commodities vs. brands

BRICK HOUSE BRANDINGWEEK 1 WORKBOOK

BRICKHOUSE BRANDING WORKBOOK: PAGE 1 OF 12

COMMODITIES VS. BRANDS

_________________________ are products which can easily be substituted for one another. They’re items for which a demand exists, but no qualitative difference across a marketplace. __________________________ create differentiated products which are highly desired by their customer base. Their customers have some degree of brand loyalty, seeking out those specific goods in the marketplace. Brand customers are less likely to substitute products based on price + availability.

List 5 examples of a commodity:

1. ____________________________________________________2. ____________________________________________________3. ____________________________________________________4. ____________________________________________________5. ____________________________________________________

List 5 examples of a brand:

1. ____________________________________________________2. ____________________________________________________3. ____________________________________________________4. ____________________________________________________5. ____________________________________________________

What are your thoughts on the bottled water branding study?

Commodities compete on _________________________________ + ______________________________.Brands compete on _________________________________________________________________________.


UNDERSTANDING THE TRUE NATURE OF BRANDING

Branding is defined as: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And it encompasses __________________________________________________________________________.Consistent: _____________________________________________________________________.Emotional: _____________________________________________________________________.Connection: ____________________________________________________________________.

What does brand design include?

1. ____________________________________________________2. ____________________________________________________3. ____________________________________________________

What does brand identity include?

1. ____________________________________________________2. ____________________________________________________3. ____________________________________________________

THE BENEFITS OF DEVELOPING A STRONG BRANDWhat are the benefits of building a strong brand?• __________________________________________________________________________• __________________________________________________________________________• __________________________________________________________________________• __________________________________________________________________________• __________________________________________________________________________• __________________________________________________________________________Write a few of those brand values down so you can keep yourself motivated as you move through this branding webinar series..

How many brand advertisements is the “average” consumer exposed to a given day?

___________________

How many new products is the “average” consumer exposed to each year?

___________________________

Step 1 of branding: Decide what you want your brand to ________________________________________

+ how you want to _________________________________________________________.

Step 2 of branding: Construct a

________________________________________________________________,

_________________________________________ + _____________________________________________

that consistently refer back to + reinforce step 1.

Small brands can compete in today’s marketplace by standing out. We stand out best by:

1. ______________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________

IDEAL CUSTOMERS

What’s the first commandment of branding?

_____________________________________________________

Why identify your ideal customers?

• Ensures that you don't dilute your ________________________________________________________ in

an effort to appeal to everyone.

• Fortifies your marketing efforts by making your ____________________________________________

for your key audience.

• Reduces your marketing budget + saves time by identifying precisely __________________________

______________________spend their time, so you can be right where they are.

• Lessens the chances of inadvertently ____________________________________________________.

Stop with the attempt to be all things to all people. That’s ______________________________________.

Richard D. Czerniawski + Michael W. Maloney (Competitive Positioning)


When you know what unlocks the spending behavior of a group, then you can _____________________

____________________________ and _______________________________________________________

or isn’t necessary. Discovering what consumers really value opens up opportunities for huge

efficiencies as less time and money is spent on developing, engineering and marketing products to

people who are either unlikely to value them or in many cases, like them but would be unwilling to pay

for them.

Chris Norton + Ross Honeywill (One Hundred Thirteen Million Markets of One)

What are demographics?

What are psychographics?

List a few questions that strike at the heart of psychographics.

I want you to know your customers on an intimate level, like actress ______________________________

rather than Lindsay Lohan.

Think about your ideal customer, not your _____________________________ customer. “Average” will

dilute your answers too much, leading to_____________________________________________________

that won’t appeal to anyone. I always tell my clients, “When you try to be everything to everyone, you

end up being nothing to nobody.”

Maria Ross (Branding Basics)

Brands can ____________________________________. They can break up with one consumer group

and start a new relationship with a different one. It’s difficult, but far from impossible.

Tim Halloran (Brand Against the Machine)


EMOTIONAL RESONANCE

“Marketing is, and always has been, a ________________________________________________________.

It’s about changing how people feel and, in turn, helping them to fall in love with something, or maybe

just a little but more in love with themselves. You can’t change how people ________________________

or what they do without changing _____________________________________.

The truth is the real understanding of the business you’re in, which often has less to do with the

product you are selling or the service you are providing, has more to do with the

____________________ your brand elicits. Porsche understands that its customers want a very

different experience than Volvo drivers do.”

Bernadette Jiwa (The Fortune Cookie Principle)

Brand loyalty is a direct result of __________________________________________________________.

Creating beautiful, effective products is not enough to succeed in today’s crowded marketplace. You

need to give consumers, wholesale buyers + media professionals something to sink their teeth into.

Something that reflects them or what they hope to be. Something to believe in.

In any business, at the most basic level, you’re making stuff. But more important than what you make…

is how that stuff makes people feel. Authentic brands to seek to render ___________________________.

Marc Ecko (Unlabel)

After all, people buy to elevate __________________________________________________, whether by

removing a negative, satisfying aspirations, or gaining a positive. They are solving and improving both

practical and emotional problems and situations, and even purely practical purchases will be strongly

influenced by an emotional overlay of things like ______________________________________________,

_____________________________________________, __________________________________________

or boredom.

Kit Yarrow (Decoding the New Consumer Mind)

What stories are consumers telling themselves when they interact with these brands?

Nike: ________________________________________________________________

Louis Vuitton: ________________________________________________________

Apple: _______________________________________________________________

Harley Davidson: ______________________________________________________

Starbucks: ____________________________________________________________


Differentiation describes any aspect of our total customer offer that is different from that of the competition and, crucially, that is valued by the customer. It is a lot more than ________________________________________________________________________________________________.Our product or service may well be different from that of the competition, but unless this difference delivers ___________________________________________ that the customer can identify with, understand, acknowledge, and be willing to invest in, then it is merely a point of difference- nothing more. If we can manipulate some aspect of price or performance in a way that mobilizes our unique capabilities and in a way that no competitor can possibly emulate and as a result create an elegant- and even unique- ____________________________________________________________, then we have a winning proposition. Harvey Macdivitt (Value Based Pricing)

List at least one example of differentiation.

DISCOVERING THE VALUE YOUR PRODUCTS DELIVER

_____________________________ >> ____________________________ >> _____________________________

A feature is a _____________________________________ that describes a product, hopefully in a way that distinguishes it from other products or services in the marketplace. Product features get at what a product is made with or what it does.

Features are ________________________________ by competitors. What is innovative today will likely be copied tomorrow. Features alone rarely build brand loyalty. Combine product features + ____________________________________ and things start heating up!

Features describe products, but __________________________________________ help frame products in a way that resonates with consumers. Product benefits build a bridge that helps translates how the product will ___________________________________________________ or make it more meaningful.

Product benefits describe the inherent rewards of the product. They’re the ___________________________ __________________________ of a product feature.

Emotional benefits are deep-seated desires which are satisfied when consumers ______________________


________________________________. They're something positive we tell ourselves through the purchase of a product or service.

The value that a product delivers to a consumer is primarily based on what the purchase ___________________________________ + how the product _______________________________________. The ____________________________________________________ of a product refers to the ways that a product creates innate satisfaction for the consumer. For example, a Rolex watch may not create tangible monetary benefits for most customers, but a certain segment of watch-wearers derives deep psychological benefit from the prestige + beauty associated with ownership. And they ascribe economic worth to that psychological value.

Cultivating + emphasizing __________________________________ is the foundation of strong branding.

List a few common emotional benefits.

When a functional benefit is shared by a competitor, regardless of whether it is a product or customer benefit, the brands “emotional benefit” may provide the _________________________________________ ____________________________________that wins the customer and creates brand loyalty.

Richard D. Czerniawski + Michael W. Maloney (Competitive Positioning)

Describe the “so what” system.

List one example of product features, product benefits and emotional benefits.

PRODUCT TYPE

PRODUCT FEATURE

PRODUCT BENEFIT

EMOTIONAL BENEFIT


You actually need to be __________________________________________. Stop trying to find the formula that will instantly make your product into a winner. Instead of being scientists, the best marketers are _____________________________________. They realize that whatever is being sold is being purchased because it creates an emotional want, not because it fills a ________________________________________. Seth Godin (All Marketers Are Liars)

BRAND POSITIONING + CONTEXTUAL MARKETPLACES

Positioning is the way your brand is perceived within a given ________________________________________ in the ______________________________________________.

Positioning puts your brand into context in the marketplace. It’s the __________________________________ for brand development.

Positioning happens. Either you do it, a _________________________________ does it for you, or consumers in the marketplace do it.

Tim Halloran (Brand Against the Machine)

Name 6 things that positioning influences:

1. ____________________________________________________2. ____________________________________________________3. ____________________________________________________4. ____________________________________________________5. ____________________________________________________6. ____________________________________________________

The positioning mad lib goes a little something like this…MY/OUR [_________________________________________] HELPS [________________________________] WHO WANT TO [__________________________________________________________________________] BY [________________________________________________________].

You might also want to add “Unlike [___________________________________________________________]” at the beginning of the mad lib.


List at least one example of the positioning mad lib in action…

The secret to finding your competitors is…

Ask yourself: ____________________________________________________________________________?

Then ask yourself: ________________________________________________________________________?

Potential conversations might include…How to simplify life.How to lead a more stylish life.How to lead ____________________________________________.How to have more fun.How to be more spiritual.How to be more _______________________________________________.How to be better parents, wives, sisters, employees.How to solve pressing ________________________________________________________________________.How to celebrate what’s most important to us.How to protect what’s most important to us.How to connect more deeply with _____________________________________________________________.

THE BEAUTY + POWER OF SIMPLICITY

You’re probably trying to do too much.

Creating too many products.Trying to appeal to too many people.Engaging on too many social media profiles.Pitching to too many stores or editors.Wearing too many hats in your business.

You not only run the risk of burning yourself out in dramatic, spectacular fashion, but you’re also not being nearly as efficient or successful as you could be. And you’re diluting your brand, too.

Instead __________________________________________ + ________________________________________.

Some food for thought as you meditate on the importance of simplicity. Perhaps we should all consider getting one of these tattooed on our bodies…


Be as close to your singular purpose as you can. Gandhi knew who he was; he was at perfect peace with himself. Nike, for instance, knows what it is; regardless of the product or sport, everything has its clear and common purpose. You get in trouble when you get _______________________________________________. Like when Microsoft cranked out the Zune, just because it thought it should. Or that kid who comes back from spring break with fake dreadlocks. Or athletes who rap. (Sorry, Shaq.) Marc Ecko (Unlabel)

I’m talking about the discipline to focus on just one thing- just one ___________________________________. _____________________________________________. You know this rule, and probably have for years, but have you been implementing it? Does every touchpoint with your consumer reflect that one idea you are trying to communicate?

Tim Halloran (Brand Against the Machine) Editing your collection:• Remember that just because you enjoy making it, that’s not an _______________________________ _________________________________your product lineup. This is a business, not a hobby!

• Focus on your _______________________________________________, then expand logically once those core products have been seeded in the marketplace + are bearing fruit.

• When developing new products: Explore what you’re most __________________________________ + what fortifies and strengthens your _______________________________. Send up your periscope to explore opportunities that aren’t already being addressed_________________________________.

Today people struggle with massive numbers of choices, from huge ones (baby, or not?) to small ones (organic, or not?). The strain of choosing (which is really the strain of anticipating living with the consequences of our choices) contributes to ____________________________________________________.

In one of the most well-known consumer psychology experiments of the past decade, researcher Sheena Iyengar set up a jam sampling station in a grocery store. In one version of the experiment, 24 jams were offered, in the other only six. Fully ________% of customers visited the large assortment of jams compared with only ________% who stopped by the smaller assortment. Of those who sampled from the 6-jam assortment, ________% decided to buy the jam. Of those people who stopped by the large assortment, only ________% made a purchase.

Kit Yarrow (Decoding the New Consumer Mind)



MISSION, MARKET, AND VALUES

Mission statements are…• A clear statement about two things: 1. __________________________________________________________________ 2. __________________________________________________________________ • They are _________________ sentences in length. Short is powerful.• Framed in the ______________________tense.• Often includes a description of __________________________________________________________.• Speak in _______________________________ rather than ____________________________________.

Your “reason for being” is typically either: 1. A reaction to the ________________________________________________________________________. 2. A deeply held personal belief about the _____________________________________________________. It’s an extension of your ______________________________________ (which we’ll work more on next week).

To derive your “reason for being,” you need to send up a periscope + ________________________________.

Strive to be as _________________________ and ___________________________ as possible. And encapsulate your thoughts in 1-2 __________________________________________________. This may or may not ultimately be shared with your audience, but it’s an important internal blueprint that serves as an anchor for your brand. Meditate on these questions to find your “reason for being”… Why are you in this business? What do you do _______________________________________________ in this space? What gets you really excited about your industry? What gets you most excited about the ____________________________________________? How are your competitors getting it wrong? How do you hope to change the ________________________________?

Your reason for being is already there… you just need to excavate + clarify it!

Core values:• Clarify who you are and _____________________________________________________.• Serve as guideposts for _____________________________________________________.• Influence consumer’s buying decisions by helping guide them to brands which personify what they are or ____________________________________________________________________.

Identify _____________________ core values that authentically represent your company.

Begin by asking yourself these questions… At your deepest core, _______________________________________? What are you ______________________________________________? What will we never, ever, ever see your company do? What do you not want to _____________________________________________? What do you hope your brand will be associated with?

Use the space below to capture your favorite Mission, Market and Values case study.


commodities vs. brands

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