infrastructure for modern brands

2640 Lyndale Ave. South | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com

Modern Brand InfrastructureAugust 2015

http://www.zeusjones.com

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/

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.


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

http://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.


Yet some of the most successful brands play by a different set of rules.


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


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


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


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


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


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http://on-select.com/

Not simply better ideas, better infrastructure.


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


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http://menemshasolutions.com


http://pingwest.com

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


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


Image via wc-news.com

http://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


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


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


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


• 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


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.


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


Image via battlegrounds.redbull.com

http://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)


• 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


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


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


Image via bloomberg.com

http://bloomberg.com

And can deliver a multitude of different marketing benefits

Growth platforms can be built around a host of different operational assets


Operations Assets Marketing benefits

Awareness

Engagement

Advocacy

Consideration

Preference

Choice

Customer service

Efficiency

Competitive advantage

New functionality

R&D

HR

Sales

Logistics


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


• 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


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


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


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


Loyalty Platform


Infrastructure streamlines modern marketing complexity.


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


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



Infrastructure enables short and long-term efficiency.


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


Brands with strong infrastructures spend less on marketing and enjoy greater differentiation and distinctiveness.

Infrastructure Double Jeopardy?


Infrastructure building requires unique skills.


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


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


Always-On Ecosystem


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.


Ultimately infrastructure makes modern brands more tangible and more valuable


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


Thank You