Great branding is hard because it is usually counterintuitive, said branding expert Adrienne Weiss during the opening session of the '17 Intersport Brand Engagement Summit. It is almost never about the product itself, but rather about the experience, emotions and familiarity you build with customers. In a 45-minute session covering more than two decades of her work as a brand consultant at Adrienne Weiss Corp., Weiss shared her three secrets about great brands: A brand is a story about what consumers can expect; a brand is a club a consumer wants to join; and a brand is a country with unique languages, customs and traditions. Very little of that is about the specific qualities of a product. “There are so many mistakes,” she said. “Too many focus on the commodity, and talk about the product directly and miss the emotional connection. The brands that don’t make it are just not going to the right side of the brain.” Weiss advised the '00 Sydney Games on its mascot creation, which earned praise from the media after a run of unpopular Olympic mascots. Rather than invent a mascot from whole cloth, they personified three animals unique to Australia, which immediately conveyed the unique story of the country. She also pointed to two venues as examples of the club/country part of her secrets: Miller Park and Verizon Center, then known as MCI Center. In both venues, her team helped developed the names for the concession stands that ID’d the unique nature of the communities there: Government and American history in D.C., e.g. “The Thirst Amendment” bar or the “Grounds Crew” coffee stand to honor Wisconsin workers at Miller Park.
QUICK HITS FROM WEISS:
* "A brand becomes a filter. And when you have a holistic brand, when you use that filter, and you force every decision through it. If it’s a startup, what should the name of my business be, if it’s forced through this filter? And what should the architecture look like, and the loyalty program and the lids program? And everything you do, and that’s how you end up with a holistic brand."
* “I like to think of it like 'The Wizard of Oz.' The whole world is black and white until the minute they step into Oz, and then it’s full color. What are the thing you can do that helps that change when a fan, guest or consumer crosses a portal?”
* “If I had a choice of paying for a big neon sign, I would rather write on the side of a straw a little message. Because that straw will be in every woman’s purse in the world and she’ll be taking it out and showing people. ... I tell people: Do it smaller. A lot of these ideas are counterintuitive. But you get more credit when it’s tiny. In life, it’s a discovery and a delight."
