The Three Questions You Need to Answer to Build a Successful Brand

Not enough brands communicate from the inside out. An inspiring brand leads with a meaningful purpose, and though it may not always be explicitly written on every touchpoint, it pushes everything that company does in one clear and easy to follow direction.

When it comes to building a brand, the core DNA of the brand needs to be clearly identified and pinned down as soon as possible. Every brand should have a unique identity and a likeable personality, but it often gets lost or confused over time in the day-to-day grind of running a business and reacting to immediate opportunities and threats. When most brands release a new product all of the effort usually goes into selling that product (and features) with little mention of the brand.

"As the trusted Simon Sinek puts it: Martin Luther King Jr. gave the moving 'I have a dream' speech, not the practical 'I have a plan' speech."

But here’s the thing; branding isn’t rocket science, it’s not even an academic subject (sorry to upset any branding professors out there). It’s not difficult to create a brand that ticks the functional and the emotional boxes. At BTL we always start a new project with a brand workshop. We get the ball rolling by listening carefully to the answers to three basic questions that we ask the brand's founders or directors:

1. What?

2. How?

3. Why?

Define and conquer 

Simon Sinek's Golden Circle Ted Talk [below] explains how Steve Jobs used the same approach to help him define his brand in the early days of Apple. It's a tried and tested technique that always gets results, so we don't see any need to change it. These three basic questions help to get to the core DNA of any company and define the new brand purpose and profile. If a company's foundes/directors can’t answer these questions, with certainty and conviction, there is usually a fundamental flaw in their business model.

Defining the ‘What?’ is the easy bit, anyone can do this, as it describes what the company does, a basic list of the products or services on offer.

The ‘How?’ can be a bit trickier as this is the process (the mechanic) that is employed to produce the product or service. It makes our job easier if the process is unique, or at least adapted from other processes, so we can start telling a story of how the brand is different from all the others on the market.

"Eight hours later we had a potential war zone. Twelve directors with jackets off, sleeves rolled up, spilt coffee, half-eaten sandwiches... and the odd arm wrestling competition to resolve minor conflicts."

The Why? wars

But when it comes to determining the ‘Why?’ all hell usually breaks loose and the head scratching begins. Many founders, who claim to know their business inside out, usually cannot answer this question with ease. We had a brand workshop a while ago for an independent medical communications company in central London. We walked into a full boardroom (12 directors) armed with a roll of brown paper and a bag full of marker pens. 

The morning session started with the usual niceties, nodding of heads and reams of scribbled notes. We suggested that a good way to get the cogs oiled was for each director to grab a marker pen and quickly scribble their version of their brand’s what?, how? and why? on the brown paper stuck to the wall. A simple exercise to blow away the cobwebs, get them out of their seats, get the conversation started and allow us to get on with the real exercise of the day - to redefine their brand purpose.

This suggestion was received with the usual rolling of eyes and impatient murmurs. However, it was a simple exercise that proved not so simple. Eight hours later we had a potential war zone. Twelve directors with jackets off, sleeves rolled up, spilt coffee, half-eaten sandwiches, ripped brown paper and the odd arm wrestling competition to resolve minor conflicts. We had to get the team to agree to disagree before we could finish the workshop, on the understanding that we would get back to them with our definitive version of their what?, how? and why? (based on their multiple versions that were poles apart from each other).

"It’s too easy to just keep repeating over and over again the same list of products and features."

It's about magic, not logic

Most (uninspiring) brands take the easier road and communicate from the outside in. They start with what they sell and what the features are, never addressing how they do it, or why you should believe in it. As the trusted Simon Sinek puts it: Martin Luther King Jr. gave the moving 'I have a dream' speech, not the practical 'I have a plan' speech. We always encourage founders to focus more on the emotional aspects of their brand, and less on the functional.

Unilever made the headlines a few years ago in the trade magazines when their marketing VP, Marc Mathieu, revealed that their new marketing philosophy was to be 'Less logic more magic'. At the time this was groundbreaking news, a real potential tipping point in the very dry, functional, practical and logical universe of Unilever global consumer brands. We still haven’t seen much evidence of this mantra being brought to life in the real world, however, we remain the eternal optimists.

We try not to be too annoying when we go on (and on) about the importance of giving people (otherwise known as consumers) a reason to believe in a brand. It’s too easy to just keep repeating over and over again the same list of products and features. On the very rare occasion, when a totally new and unique brand launches into a marketplace, it’s okay to just focus on products and features to get the conversation started. However, at some point that brand will need to turn up the emotional dial to be able to hold on to its new consumers. When we think of our personal favourite brands we very rarely visualise a functional list of products or service tech specs. In most cases, we find ourselves going to an emotional place where we think of how or why that particular brand has moved us.