How big brands cut through
Big brands didn’t get where they are just by flooding the airwaves with advertising. At a certain point in the growth journey, it helps, but it’s important to start with a strong foundation to build on, and that’s where your brand is invaluable.
By staying consistent and hitting the same themes and visual cues, your brand can establish its personality in the minds of your audience, becoming trusted and building your relationship.
For Apple, that means an elegant, minimalist visual world. White space and clean lines give an impression of technological precision, and everything is simplified. This reflects the ethos of the company, which is built on creating technology that is ruthlessly designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, leaving users with a pleasing, effortless experience. Your choice of a palette and visual identity are really important in landing emotionally with your audience. Apple’s strapline may be ‘Think Different’, and when they were challenging IBM for supremacy in the desktop space, that made sense. But since the iconic ipod posters from 2004, the impact of Apple’s communications has been instant, emotional and visual.
Nike entered the market as a challenger brand too, and differentiated themselves with an attitude. Any fitness brand can attach themselves to an athlete, or sponsor an event. But with a consistent tone of voice, Nike established themselves as the winners. Their messaging is honest and forceful, taking on subjects directly and telling real, not idealised, stories. Their strapline says everything about the determination it takes to achieve. It is uncompromising, aggressive even, but athletes get it. The challenge is one they accept - and rather than just holding up an ideal for them to look at, ‘Just Do It’ includes them, makes them part of the gang.
For Dove, the importance of their brand comes from their values. They have based all their communications around the concept of Real Beauty, placing themselves as the ally of women of all shapes and sizes and against the artificiality of traditional advertising models. This affects what influencers they work with, and what products they develop, as well as just their advertising. Like Apple, they broadcast honesty with a white world, and avoid retouching and makeup to reinforce their natural message.
The importance of all of these approaches is the consistency that the brands have applied to them. They have been reliable and committed to their approach, and it has paid off. If your brand’s visual or verbal messaging is scattered or seems random, people can’t build a picture of who you are and what you stand for. Get it right, and you can keep it for years, as Specsavers have shown with their campaign, which has been running since 2002. They realised that what could have just been a headline could become their whole tone of voice. ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ has defined them as a humorous, down to earth brand that celebrates the lighter side of life, and that separates them from the traditional image of opticians as boring clinicians. Combined with a simple, easily recognisable logo, it enables them to break the advertising rules to create standout advertising.
Big brands know the power of their brand. They do the work to establish their values, tone of voice, and visual identity, and they stick to them. If you need advice about how to supercharge your business with the right brand framework, get in touch for a free consultation.
