If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t
understand it yourself.
–Albert Einstein
Recently my son asked me: “Daddy, what do you do at your job?”
Exhausted after an intense day, I’m tempted to give an easy
answer such as, “I work in a place that draws things on the
products people buy, like the wrapper on a Cote d’Or chocolate bar
or the emblem on a Citroën car.”
But pride forces me to avoid this stereotypical shortcut, and I
hear myself saying: “I work for brands. I help make them
stronger.”
You can probably guess my son’s next question: “Daddy, what’s a
brand?”
Like a reflex, the first sentence that pops into my mind is, “A
brand is what a firm, institution, or collection of products and
services stands for in the hearts and minds of its target
audience.” And I hear it in English rather than my native French.
Then I remember that my son doesn’t speak English. But the French
isn’t any more convincing: Une marque, c’est ce qu’une
entreprise, institution ou collection de produits et services veut
dire à la tête et au coeur de sa (ses) cibles. The definition
works for an audience familiar with marketing language, but it’s
completely over my son’s head.
After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, I buy myself some
time. “It’s not easy to explain, but give me five minutes to think
about it.”
“All right.”
After barely 30 seconds, my son interrupts with, “Daddy, what
should I do while I wait? I’m bored.”
I decide not to add the
how-to-intelligently-entertain-your-son-for-five-minutes challenge
to my first one. I hand him my iPhone and let him play the
Champions League soccer final between Barcelona and Chelsea on FIFA
12, beginner level (very good for the morale).
DAD: All right. You can stop playing. Here
goes: A brand is like a person.
SON: Really? So I’m a brand?
DAD: Let me finish. Take a piece of paper and
write down the answers to these questions. First, how many people
do you see in a day? Second, how many do you remember? Third, how
many would you like to see again? Fourth, how many become your
friend?
My son doesn’t write down a number for the last question but
mutters, “Oh boy, very, very few.”
DAD: See, it’s the same with brands—you
encounter a huge number of them every day, but you keep very few of
them in your mind. Actually, you only remember the ones you love.
In other words, great brands are like friends.
I refuse to consider whether the silence that follows means “my
dad is a hero” or “poor daddy, he’s lost it.” I keep going.
DAD: Now I’m going to read you some sentences I
just wrote, and you’re going to tell me whether you agree or
not.
SON: OK.
DAD: My friends have something special. They’re
unique.
SON: Agree.
DAD: My friends understand me better than
anyone else.
SON: Agree.
DAD: I respect and trust my friends.
SON: Agree.
DAD: I know almost everything about my
friends.
SON: Agree.
DAD: Good. Now take this piece of paper,
replace “my friends” with “the brands I love,” and read it back to
me.
SON: The brands I love have something special.
They are unique. The brands I love understand me better than anyone
else. I respect and trust the brands I love. I know almost
everything about the brands I love.
DAD: There you are. You have just reviewed the
four pillars of any brand: difference, relevance,
esteem, and knowledge.
SON: This is complicated.
DAD: Name a brand you love.
SON: Well, let me think. OK, Lego.
DAD: Right. Is Lego unique?
SON: Sure.
DAD: How?
SON: Well, they have the spaceship Darth Vader
uses when he chases Luke in Episode IV. You can put the
pieces together in all kinds of ways to create a bunch of different
spaceships.
DAD: Are there other brands that sell Star Wars
stuff?
SON: Yeah, but you can only build a Star Wars
spaceship and then transform it into whatever you want afterward
with Lego.
DAD: So Lego is giving you what you expect?
SON: Of course. It’s awesome to be able to
build whatever you want. And if you have different Star Wars Legos
like I do, you can combine the pieces, like from Luke Skywalker’s
X-wing fighter and Darth Vader’s spaceship, to invent an even more
powerful spacecraft.
DAD: So, seeing Lego as unique is what we call
difference. And giving you what you expect is what we call
relevance.
SON: All right.
DAD: And just between us, putting all of your
Lego pieces in one box is what we call a mess.
SON: But mess isn’t a pillar, right?
DAD: You learn fast. OK, let’s keep going. Do
you believe what Lego tells you?
SON: Sure. I visit their website to play games
and find manuals that I’ve lost. They also give really good advice
on building stuff. They’re supercool.
DAD: This is what we call esteem. You
seem to know a lot about what they’re doing.
SON: Totally. I love reading their catalog! I
almost know it by heart. And I always check to see if they’ve come
out with new Ninjago characters.
DAD: That’s it, we’ve just completed our
journey with the fourth pillar, knowledge.
SON: Great. Can I have your iPhone again?
DAD: Not yet. Tell me, why did you ask for Mega
Bloks and not a single Lego box last Christmas?
SON: Well, I found out about Mega Bloks when I
was playing the Halo Wars video game with my friends. And I really
wanted to get the Rocket Warthog and the Pelican Dropship.
DAD: More than any Star Wars device?
SON: Yeah.
DAD: Sounds like Mega Bloks Halo Wars is your
new friend, and that you prefer it to your old friend Lego?
SON: Kind of. They’re totally awesome.
DAD: Who’s your best friend today?
SON: Well I have a few: Simon, Abel, and
Elliott.
DAD: Are they the same friends as when you were
younger?
SON: Not exactly. When I was younger, there was
also Félix.
DAD: Well, what happens with friends happens
with brands, too. It’s like this: Maybe a friend or brand isn’t
that unique anymore; I’ve met some other people/brands who are even
cooler (loss of difference). This friend/brand doesn’t
understand me like he used to, we have less and less in common
(loss of relevance). I’m not sure if I still respect or
trust this friend/brand the way I used to (loss of
esteem). To me this friend/brand is just a name now (loss
of knowledge).
SON: This is sad, Daddy.
DAD: Not necessarily. It just means that if you
want to keep your friends, you not only have to stay special to
them, but you also have to pay attention to them. It’s the same
with brands. It’s not easy! There are always new brands that are
trying to be cooler than the ones that already exist. Also, people
change and their tastes change.C’est la vie! Brands have to keep
trying to understand their customers and give them what they
need.
SON: And that’s your job?
DAD: Exactly. I help brands find and hold on to
what makes them different and relevant. When a brand is both, the
brand is strong. My job is helping make brands stronger.
SON: And how do you do that?
DAD: Well, that’s a story for another time. To
be honest, it’s easier said than done. But it’s also really
exciting.
SON: As exciting as the Champions League final
between Barcelona and Chelsea on FIFA 12?
DAD: Right. Here’s my iPhone.
This article was published in French in Le journal du
Net (12 September 2012).
journaldunet.com
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