Guy Kawasaki says brands need one consistent message for at least a year, position themselves as a positive force that improves lives, and speak in language their audience actually understands. These three moves create clarity and real consumer enthusiasm.
Hey, just a— you know how I mentioned last week about The Brand Bubble? I just came across another book by Guy Kawasaki, a really interesting book called Reality Check, and I've just started going through it. But in terms of The Art of Branding, I just wanted to do another follow-up post on that. Basically what he says is there's 3 things, and it really ties in with what The Brand Bubble was talking about. He says there's 3 things in terms of creating a brand and maintaining the momentum of a brand. Number 1 is create one message. In other words, imagine to yourself if there's just one message that you can have, stick with that one message for at least a year. Don't try and cross-brand things. Don't try and get into different realms or different fields. Pick your one message as a brand, get into it, stick with it, and hammer that thing home. And then that will be an ongoing process in terms of identifying what your brand is and what you are about as an organisation. The second thing is seize the high ground. Establish your brand on positive ground. In other words, let it make meaning. Let people see and understand that it's doing good, it's changing the world, it's making people happy, it's here for the best of you, meeting your needs. Make sure it seizes the high ground. It just doesn't come across as, oh look, we're just selling another product. And the third thing is, and his words were, speak English. Now he's not talking about speak the language of English, but make sure that to whomever you're communicating, you're communicating to them in the language that they're familiar with. And so often it's a little bit like you go into a computer shop and you talk to the computer geek. You know he doesn't know what he's talking about if you can't understand it. Because a person who does know what they're talking about is able to communicate that knowledge in such a way that the listener can perceive it and understand it. It's exactly the same with branding. You can't confuse people with marketing. You've got to communicate and touch them where they're up to. And what that does is it creates an energy around your product, and that energy around your product, because they understand it, it's simple for them, they want it, they like it, they embrace it, they invite it. They buy it, whole thing. So that's another great issue on branding by Guy Kawasaki. Great book, great guy.
