functional and emotional benefits

THE BRAND LEADER

Exploring your brands potential functional and emotional benefits

In the new economy, Brand Love is the new currency, with marketing shifting to building big ideas, leveraging purpose-driven stories that are in the moment, creating consumer experiences that people talk about, managing ubiquitous purchase moments all helping to steer the brands reputation. Marketing has to focus on creating a brand reputation with consumers, and equally creating an organizational culture that reflects the brands soul. Instead of shouting your message at every consumers, the best brands confidently whisper to those most motivated by what they do, who then scream with influence to their friends. In the new world, the best brands now fight for a place in the minds and hearts of consumers.

Beloved Brands 1 We make brand leaders smarter

Brands need to be better, different, cheaper or not around for very long.One of the biggest mistakes that brands make is yelling at the consumer with features (what you do) rather than speaking with the consumer, about the functional benefits (what they get) and the emotional benefits (how they feel). Watch half an hour of TV one night and you will see brand after brand yelling at the consumer. Feature after feature after feature. This type of Marketing just forces the consumer to have to figure out what they get from your brand. In a crowded media world where consumers see 7,000 brand messages per day, you have just lost out on the opportunity to find a set of consumer oriented benefits that your brand can use to motivate the consumer and own as you build the reputation of your brand.

Brands have to stand out or die. If we look the chart below, the Winning Zone for your brand forces you to think about finding the ideal space where your brand matches up to a distinct consumer need better than anyone else. If not, your brand wont be around for very long. You should avoid competing in the Losing Zone, which goes head to head with a competitor that can deliver the consumer needs better than you can. The area with the yellow arrow is the Risky Zone is a relative tie with your competitor. You can win the tie is by being first, being more innovative and creative or by finding the right emotional connection that makes the functional tie less relevant to the consumer decisions. Avoid the Dumb Zone, where you wage a competitive battle in a space that the consumer does not care about. When you find yourself competing in this space, you will find yourself eventually just talking to yourself.


We make brands stronger. We make brand leaders smarter.

Whatconsumers

want

What your competitordoes best

Whatyour brand does best

Losing Zone

Risky Zone

Dumb Zone

Winning Zone

Finding your brands core strength

While the temptation for most Marketers is to do a little of everything, it is the best Marketers who come to a decision point and make the tough choice by picking one. Most of our tools are forced decision-making tools that will help the debate and guide your focus. When it comes to the core strength of your brand, we give you four choices: product, promise, experience or price. Many brand leaders have their marketing strategy wrong, simply because they dont know their core strength.

Heres a simple little game that we play with executive teams. We provide them with 4 chips against the 4 choices of product, promise, experience or price. They have to put one chip on the one choice they believe they have the highest potential to win behind, two chips at the mid level and then force one chip to be at the low level. Try it and you will be surprised that your team will struggle to agree. You may also find that you are at one strength now and figure that your brand has matured and it might be the right time to shift your brand marketing to become focused on something else. For instance, many brands start off as products and then move to either building a promise or an experience.

Product: Your main strategy should focus on being better. You have to invest in Innovation to stay ahead of competitors, remaining the superior choice in the category. The classic product brands in the market include Samsung, Tide, Ruths Chris, Google, Rolex and Five Guys.

Promise: Your strategy should focus on being different. To tell that story, you need to invest in emotional brand communication. You want to connect consumers on a deep emotional level with the concept. The promise brands in the market include Apple, Nike, Tesla, Virgin and Dove.

Experience: your strategy and organization should focus on linking culture very closely to your brand. After all, your people are your product. As you go to market, invest in influencer and social media that can help support and spread the word of your experience. The experience brands in the market include Starbucks, Amazon, AirBnB, Ritz-Carlton, Netflix and Emirates airlines.

Price: focus on efficiency and drive low-cost into the products you sell and high turns and high volume. You have to be better at the fundamentals around production and sourcing. The price


We make brands stronger.We make brand leaders smarter.

What is your brands core strength?

PromiseProduct

Price Experience

Highly Competitive

Medium

LowFocus on what you are best at. Let go what matters the least.

We give 4 chips, forcing one at the high, two at the middle to support

the strength, and let go of one at the low.

brands include Walmart, Kia, Expedia, McDonalds, Old Navy and Payless shoes.

Just like any decision, it is hard to just pick one. Each has a different focus of investment and a different type of selling and marketing that is required to be successful. The problem is that brands that fail to realize who they are will start to apply the wrong strategy to the wrong brand situation. Many brands choose to be a little both. These brands end up with a confused internal organization and a confused external consumer reputation.

Consumer Benefits Ladder

The next decision is the main benefit you want to focus on. Doing a Consumer Benefits Ladder helps to organize your thinking as a great tool for bringing the benefits to life. The best way to work the Consumer Benefits Ladder is to hold a brainstorming session with everyone who works on the brand so you can:

1. Leverage all the available research to brief the team, helping define the consumer target and get all the consumer insights and need states out.

2. List out all the features that your brand offers, and the brand assets it brings to the table. Make sure that these features are competitive advantages.

3. Find the functional


benefit by putting yourself in the shoes of the consumer and seeing the brand features from their eyes: start asking yourself over and over so if Im the consumer, what do I get from that?. Ask up to 5 times and push the answers into a richer zone.

4. Then find the emotional benefit by asking so how does that make me feel? As you did above, keep asking, and youll begin to see a deeper emotional space you can play in and own.

What are the functional benefits?To help brand leaders, we have mapped out 9 functional benefit zones and then expanded that to 50 overall functional benefits. As you look through the list, start matching up those benefits that you think will be something consumers want, something that can be unique for your brand and something you can own in the future.

What are the emotional benefits?

From my experience, Marketers are better at the rational benefits than they are at the emotional benefits. I swear every brand out there thinks their brand should be the trusted, reliable and yet like-able brand. As a brand, you want to own the emotional space in the consumers heart as much as



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Resalevalue

Investforfuture

Advice

Solutions Teaching

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Simplifies your life

Stay Connected

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Functional benefitsEasierto

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you own the rational space in the consumers mind. It seems that not only do consumers have a hard time expressing their emotions about a brand, but so do Brand Managers. Companies like Hotspex have mapped out all the emotional zones for consumers. Im not a researcher, but if you are interested in this methodology contact Hotspex at http://www.hotspex.biz

We have taken this research method and created an Emotional Cheat Sheet for Brand Leaders. This lists out the 8 major emotional consumer zones, optimism, freedom, being noticed, being liked, comfort, be myself, be in control and knowledge.

To own a space in the consumers heart, you want to own and dominate one of zones, always thinking relation to what your competitor may own. Do not choose a list of emotions from all over the map, or you will just confuse your consumer as much as trying to own a long list of rational benefits. Once you narrow the major emotional zone you can own, you can use the supporting words of the Emotional Cheat Sheet to add flavor.



Curious for knowledgeFeel optimistic

Stay in control

Feel comfortable

Feel myself

Motivated

Special

SuccessfulInspired

Interesting

Alive

CoolPlayful

Popular

TrendyLike-able

Friendly Intimate

Happy

Easy-going

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Honest

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TrustSafe

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Feel liked

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Emotional benefits

Consumer Values

Build your brands around clusters of benefits

As you are looking for the benefits to that your brand stand behind, we recommend that you look at clusters of the functional and emotional benefits, that you believe match up with what consumers want and what your brand does better than other competitors.

Look at our example below, we have mapped out the positioning clusters of three distinct car brands (Volvo, Honda, Ferrari) to showcase how different the functional and emotional benefits.

The Volvo brand is notorious for safety, but can also look at quality and how it is made as part of the Works Better functional benefit zone. Volvo also makes you smarter and helps your family. The emotional zones where Volvo wins is in are being in control and curious for knowledge.

The Honda mini-van is all about family and value for money. Its functionality also can simplify your life. As it is a family car, the emotional zones that Honda can win are being myself and comfort.

The Ferrari brand is built around speed and performance, part of the works better functional benefit zone. The brand also delivers against experience and sensory appeal.



Build your brand around unique benefit clusters

Helps your family

Keepsyouorganized

LifeStages

BetterHome

Resalevalue

Simplifies your life

Saves you money

Moments

Efficient

Feel comfortable

Feel myself

Easy-going

Nurtured

Down-to--earth

Relaxed

HonestFamily

Functional

Emotional Curious for knowledge

Stay in control

TrustSafe

ReliableInformed

SmarterWisdom

Makes you smarter

Works Better

Safer

LifeStages

BetterHome

Solutions Helpinghand

Quality

Helps your family

Howitismade

Works Better

Faster

Sights Sensory Appeal

Touch/Feel

Quality

ExperienceResponsiveness

Subconscious

Luxurious

Performance

Alive

Cool Playful

Popular

Feel freeGet

noticed

Excited

Comfort

Comfort

Memorable

Sounds

Goodvalue

Stay in control

Sorting the benefitsWhen we brainstorm around a given brand, we normally end up with too much information. Building on the work from the cluster of benefits to the Consumer Benefit Ladder, we see this type of output for our fictional Grays Cookie brand.

Following this brainstorm, there are way too many potential benefits to really begin building your brand. You can use your working knowledge of the brand to begin looking at which of the functional and emotional benefits will help your brand win in the market.

Then use Market Research with consumers to sort through the possible benefits to find the ones that are the most motivating to consumers and own-able for your brand. The grid we use looks at two dimensions:

1. How motivated consumers are by the benefit2. How own-able is this benefit for you brand.

Looking at the grid below, you want to focus and build your brand around those consumer benefits that land in the highly motivating and highly own-able quadrant. This Winning Zone matches up to the venn diagram we showed earlier. Avoid the losing and dumb zones while any benefits that end up in the risky zone will require speed to market, more creativity and emotional marketing.


Looking at the Grays Cookie example, we can see how guilt free alternative consumer benefit has the highest potential to motivate consumers and the highest potential for ownership by the brand. The benefits of new favorite cookie are highly motivating, but would be owned by the major mass brands in the category.

Support points to the main benefitI took one logic class at University and sat there for 13 straight weeks of premise-premise conclusion. Easy class, but the lesson has stuck with me:

All fish live in water (premise) Tuna are fish (premise) Therefore, tuna live in the water (conclusion)

In a positioning statement, the main consumer benefit would be the conclusion. And the reason to believe (RTB) would be the supporting premise. I say this for a few reasons. First, the RTB should never be the conclusion. The consumer doesnt care about what you do, until they get something from it. The benefit has to come from being the consumers shoes to realize what they get and how it makes them feel. Second, if pure logic teaches two premises are enough to draw any conclusion, then you really only need two RTBs. Brands with a laundry list of RTBs are not doing their job in



Sort through the possible benefits to find the ones that are most motivating to consumers and own-able for your brand.

How OWN-ABLE is this benefit for your brand

How MOTIVATED are consumers by

your benefit

High

High

Low

Low

Losing Zone Winning Zone

Dumb Zone Risky Zone

GuiltFreeAlternative

LowCalorieLessFat

AllNaturalIngredients

Lose5poundin2weeks

FeelSmarter

aboutfood

Feelincontrolof

yourweight

Feelmoreconfident

Feelmorecomfortinchoices

NewFavoriteCookie

making a decision on what the best support points are. You either force the ad agency to decide what are the most important or the consumer to decide. By deferring, youre weakening your argument.

Claims can be an effective tool in helping to support your Reason to believe. We look at four types of claims: process, product, third person and behavioral.

Process Detail how your product works differently Showcase your point of difference in the production process. What do you do differently within the production process What added service/details do you provide in the value chain

Product Usage of an ingredient that makes you bette Process or ingredient that makes you safer

Third person Experts in the field who can speak on the brands behalf. Past users/clients with proof support of their stories.

Behavioral Clinical tests In market usage study Before and after studies

Bring the 4 elements together to create a winning Brand Positioning statementAfter doing all the homework, you should be able to put together a winning Brand Positioning Statement that addresses:

1. Who is in the consumer target? What slice of the population will be the most motivated to buy what you do? The first thing to decide is the consumer target, which should be your first point of focus, so that you can find the slice of the

Beloved Brands 10 We make brand leaders smarterWe make brands stronger.

We make brand leaders smarter.

4 elements of a brand positioning statement

To(Target)

Who is in the consumer target? What slice of the population will be the most motivated to buy what you do?

Your brand is the(Category)

Where do you play? What is the frame of reference that helps to define the space in the marketplace that you compete in?

That is the (Benefit)

Where do you win? What is the promise you will make to the consumer target, thinking about the main benefit (rational/emotional) you are promising to deliver?

Thats because(Support Points)

Why should they believe us? What support points help to back up the main benefit?

1

2

4

3

population that will be the most motivated by what you do. The mistake for many Marketers is they think about who you want, and they forget to ask who wants you. Who is the most motivated to buy what you do?

2. Where do you play? What is the frame of reference that helps to define the space in the marketplace that you compete in? We then frame the positioning by determining the category you play in, defining the competitors you will position yourself against. No one really operates in a blue ocean space, as positioning is always relative to some other choice the consumer can make.

3. Where do you win? We then need to determine the main promise you will make to the consumer target, in the sense of a benefit for the consumer, both the rational and emotional. Think about what does the customer get, and how does it make them feel?

4. Why should they believe us? Finally, we will look to understand what support points are needed to back up the main promise you are making. These support points have to support the main benefit, not just random claims or features that you want to jam into your brand message.

Moving from the brainstorm of the Consumer Benefit Ladder, using the research to focus on Guilt Free Cookie as the most motivating and own-able benefit, we can see the final brand positioning statement for Grays Cookies.



A winning brand positioning statement

To(Target)

Healthy proactive preventers who want to do more for their health, working moms, who are 35-40 years old.

Grays is the(Category)

Tasty healthy cookie option

That is the (Benefit)

Guilt free cookie that tastes so good that you can stay in control of your health

Thats because

(Support Points)

In blind taste tests, Grays matched the leaders on taste, but only 100 calories and 3g of net carbs.

In a 12-week study, consumers using Grays once a night as a desert were able to lose 5-10 pounds.

Beloved Brands: Who are we? At Beloved Brands, we promise that we will make your brand stronger and your brand leaders smarter. We can help you come up with your brands Brand Positioning, Big IdeaandBrand Concept. We also can help create Brand Plans that everyone in your organization can follow and helps to focus your Marketing Execution. We provide a new way to look at Brand Management, that uses a provocative approach to align your brand to the sound fundamentals of brand management.We will make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce exceptional work that drives stronger brand results. We offer brand training on every subject in marketing, related to strategic thinking, analytics, brand planning, positioning, creative briefs, customer marketing and marketing execution.

Beloved Brands Training program At Beloved Brands, we promise to make your team of BRAND LEADERS smarter, so they produce smarter work that drives stronger brand results.

1. How to think strategically: Strategic thinkers see what if questions before seeing solutions, mapping out a range of decision trees that intersect and connect by imagining how events will play out.

2. Write smarter Brand Plans: A good Brand Plan provides a road map for everyone in the organization to follow: sales, R&D, agencies, senior leaders, even the Brand Leader who writes the plan.

3. Create winning Brand Positioning Statements: The brand positioning statement sets up the brands promise to the consumer, impacting both external communication (advertising, PR or in-store) as well as internally with employees who deliver that promise.

4. Write smarter Creative Briefs: The brief helps focus the strategy so that all agencies can take key elements of the brand plan positioning to and express the brand promise through communication.

5. Be smarter at Brand Analytics: Before you dive into strategy, you have to dive into the brands performance metrics and look at every part of the businesscategory, consumers, competitors, channels and brand.

6. Get better Marketing Execution: Brand Leaders rely on agencies to execute. They need to know how to judge the work effectively to ensure they are making the best decisions on how to tell the story of the brand and express the brands promise.

7. How to build Media Plans: Workshop for brand leaders to help them make strategic decisions on media. We look at media as an investment, media as a strategy and the various media optionsboth traditional and on-line.

8. Winning the Purchase Moment: Brand Leaders need to know how to move consumers on the path to purchase, by gaining entry into their consumers mind, help them test and decide and then experience so they buy again and become a brand fan.


Graham Robertson at Beloved Brands

A NEW WAY to look at Brand Management.

Graham is one of the voices of the modern Brand Leader. He started Beloved Brands knowing he could make brands stronger and brand leaders smarter. Beloved Brands will challenge you to think strategically so you can create a Brand Positioning, a Brand Concept and a Big Idea for your brand. Graham will help write Brand Plans that focus everyone who work on the brand and make your team of Brand Leaders smarter so they can produce better work that drives stronger brand results.

Graham spent 20 years in Brand Management leading some of the worlds most beloved brands at Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, General Mills and Coke, rising up to VP Marketing. Graham played a major role in helping Pfizer win Marketing Magazines Marketer of the Year.

His public speaking appearances inspire brand leaders to love what they do. Over 4 million marketers have visited his website,beloved-brands.com with the desire to become smarter. Graham has served as a contributing author to Advertising Age in the US and Marketing Magazine in Canada.

To contact Beloved Brands, email [email protected] or call 416-885-3911. You can also follow us on Twitter @belovedbrands.
