Market Identity Engineering: From Branding to Business Impact

Listen in as we expand on our blog post about rebranding and reframing the current notion of "branding" which conjures up negative connotations among so many in the C-suite, especially the Finance department.

Transcript:

All right.

So let's let's dive into something that you probably think you already know a lot about branding.

You've heard it a million times.

Yeah.

But what if I told you there's like a whole new way to think about it.

One that even your CFO will love.

And today we're going to be exploring this article called Your CFO Hates the Word Branding.

Here's what to say instead.

Interesting title.

Yeah.

And trust me this is really going to like totally change how you think about branding.

I'm intrigued.

You know it's kind of funny how one single word can cause such a disconnect between you know the creative teams and the finance teams.

And this article really hits a nail on the head.

The problem isn't really branding itself.

It's all the baggage that the word branding carries with it.

Right.

It's like that old saying you can't judge a book by its cover.

But in the business world maybe you can judge a concept just by its name like you were just saying.

Yeah.

So this article that we're talking about today it argues that the word branding just makes a lot of executives especially CFOs roll their eyes.

Yeah.

You can practically hear the eye roll when you say it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They just see it as this really fluffy expensive thing.

They don't really see how it connects to like you know the bottom line and making money.

They're looking for something that is measurable.

They want to see OK if we're going to invest in branding how is that going to impact the business and give us a return on that investment.

So how do we bridge that gap.

That is where this idea of market identity engineering comes in.

Oh OK. I like that term.

So what exactly is market identity engineering and how is it different from just you know the traditional idea of branding that we all kind of know and maybe hate a little bit.

You can think of it as branding but with a really really intense focus on business outcomes.

It's about designing how a company is recognized and valued but it uses a data driven approach.

So we move beyond just like intuition and gut feelings and we start to use strategic thinking and data to actually build a brand that you can measure.

OK. So it's less about logos and slogans and more about creating a brand that makes money.

Exactly.=

And it works.

I'm all ears.

Give me some examples.

What companies are doing this really well.

We'll look at Tesla.

They built one of the most valuable car brands in the world and they've done almost zero traditional advertising.

Wow.

The brand value went up by 184 percent in 2021 alone. 184 percent in one year.

That's incredible.

What's their secret.

They have really mastered this idea of market identity engineering.

Tesla has focused on a couple of key values like innovation and sustainability and they've created a direct to consumer approach that completely bypasses having to go to a car dealership.

Makes sense.

So they really understood their target audience.

They built this amazing brand experience that people are just clamoring to be a part of.

So they're not just selling cars they're selling a vision of the future.

Exactly.

So what about a company like Apple.

I mean everybody knows that their brand is incredibly strong.

How does this market identity engineering idea play into their success.

Apple is a classic example of how this approach can work.

If you think about it they don't actually sell the most phones.

They have a pretty small market share in terms of the number of phones they sell.

But their phones cost more than pretty much any other phone on the market and they capture almost all of the profit in the smartphone market.

Because people are willing to pay a premium for the Apple experience.

You know the design that feeling of exclusivity.

Exactly.

They have engineered a brand that makes people want to pay more.

They're able to charge these premium prices and it's because they have created a really great purchase queue system.

Every element of their brand you know from the packaging to the stores to the logo it all just screams like premium quality.

And that's how you get people to pay more money for your products.

So we've talked about Tesla.

We've talked about Apple.

These are like huge global companies.

But does this concept of market identity engineering work for smaller businesses too.

Absolutely.

It's not just for these huge brands that everybody knows.

Let's take Lululemon for example.

I know you're a fan.

Oh yeah.

Big time.

I love their leggings.

But it's always fascinated me how they've been able to charge like a hundred dollars for yoga pants and people are happy to pay it.

It's not just about comfortable clothes.

They have actually created a community around this idea of wellness and aspirational living.

Right.

It's a lifestyle.

And this has helped them achieve profit margins that are above 55 percent which is way higher than the industry average.

Wow.

So they're not just selling workout clothes they're selling an experience and it's working.

Yes.

OK what about a company like Figma.

They're pretty new but they made a big splash with their design software.

Figma is a great example of how having a really clear market identity can lead to a ton of success.

They came out and they said we are the platform for design teams and it worked.

Adobe ended up buying them for 20 billion dollars.

Wow.

That's a lot of money.

That's a powerful reminder that building a strong brand can lead to enormous value for your business.

Yeah they didn't just build a product.

They built a brand and the engineer their place in the market to be so good and so valuable that Adobe is like we have to have this.

So how do we start to make this shift.

How do we move away from thinking about traditional branding and move into this new world of market identity engineering.

Where we even begin.

Well the article suggests that we start with the language that we use.

For example instead of talking about logo design what if we started calling it a revenue recognition symbol.

Ooh I like that.

So instead of just a pretty picture it's now a visual cue that's designed to make people want to buy your stuff.

Yeah I like it.

What other terms should we be rethinking.

Well instead of visual identity we can start thinking of it as a purchase cue system.

Break that down for me a little bit.

What is a purchase cue system.

It's basically thinking about every single visual element of your brand like colors the typography you use your photography.

And you need to think about how each of those things can be designed to nudge customers towards buying.

I see it's about having a purpose behind every single design choice you make.

So I'm starting to see how this language shift can really resonate with a more business minded audience.

Yeah it connects your brand directly to the bottom line.

Exactly

What other terms does the article suggest we change.

So instead of brand voice which can sound a little vague they suggest calling it conversion communication architecture.

Conversion communication architecture.

That's a mouthful.

Tell me more.

It's about thinking about how every single piece of communication you put out there your Web site your e-mails your social media posts.

How all of those things are designed to convert prospects into customers.

It's about being really intentional with your words.

Exactly.

What was the last term we were reframing instead of brand guidelines which can sound kind of bureaucratic.

This article suggests we call them market performance standards market performance standards.

So instead of just a set of rules these become like the North Star for measuring the success of your brand.

Exactly.

This shift in language is about changing the entire conversation around branding and aligning it with what really matters in business result.

OK. So we've talked about how the language of branding needs to change.

But why should someone care about this.

Like what are the actual tangible benefits of adopting this market identity engineering approach.

Imagine you're walking into a budget meeting and instead of presenting a branding project with all this abstract mumbo jumbo you're talking about a strategy that's going to increase revenue.

You're speaking the CSOs language.

Oh yeah.

Now we're talking when you can tie your branding efforts directly to the bottom line it becomes way easier to get the resources that you need.

You're not just asking for money to make things pretty anymore.

You're investing in a strategy that's actually going to make the business more money.

Exactly.

And when projects are evaluated based on their impact on the business you can be sure that you're only spending your time and energy on work that's going to move the needle.

I love that.

It's about measuring your success in dollars not just in likes and shares.

This is really powerful stuff.

I'm excited to keep learning more about this.

Yeah me too.

And that's exactly what we'll be doing in part two of this deep dive.

We're going to learn how to actually apply these principles in your business whether you're a huge company or a small startup.

So stay tuned.

Okay so in part one we really started to rethink this whole idea of branding and we explored this this new approach called market identity engineering.

It's about making sure that your brand doesn't just you know look good.

It actually drives real results for your business.

Yeah it's about making sure that every part of your brand from your logo to like your marketing messages and how you talk to customers.

It's all working together to achieve your business goals.

So how do we actually make that happen.

How do we go from just talking about market identity engineering to actually using it in our businesses.

Yeah that's the big question right.

There's no like magic formula.

But this article that we're talking about it gives us some really good ideas to get started.

Okay I'm ready to hear them.

The first thing to understand is that this is really a mindset shift.

We have to stop thinking about branding as like this separate thing that only the marketing team does.

And we need to start thinking about it as a core part of how the whole company operates.

Okay so it's not just the marketing department's job anymore.

Right.

It needs to be something that everybody in the company understands and believes in.

So we need to get everybody on board especially the people who might not usually be that excited about branding.

Yeah like the finance people the operations people the product people.

Everybody needs to understand how a strong brand can help them achieve their goals.

Because when everybody understands how a strong brand can you know increase sales and make the company more money then they're gonna be a lot more likely to support it.

Exactly.

You have to be able to talk to them in a way that makes sense to them.

You got to show them the data.

You got to be able to prove that investing in the brand is going to lead to you know more customers more revenue.

And a stronger business overall.

Speaking of data the article that we're looking at today really emphasizes using data to make decisions about your brand.

Can you talk a little bit more about that.

Yeah it's about moving beyond gut feelings.

I mean gut feelings and intuition are definitely important but you want to be able to back those up with data.

So instead of just like doing what we think looks good or sounds good we actually look at the data and see what's working what's not working.

What kind of data are we talking about here.

Well it depends on your goals but some things to look at are like your website analytics.

What pages are people visiting on your website what are they clicking on.

You can also look at things like social media engagement.

You know what posts are people responding to what are they sharing.

You can also use customer surveys and market research to learn more about your target audience like what are their demographics what are their interests what are their pain points.

OK so we're gathering all this data but how do we actually use it to build our brand.

It's kind of like a feedback loop.

We use the data to see what's working and what's not working and then we use that information to adjust our approach.

I see.

So like if you see that a certain message is performing really well on social media you know that that message is resonating with your audience.

So you might want to use that same message in other places like your website or your e-mails.

Exactly.

So it's all about testing and experimenting and making sure that you're always learning and improving.

Yes.

This is making branding feel a lot less like a guessing game.

That's the goal.

OK let's talk a little bit more about those terminology shifts that we were discussing in part one.

Remember how we were talking about changing the way we think about traditional branding elements.

I want to explore those a little bit deeper.

Sure let's do it.

The one that really caught my attention was replacing logo design with revenue recognition symbol.

So how does that change the way we actually create a logo.

Well now you're not just thinking about how the logo looks you're thinking about how it can help you generate revenue.

OK so the logo is more than just a pretty design.

It's an important part of our business strategy.

Right.

Your logo needs to be memorable.

It needs to be recognizable and it needs to make people feel a certain way about your brand.

Like when you see the Nike swoosh you immediately think of athleticism and performance.

And that makes you more likely to buy their products.

Exactly.

OK what about visual identity.

The article suggests that we replace that with purchase queue system.

Remember how we were talking about using data to make decisions about our brand.

This is where that data becomes really important.

We can use data to figure out what kinds of visual cues are going to be most effective in getting people to buy from us.

So it's about designing a visual language that guides people towards making a purchase.

Right.

Think about the color red.

It's often associated with urgency and excitement.

That's why you see it used so often in sales and promotions.

So it's about thinking about the whole visual experience of your brand.

Like the colors the fonts the images and making sure that everything is working together to create a consistent and persuasive message.

OK what about brand voice.

We were talking about replacing that with conversion communication architecture which sounds really complicated.

It's actually not that complicated.

It's really just about being strategic with your words.

It's about making sure that every piece of communication you put out there whether it's on your Web site your social media your emails.

It's all designed to get people to take a specific action.

So it's not just about sounding consistent.

It's about using your words to guide people towards a goal.

Yes.

OK. And the last term we were reframing was brand guidelines

We're going to call them market performance standards.

Yeah.

Traditional brand guidelines can sometimes feel really restrictive like a set of rules that you can't break.

But when you start thinking of them as market performance standards they become more like a guide.

They help you make sure that your brand is always performing at its best.

So instead of just saying like this is our logo don't change it.

We're setting standards for how we want our brand to perform in the market.

Exactly.

And then we can track those metrics and see if we're meeting our goals.

I like that.

It makes branding feel a lot less like you know a set of rules and a lot more like a flexible framework that can adapt and grow as our business grows.

I think some people might be a little hesitant about this whole market identity engineering approach.

They might worry that it's too focused on you know making money and that it's going to kill creativity.

Yeah I can see that.

What do you say to those people.

I think it's a false choice to say that you can either be creative or you can be data driven.

You can be both.

You can be creative and make money.

Yes.

Mind blown.

Market identity engineering is about giving your creative teams the data and the insights they need to create work that's not only beautiful and inspiring but also effective at achieving your business goals.

I like that.

OK before we wrap up this part of our deep dive any last thoughts for our listeners.

Yeah just remember that market identity engineering is not a one time project.

It's something that you're always working on.

You have to be willing to adapt and change as your business grows and as the market changes.

So it's all about being flexible and using data to make smart decisions.

Right.

And remember that your brand is one of your most valuable assets.

So investing in it wisely can really pay off.

This has been really eye opening.

I'm excited to dive into some specific strategies and tactics for putting all of this into practice in part three of our deep dive.

Welcome back to our deep dive on market identity engineering.

You know we've been talking about how to build a brand that isn't just pretty but one that really makes a difference to your bottom line.

We've talked about why traditional branding doesn't really cut it anymore and we've explored some new ways of thinking about branding.

But now I'm really curious about like how do we actually put all of this into practice.

Yeah it's something to talk about these concepts but it's another thing entirely to actually build them into a strategy that you can use.

Right.

And the good news is that even though market identity engineering can seem kind of complicated at first there are actually some really clear principles that you can follow.

OK I love a good framework.

Me too.

And I think about this as the four pillars of market identity engineering.

Oh four pillars.

I like it.

Each pillar kind of builds on the one before it and together they create this like really strong foundation for building a brand that people love.

OK I'm ready to start building.

All right let's do it.

The first pillar is clarity.

Clarity.

You have to be crystal clear on what your brand is all about.

You need to define your core purpose your values and what makes you different from everyone else in the market.

It's like that Simon Sinek quote people don't buy what you do they buy why you do it.

Exactly.

If you don't know who you are as a brand how can you expect your customers to know.

It's like wandering around in a maze with no map.

You're just going to get lost.

Yeah.

OK so we've got clarity.

What's the next pillar.

Pillar number two is consistency.

Consistency.

Once you know who you are and what you stand for you have to communicate that consistently across every single touch point your Web site your social media your product packaging your customer service even your internal culture.

So every time someone interacts with your brand they're getting the same message.

Exactly.

Consistency builds familiarity and familiarity builds trust.

And trust is everything right.

This is making me think about those market performance standards we were talking about earlier.

Oh yeah.

How do those play into this idea of consistency.

Well when you have these clear standards for how your brand should be performing it makes it a lot easier to stay consistent because everyone knows what they're working towards.

It's like everyone in the company is playing from the same sheet of music exactly.

OK we've got clarity.

We've got consistency.

What's next.

Pillar number three is connection.

Connection.

This is all about creating a genuine emotional connection with your audience.

It's about understanding their needs their desires their aspirations even their fears.

So it's not just about selling them a product.

It's about connecting with them on a deeper level.

Exactly.

People are much more likely to buy from brands that they feel a connection with.

So how do we create those connections.

Storytelling is a really powerful tool.

When you share authentic stories about your brand and the people behind it it helps people feel like they know you.

Like those brands that show the behind the scenes of how they make their products.

Yeah.

Or the brands that highlight the stories of their customers.

Right.

And social media is a great platform for building these kinds of connections.

You can have real conversations with people you can share your values and you can build a community around your brand.

I love that.

OK so we've got clarity consistency connection.

What's the final pillar.

The fourth pillar is conversion conversion.

This is where we connect all those branding efforts to actual business results.

It's about turning brand awareness and brand love into actual sales.

OK. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Exactly.

It's great to have a beautiful brand that everyone loves.

But at the end of the day you need to be able to make money.

So how do we make sure that our brand is actually driving sales.

It starts with having really clear calls to action.

You need to tell people what you want them to do whether it's visiting your website signing up for your email list or buying your product.

Don't be shy about asking for the sale.

Right.

And you also need to be tracking your results.

You need to know what's working and what's not so you can keep improving your approach.

It's all about using data to make smart decisions.

Exactly.

This has been such a great conversation.

I feel like I have a much better understanding of how to build a brand that not only looks good but also actually helps my business grow.

Me too.

And I think the key takeaway here is that market identity engineering is not just a one time project.

It's an ongoing process.

It's something you're always working on.

Exactly.

You have to be willing to adapt and evolve as your business grows and as the market changes.

To all of our listeners out there, thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive into market identity engineering.

We hope you learned a lot and we hope you'll join us again next time.