How to distinguish yourself as a brand, always and everywhere
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Every brand wants it: to be distinctive. Yet only a few brands succeed in really making a difference. That is why I call on everyone to be even more distinctive. Always and everywhere. How to do that, I explain in this article.
Brand and marketing agency JKR, together with research agency Ipsos, conducted a major study into the distinctiveness of logos, slogans, mascots and colours of more than 500 brands. Their conclusion: only 15% of these are actually ‘distinctive’. This fact, combined with the forecast by research agency Forrester that in 2025 more than 4.7 trillion (!!!) dollars will be spent on marketing worldwide, leads to the conclusion that almost 85% of this will not be distinctive. A total of 4 trillion dollars down the drain … So it is very important to be distinctive. But how do you do that?
Where do you start
So we need to be more distinctive with:
the logos we have,
the colors we use,
the mascot that represents our brand, and
the words that form our slogan.
Good examples from practice are for example the yellow ‘M’ or the slogan ‘Just do it’. Without any form of context, the association with the brands in question is already made here. Distinctive! But where do you start?
Contrary to what you might think, you don’t saint kitts and nevis email list 10828 contact leads start with any of those items. That’s where the biggest mistake is made. The research suggests that only the assets are not distinctive. And while that is also true, it is more a logical consequence of unclear positioning, or poor translation and communication of this.
The ‘Distinctive asset grid’ by Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
The ‘Distinctive asset grid’ by Ehrenberg-Bass Institute .
A distinctive brand element has 2 important properties. A choosing a marketing agency? ask these 15 questions high degree of uniqueness and a high degree of familiarity. Is the uniqueness low and the familiarity high? Then you better not use this brand element on its own, because it needs more context.
Is the uniqueness high but the awareness low? Then it is an element in which you have to invest to communicate this even better. Incidentally, that does not have to cost 4.7 trillion dollars right away. The ao lists uniqueness axis is influenced by branding, the awareness axis by marketing. One cannot exist without the other and if they work together in synergy you get powerful and distinctive brand elements ( distinctive brand assets ). But how do you achieve that? In my opinion in 3 steps.
1. Make it concrete
How can you have distinctive elements if you don’t know what makes you distinctive? What makes your brand unique? Which customers do you serve best and why? And how are you better than your competitors? Questions that you need to answer before you can even think about what a logo will look like or which slogan most powerfully translates your brand promise.