The Brand Strategist's Guide to Desire

The Brand Strategist’s Guide to Desire This page intentionally left blank The Brand Strategist’s Guide to Desire How to give consumers what they actually want Anna Simpson © Anna Simpson 2014 Reprint of the original edition 2014 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46896-6 DOI 10.1057/9781137351821 ISBN 978-1-137-35182-1 (eBook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. To my sister Ruth, who loves to help others find what they are looking for. This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword ix Sally Uren, Chief Executive, Forum for the Future Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: A guide to desire 1 Five perspectives on desire, each followed by three case studies Community 19 Case studies 1 Ansaar Management Company 2 Made in the Lower East Side 3 Heineken UK 46 2 Adventure 50 Case studies 1 Nike+ 69 2 ASMALLWORLD 3 Mulebar 75 3 Aesthetics 35 44 71 78 Case studies 1 Wrap Art & Design 95 2 Quantum Designs 100 3 Ella’s Kitchen 105 vi i 1 vi ii 4 Contents Vitality 108 Case studies 1 Zumba Fitness 2 Special Olympics 3 Oprah 132 5 Purpose 127 129 136 Case studies 1 Grameen Bank 160 2 Fifteen 162 3 Nobel Prize 165 Afterword: Desiring change Notes to the text Further Reading Index 186 172 184 169 Foreword “Brands are the problem!” “Brands are the solution!” So goes a common debate. The problem with brands, say many, is that they have fuelled an era of over-consumption, which has led to a society groaning at the seams with social inequalities, and a world running perilously low on natural resources. And the solution camp? The starting premise for brands as a possible solution to some urgent social, environmental and economic challenges, both locally and globally, requires an evolution of the traditional notion of a brand. They shift from an exclusive focus on transactions. They are no longer just the conduit between a business and the end consumer. They become agents of change. A new role for brands could be described as naïve optimism. But while trust in government and business is probably at an all-time low, there is at least some trust in brands. In this light, a new role for them becomes easier to envisage. Brands are more than iconic images splashed across the world’s bill boards. They are the window to the business model. In the past, the distance between the business model and the brand was quite a long and often complicated one: the business model was the mechanism to generate maximum growth and profitability, the brand(s) the route to market. ix Today, increasing numbers of businesses understand that their ability to create shareholder value, as described by the age-old metrics of growth and profitability, is inextricably linked to how well they can secure access to dwindling resources, how well they treat their staff, how well they x Foreword know where and how their stuff is made, and how well they can articulate their role in society. In other words, the ability to be commercially successful increasingly depends on the response of a business to an array of macro-environmental and social trends. And so emerges a new business model. One that is commercially successful, but perhaps not measured purely in terms of growth. One that delivers goods and services that have a social value. And one that operates within one planet’s worth of resources. Within this construct of a sustainable business model, the brand shifts from being an adjunct to being the delivery mechanism for the business’s purpose. It is the showcase through which the world can see what the business exists to do and how. Let’s think about purpose for a minute. The sustainable brand operates through conversation, collaboration and co-creation. These are the three cornerstones – the 3Cs – of a service-based mechanism. They enable the brand to consider and deliver what we need, rather than making and marketing products regardless. Our current model of consumerism is flawed. Once basic needs such as hunger and wellness have been met, buying more and more doesn’t make us any happier. Brands with purpose can fuel a transition to sustainable business models. They could indeed be part of the solution to all sorts of problems: social, environmental and economic. Key to unlocking their purpose is desire. What do the people who are prepared to place trust in them really want from them? Which aspects of their lives will they trust brands with? What is it they really want? This guide explores that connection, and offers desire as a route to create change. All brand managers should read and take note. Sally Uren, Chief Executive, Forum for the Future Preface Desire moves us. It moves us towards each other and towards our goals. It causes us to reach out for things that stimulate our senses and engage our minds. We walk up a hill to let our eyes dance on the horizon. We cross a street to let our skin feel the sun. We read, converse and travel to entertain our imagination and expand our knowledge. The energy we all have to enhance our lives can, like any other form of energy, be harnessed – and its value can turn a profit. This profit can be made without compromising the goal, which is quality of life. People will find value in products and services that bring them closer to the things they really want, and will readily pay for them. Not just once, but again and again. Which is why a better understanding of desire is an economic opportunity, and one from which brands, in particular, could benefit. People get to know brands, and develop trust in them, just as they do in their peers. If a brand helps them to connect with something they feel enhances their lives, they will recognize its potential to do so again. xi As Sally Uren, Chief Executive of the global non-profit Forum for the Future, says, “Brands can do anything that you want them to do: they’re astonishing. They can make you want to buy something you never knew you needed. They can make you feel much better about yourself. And, in a world where people don’t trust governments and business, and trust their family and peers above all, brands sit somewhere in the middle. They have enormous potential.” xi i Preface It follows that the first step for a brand is to understand what the people they want to bond with desire. If they can help them to find it, they will become trusted allies. A.S. Acknowledgements I am most grateful to all those who took the time to share their valuable insights with me, helping to shape the ideas in this book. In particular, I thank: Gemma Adams, Rachel Armstrong, Ramon Arratia, Amjad Aslam, David Bent, Phillida Cheetham, Ian Cheshire, Ian Christie, David Edwards, Kathleen Enright, Gunjan Gupta, Peggy Liu, Dax Lovegrove, Adam Lowry, Ben Maxwell, Alan Marks, Marc Mathieu, Atsuko Nakano, Diana Verde Nieto, Ed Paget, Jonathon Porritt, Chris Sherwin, Vincent Stanley, Catarina Tagmark, Sam Thompson, Jody Turner, Laura Underwood and Sally Uren. I also wish to thank Duncan Jefferies for reading and editing my manuscript with such careful consideration. Thanks to all my colleagues at Forum for the Future for challenging me over the years. I am also grateful to Judith Kerr, Dr Clare Connors, Dr Laleh Khalili and Martin Wright for their tuition and encouragement. Thank you Deborah, Bob, Jennifer and Tim for providing quiet places to write. xi ii With much love I thank my family and friends for their support, which made all the difference: Mum, who gave me the love of books, Dad, who gave me a dictionary, Ruth, Toby, my housemate Julia, my three fantastic uncles – Brian, Desmond and Norman – and also Aimee, Ania, Ashlee, Chloë, Claire, Clemence, Nikki and Shivani.