What is a brand? Does it really matter that much for businesses, and if so, how to you build one? Delivered at Hypergrowth Conference in Boston, September 25, 2017.

1. S E P T E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 7
Building A Brand in 20 Minutes

2. Where’s the brand in this picture?
Where is “The Brand?”
?
?
The Brand is out here.
In the hearts and minds
of the audience.

3. What’s A Brand?
• The world’s collective emotional response
• Envelope for your product’s rational benefits
• Emotional value proposition, guides people
toward or away from what you’re selling
• Sound squishy?
3

4. Brand Value Is Real
• Disclose the recipe.
• Destroy the factories.
• Fire the team.
• Rip up the contracts.
• Burn every hard asset of the Coca-Cola Company.
Borrow $79.2B against value of brand.
Rebuild it all.

5. INBOUND15
So is brand failure.
5
If you don’t create a brand
for the market, the market
creates a brand for you.
DOUCHEBAG

6. “OK. So What Do I Do?”
REFLECT ON
YOUR CUSTOMER
SIMPLIFY YOUR
PROMISE
DELIVER IT
CONSISTENTLY

7. Not The Persona. The Person.
PERSONA PERSON

8. Questions
1. Who is she?
2. What does she care about?
3. What does she really want?
4. Why does she want that?
5. How does she feel when she gets it?

9. We Use Emotion to Decide
• Antonio Damasio, Neuroscientist
• Studied seemingly normal people
with a specific type of brain
damage that made them unable to
feel emotions.
9
• Something peculiar in common:
they couldn’t make decisions.

10. Human Truth = Brand Truth
If you want to change what someone does, you
need to change what they feel,
and not just what they think.

11. “OK. So What Do I Do?”
REFLECT ON
YOUR CUSTOMER
SIMPLIFY YOUR
PROMISE
DELIVER IT
CONSISTENTLY

12. How We Absorb A New Idea
*
15
seconds
15
minutes
*
8

13. We Simplify The World
13
badasssuccess cool racist rocket man

14. What Is The First Idea You Want To Own?
Is it Simple? Can you remember it?
Is it True? Do those who know agree?
Is it Relevant? Does the target care?
Is it Motivating? Will it affect behavior?
Is it Distinct? From what everyone else says?
14

15. “Stain Fighting Power”

16. “OK. So What Do I Do?”
REFLECT ON
YOUR CUSTOMER
SIMPLIFY YOUR
PROMISE
DELIVER IT
CONSISTENTLY

17. Consistency Begets Liking
=
=
✗
✔

18. Repetition Breaks Through
Volvo = Safety

19. How It Works

20. How It Works
“Being on the road sucks… I
feel and look like shit, I really
need to get my act together.”
Affluent, middle-aged business
traveler

21. Westin “Be Well” Program
“Play
Well”
“Work
Well”
“Feel
Well”
“Sleep
Well”
“Eat
Well”
“Move
Well”

23. Grounding In Substance
• If your product sucks, your brand will not save you.
• Brands live on the emotional plane of customer
experience. Cannot contradict the rational plane.
• Built on foundation of executive leadership, customer
understanding, insight on potential to add emotional
value, and product quality.

24. Highlights
1. Your brand is out there, in people’s hearts and minds.
2. It works on the emotional plane that drives human behavior.
3. It has more substance, power, and value than you realize.
4. To build it, start by thinking of your “Target” as a person.
5. Simplify down to a true, relevant, motivating, distinct idea.
6. Deliver that idea – consistently and relentlessly – everywhere.

25. Thanks.