Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on the love life of your brand.
Marketing specialists, communications professionals and entrepreneurs should be passionate about the desirability of their brand on the open market.
It’s been more than 10 years since then Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts published Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands.
We may not quite live in that post-brand future state, but the ideas contained within the book still have relevance today.
The book’s central concept of creating a brand that people will love (a lovemark) is a worthy aspiration.
‘How can a person love a brand? Is that even healthy… or legal?’ I hear you ask.
Roberts defines a lovemark as a brand that inspires loyalty beyond reason. Think of it like your friend who zealously supports their football club despite 50 years without them experiencing any meaningful success. To them, that football club is a lovemark brand.
So what are the ingredients for creating a lovemark brand?
Mystery – uses the power of storytelling in communications.
Sensuality – engages the full range of senses, with the brand expressing itself through sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
Intimacy – extracts commitment and passion.
Whether or not the Lovemarks framework still holds up, the underlying human-centric approach to brand management is as applicable today as when it was written.
Fundamentally, it acknowledges the interaction between an intangible construct (the brand) codified and managed in such a way that it becomes tangible to those who interact with it – people.
When brand management is seen as a people-focused activity, as a process to connect ideas and solutions with those that need or desire them, then there is the potential to move your audience beyond a functional response to an emotional one.
So this Valentine’s Day spend some time with your brand – buy it some flowers, take it out for lunch and see if it is still something that people could love.
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Grindstone now offers brand health workshops to help you understand the state of your brand so you can grow it into something people will love. Email letstalk@grindstone.com.au to find out more.
