The ABC’s of Great Brands

Bill Nissim

Great brands encompass three characteristics that possess a winning combination when executed correctly. The road to branding success requires a unique discernment of the value proposition being offered followed by vision, patience, and perseverance. By combining these characteristics and method of execution, great organizations (i.e. Brands) emerge from the landscape of mediocrity.

As with all brands, the voyage from obscurity to trusted products/services occurs when adhering to a disciplined process referred to as the ABC’s of branding: ATTRIBUTES, BEHAVIOR, and CIRCUMSTANCES. What do these ABC’s have to do with great brands? The lack of a solid foundation for a brand will ultimately undermine its future success. This foundation goes beyond the logo and brand fascia and provides the underpinnings of legitimacy and ability to deliver real value. The type of reasoning that both buyer and seller share enables the origin of a relationship. The setting by which the foundation and behavior can be acted on must be appropriate in many respects. Altogether, this hypothesis suggests that an Appreciable Brand Triad TM forms the basis for great brands.

The discussion begins with presenting the ABC’s of great brands and applying the “Triad Brand Test” as the metric for success. After the ABC’s are reviewed, an introduction of this concept will be expressed through a case study. We’ll use Southwest Airlines as an archetype to exemplify and support this theory.

Attributes:
Whether you are discussing people, places, or things, attributes are the basis by which you compare, contrast, and distinguish levels of acceptance for use and/or consumption. Everything we do on a daily basis draws upon attributes to discern and validate who we are and our place on this earth. Do you believe that? Why do you buy a certain car, brand of clothing, or a cup of coffee? Additionally, why do you connect with certain associates, friends, neighbors, etc? Conversely, why do you reproof, reject, and distance yourself from other products or services? Whether we want to admit it or not (intellectual verses emotional), we rely on associations (a.k.a. brands) that surround the attributes of people, places, and things.

I recently queried a highly educated associate of mine and asked why he drove a certain brand of automobile. Being an engineer, his response was both highly analytical and quantifiable; he supported his logic with facts such as MPG, weight-to-horsepower, and the practical use to get him from point A to point B. When he was asked why he didn’t buy a smaller, less expensive car that could do the same job, his response was- “I wouldn’t be caught DEAD in that particular car.” Touché!

In short, attributes are indeed imperatives in our daily discrimination process and forms the basis by which we make choices. Attributes alone will not satisfy anyone. There must be a foundation and process by which these attributes are executed and delivered to form such perceptions. In the following aspect of the appreciable triad, we will examine the foundations that create a strong bond between perception and reality. The old adage seems to hold true – we shop intellectually but we purchase emotionally! Next, we will consider behavior in response to attributes and what that means to us as consumers.

Behavior:
Would you consider yourself a rational consumer? Most of us would answer yes. Interestingly, what we do and how we do it often defies reasonable thought despite our best intentions. Several years ago, I attended a speaking engagement hosted by Tom Peters. During his presentation, he broached the topic of human behavior and mentioned a personal experience he had at the grocery store. Despite his high level of education (two Master Degrees and a PhD.) and logical thought process, when he attempted to buy generic table salt at the store, he ended up purchasing the Morton Salt Brand (Blue label, little girl and umbrella). He admittedly couldn’t bring himself to buy the white labeled, store brand (emotional) even though he (intellectually) believes that salt is salt, regardless of the package it comes in.

Don’t we all behave the same way? You walk into a store to buy a can of soup. You see two products on the shelf: one has a no-name white label, another red with the brand name Campbell’s TM written on it. Which one would you buy? Remember, the type of reasoning that both buyer and seller share enables the basis of a relationship. As a consumer, you are buying more than a can of soup and this purchase reflects who you are (at the cash register), the perceived quality you provide your family (brand trust), and what you deem as acceptable in your world (values). This synergy between behavior and attributes, however contrived, becomes the paradigm by which we consume.

Marketers could gain greater insight into attributes/behavior relationship by observing HOW people actually behave verses WHAT people say they do (i.e. surveys). If you ask owners of CD players how to improve this product offering, they probably wouldn’t have come up with the iPod TM concept. If you observe HOW they use CD Players, their behavior would speak volumes about the gap that exists between the current offering and a desired solution (i.e. runners use for mobile music devices). Now that we discussed two aspects of this appreciable triad, let’s see how they relate to circumstances.

Circumstances:
The circumstances surrounding how we make purchasing decisions are situational at best! As a marketer, you may have the right attributes and behavior in place, but if the setting isn’t appropriate, the whole concept falls apart. For example, let’s discuss the auto industry.

Buyers were seeking the next generation consumer vehicle. Automobile companies possessed the same relative resources, processes, and values to compete fairly for this emerging market. The attributes of design, functionality, and capability pre-existed along with the behavior of consumers to continuously improve their driving experience.

However, the problem for one Auto Company came into play with circumstances: the general public wasn’t prepared to give up their gas-guzzling cars for a sub-compact, range-limited electric vehicle (EV) that this company had so heavily invested in.

The technology of EV’s under the current circumstances was not a good fit at that particular time, and as a result, the electric vehicle product offering died a timely death. Conversely, Japanese automakers like Toyota and Honda took the next, logical step and created a hybrid (gas/electric) vehicle that was closer to a standard car but with all the benefits of high mileage and environmentally friendly.

What valuable lesson was learned? Although people desire higher mileage vehicles (attributes/behavior), the idea of a car that relies solely on battery technology (charge each night, limited range, and very small size) defies the circumstances of main-stream consumers.

Application of ABC’s

Now that we have defined the ABC’s of branding, let’s apply it to a practical real-world setting. We begin with a product/service that most of us have used or are at least aware of - Southwest Airlines.

Attributes:
The attributes of Southwest (SW) are straightforward: friendly, inexpensive, frequent flights, quick turns, fun flight attendants, etc. On their web site, www.southwest.com, you’ll see their mission statement mirrors reality:

“The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.” Under a section called “about us,” they nicely summarize their value proposition to the masses:

“More than 32 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline.”

Now that we understand their “public persona,” let’s briefly understand the foundation that makes this actually work. In 1971, SW airline saw the landscape of this business as hub-and-spoke, expensive maintenance facilities, multiple aircraft, major airports, and expensive unions as the standard formula for operations. What was unique about SW from the start was the business model they pursued which was contrary to the status quo. In effect, SW did quite the opposite: stayed away from major airports, use point-to-point service, only purchase one type of aircraft (737’s), and cross-functionally trained their employees. They also considered what the traveling public viewed as important (see graphic) and designed their offerings accordingly. By adjusting their business model, they reduce or eliminated those offerings in which the public didn’t view as important and increased amenities they enjoyed. For the price consensus traveler, food and comfort was of little value compared to on-time arrivals and a “fun” experience.

The outcome of this foundation provided:
1. A low-cost business model
2. Enabled low fares to consumers
3. A profitable enterprise

The economics behind this business model appears simple, yet so many major carriers attempted to incorporate a competing design with little success. For example, United Airlines launched “United Express” as a method for attracting discount flyers. The problem was their cost structure couldn’t support discounted fares and thus became a losing proposition. Over 20 years, SW literally changed the rules of this game. A low-cost business model became the new standard for competition and spawned a similar company called Jet Blue. In short, the attributes of an intelligently design business followed by impeccable execution makes SW a Great Brand!

Behavior:
What shared reasoning occurred between the general public and SW that formed the basis of a mutually beneficial relationship? Let’s consider the following: SW provided less service, less amenities, and certainly less prestige than all other offerings in the commercial airline industry. Why would anyone want something less – isn’t more supposed to be better?

During the nineties, the “do-it-yourself” phenomenon occurred and companies like Lowes and The Home Depot burst onto the scene. The Home Depot grew from 145 stores and $3.8b in sales in 1990 to 1890 stores and $73.1b in sales by 2004; they were named the most admired specialty retailer by Fortune Magazine in February 2005. Their corporate web site states:

“The Home Depot is committed to offering the ultimate home improvement shopping experience. With about 40,000 different products, trademark customer service and guaranteed low prices, The Home Depot stores cater to do-it-yourselfers and do-it-for-me’s, as well as home improvement, construction and building maintenance professionals.”

Whether you are trying to reach a certain destination or fix a broken lawn sprinkler, the behavior remains the same. In both cases, people will actually accept less for a good price. The behavior has achieved balance with attributes (business model) for delivering what they want, when they want it, for a discounted price. In both cases, these companies are organizationally excellent at the value they deliver!

Circumstances:
Let’s start this discussion with the concept of “under and over-shooting.” What does this mean? When you want to fly from Orange County, California to New York, NY, you have many choices available. Not only does your range of options include a variety of carriers, but various levels of service. The middle of the road would consist of a fair price, a reasonably comfortable seat, and a palatable meal.

To “over-shoot” this event, we would spend thousands on a first-class ticket, sit in a big leather seat, and eat a gourmet meal served on china tableware. To under-shoot, we would sit in cramped seats, eat a bag of pretzels, and have more than two connections with unusually long layovers. The circumstances in which people fly vary depending on the dimensions presented.

In today’s environment, the ability to rationalize value is primarily a function of available information. If you rely on a travel agent, your span of available dimensions is severely limited and reliant on the assessment of others. As with the travel agent, how far your under or over-shoot your desired experience may never be known or occur after-the-fact. Conversely, the Internet provides a wealth of options that allows the user to select attributes/circumstances and compare the results. In effect, our ability to determine the circumstances in which we travel, to a large extent, falls to the consumer. Next, we will draw these three concepts together. The following section presents this connection theoretically and conceptually.

Appreciable Brand Triad TM
So, how does one use this triad to create a Great Brand? This theoretical model plots Attributes, Behavior, and Circumstances on equally spaced points of a triangle. Each of these three aspects interacts with the other on the periphery as well as on a 3rd dimension (center of model).

To apply this model, first compare your products attributes to how people generally behave. Using customer focus groups, surveys, and other qualitative & quantitative data, determine if the attributes are in balance with the audience’s actual behavior (=0 on the AB line is perfect harmony).

Once a point along this line has been established, repeat the process for the two remaining lines AC and BC of the triangle.

It is possible that a point can fall outside of the lines, as with real life. For instance, let’s use “Tazo Tea” and the AC line as an example. The “Attributes” (rich in flavor, consistent quality, etc.) are desirable; however, assume the product is not conveniently sold (Circumstances). The point on the AC line will move away from “Circumstances” and toward “Attributes.” If this combination happens to exist and prevents an interaction or purchase to take place, then a “disconnect” occurs between your audience/offering and this point will fall outside of the triangle. Conversely, if your point resides within the triangle, your brand has become part of the consumer’s identity.

Now that you have plotted all three points, consider the depth to which the consumer “owns” your brand. The center point (0,0) defines perfect balance of all three constituents. The beauty of plotting your current state and considering a desired position will allow you to define a strategy to achieve a great brand!

Conclusion
What constitutes a great brand? By applying the concept of an Appreciable Brand Triad TM , we were able to define what attributes, behavior, and circumstances are, and if executed correctly, how they enable the foundation for brand greatness. We postulated this theory by citing two brands that have achieved both financial and brand success (SW and Home Depot). Although the dynamics of the plotted points on the Appreciable Brand Triad TM are in constant motion, their general locale suggests three things: an intelligently designed business model, proper positioning of ABC’s, and flawless execution. Taken together, the opportunity to formulate or re-design a Great Brand resides in the hands of business leaders each day.

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The ABC’s of Great Brands

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