In the digital age, great brands do not always have to be the biggest, the most profitable or the most well-known. Indeed great brand are the ones that are creating memories and experiences in a sustainable way. In essence What makes a great brand?

Below are a few of what brands do or how they make you feel. To which I am in total agreement with Mitch Joel.

Great brands are mission-based and mission driven.

Great brands are on the consumer’s side.

Great brands are trustful

Great brands ensures simplicity 

Great brands inspires confidence.

Great brands  handles customer support.

Great brands aligns with consumer’s values.

Great brands prices itself in relation to perceived value.

Great brands have clarity in communication 

Great brands  knows its customers.

Great brands are unique in relation to its competitors.

Great brands demonstrates passion.

Great brands are consistent.

Great brands are well distributed in its market.

To achieve all the above Denise Lee Yohn explain some of the principles of building great brand. In her book “What Great Brands Do” Follow me as we look at a few from my perspective.

• Great brands use the brand as a management tool in alignment with business objectives. In other words, the brand promise must align and relate to the business goals and objectives, the business strategy and the level of execution. A great example is Zappos. Zappos as a brand promise to deliver happiness. Another example is Nike, she makes the promise with the mantra i”Authentic Athletic Performance”. Nike’s brand mantra place emphasis on being authentic by which we also mean integrity and purity. All products and activities associated with Nike likewise has to be athletic, not leisurely… Finally, every Nike product must exude world-class performance and meet the demands of the world’s finest athletes. Even though such athletes represents only a microscopic piece of Nike’s total business.

• Great brands start inside (builds a culture) not corporate make over. Brand culture is effectively how a company’s employees live out the values and mission of its organization. So the first crucial step is to identify the work culture and the values that you want your employees to embody, and to set that out into a clear vision. Finding that answer will take some soul-searching and an analysis of factors such as your company’s competencies, your customer’s needs and what differentiates you from similar options out there. Think about it, break it down, and set it out! A great way for creating a culture, can be found in the book “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?”. The book tells the story of IBM’s competitive and cultural transformation the CEO Lou Gerstner, who is credited with bringing the company back from a near-death experience by shifting it into software and services and exiting most hardware businesses. Other companies with great culture includes Zappos on its culture of delivering happiness and Apple with a culture of innovation. From the African perspective. Some of the most admired African brands according to Brand Africa in 2019 include 1. MTN a South African telecoms company. 2. Anbessa (Ethiopia) Anbessa is an Ethiopian apparel company that makes shoes. 3. Dangote, a Nigeria conglomerate with business interests include cement and salt factories, flour mills, among many other consumer goods etc

• Great brands execute their brand by focusing on the customer to create a virility and context, that do not mention the brand. In other words every execution is about the customer and not the brand. To rephrase these brands avoids selling products and rather looks at creating inspiration and experiences. Nike is a classic example with “Just Do It” campaign which run for over a decade.

• Great brand sweat the small details. They ensure the every little detail is planned to be sure the buyer utility is improved. And examples include KFC, McDonald’s for these companies every step is calculated including the type and color of the office furniture, the office set up and even the smell and cooling of the office.

• Great brand Create shared value (CSV) not CRS (Corporate Social Responsibility). Example of great brand make meaning and don’t have to give back for example Patagonia’s “Footprint Chronicles” which look at business sustainability for all stakeholders, I repeat every stakeholder.

• Great brands commit and stay committed, for example Apple’s commitment to Design, build quality of the iPhone.

• Great brand operates like a light house in other words great brands create platforms and ecosystem to attracted others to it. For example Amazon, Alibaba, Apple google etc… factors the attracts people in, that is;
  1. Great brands sets themselves apart in a crowded marketplace and is a winner. Naturally, peoples love to be with the winner
  2. Great brand saves all it’s stakeholders time and money. Two things everyone appreciates.
  3. Great brands are enablers. They create opportunities for you to thrive.

• Great brands are focused on Customer experience. Customer experinece is about creating an emotional connection with users. Hence what is the unique customer experience at any of a company’s touch points within the first 5mins after encountering a channel.  Great brands take the pain to address customer pain points. In fact the authors of the book, Blue Ocean shift, Renée Mauborgne and Chan Kim argues pain points blocks utility and hidden opportunities for growth and even creating new markets. Indeed, user/ buyer experience cycle encompasses a variety of specific experiences and the best way to ease this, is to identify the “Buyer Utility Map” and exploring or, on the flip side, the narrowing some of the levers of the map. Utility captures the satisfaction that buyers get out of a business, product or service. This they developed as part of Blue Ocean Shift tools. Running down the vertical axis on the utility map are the six utility levers, some of which of review might to offer buyers greater utility this includes 

1. The first is productivity, that is, anything to do with efficiency – less time, effort, and/or money – in fulfilling buyers’ needs.
2. Then we have simplicity, which is anything that eliminates or minimizes complexity or hassle.
3. Convenience is about when and where you want something, like 24/7, 365 days a year.
4. Risk reduction might include financial, physical and reputational risk.
5. Fun and image are things like the look, feel and attitude the offering conveys.
6. And last, environmental friendliness is about how green your product or service is, and what this might mean for buyers.

Combined with the six stages of the buyer cycle, the map produces 36 potential utility spaces. Where does your industry or target industry concentrate its efforts among these 36 possible spaces?

In conclusion great brands use the brand as a management tool, they start brand building from in inside (culture), Create shared value, commit and stay committed, operates like a light house and lastly focus on customer experience. Does the brand you work with do all that? If they don’t it’s time to reset your brand. 

Credit: This article was written with the inspiration and content from

Mitch Joel – innovation, commerce, design Author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete.

Denise Lee Yohn, Brand Leadership Expert Keynote Business Speaker and Auther- What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest

Renée Mauborgne and Chan Kim, professors at INSEAD and authors “Blue Ocean Strategy” and Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing – Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth.

https://dominiquevanbennekom.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/what-is-nikes-brand-mantra/amp/

https://www.africanexponent.com/post/10299-most-admired-african-brands