Brand assessments, audits, and strategy
Stengel 50, Millward Brown and Jim Stengel.
You don’t compete in a market, you compete in the mind
If your brand is in it for the money,
your customers will be in it for the price.
The success or failure of a brand is determined by the perception of its customers.
In a highly competitive market, customers often seek to distinguish between high-quality brands and their lower-quality counterparts. However, competition for consumer attention is not limited to other companies, but also includes the plethora of options available in the marketplace.
The Capgemini Research Institute indicates that a majority of consumers (78 per cent) believe that companies have a broader societal responsibility beyond their own self-interests. Therefore, companies must prioritise purpose in decision making and actions.
As Marty Neumeier posits, “The barriers to competition are no longer controlled by companies, but by customers. The boundaries of brands are determined by the boxes that customers build in their minds.” To be successful in today’s market, it is not sufficient to simply differentiate oneself; companies must also be meaningful.
Brand Assessment
Every job people do has three dimensions:
social, functional, and emotional.
Phantom Actor conducts thorough assessments in order to understand each of these dimensions so, together with our clients, we can help design a brand strategy or name that is precisely targeted to the job. The job—not the customer—is the fundamental unit of analysis for an enterprise that hopes to develop products and services that customers will find meaningful.
Social
What is your winning aspiration?
The purpose of your enterprise, its motivating aspiration beyond revenue. Brands with purpose have the edge in the marketplace.
A groundbreaking study showed that purpose-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 over a 10-year period by 400 per cent.
Functional
Where will you compete?
The playing field where you can achieve that aspiration.
Emotional
How will you win?
The way you will win on the chosen playing field.
In the UK, share prices of design-led companies outperformed the FTSE 100 and All-Share indexes by more than 200 per cent over 10 years.
In the US, design helped companies outperform the S&P 500 by 228 per cent.
