2640 Lyndale Ave. South | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com
Modern Brand InfrastructureAugust 2015
An operating model for modern brands.How can a modern brand think about and organize to accomplish all of its necessary operations? What are the different channels, disciplines and programs required to bring a brand to life entirely through its actions?
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Thomas Bruce (trbpix) on Flickr licensed under creative commons
How can actions speak louder than words when words are still often required to scale actions?
The central issue: Even today, brands are challenged by scale.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved Image via http://bristram.blogspot.com/
Generating a viral hit is as fraught with uncertainty and risk as developing the next 1984 spot.
A viral/WOM model simply replaces one lottery for another.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Facebook is now a mass reach medium, interaction is minimal at best.
Scale via social is next to impossible to generate without paid advertising.
Social networks are rapidly devolving into the networks of old
Zeus Jones All rights reserved Image via forbes.com
This is why paid media continues to proliferate and advertising remains the business model of the majority of digital startups.
Free, mass communication has not materialized as promised.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Yet some of the most successful brands play by a different set of rules.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Branding evolving from comms to experiences It’s clear that branding has evolved. Messages are being replaced by interactions and campaigns are giving way to comprehensive experiences.
Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands.
ERIC RYAN
Building a brand is about a thousand little new touches. Consistency is only for liars.
HOWARD SCHULTZ
COMMUNICATIONS
Authentic brands don't emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does.
INTERACTIONS EXPERIENCES
ONE-WAY TWO-WAY CONTINUOUS
DAVID OGILVY
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Some brands build around existing user behaviorFor many, the starting point in “brand experience” is understanding a person’s existing behavior and then attempting to fit into their life. However, this is still done primarily through content or fighting for attention
CONSUMER
Existing Behavior
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Great brands think about desired behaviorThey understand what people would like to do, even when the people don’t know it themselves.
CONSUMER
Existing Behavior
Desired Behavior
Commoditized
Functional advantage
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
They deliver desired benefits in a differentiated wayModern brands enable new behaviors and create rituals based upon delivering unique experiences. They don’t simply fit into a person’s existing day, they enhance it in proprietary ways.
CONSUMER
Existing Behavior
Desired Behavior
Unique Rituals
Commoditized
Functional advantage
Highly differentiated
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Desired benefits delivered in differentiated waysBrands like Starbucks, Uber and Warby Parker have created unique and highly branded rituals around enabling new possibilities and behaviors for their customers
Created a coffee culture Defined a new lifestyle Eyewear becomes seasonal
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Imag
e vi
a sl
ashg
ear.c
om
Imag
e vi
a m
ilano
card
.it
Imag
e vi
a ht
tp:/
/on-
sele
ct.c
om/
Not simply better ideas, better infrastructure.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via 1wallpaper.ne
Infrastructure is key to their unique deliveryTheir delivery infrastructure is key to modern brands’ experience. None of these companies would be what they are today if they delivered over the same infrastructure as their competition.
The third space Your private driver A personal dressing room
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Imag
e vi
a m
enem
shas
olut
ions
.com
Imag
e vi
a co
nnex
ient
.com
Imag
e vi
a pi
ngw
est.c
om
Infrastructure owners are incentivized to standardize. They are not trying to help you differentiate. They are trying to sell standardized, repeatable blocks of time and space.
Existing brand infrastructure forces standardization
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via Google
Modern brands are built on top of ideas, platforms and ecosystems that let them communicate, interact, service and sell without having to pay an intermediary.
This enables more growth, higher levels of efficiency, and deeper, more permanent relationships with key stakeholders.
Modern brands own their infrastructure
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via wc-news.com
1. Aquire and convert new customers
2. Build markets and communicate with mass audiences
3. Engage with existing customers
Infrastructure lets brands fulfill key tasks directly
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
They control the experience they deliver They control the way they drive revenue
This provides them with huge leverage if and when they deal with a 3rd party channel or paid media
Ultimately owned infrastructure lets brands control their destiny
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Elements of modern brand infrastructure
1. Growth 2. Mass 3. Loyalty
Infrastructure built upon three different kinds of platforms
Growth Platform
Mass Platform
CORE BELIEF & PURPOSE
Loyalty Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Largely content and/or services ecosystems
Drive engagement with brand, additional usage/consumption of product is desired result.
Loyalty Platforms manage relationships with current users.
Loyalty Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
• Self-sustaining
• Based on a value exchange for all parties
• Leverages external content creators for efficiency
• Assembles brand and partner assets into a cohesive “media” network
• Optimized for traffic/SEO and user experience
• Can contain both digital and physical assets
• Includes a workflow as well as a structural map
• Fed by other platforms
Ideal Properties of an Loyalty Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
We have built a comprehensive loyalty platform for Post It that engages multiple segments of users on an on-going basis
It is fueled by a wide range of partners and delivers useful content and services that drive usage and additional purchase.
Content extends throughout the owned platforms into partner and retailer platforms.
Example: Post It.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Red Bull have turned content into a revenue stream that rivals (if not beats) the revenue derived from their core product.
It doesn’t simply participate in niche sports, it builds and creates them, monetizing the content that is created.
Networks like NBC, now pay Red Bull to advertise on their channels.
Gold standard: Red Bull
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via battlegrounds.redbull.com
Operations as marketing and vice-versa
Drive revenue and operational enhancements while also delivering marketing benefits
Growth platforms: deliver marketing benefits as an effect of remarkable operationsGrowth
Ecosystem(s)
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
• Based upon an operational asset
• Built on an exchange of value
• Usage builds the strength of that asset
• An acquisition tool - often generates WOM
• Engages collaboration partners
• Acts as the primary growth engine for the company
• Delivers marketing benefits as a collateral benefit
Properties of a Growth Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Mobile interface to existing service makes diagnostic logic transparent and accessible
Has rapidly grown to encompass a significant portion of overall visits
Created entirely new usage scenarios and a timely acquisition channel
Example: virtuwell
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Exposes a key part of operations - fleet scheduling.
Drives operational efficiency as it offloads scheduling onto drivers and customers.
Delivers marketing benefits through delight and ease of use. Viral/talk value built into the core use case.
Drives penetration through mobility of customer base
Gold standard: Uber app
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via bloomberg.com
And can deliver a multitude of different marketing benefits
Growth platforms can be built around a host of different operational assets
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Operations Assets Marketing benefits
Awareness
Engagement
Advocacy
Consideration
Preference
Choice
Customer service
Efficiency
Competitive advantage
New functionality
R&D
HR
Sales
Logistics
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Almost exclusively a communications medium
Creates enough mass and interest for earned media to drive a significant portion of scale.
Key task is creating demand to be fulfilled by other platforms in the brand infrastructure
Mass Platforms aggregate audiences for reach Mass
Ecosystem
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
• Aggregate advocates and mass media to drive huge scale
• Operate on the company’s calendar not a media calendar
• Work in pulses or bursts that are timed to big news
• Often have their own marketing program built around them
• Highly connected to other platforms
Properties of a Mass Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Through our Better With Pets Summit, we have built a platform that engages the industry, bloggers and press to help share key Purina innovations and values.
Example: BWP
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Since pulling out of Macworld in 2008, Apple has tuned its own events and announcements to a fine edge.
Teasers, releases, conventions, rituals and importantly, huge amounts of PR, and earned media mean Apple really doesn’t need to advertise. In fact it spends a fraction on paid media compared to rivals like Samsung.
Gold standard: Apple Events
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
These platforms will vary in size and importance depending upon the nature of the brand and its needs. In some cases, brands may not need all three platforms
Different brands will have different infrastructure needs
Growth Platform
Mass Platform
CORE BELIEF & PURPOSE
Loyalty Platform
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Infrastructure streamlines modern marketing complexity.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Campaigns and “big ideas” still have a place, but they operate primarily on the brand’s owned platforms rather than requiring rented media space.
(Campaigns can also be used to build infrastructure when it doesn’t exist.)
Campaigns still have an important role
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Image via Nike
Interactions, experiences, messages and behaviors can be assigned to one or more platforms. Importantly platforms are also not asked to do things that they simply can’t.
Promotions: Loyalty and Growth New Products: Mass & Loyalty Etc.
Segmented channels simplify planning
Growth Platform
Mass Platform
Loyalty Platform
CORE BELIEF & PURPOSE
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Infrastructure enables short and long-term efficiency.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Marketing programs that run on infrastructure, also improve the strength, efficiency or effectiveness of that infrastructure.
Overall marketing expenditures can decrease over time, or similar sized investments can deliver larger returns.
Marketing expenditures have investment components
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Brands with strong infrastructures spend less on marketing and enjoy greater differentiation and distinctiveness.
Infrastructure Double Jeopardy?
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Infrastructure building requires unique skills.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Campaigns Infrastructure
Long-term thinking
Utility as currency
Strategic and creative
Business/marketing focus
Fundamental innovation required
Very little competition
Unique and valuable
Short-term thinking
Attention as currency
Purely creative
Communications focus
Tactical innovation required
Crowded space for agencies
Commoditized
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Brand-centric and consumer-centric development need to be balanced. At the infrastructure level, brand-centricity may lead.
At the program level, consumer-centricity will lead
Brand-centric development and consumer-centric development
Growth Platform
Mass Platform
CORE BELIEF & PURPOSE
Always-On Ecosystem
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Creativity & cultural alignmentFunctional excellence for infrastructure is not enough. VRBO and airbnb have similar infrastructure. The winners will capture people’s imagination and build upon big ideas in modern culture.
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Ultimately infrastructure makes modern brands more tangible and more valuable
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Modern brands evolving from ideas to networksRather than becoming less important or abstract, we believe brands are becoming more tangible and more real. Modern brands are networks of assets and relationships that are “hard-coded” into place
DAVID OGILVY
The intangible sum of a product’s attributes.
JOHN GRANT
The sum of the great ideas used to build that brand
ZEUS JONES
BRAND AS IDEAS
The sum of the assets and networks that are owned by the brand
BRAND AS ACTIONS BRAND AS NETWORKS
OWNED BY CONSUMER CO-CREATED OWNED BY COMPANY
Zeus Jones All rights reserved
Thank You
Top Related