Products are produced in the factory; brands are produced in our minds.
Branding is not about what something says or what it means, but how it makes us feel.
If marketers could uncover what is going on in our brains that makes us choose one brand over another-what information passes through our brain's filter and what information doesn't-well, that would be key to truly building brands of the future.
When we brand things, our brains perceive them as more special and valuable than they actually are.
Where big data is all about seeking correlations - and thus to make incremental changes - small data is all about causations - seeking to understand the reasons why.
What do Harley-Davidson, LEGO, and Apple have in common? They're all based on communities.
A brand is an emotional construct. It helps you to project an image to the world which you'd like to own.
[Logo] is an encapsulation of an emotion.
Rituals build brands.
Powerful brands in the future will instead carefully choose who'd they'd love to be friends with - and who they'd be comfortable upsetting.
We're no longer bored - in fact we're petrified of being alone with ourselves getting bored. Yet boredom is the foundation for creativity - an asset slowly disappearing from our world.
Word-of-mouth is powerful, trusted, and cheap.
The enemy shapes the brand.
Storytelling has driven faith and religious practice, keeping them alive for millennia. Just as every hymn, icon, and stained-glass window in a church links to a story, brands have the potential to build holistic identities.
Imagine a smashed stained-glass window, a page torn from a Bible, or a snippet of choral singing. You would still recognize their religious roots, wouldn't you? In 1915, Coca-Cola designed a bottle so unique that if it were smashed into thousands of pieces, from a single shard of glass you'd still be able recognize the brand. We call such a device a Smashable. It can be anything from a color to a sound, from a pattern to a smell to an icon.
Visit your local supermarket or retail chain. You'll experience a lot of visual stimulus, but it's unlikely that your other senses will encounter any compelling messages.
Small Data is not about testing concepts - it is more to create the foundation for innovative brand thinking.
Remember, that the logo is really the dot on top of the i.
A global brand building strategy is, in reality, a local plan for every market.
Brands must make use of the inclination of consumers to be persuaded by friends.
Once such emotional engagement has been created - demand will always follow - yet one could say the "side product of your effort is demand" the primary purpose is to create love.
Brands' use of social media is not a matter of yes or no. It is simply a matter of how and when. The next generation of consumers will expect their brands to always be available, providing interactive experiences and bringing value to our lives by taking advantage of social media tools in their marketing communications
Big data is great when you want to verify and quantify small data - as big data is all about seeking a correlation - small data about seeking the causation.
Small Data defines this space, identifies the imbalances we all have and thus the gap these imbalances represents for your new innovation.
Brand handling synergy means developing and communicating your company's values and identity consistently.
