Moe and Marty discuss how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design.
The Brand Gap
I read in a Fortune Magazine article this week that Alexandre Ricard will take the reins, in early 2015 of – Pernod Ricard – the spirit and wine business that his grandfather founded in 1932. What caught my eye wasn’t his vision or capacity to lead; more so, it was his description of the brand – “today it’s not ‘oh, I feel like a Vodka’ or ‘I feel like a Whiskey.’ It’s ‘I feel like an Absolute’ or ‘I feel like a Glenlivet.’” His comments took me back to one of my all time favorite branding books, Marty Neumeier’s epic bestseller, The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance between Business Strategy and Design. In it, Marty reminds us that a brand isn’t a logo, a corporate identity, or even a product; instead, it’s a gut feeling – one that’s highly personal.
If you stop and reflect for a moment on Ricard’s comments, you get the sense that he’s betting on that emotional footprint to win back marketshare in Asia, and to break new ground in Africa and other emerging markets. You also begin to understand why his ‘gut feeling’ drove him to Anderson Consulting after business school, and not the family business. Perhaps, it was there where he fully understood why ‘brand management is the management of differences, not as they exist on data sheets, but as they exist in the minds of people.” Here’s a glimpse of the five disciplines that Marty Neumeier will emphasize in helping you differentiate your brand.