concise executable plan. Wow does it feel like this book came through for us. Of all the business, marketing, branding, positioning books I have read, this has to top them all.’

Andrew B Lautenschlager, Bay Area, CA

‘A really comprehensive branding manual, with an almost textbook feel to it. Every branding concept is thoroughly explained. Not necessarily a book to read cover to cover in a few days, but definitely an invaluable reference guide to keep close and handy by anybody involved in marketing and branding products, services and companies. Excellent.’

Mario Sanchez Carrion, marketing, branding and small business blogger, www.shoestringbranding.com

‘Our company does web design, graphic design, corporate communication. I like that this book is not only an easy reference guide, but also a comprehensive approach to branding. The book can stand alone as a Brand teach-in, and require no prior knowledge about branding. The book is also relatively complete and can be used as a text book or self-learning Branding book. This book is good.’

T. Santoso, Surabaya, Jatim Indonesia  

'If you are looking to get into branding (and marketing), this book is a good primer for those that are beyond the 101 level, and a good reminder/review for those that are already in the business. Brad provides plenty of his own real life experiences and is very organized with his presentation of the material. Entertaining and detailed without being an unruly encyclopedia.'

Cherrie Mahon, Amazon.com review

'A highly valuable resource and a great read! Many of my PR clients do not understand their "brand" or what branding truly means. I have long turned to Brand Aid as THE book to reference to educate my clients. I have had the good fortune of attending a brand seminar with author VanAuken (he's amazing) and since he can't be with in person at all your meetings, luckily his book can. I am thrilled to have the second edition in hand, as my guide through the entire branding process, from social media strategies to successful case studies.'

D.E Olcott, Amazon.com review

'It covers everything. It's great to have on hand, like a branding dictionary.'

Gabriel M. Renfrow, Amazon.com review

'This is an extremely comprehensive guide to branding and distills decades of experience into usable information. A truly unique insight into how branding affects critical business functions such as pricing, product suite, and competitive advantage. Very impressed, and have already recommended it to friends and family that want to really understand not just branding, but business.'

Gavin, Amazon.com review

'I am a junior brand strategist from Quebec, Canada. Last summer, a brand consultant that I admire very much recommended me your book as a must read. Since then I have read it twice and referred back to it numerous times. I wish to thank you for writing such a practical book enabling me to be better at my job. An ocean of business books exists but yours is one of the best I have read in some time. Thank you for your work!'

Philippe Goudreault

'I am a huge fan of Brand Aid #2 and have been using it in my keystone graduate class called IMC 463 Brand Communications Decisions. I feel your book is one of the most practical and valuable books ever written about brands. I love the checklists and remind the students that your book is my graduation gift to them because it is a resource they will find useful every day they are developing, managing or increasing the value of brands.'

John Greening, Associate Professor at Northwestern University in Evanston IL heading up the Brand Management specialization in the Graduate Medill Integrated Marketing Communications Program

'Since we first communicated, I have used your book in graduate level branding course for three cohorts. Simply, your book is a tremendous asset to me and my students. They rave how your content and writing style is so practical, direct and applicable. Furthermore, the cornerstone of the course is a group assignment where the students complete the Brand and Brand Management Audits for an organization of their choice. I couldn’t be more pleased and impressed with their effort and the quality of their work.'

Brian Vollmert, Assistent Professor of Marketing at North Park University

'The big idea: As a business leader, you know that every company, object, service, person or pet hoping to compete for public attention needs a brand. An enormous cottage industry has grown up around creating and improving brands, making it increasingly harder to cut through to useful, actionable information to help position your company’s products or services in the market. It should come as an enormous relief, then, that just about all the information you need has been compiled in a single book. The second edition of Brad VanAuken’s Brand Aid includes everything from a basic introduction to brand management to advice on leveraging and measuring your brand’s success.

Read it: Each chapter of the book includes an exhaustive list of tips, examples, case studies and more. The content of any given chapter is summarized in a handy, comprehensive checklist you can use to track your own branding efforts. The book’s cleanly organized chapters and checklists make it easy to dip in and out of if you don’t have time to read cover to cover. The writing is straightforward, easy to follow and almost entirely devoid of jargon. Extensive appendices offer many suggestions for further reading as well as useful resources for brand audits and online brand management.

Skip it: There’s really only one reason to skip this book: You already own the first edition, published in 2003. However, given the rapidly evolving nature of branding and consumer preferences, you still might consider an update.'

SmartCEO.com book review

'There are literally dozens of flags marking pages in my copy of Brand Aid. Pick up a copy, and it will undoubtedly look the same in short order. Brand Aid functions equally well as a troubleshooter for underperforming, established brands, and as a toolkit for launching new brands destined for legendary status.'

BrandingClass.com

'Powerful yet intangible, a brand is the personification of your organization. Learn to build, nurture, and grow a strong brand that inspires people, forges emotional bonds, and moves customers to insist on buying your brand.

This book guides you through the entire branding process, from using social media effectively to linking your brand to human needs.'

Advertising Educational Foundation

PROFESSORS, you can get a review copy of this book from Harper Collins Leadership.  To access their faculty portal to request a review copy, please email harpercollinsleadershipcc@harpercollins.com. They will send you a copy.

Brand Aid is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Brand Messaging Today

At the beginning of my brand strategy consulting career, I talked a lot about relevant differentiated benefits. The benefits could be functional, emotional, experiential or self-expressive. This evolved to focusing on the non-tangible benefits (emotional, experiential or self-expressive) with the product functions or features serving as support or proof points. Now, I mostly focus on a brand's shared values. The most successful contemporary brands focus on shared values and even go as far as creating communities around those shared values. And, increasingly, these values-driven brands become the vehicles through which people communicate their shared values.

The first step in creating brand messaging is understanding the values that the brand wants to share with its customers. These values can come from the organization's founder and his or her strongly held values or they can be determined through deep qualitative research that uncovers customers' attitudes, beliefs, values, hopes, fears, anxieties and aspirations. The shared values will emerge from this customer insight process.

Next, those values need to be incorporated into the organization's mission, vision and values. Then the brand story needs to be created from these values. Further, the brand's tagline and elevator speech is created from these values. These values should also guide hiring criteria and the organization's policies and standards. The brand should be aware of the words and phrases used by people who hold these values and they should be worked into all of the brand's communications.

Once the brand begins to stand for these values, customer community-building mechanisms can be created around these values. Further, once the brand begins to stand for these values, the brand can create insignia merchandise that features the brand's identity. People will wear, use and display this merchandise to communicate their values to others.

It is important to realize that a brand needs to be authentic in sharing these values in everything it does including its messaging. It is difficult to fake values. And if the values are sincerely held, it is difficult not to demonstrate them as a matter of course in everything the brand does.

Types of Research for Brands

I have spent the past 35 years conducting research on behalf of brands. Over that period of time, I have conducted hundreds of studies. In this blog post, I thought I would outline the types of research that you can conduct and the things you can learn from that research. One of a researcher's most important roles is to select the right research methodology given the business and marketing objectives and the action standards.

• Though qualitative research - focus groups, mini-groups, depth interviews, online groups, etc. - you can better understand customer attitudes, beliefs, values, hopes, fears, concerns, needs, desires and perceptions of the category and your brand and competitive brands. 
• Qualitative research may be conducted using asynchronous online bulletin boards.
• Through conjoint analysis you can create the optimal combination of product/service attributes/features that deliver the greatest perceived value.
• Price sensitivity research (projective) and price elasticity research (based on historical sales) can help you develop the optimal pricing strategy.
• Brand equity studies will help you measure brand awareness, preference, associations, personality, relevance, differentiation, accessibility, perceived value, emotional connection and loyalty.
• Brand positioning studies can help you identify the most powerful unique value proposition.
• Brand asset mapping can help you understand what a brand's associations and most important assets are. 
• Brand extension research can help you understand into what new categories a brand could be most successfully extended.
• Brand emotional heat mapping research indicates the degree to which a large variety of emotions are associated with your brand.
• Attitude and usage studies will help you size and dimensionalize the market for your products.
• Customer segmentation studies can help you segment the market on a wide variety of demographic, geographic, psychographic, cohort, attitudinal, values, purchase behavior and usage behavior dimensions.
• Consumer purchase and use diaries can be used to monitor thoughts, behaviors and purchases over time to discern patterns. Diaries on smartphones are an emerging version of this research.
• In-store traffic pattern mapping including in-store heat mapping can help the the design of store layout and retail merchandising. It can also indicate with which categories, products and brands consumers spend the most time.
• Customer journey mapping is a process that helps you understand the entire customer decision making and purchasing process. 
• Anthropological research takes many forms but basically approaches customer research using anthropological methodologies. 
• This can include selfie photos and videos taken by the consumer herself. 
• Retail shop-along interviews are another form of anthropological research.
• Environmental scanning and text mining scrape and analyze text from websites, collateral, ads, white papers and articles to identify patterns and content trends.
• Customer service testing helps you understand all of the dimensions of your customer service delivery and how it was perceived by the customer.
• Mystery shoppers help you experience the customer shopping experience first hand.
• Logo research can help you develop the most powerful logo with the greatest recognition and recall. 
• Concept testing can help you understand how unique and compelling a concept is, whether it be a business, product, service or brand concept. 
• Advertising can be tested in a variety of ways. You can conduct a pre and post test to measure differences in brand awareness and associations. You can compare the results of two different creative approaches in an A/B test. 
• In online marketing, you can measure click through rates, cost per click and cost per thousand. 
• With CRM systems, you can measure the ROI of different lead generation sources and different sales approaches. 
• Perception Analyzer research allows you to view the results of quasi-quantitative research in real time while also being able to stop and ask qualitative questions of the respondents. 
• Eye tracking research can help you design better ads.
• Using CT scanning and other medical technologies to measure human response to ads can make likes and dislikes very clear. 
• Combining data mines with attitudinal research is very powerful. 
• Social polling, one or two questions at a time, is a quick, easy and affordable way to get consumer feedback.

For more information on brand-related research, refer to the Brand Research chapter in Brand Aid, second edition, available here.

Marketing Trends Today and Tomorrow

I am delivering a talk on the future of brand management and marketing next week. Things are changing so quickly in the marketing world that it is difficult for every marketer to keep up with all of the new approaches and techniques. While I do not have the space here to explain each one of them, I thought I would share my talk's outline to give you a flavor of the latest in brand management and marketing.

Today's Marketing Research Approaches

• Big data analytics (including predictive analytics)
• Combining data mines with attitudinal research
• Attitudinal (and values) segmentation
• Knowing when to apply which statistical technique – regression analysis, ANOVA, factor analysis, cluster analysis and logistic regression
• Eye-tracking technology
• Using MEG, GSR, EEG, SST, QEEG, FMRI, PET and CT scanning to understand likes and dislikes
• Better understanding memory encoders and triggers
• Improved retail traffic pattern measurement and analysis
• Drawing on the insights of behavioral economics
• Measuring ROI
• Identifying sales drivers
• Anthropological studies
• Conjoint analysis and AI
• Emotion measurement tools
• Online focus groups
• Mobile research options
• Color science and emotional response
• Olfactory science and emotional response

Brand Management Today

• Authenticity
• Shared values
• Community building
• Using cultural symbols
• Employer branding
• Internal employee and system/process alignment
• Brand co-creation with customers
• Brand storytelling
• Customer journey mapping
• Customer experience design
• Strategic partnerships and co-opetition
• Game theory and competitive strategy

Marketing Today

• Hyper-personalization
• Geo-targeting and geo-fencing
• Undercover, stealth or covert marketing
• The poison parasite defense (to reposition a competitor’s brand)
• Buzz (aka word-of-mouth) and influencer marketing
• Creating influencer swarms
• Content management, scaling content, creating viral content
• Co-creating content with customers
• Value-based community building
• Proactive publicity as a primary tool
• Unusual advertising media (crops, escalators, human tattoos, sidewalks, etc.)
• Flash mobs and street team marketing
• Authority marketing
• Attaching pejorative labels to competitors’ brands (used mostly in politics)
• Fully automated lead generation systems

If you are not familiar with any of these approaches, I would suggest that you look them up and become familiar with them. And I would be happy to hear from you if you think I have missed something. Please share your knowledge and insights with our readers.

Ethics in Marketing

Ethics is not a topic that I hear marketers talking about very often, however it is something that I think about frequently because I understand the societal impact of what I do. Marketers can often drive human desires and behaviors, getting people to buy things that they may or may not need, making them feel better or worse about themselves in the process.

Skilled marketers wield a lot of power because between data analysis and intuition, they know how to manipulate people's thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. A long time ago, one client approached me saying that he needed my assistance because I was a "master of the dark arts." This took me aback because I try to be completely ethical in my approach to marketing but I knew what he meant by the comment. It was clearly intended to be a compliment. 

So what are some of the ethical issues in marketing? First and foremost is using marketing to make a product that is clearly harmful more appealing to people - for instance, selling cigarettes by appealing to people at a deep emotional level.  This can be achieved by linking the cigarette brand to independence, rebellion, good times, coming into one’s own power, etc.

Next is getting people to buy stuff that they just don’t need. How many toys does one child actually need? How many pairs of shoes are enough? Or, how many homes are enough? Some salespeople are so skilled they can get a person to buy something that he doesn't desire and for which he does not have a use. 

Then there is using fear to sell something. As we all know, fear works really well as a motivator, however constantly using fear to market products and services only serves to create a more fearful society motivated more by avoidance of potential problems than by embracing that which is beneficial or uplifting.

Related to fear-based marketing is the practice of assigning pejorative labels to competitors' brands, repositioning them as undesirable or even repulsive.   

Making false claims is both unethical and illegal. I am personally not as concerned about what is generally considered to be puffery, for instance stating that one’s brand is “the best in the world,” because few people are going to take that statement at face value.

Certainly, an ethical dilemma that most marketing agencies face is whether to do (a) what is in the client’s best interest or (b) what the client wants (if you know that what they want is not in their own best interest).  In this situation, are you forthright with the client but then ultimately collect your fees for executing what they desire or do you walk away from the project or business if what you are being asked to do is not in their best interest?  Is the client always right or is the client sometimes wrong?

How about getting someone to pay a huge price premium for a product because your brand bestows status on that product? Is this just helping people climb Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or is it getting them stuck on one step in that ladder (at a hefty profit to the brand)? Anchoring the premium end of a product range with an outrageously high price can get people to trade up to a more expensive product in the middle of the range. And setting an artificially inflated suggested retail price allows for a much bigger price discount, leading to an increased perceived value. Realtors often use the trick of showing their clients properties with poor values first to increase subsequent properties' perceived values.

Knowing that brands can sometimes make people feel more appealing, loved, smart, accomplished, valued, etc. I want to scream to them, “You are already appealing, loved, smart, accomplished, valued, etc. You don’t need a product or brand to be that.”

There is also this question: Does the relentless pursuit of more and better products, services and experiences lead to improved lives with more leisure time and a higher quality of life or does it just constantly raise the bar for what will satisfy while depleting natural resources and placing more demands on peoples’ lives?

Some people medicate themselves with "retail therapy." Each purchase feels good for a while but then more purchases are required to maintain that good feeling. 

How about those huge purchases that marketers can get people to make, for instance luxury cars, luxury boats, fine art, expensive wines, etc. Some people can easily afford these things and very much appreciate even minutely incremental improvements in quality. Others however may be stretching their budgets to “keep up with the Joneses.” This second group may experience immediate post purchase remorse after such a large purchase. Is it ethical to market to these people based on aspiration?

And, related to that, if people experience buyer’s remorse immediately after a purchase, is it a good thing or a bad thing to create a post purchase touch point that relieves their anxiety and makes them feel better about the purchase?

Then there is competitive consumption. I am a sailor. In the boating world, it is a relatively common practice to keep trading up to bigger and bigger boats. Heck, among the one tenth of one percent, they are trading in 100 foot yachts for 200 foot yachts and 200 foot yachts for 400 foot yachts. Then it gets even crazier. "My yacht has two helicopters, four jet skies, four personal submersibles, two tenders and bi-level swimming pools. How about yours?"

And what about selling functional substance, a real solution to a problem, versus good feelings? Many brands (and salespeople for that matter) are masterful at selling good feelings without really delivering much else. I often feel this way about motivational speakers. Is something tangible really more valuable than something completely intangible?

And, is it better to market to and deliver on a need or a desire? Is one better than another? What if one desires something that is not good for him or her? Is that the marketer’s problem? Is it another person’s right to judge what is good or bad for another?

So how do I see that marketing can be truly helpful to organizations, brands and their customers? First and foremost, brands can help organizations focus on how they can best add value in the market, especially in unique ways. A brand’s unique value proposition can become the organization’s internal rallying cry, energizing employees and mobilizing them to deliver on the brand’s promise. Marketing can also highlight a particular brand’s unique advantage over competing brands, helping consumers to make more informed decisions. If one includes marketing research as a part of marketing (as well they should), there is a huge advantage to understanding what the customer actually needs and wants so that the organization can deliver it to him or her. Identifying and determining the best ways to meet human needs is a noble endeavor.

Brands and Tribalism

While many people consider tribalism to be a bygone adaptive effect in the evolution of human culture, many forms of tribalism exist today. Modern tribalism recognizes that humans feel more safe and comfortable in smaller groups of people with whom they share similar values. Tribes can also lead to a sense of belonging. And research has shown that the human brain can only process up to 150 individuals as fully developed complex people. After that, stereotypes, hierarchical schemes and other models for clustering people must be used to make sense of things. This is why organizations of 150 people or less tend to feel more inviting and personal. 

While tribalism has the advantages listed above, it also has its downside. Tribalism tends to lead to ethnocentrism and often to ethic or racially motivated conflict. Essentially, people in a tribe recognize each other as familial individuals who have value, while others outside the tribe are often demonized or at least dehumanized or ignored. 

While tribalism leads to greater cohesion and loyalty, it can also make understanding of a broader world and quick adaptation to changing conditions more difficult. 

Brands can become important to people by linking to their tribes. Tribes can be based on any set of values, beliefs or interests. This offers brands many opportunities to align with tribes to create greater emotional connection and loyalty. The key is to understand the underlying hopes, fears, beliefs, values and shared interests of tribal members. 

In the USA, the most visible tribes are political tribes, religious tribes and socio-economic tribes. But there are also geographic tribes, racial tribes and special-interest tribes. But any organizational affiliation can act as a tribe from Rotary clubs, Boy Scouts and veterans groups to hiking groups, equestrian groups and sailing clubs. Even university affiliations and sports teams can act like tribes.

Again, for a brand to appeal to a specific tribe it needs to know what beliefs, values and interests hold that tribe together and further, the brand needs to understand the tribal language, symbols and rituals. 

Alignment with a tribe can create staunch devotion to the brand. In fact, the brand can become another outward manifestation of tribal membership. I wish you great success in aligning your brand with one or more tribes.