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Brand Personality InspirationBy Derrick Daye

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My dad always said, if you want to get ahead of the leader, don’t follow his tracks in the snow. If I owned my own jewelry store, this would be the mantra for everything I did. And my store would be truly different.

I think the greatest challenge we all face is avoiding the well-worn track. So, how do we avoid falling into step with everyone else? The trick is to find inspiration, not from your competitors, but from brands outside your own category of business.

Let’s imagine that Apple went into the jewelry business. Now let’s imagine how the Apple jewelry store might look. We all know Apple – a fundamental indicator in itself of the brand’s leadership. The Apple personality is well etched into our collective understanding of the brand. We could, therefore, imagine that the Apple jewelry store would proclaim itself in the street environment as a jewel itself. The façade would be sleek; the staff would be casually elegant, dressed in black shirts adorned with incisive, white-printed apothegms across their backs. The jewelry displays would be elegant – simple of line and perhaps using white as a theme. And the jewelry pieces would feature as the stars of a

coordinated and well-design show. Each piece – and perhaps there’d be a select few on display, ensuring that the story behind each work had the space and time to express itself – would be a paragon of design. You’d be able to see them up close, examine their well-crafted detail and even touch them to fully appreciate their seamless craftsmanship. They’d be Apple pieces, sharing design characteristics that underline the Apple brand’s inherent mission, personality and values. They’d be individual expressions of each artist’s creativity yet united in their evocation of the Apple brand signature. In brilliant paradox, their individuality would reinforce a recognizable and unifying brand, leaving no doubt about the brand behind the products.

Let’s step back onto the street, out of that imaginary Apple jewelry store, and consider jewelry brand distinction in general. There’s a row of jewelry stores in this shopping district. Lined up side-by-side, they offer easy comparison. Or do they? They’re all the same. Where’s the distinction between them? If I were to take a photo of each jewelry store, I’d use the images to build a matrix to map brand difference – and lack of it.

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R The matrix is built around the four sides of a square. The vertical left-hand side accommodates all my pictures of stores that are almost uniform with each other. The opposite side of the square is where I put my photos of stores that are unique in some way. Along the top of the matrix are photos of stores that offer an experience – they’re more than retail outlets or places to display jewels. Finally, along the bottom of the square, are all the other stores. These are the bland environments – neither expressing difference, experience, or an environment of any distinction.

Guess where most of the stores would be on the matrix? Would I be wrong in assuming they’d mainly be in the bottom left, where the uniform and bland stores overlap. Many of the remainder would be in the middle of the matrix, mapping their identities as stores which are essentially trend followers that provide a pleasant environment but one which is advised merely by function and habit, not brand expression. There’s a pretty big gap at the top right where we would map unique, experiential stores – if we had a picture of one. Guess what - that’s where I would aim to have a picture of my jewelry store.

My customers would be willing live billboards for my jewelry products. Just as the white earphones have become a distinctive icon for the Apple brand, the proud wearers of my store’s products would be sporting distinctive pieces that could have come from one place only.

So, how do you identify the right source of inspiration to start building your distinctive brand experience? First, you need to carefully consider the values you want your jewelry store to convey. Should it be cool, courageous, harmonious, sensitive, humorous, inspiring? Did you notice the values I listed? We’re not talking about reliability or quality. These are values which consumers take for granted in a brand that has the temerity to offer itself for sale. Brand values are personality attributes that set a brand apart from others. Think of brands as people. Values describe the personality of your brand, just as people represent values through their

unique personalities. Think Oprah, and you’d possibly identify values such as compassion and care. Think Steve Jobs and you might associate visionary qualities with the man. The same is the case with powerful brands. Your brand’s personality is ultimately what distinguishes it. And the personality is built on well-defined and consistently expressed values.

Your brands values should not only underline a distinctive personality. They allow you to tell your customers a great story. Like people, brands exist within a personal history. They exist in a community context. Tell the story of your brand through its expression and the relationship it builds with customers. Now you’re ready to identify the source of your inspiration. Consider brands, beyond your sector, which embody values to place them in the top right-hand corner of the matrix. Brands that are unique and which offer an experience in our encounters with them.

Perhaps you might think of Red Bull. There’s a brand which might qualify as inspiration for a jewelry store because of its unique distribution strategy. I’m sure you’re aware that custom-built Red Bull fridges reside in surf wear stores as much as in convenience stores, because the surf wear stores are where their core customer group shop.

On the same theme, Quicksilver, the surf wear clothing brand, has developed stores that are experiential, evoking a sense of the beach, of fun and youth. Gather a group of brands which reflect aspects of your store’s personality and values and examine how they can inspire concepts and directions for your store.Your next step is to consider your story. Branding isn’t all about design. It’s about creating a powerful story. The story, the values, the personality all contribute to advising the design. The design expresses these characteristics to achieve a holistic and integrated, confident and distinctive brand expression. The fact is, you’re selling a story first, jewelry as an inevitable consequence. The jewelry pieces are symbols for the

brand experience. My jewelry store would be an epicenter of storytelling.

Every jewelry piece in my store would have a unique story to tell. Each piece would express a unique origin, a unique jeweler behind its creation, unique gems or craftsmanship. No piece would leave my store without being accompanied by a booklet exploring the story behind the piece. My staff should be carefully trained in conveying each and every story. And my website would extend the experience. On- and offline, my jewelry store would function as theater. The set would be accompanied by a unique signature sound – music for the store and website. A signature scent would pervade the store and would be infused into all my exquisite packaging materials. Customers would take home the story, the piece and the sensory experience.

In my book, Buyology, I explore why more than 70% of us touch wood for luck. It’s true! More than 40% of us avoid walking under ladders and opening umbrellas inside, for fear of invoking bad luck. Countless rituals like these are engraved into our social consciousnesses. Individually and collectively we practice ritual daily. Weddings, engagements, birthdays – they’re all rituals. And our addiction to them translates into a powerful branding tool. So, on top of the story, the environment and the sensory experience of my store, I’d invent rituals for everything: the way staff greet and attend to customers, the way the piece’s stories are told, the way in which purchases are wrapped and presented to customers. Every consumer touchpoint offers an opportunity for brand expression.

Buying jewelry should give customers a memorable experience. It should be an experience that’s so distinctive that they can’t help but talk about it. Breathless stories of the beautiful jewelry store experience would spread by word-of-mouth to friends and family. This is the marketing strategy to aim for. Classic advertising rarely works, and it comes at an outrageous cost. I’d make my store do the talking and let my customers be the pilgrims who spread the word to the world.

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Consumer spending, even on sale items, will continue to be

replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. This spells trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high-

end or low.What

makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and

what it stands for. Why J Crew instead of The Gap? J Crew stands for a new era in careful chic --being smart and

stylish. The first family's support of the brand doesn't hurt either.The unique

meaning of a brand will increase in importance as generic features continue to plague the

brand landscape. Awareness as a meaningful market force has long been obsolete, and differentiation will be

critical for success --meaning sales and profitability.

Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations

now. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and hunger for more. Smarter marketers will identify and capitalize on unmet expectations. Those brands that

understand where the strongest expectations exist will be the brands that survive - and prosper.

Brand values can be established as a brand identity, but they

must believably exist in the mind of the consumer. A brand can't just say it stands for something and make it so. The consumer will decide, making it more important than ever for a brand to have

measures of authenticity that will aid in brand differentiation and consumer engagement.

In case your brand didn't get the memo here it is -consumers

are on to brands trying to play their emotions for profit. In the wake of the financial debacle of this past year, people are more aware then

ever of the hollowness of bank ads that claim "we're all in this together" when those same banks have rescinded their credit and turned their retirement plan

into case studies. The same is true for insincere celebrity pairings: think Seinfeld & Microsoft or Tiger Woods & Buick. Celebrity values and

brand values need to be in concert, like Tiger Woods & Accenture. That's authenticity.

As the buying space becomes even more

online-driven and international (and uncontrolled by brands and corporations), front-end awareness will

become less important. A brand with the right street cred can go viral in days, with awareness following, not leading,

the conversation. After all, everybody knows GM, but nobody's buying their cars.

Conversation and community is all; ebay thrives based on

consumer feedback. If consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Not just word of mouth, but

the right word of mouth within the community. This means the coming of a new era of customer

care.Social Networking and exchange of information outside

of the brand space will increase. Look for more websites using Facebook Connect to share information with the friends from those

sites. More companies will become members of Linkedin. Twitter users will spend more money on the Internet than

those who don't tweet.

Marketers will come to accept that there are four engagement

methods including Platform (TV; online), Context (Program; webpage), Message (Ad or Communication), and Experience (Store/Event). But there is only

one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Marketers will continue to realize that attaining real brand engagement is impossible

using out-dated attitudinal models.

“Value is the new black!”

Brands increasingly a surrogate for "value”

Brand differentiation is Brand Value

Consumer expectations are growing

"Because I Said So" is so over

Old tricks don't work/won't work anymore

They won't need to know you to love you

It's not just buzz

Engagement is not a fad; It's the way today's consumers do business

They're talking to each other before talking to the brand

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R Featured ToolThe Six Stages of Strategy

Stating the Obvious: Anarconomy

Featured Click

The Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (www.CIFS.dk/en) released the third of their four annual Member Reports. Usually these are reserved for members of the Institute, but as the topic of this particular one is Creative Commons the report have been released to the public.

Anarconomy is a basic guide to the economics based on open source, Creative Commons and data replication. To anyone who has not been working closely with these issues the report is an

easy introduction to how modern society is changed due to these factors.

To anyone else... well. Sadly the report is not very elaborate. It draws up to scenarios, the Rebels Versus Cartels and an open transparent society called The Ages of Empowerment.

Ignore the poor English and treat yourself to a couple of hours of reading. Not challenging, but not too bad either.

Google. The master of knowledge to us all.

Mostly known for the search engine, AdSense and AdWords - the two most commonly used ad systems - Google actually have a great variety of systems available for trendspotters, marketeers and strategists.

One of these is Google Insights for Search (beta). A comprehensive database of aggregated search queries broken down into demographics, over time and within categories. Go and have a look at it :)

http://www.google.com/insights/search/

1. DirectWhich way to go? The first step is to pinpoint where you want to take the organization or project.Factors: Mission, vision, values, stakeholdersTools: Stakeholder Analysis, Mission Statement

2. AnalyzeWhat does the world look like? How do you navigate if you don’t know the map?Factors: External Analysis, Internal AnalysisTools: Internal checkup, Portfolio analysis, SWOT

3. DistillWhen you know where you are and where you want to go, you can choose the road.Factors: Focus! Don’t wander of into the bushes.Tools: Break-even, cost-benefit, Ansoff Matrix, Force Field

4. PlanYou know where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. Let’s make a plan then!Factors:Money, time, resources, goal and target, KPIsTools: Budget+schedule+resource allocation=strategic plan

5. ImplementLoad up the bag pack, take your map and lets move! Without implementation, you have nothing.Factors:Consistency with your plan, change, performance, Tools: Project -, Change- and Performance Management

6. EvaluateDid you get there? Did you?! Always, always, ALWAYS evaluate! (And remember to keep this in the budget too!)Factors:Performance, Process, Planning, KPIsTools: Assessment, Reporting and Outcome Assessment

Corporate recruiters have for the past many years had the task of being the key entry for talents within specific narrow fields, in order to fill talent gaps in their companies.

Yet in the new world economies a talent as not necessarily as interested in selling itself to a recruiter as the recruiter should be in the talent.

Most creative minds do not necessarily think of themselves in terms of accounting, development, strategy, management or whichever label “Corporate” wants to stick on them. And when you can’t think of yourself in these terms, you won’t sell yourself in based on these premises.

Before long recruiters and recruitment policies will have to take into account that a talent can be right in front of them, highly motivated, with aptitude for loyalty and loaded with abilities, but when asked about where he or she sees him or herself in five years the answer will still be “I don’t know”. In other words: “Why don’t you show me?”.

The network economy is approaching with rapid speed (well; it’s here) and whereas it was formerly commonly believed that employees were prone to take jobs for companies whose values they shared, it now seems that employees, of the creative character, are prone to take jobs from employers whom recognize their true potential.

Also if they are just in it for an entry level position. It is not about values, money or prestige. It’s about advancement, and only the company itself knows about the possibilities.

So why ask the talent about these possibilities? Why not tell him or her what you have to offer?

Corporate RecruitingStop. Hammertime! Redo.

Greatly inspired by NCVO Foresight / www.3s4.org.uk

Daniel Karpantschof lives in Washington, DC from where he writes articles, gives speeches and talks and contemplate world domination.

Daniel Karpantschof sits on the board of directors of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies as well as the Academy of Futures Studies in Denmark, the Advisory Board and the Steering Committee of TalentTuning.

In need of strategic advice?Branding extension by social media? Issues with retention and loyalty?

Progress in progress...

Ever wondered what the future holds for your company, organization or brand? *click*

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The Flux Capacitor is the free newsletter from Daniel Karpantschof, covering strategic planning, foresight and scenario building within the spheres of international markets and politics, fast moving consumer goods, education, entertainment and tech.

Featured Reader“Benja Stig Fagerland is looking for a competent (Danish) journalist or writer, send an email!”

That’s how it started. One innocent status update. Benja and Daniel partnered up, just to redo the TalentTuning website - but both ended up with much more than they bargained for.

Daniel is now on the steering committee of TalentTuning and they are both contemplating writing a book together.

Benja Stig Fagerland, the mother of womenomics is the featured reader of October 2009!

What are your greatest expectations for 2010?The tipping point! A revolution in thinking: Women have become probably the greatest neglected resource in business, both in their market potential as consumers and in their productive potential as employees.It is a fundamental weakness of business models that were designed for a male-

dominated world, we need a revolution in thinking

My greatest expectations for 2010? That we will re-design over business models- and bust over self with a revolution in thinking and a new balance in business between men and women!

How do you apply the “future” to your work? The 21st century will see a new balance in business between men and women. One never seen before in human history.

Have you ever had an experience where you foresaw something and it turned out exactly that way? Sure; in four areas I saw it coming 10 years ago.

1. Wrong focus was the reason we never succeeded in equality in Norway2. Women mean Business3. Pearl Diving4. Womenomics - The New World Economy/The 21st Century Tipping Point

Name Benja Stig Fagerland

JobAuthor and CEO, TalentTuning

HometownAsker, Norway

EmailBenja@TalentTuning.com

LinkTalentTuning.comBenja on facebook

Known Karpantschof sinceJune 2009

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