WAY OF THINKING
Brands using this approach are often described as 'purpose driven’. They have chosen to champion a way of thinking or publicize a cause and to reflect this in their advertising. This strategy works best if the ideas your brand stands for are connected to what the brand’s products do. Nike manufactures sportswear, so it makes sense for them to inspire people to push through their barriers and take action to achieve their goals. Dove makes beauty products, so people can see the relevance of their stance to help all women feel good about the way they look. The brand needs to be committed to the cause and in it for the long run, ensuring its business practices are always consistent with the values it communicates. Any hypocrisy will be exposed quickly and communicated widely via social media. PRODUCT PROMISE A good way to link all your communications together and make it easy for them to reinforce the brand in people’s minds is to base them on brand promise. BMW has been promising to provide 'The Ultimate Driving Machine’ since 1974. Almost all BMW ads since then have brought this idea to life or supported it through product features. LIDL promises that its customers can always expect high quality at a low price - something the brand delivers thanks to its cost-efficient business model. STORY FORMAT This refers to brands that tell the same basic story about themselves in all their ads but executes it in a variety of ways. The male grooming brand Axe, known in some countries as Lynx, enjoyed huge success from the late 90s onward by telling the story of how a nerdy young man would become irresistible to woman after using the brand. The transformation was attributed to "The Axe Effect’. UK opticians Specsavers have produced hundreds of clever, amusing, and memorable ads in which someone has made a major mistake because of their poor eyesight. They should, of course, have gone to Specsavers. Story formats make ads easier for people to understand and remember. They also make it easy for people to link the ad with the brand – provided the brand plays a clear role in the story. DISTINCTIVE STYLE Using a distinctive style is arguably the riskiest way to glue your advertising together and make it stick to your brand. It can work well, but the style must be highly distinctive. Hendrick’s gin has created a look and feel that is truly unique and this has become closely linked with the brand. Their ads feature Victorian-style curiosities and contraptions, language and fonts, and lots of cucumbers and roses - the flavours that made the brand famous. Red Bull has used the same hand-drawn cartoon style since 1992. The distinctive look of these animations has helped the brand stand out in a highly competitive category. It is worth noting that most campaigns that employ these consistency-boosting strategies use a tagline that encapsulates the idea connecting all the ads. See section 6.5 for more about the benefit of taglines. Brands can also combine these strategies to amplify the unifying effect. Red Bull, for example, leverages at least three out of four. For further information about how communications work, check out 'The Smart Advertising Book'. |