Golden Rules of Brand Building 5

Word Rule | 05

“A brand should try to have a word in the consumer's mind.”

Federal Express was the first cargo company to limit its purpose to overnight delivery, and by using the word "overnight" it became entrenched in the minds of air cargo users. FedEx has become synonymous with overnight delivery.

What comes to mind when you think of owning a Mercedes? If you were able to peer into the mind of a typical car buyer, you would see that the word "prestige" comes very close to representing the brand. Mercedes' connotations include "Expensive, German, well-designed and reliable", but what really differentiates it is the "prestige" value. Lamborghini is expensive, Audi is German, Honda is well designed, but none of them carry the prestige of Mercedes.

If you want to build a brand, you should focus your branding efforts on getting word of mouth in the minds of your prospective consumers. A word that no one else has.

Once a brand owns a word, it is almost impossible for a competitor to take the word away from that brand. Can you produce a safer car than Volvo? Probably yes, but can you get this accepted in the consumer's mind? Probably not.

What comes to your mind when you think of owning a BMW? Driving pleasure.

Words play a key role in building a brand. Of course, reality belongs to the world of shapes, colors, textures and sizes. However, truth has no meaning unless it is placed in a context in the human mind. The mind also gives meaning to visual reality with words. Meaning arises only when we think of an object as big or small, beautiful or ugly. Let's remember. The most successful companies are those that narrow their target and then expand their category, not those that try to expand their brand into other categories.

You should not ask yourself how much of an existing market you can take, but how big a market your brand can create by narrowing down the target and having a word in the consumer's mind.