Some brands take the world by storm—you can’t help but know who they are. We are, of course, talking about A-brands. What does it take for a brand to gain such a reputation and become so well recognized? Read on to find out.
A-brands attract both potential customers and aspiring employees. Consistently. But how do they do that? What goes into making a strong brand?
The underlying principle of any great brand is consistency, consistency, consistency. You must be devoted to consistency in three main pillars:
It’s easy to think of a strong brand as boiling down to how flashy their campaigns are, but it’s much broader than that (and not nearly as sexy). Becoming an A-brand comes down to delivering on your promise, crafting a stellar presence, and standing for something greater. These foundational elements need to be in place in order for the execution of flashy marketing to have substance.
But once you have a solid foundation in place, how do you leverage it to create attraction?
Brand appeal is made up of the connection a customer feels to the emotive expression of the brand, the level of awareness a consumer has of a brand, and the expectations, that they have of the brand, being met.
Emotive expression is driven by your brand book and brand compass, which are rooted in your brand values. It’s how your brand personality—what you look and sound like—comes to life. The marketing campaigns you choose to launch are often the most visible emotive expressions of your brand, but they’re not the only. Websites, blogs, podcasts, press articles? Of course. But also your customer service and sales interactions, your office space or showroom, your emails and presentations—everything you do is a form of emotive expression!
Brand awareness is how well known you are by your target audience. This generally comes down to how frequently a potential customer sees your brand combined with their ability to recall it. It works in tandem with emotive expression. A customer is more likely to remember your brand if they feel a connection to it. And with the right data driven marketing campaigns, you can make sure that they see your brand over and over again.
Brand expectations is your making sure that the product or service you offer lives up to the image you’ve created for your customer of your brand, based on your emotive expressions and awareness tactics. If what you offer doesn’t match what your customer expects, based on what you told them, you have a big problem!
When these three elements work in harmony together you have an attractive, appealing brand.
Let’s look at an example!
Nike is one of the most iconic brands in the world. What makes them such an A-brand? Why do we as consumers find them so appealing?
And before you start thinking, “Nike is a B2C brand, this isn’t relevant to my B2B company”, hold that thought. There’s a lot to be learned from any company truly living their brand! At the end of the day it’s about integrating your brand into every facet of your organization. A-brands (whether B2C or B2B) are the brands that do this best. Let’s have a look at what we can learn from one of the best-of-the-best.
When we look at the foundational pillars, Nike is executing on each at the highest level.
They deliver on their promise. They have a super clear mission: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world (*If you have a body you, are an athlete).” They bring their mission to life through continuous innovation and selling solid products. Whether you’re selling products or services, it doesn’t matter, so long as you’re remaining aligned with your strategy and delivering on your promise.
Nike has an unmistakable presence: their messaging is consistent, with their tagline, positioning, and content all pointing back to their mission. Not to mention one of the most recognizable logos of all time! When you look at your messaging and content, are you able to link it back to your core values?
On top of this, Nike takes a clear stance on cultural issues and actively supports movements. They have clear sustainability efforts, are proactively philanthropic, and known for being a highly inclusive brand. What does your company stand for? Are you well-known by your customers for staying consistent on your values?
From the beginning, Nike has had a product expertise that serves as the basis of their brand. They are continuously building on that by being at the forefront of design and offering styles that appeal to a wide range of people. You know you can find Nike stores or products in stores everywhere! When you interact with the Nike staff, it’s likely that you’ll be left with a positive impression. They live the values you’ve come to expect of them, from end to end.
Your company is also likely rooted in your area of expertise. Are you telling that story to your customers in new ways and continuously improving upon your knowledge base? Can your customer rely on you to consistently deliver your products or have access to your services? Is your staff trained to embody your brand values in their interactions with customers, suppliers, and partners?
Nike does a lot of advertising. They’ve also got their targeting, retargeting, and search engine advertising locked in so that once you’ve interacted with their brand, you can be sure you’ll see them in your feed again, soon. You can’t miss them because they sponsor and advertise during many high-profile events. On top of that, they partner with star athletes, celebrities, designers, musicians etc., so even if you don’t seek out Nike directly, you’ll see them around!
Maybe sponsoring major sporting events and hiring a celebrity spokesperson isn’t right for your brand or budget, but you can certainly home-in on your advertising using a data-driven approach, to ensure that you stay top of mind, with existing and potential customers.
What ultimately sticks with us the most though, is their emotive expression. They do this better than maybe any other single brand.
They invest a ton of energy into their ads, social content, website etc and it makes waves online. Their storytelling abilities and eye for aesthetic are unparalleled. While there is variety in their content, there is always a consistent feeling to their work that makes it clear it’s coming from Nike. Their brand personality embodies the hero archetype: inspiring and challenging you to be a little braver, stronger, and bolder. Staying true to their mission, they make sure their marketing and design is inclusive (age/race/gender/size/etc)—and their messaging makes it clear that anyone can do it (be athletic).
How is your archetype persona shining through in your content? Does all of your content feel consistent, like it’s coming from the same brand? How much creative energy goes into your content?
When you have a solid foundation and you pair that with cultivating brand appeal, it results in a solid reputation: a reputation as an A-brand.
Are you looking to become an A-brand? We can help!
Need help with clarifying your brand values? Or building out your corporate identity, tone of voice or archetype persona?
Could you use help telling your story and creating captivating content? Or building out marketing automation campaigns to generate leads?
That’s our area of expertise! Give us a call at +31 (0)407470161