Ways to Become a More Inspired Brand
Inspiration is a word companies love to throw around to describe their businesses and brands, but guess what? Most businesses and brands are not inspired or inspiring. They live in functional worlds, providing functional benefits – competing on price, features and share of voice; never truly feeling confident about their decisions.
Ways Smart Companies Find Inspiration
Look beyond your company’s walls and learn from what has worked for others.
- Smart companies obsess about their customers and deliver what matters.
At Panera the food is good and priced competitively, while the service is fast and friendly. But it’s the commitment to good-for-you foods—clean, simple, and healthy—that makes Panera an inspired brand.
- They “thief and doctor” best practices both inside and outside their category.
We often ask the question of our clients, “If you were more like Disney or Uber or Zappos, what would you take from what they are doing to drive change in your organization?” The answers are always surprising. The best healthcare companies, for instance, aren’t just looking to the Mayo Clinic or Medi Clinic for inspiration. They are just as likely to be asking how they can provide amenities as luxurious as the Four Seasons, service as consistent as Nordstrom or experiences as magical as Disney. They understand that inspiration usually requires more than imitation. They infuse borrowed ideas with their own brand identity to create a distinctive offering or experiences.
- They explore their own heritage.
Consumers crave authenticity, so brand history can offer an almost endless source of lessons. We often take clients out on what we call “brand safaris” to delve into the stories of companies such as Levi Strauss and Ford Motor Co. Studying how these great brands honor their heritage, yet still inspire customers today always sparks fresh thinking. Levi’s found its mojo again when the 529 was reinvented into the “hot skinny” jean, and Ford inspired all of us through fully reimagining its F-150. Don’t disregard the past for future inspiration simply because it’s in the past.
- They think big and small.
Responding to large demographic changes is essential. If you don’t respect Gen Y’s demand to do everything on their phones, you won’t win. But it also means listening to the growing desire for personalization across every customer segment.
Final Thoughts
These sources of inspiration are critical for a brand’s long-term success. To stay relevant, companies must continue to innovate, creating new and valuable experiences for its customers. To do so, brands must step outside the functional and dare to be inspirational.
Let Media Alliance guide you with your branding and getting your name out there.
Contact: sales@mediaalliance.co.za
Milnerton, Cape Town 7441
