In a World of Brand Attention Deficit Disorder
In a World of Brand Attention Deficit Disorder, the Trick is Cutting Through Whatever
Can you set yourself apart in today’s numbingly cluttered commercial world—in three seconds or less?
“Whatever.” You hear it everywhere.
When did this word become the standard answer to any number of questions? The all-purpose, generic response to, well, whatever?
My guess is that this ambivalent reaction, dispassionately voiced and usually accompanied by a Seinfeld-like shrug is probably a symptom of a world on overload and, more specifically, of the commercial world gone numbingly cluttered. From restaurants to movies, cable channels to airlines, reality shows to SUVs, there are just too many choices and far few distinctive enough to really give a hoot about.
In my corner of the world, I see the effect of this “whatever” reaction on brands. So much so that a tangential symptom I’ll call Brand Attention Deficit Disorder has set in. My guess is that you’re probably suffering from it yourself. I know I am.
In a state of Brand Attention Deficit Disorder, a consumer will give you about two seconds, three if you’re lucky, to get to your point. To make it dead obvious that your brand is different, that your brand is better, and why they should even care. That’s it. You’ve got three seconds.
It’s critical that you make unquestionably clear the different and relevantly better choice you have to offer. Three seconds isn’t much time.
Which means you better damn well be different if you want to survive whatever with any degree of success. I’m not talking 10% or even 50% different. In a market where products try to be everything to everybody, where everything gets pushed to the lowest common denominator, you’ve got to categorically set yourself apart, find a point of difference that can be turned into a point of genuine differentiation. Then, you’ve got to put your branding efforts toward communicating exactly how interacting with your brand will be a genuinely different experience, and why it will actually be a better one. You’ve got to make sure your brand is seen as a clearly distinctive choice.
The fact is, the number one job of branding today is to get people to stop and look and recognize — in an instant — that they’re seeing something they’ve never seen before and that it meets a justifiable and relevant need, whether it be related to service, to value, to functionality or fun.
Given the three-second rule and its inherent implications, not to mention all those attention deficient consumers out there, how do you go about marching to this different brand drummer?
My premise is that the best way to set yourself apart in a way that will have positive impact on the market is not to spend endless hours debating what you want your brand to be, but rather spend your time and effort concentrating on what you don’t want your brand to be and establish sharp contrast between the two.
Because consumers need all the help they can realizing that what they’re looking at is actually new, you need to make it a case of black and white. My belief is that the only way to make it clearly obvious what your brand is, is to make it clearly obvious what your brand isn’t.
The way to do this? Take on who it is you don’t want to be. That is, pick a brand to target as your opponent, representative of the norm, and determine what consumers believe about this competition. Then, after careful evaluation, put your brand strategy on a refreshingly opposing tack. To be different you have to start by looking at who you want to be different from — and why.
I’m not talking half-hearted or next best measures here. An ersatz Starbucks with a bit less foam. A Costco or BJ’s with a zippier name or roomier aisles. Not a whiter shade of pale or a deeper shade of JetBlue. In dealing with Brand Attention Deficit Disorder, a little bit different is a sure-fire recipe for not so benign neglect. You’ve got to find yourself an eye-opening opposing position with a strong rationale for market acceptance.
To begin your quest toward “different from,” look at that targeted brand opponent and examine everything they do. Evaluate their modus operandi and every other modus about them. Identify the key emotional and rational associations linked to this brand in the mind of the consumer. What audiences they appeal to and why. Their most profitable customers and why.
Go on to explore from which source this brand derives its authority. Is their claim to fame based on product design or functionality, on service components, on price point or general value equation?
From a tactical perspective how does your brand opponent bring itself to life for customers? What channels are most responsible for creating the brand impression and impact they make? What is the customer experience at the various points of contact with the brand? At which points of interaction are the most critical brand-building investments made? Is it their online experience that most strongly defines them? The delivery system or customer service policies? Maybe it’s the retail environment. From outside to inside, how do they look, sound, and feel? What brand point are they trying to make ? and where do you see the potential for counterpoint?
It’s as you begin to understand this that you’ll begin to get clear focus — clarity with regard to where there’s an opportunity to take off down that road not yet traveled. To determine which market needs are not being met and how you can meet them. You’ll begin to see very clearly what genuinely alternative and relevant experience you can offer in sharp contrast to theirs, and where you can make a solid argument for creating real-time brand preference and delight with the option you offer.
By clearly evaluating what they do and how they do it, you’ll see equally clearly what you should be doing and how. What your customer’s experience should be and, given your promise, how it should be appropriately brought to life in the cyber world, the retail space, at the reservations desk, through customer service, advertising or promotions. You’ll see where it best makes sense to invest in your own brand-building activities. How to create brand associations that will get that customer to snap to attention, catch a glazed eye and open it with a start.
A caveat of some note: As you begin your efforts toward becoming a brand of a different color, don’t get caught in the usual groupthink mentality. Take a bold and brilliant idea and let rounds of consumer research push you back to those comfortable category norms. To clearly out-cool an IPOD, out-latte a Starbucks, out-smile a JetBlue takes a maverick-like attitude. Think about it. JetBlue would never have become the distinctive brand it is if it hadn’t looked at one of the other guys and said, definitively, let’s not do that.
We all know that brands help consumers make choices. In a world of Brand Attention Deficit Disorder, it’s critical that you make unquestionably clear the different and relevantly better choice you have to offer. Three seconds isn’t much time. To make your point, post-haste, I strongly suggest that you don’t go back and forth assessing who you want to be. Rather, focus on who you don’t want to be and spend your time and effort establishing and communicating this — whatever it takes. And I don’t mean that whatever.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN BRANDWEEK (1 NOVEMBER 2004).