When thinking about all the
brands we come across in our life, brands we see and use every day, we can view
them in one of three categories or brand levels. Functional,
brands that compete on “what” the customer gets, very much like a commodity; Emotional, brands that compete on “how”
they make the customer feel by elevating beyond what you get to include how
they make you feel emotionally; or Immersive,
brands that connect so deeply with the customer they define “who” you are and
more importantly what you believe in often becoming a badge of honor creating a
cult-like following of like-minded people living similar lifestyles. The higher the level a brand reaches the
greater the bond and the deeper the relationship the brand enjoys with the
customer.
As the pyramid illustrates the
three brand levels build upon one another with every brand having a functional foundation
by which they deliver their product or service to the customer. A majority of brands move up a level and connect
with their customers emotionally eliciting feelings that differentiate their brand’s
functional offerings. Finally, some brands
are able to reach the highest level of branding connecting to a set of beliefs
their customers hold becoming an important part of their lives as an immersive
brand. Essentially you can think of the
three levels as like the brand, love the brand and live the brand.
Looking a bit deeper into
each brand level we can better understand how brands operate at each brand
level and how the focus might change as brands progress up the pyramid. To be successful every brand and business must
be able to satisfy basic functional needs of customers with their product or
service and as a result establish a very logical connection between the brand
and the customer. Brands operating only at a functional level behave more
like commodities and are forced to compete in literal terms usually on price
and convenience. Functional brands often
compete to get customers to “like” their brand and usually operate in highly
crowded categories making these products and services more easily substituted
for one another. Not surprisingly these
brand types rely heavily on marketing and advertising running promotions and
discounts on their products and services.
These brands might not be all that exciting and mainly focus on fulfilling
basic customer needs. The important
thing is these brands must be reliable and consistently deliver on the
functional needs of the customer. Imagine
a beverage company where nothing was consistent and the flavor was always
changing, the ingredients were changing and it was difficult to rely on them or
know what to expect. You would lose confidence in the brand and very
likely stop using and buying the product all together.
Products like milk and gasoline are good examples of
functional product brands. These products
build their relationship with the customer based on a simple expectation of “how they work” and they deliver upon
customer expectations consistently. It’s not that there is necessarily a lack
of opportunity to move to a
higher brand level it’s just the business operates fine without being more than their promise – in
almost all cases these brands mainly focus on price and distribution.
The next brand level is an emotional brand and these brands go
beyond the functional level and create emotional connections to their brand. More than what these products do for you (functional), it is about how they make you feel (emotional) when using the
brand. The emotional brand level elicits
feelings the customer associates with the brand and the product.
The emotional brand level is where most brands strive to be spending a significant
amount of time and money positioning brand communications to trigger
those feelings in the
customer.
Brands like United – “Fly
the Friendly Skies”, Chase Bank – “Freedom”, Bounty – “The Quicker Picker
Upper” or even Walmart - ”Always the Low Price Leader, Always” try
to stand out in what can be viewed as commoditized categories. Most of these companies spend significant
investments on media like TV, radio, print through advertisements to deliver
their message, build loyalty and sell their products. Emotional brands know they have
connected when customers begin reciting their brand messages whenever they see the brand logo or hear
the brand jingle.
Most brands recognize the
value of building deeper connections with their customers beyond meeting functional
needs and strategize and develop ways to reach the customer on an emotional
level with service, product exclusivity, environment or other benefits that can
be intangible and make the customer feel the brand is a better choice than the
alternatives. By leveraging emotional
connections through advertising and marketing and conveying their brand as a
uniquely better choice they win. Emotional
brands are generally more “sticky” than functional brands becoming preferred
choices for customers and lessening the influence of functional benefits like
price and convenience. In fact, building
a more emotional connection often allows a brand to have higher pricing because
the customer believes it is worth more. Building
an emotional connection releases feelings towards the brand much like people
experience with friends or family and helps make the choice more comfortable for
the customer. Customers believe they are
getting more than just a product or service.
The third and highest brand level is an immersive brand. More than what they do or how they make you
feel they actually help define who you are and what you stand for – like a
badge of honor. These are
brands like Disney, Nike, Apple, Patagonia, Lulu Lemon, Under Amour, and
Starbucks – often classified as lifestyle brands viewed as premium in their
category. These companies build
meaningful experiences with the customer immersing them into their brand. The brands have solid functional
products and services that satisfy customer needs, create positive feelings for
the customer and on top of that they
immerse their customers in a sense of purpose – something meaningful that the
customer believes in. These brands have employee cultures that are equally
as immersive as the customer brand connections.
In fact, it is almost impossible to separate the corporate culture from
the brand culture and that is one of the unique traits of immersive brands. The brand transcends both the customer and
employee cultures bringing them together as one with the product or service
becoming a means to the brand experience.
Among the attributes these
brands and companies have is a very clear vision of who they are,
what they stand for and why they exist. These brands have products that are a means to a higher purpose. For example
Starbucks purpose is to be the
“Third Place” between work and home. Apple provides products that unlock
people’s creativity. Disney entertainment
creates experiences that deliver life long
memories. All of these companies are connecting with customers at the highest emotional level and become important parts of people’s life stories. These
brands understand the power of storytelling and how their story helps customers
to connect with them, derive meaning and purpose and build experiences which
customers share and recruit other like-minded customers called word-of-mouth
marketing. Employees are a critical part
of the brand storytelling and are treated as important and sometimes more important
than the product itself.
As mentioned earlier, most
brands are found in brand levels one and two building financially successful
businesses that operate for decades.
Success is not limited to reaching the highest level of immersive
branding, however, brands reaching this level becoming immersed in people’s
lives are usually category leaders commanding a premium value and price and
create cult-like followings. Immersive
brands almost always spend less money on marketing and advertising, have
limited or no discounts and instead invest the money in the brand experience
through customer engagement.
So, how do immersive brands
build these environments? They all have
a functional level grounded in logical connections and the expectation of the
customer is that the product will work the way they expect it to. Like every
other brand they have a basic promise they are “selling” and sort of a nonnegotiable
position the product or service is expected to deliver. They build brand marketing and advertising
campaigns that reflect the emotional connections between the customer and the
brand. What is different and unique is having
a brand purpose driven by a desire to change something for the better - to
right a wrong so to speak. The brand
engages the hearts and minds of their customers and employees on a mission to
make the world a better place! It’s that
sense of purpose and tribal cult-like community that creates an immersive environment.
Immersive brands trigger a deep
sense of “love” for and to the brand and what they mean in the customers
lives. Whenever you ask someone about an immersive brand they always
respond with “I love that brand!” The love is just like how they feel about
family and friends as if the brand is a living breathing thing. These
brands occupy a special place in a customer’s heart and mind that is uplifting to the
human spirit. Their trust, expectations and advocacy for the brand can be
so high customers reach a point of vulnerability. When something goes
wrong with the brand the customer takes it personally and holds the company to
a higher standard than other brands.
In today’s hyper connected
social media driven society immersive brands can be born overnight. Equally, without strong leadership,
understanding and experience brands can also quickly unravel. The most important element in building a
lasting immersive brand is ensuring the organization has a sense of purpose,
values and beliefs appealing to a cause higher than what you are selling. By listening an encouraging customers and
employees for constant feedback leaders can remain good curators of the brand, best
serving the brand community and help change the world for the better.