How do you build a brand?
Speak to the Head, Heart, and Gut across all you do.
We often hear or get asked: “I want to build a BRAND,” “I want a brand like (fill in the blank with any hot or well-respected brand),” or simply “How do you build a brand?” These are often stated as if brand building is a quick, easy, one-action process. Yet, building a brand is complex, multifaceted, and includes all of a brand’s activities that add up to creating meaning about what the brand stands for in the hearts and minds of consumers and your employees. If you are clear on your beliefs and purpose and what you want to own in the marketplace, you can then define brand activities that can shape the experience you want to create for consumers.
A critical step that many companies skip in building a brand is investing in the strategy itself. That might be surprising to some and hard to believe, but it’s true. Some think product is king and product marketing is sufficient. Many start-ups, in particular, just want the results: “Increase my traffic,” “Increase my conversion,” or “Build my awareness.” But in order to do that, one has to first start by knowing whose behavior you are trying to change, what they are seeking, and why and how your brand can uniquely stand out and deliver on their emotional and functional needs. You need to know your purpose and beliefs and how you’ll connect on a core motivational level. Until you’ve defined your positioning, you’re shooting in the dark and won’t know how to communicate with your consumer, what to say, and where and when to reach them. You need to start by defining your brand positioning so you know how to connect with your consumer in a way that connects to their head, heart, and gut.
Once clear on your strategy, a company is in a better position to establish its marketing plans to deliver short-term business and long-term brand building goals. When it comes to tactics, there’s not a one-size fits all approach to building a brand. It depends on your positioning and where its best to reach your target consumers. One company like Lululemon might use influencers to build a following, another like Vita Coco might rely on experiences and events, and another like Warby Parker might build a cause into their ethos. What is consistent is being clear on your target and your positioning, laddering to make an emotional connection, and, yes, being consistent.
Consider the young brand Away operating in the travel and luggage space. The company was founded in 2015 and has already reached $50 million in sales. (Listen to a great interview with the founder from Monocle 24: The Entrepreneurs podcast.) Go to Away’s About page, and you’ll find that it starts with “What We Believe.” Then it goes on to say, “Getting Away means getting more out of every trip to come. That’s the idea, and the mission, behind everything we do.” This covers their Beliefs and Purpose. You now know what their promise is and what to expect from them, all before they even start to speak to what they actually sell. Below that they go into their product—“Quite simply: everything you need away—and nothing you don’t.”—and the value they offer. Taken all together, they’ve crafted a unique position to own in the marketplace that is relevant to a segment of today’s consumers—young travelers seeking a better designed and affordable luggage option from a company that loves traveling and being away as much as they do. Instead of buying from traditional brands like Samsonite or Victorinox, buy from Away because the brand aligns with your travel ethos and speaks to you in a way you like to communicate today—on social, 1-to-1, and with great, relevant content.
The brand comes to life in everything they do speaking to the Head, Heart, and Gut:
Head: Meet My Need – A company needs to deliver products that meet a need and deliver solid functional benefits that match its value proposition. Being clear on product benefits and attributes guides marketing communication. In the case of Away, they are communicating:
“Our pieces aren’t ‘smart,’ they’re thoughtful, with features that solve real travel problems and premium materials chosen to be resilient and beautiful.”
“Thoughtfully designed for the way you actually travel and guaranteed for life.”
The “How we do it” section on the About page shows how they deliver value, similar to Everlane.
Side note: Notice the consistency in the communication points above?
Heart: Connect with My Heart – When thinking of the heart, brands need to consider the motivation that is core to driving their consumers’ behavior (such as emotional, identity, or social goals). What exactly is the emotion to which you’ll be connecting? Finally, in today’s marketing world, brands also have to think about their purpose, beliefs, and ideology. It’s another way of demonstrating to a consumer that you’re “for them.” For Away, this comes to life in many of their marketing elements, from the content they deliver to where and when they connect with their consumers:
The brand launched leveraging Instagram, reaching their consumers where their eyeballs are, and engaging influencers and early adopters to share their experiences with the product while traveling, offering social proof and credibility.
The company’s podcast, Airplane Mode, and its magazine, Here, celebrate travel. They blend local insights with practical advice on packing and improving travel experiences. The magazine can be found at airport outlets (where else would you find travelers!), amongst other stockists.
Wanting to target the global creative community, the company created a pop-up hotel in sync with Paris Fashion Week. It was also a way to demonstrate the extension of the brand into other travel experiences.
From an interview in Business of Fashion, co-founder Jen Rubio said, “We realised a pop-up hotel could be a really interesting place to take the Away ethos of making a travel experience better, and apply that to a specific event such as Paris Fashion Week.”
Finally, in our list but not theirs, the featuring of their team members on trips around the world at the bottom of their About page builds a sense of community, suggesting we’re into being away just like you.
Gut: Feel Right to Me – Until you’ve gained a shopper’s loyalty, tapping into visual cues that are familiar and that intuitively speak to consumers can provide a helpful device for both a brand and the purchaser. It’s useful for the brand, because it can build instant connection; it’s useful to the purchaser in helping them choose what best fits with their personal goals amidst a sea of product choices. This should also include defining a brand voice and brand tone to guide brand behavior. Away has achieved this:
The company’s design aesthetic is well-defined—from the graphic design of its website and marketing materials to the industrial design of its products to the interior design of Away’s stores. It’s not surprising to me that the aesthetic is similar to what one sees from Warby Parker (where the two founders met) and Everlane—immediately a consumer can sense that Away is a part of that tribe.
Away clearly has invested in its copy and distinct brand voice. It comes across as direct, transparent, and clever, having a way with words:
“What you take with you matters. Your luggage should pull more than its weight—it should be your home between homes, your closet between closets, your outlet between outlets. Because if you’re looking down at your dying phone and broken bag, you can’t see up, out, and ahead to the world in front of you.”
“Questions? Ask Away.”
So, where to start in building a brand? With a positioning that speaks to the head, heart, and gut. (Read more about branding to the Head, Heart, and Gut.) Then, you can move on to activation that speaks to those elements in everything you do. It’s not just one step. Brand creation is everything and frankly never ends.