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 . People make friends with people when they have things in common, want to spend time
together, and find something special in the relationship. Brands make friends with people in exactly the same way.
Brand management is about finding a group of people you can identify with, spending time together, & becoming
committed to each other. The more time you spend with your customers the better. This is sometimes referred to
as share of mind.

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Your brand is about everything you do which
impinges on the consciousness of the customer and, more importantly, it is about everything s/he thinks you do.
Some experiences carry greater weight than others. Some experiences have been forgotten entirely consciously by
your customer, but are nevertheless of paramount importance in the way s/he views you. Customers build brands
piecemeal. They build a story about you based upon their experience. They see your products in certain shops.
They heard one of your people on the radio. Somebody told them about an experience they had with you -
actually, they got the name wrong. Your brand logo reminds them of daffodils. Your customer owns your brand -
you do not. Your job is to behave as consistently as possible.

3.  
 


  






, so long as you do not try to copy the
market leader. Brand marketing is about niche marketing. Different messages will appeal most to different groups
of people. Be different.

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  Let the customer make the connection. You must try to facilitate that
experience.

5.    


  - the customers of the brand - need not necessarily pay you
any money directly.

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   if managed correctly. The most exciting brands to have are icon brands that represent a
certain moment in history. Icon brands grow rapidly, become outdated and decline, and can then bounce back on
the next cycle of history. More traditional brands may have less ups and downs, but there will usually be
fluctuations in their fortunes. Nevertheless, brands will tend to endure if invested in consistently. Consistency is
one of the key underlying themes of branding.

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  The fewer the people you target with your brand, the more compelling is likely to be your
claim in a highly competitive market. The more people you try to capture with your brand, the weaker may be your
claim on any given customer, with one exception. In an environment where your customers do not have a
relationship with any brands in particular, they will probably be drawn to those they recognise the best. Brands are
therefore a bit like light beams. The more concentrated the beam, the more cutting power it will have (as in a laser
beam); however, even a diffuse beam, like sunlight, will shed more light and heat than will darkness.

8. 

  they can be analysed like people. There are two psychological theories that are especially
relevant to the analysis of brands:

Personal Construct Theory - this theory argues that individuals develop theories (constructs) about how the world
works, what values are to be espoused, and how personal success is achieved. These constructs are specific to the
individual and bi-polar - they exist along a scale between two points defined by the individual. While one person
may contrast hard vs. soft, another may contrast hard vs. squelchy, or hard vs. weak. For some, a construct may be
close to the centre of how they assess other people, for others it may be peripheral, or even irrelevant. People
generally prefer to discuss peripheral constructs with strangers & acquaintances as they are easily abandoned or
adapted. The core constructs, which they hold closest to their hearts, are rarely mentioned. However, by the
application of a technique called laddering, a good interviewer can begin to discover individuals' core constructs by
starting with their peripheral ones.

Attribution theory - this theory argues that people ascribe characters to the people they meet based on a very few
clues around which they spin elaborate stories. So from a gesture, or a turn of phrase, or an intonation of voice,
they quickly come to a conclusion as to the sort of person they are dealing with (often within 20 seconds of
meeting the person, in fact). These judgements are made not only of people, but also of animals
(anthropomorphism), and even of inanimate objects (what human characteristics do you ascribe to your computer
when it crashes?). Brands, which function as fictional people, are also ascribed human characteristics.

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{Ê   






  
{Ê 
  
 
 

Elements that will drive these dimensions are:

{Ê The central organising thought of the brand

{Ê The personality of the brand
{Ê The values the brand espouses
{Ê The tastes/dress of the brand, including how it speaks
{Ê The emotional benefits the brand satisfies
{Ê The hard benefits the brand delivers to the customer

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In relation to brands, we need to think about religious conversion. Think of the patterns of religious
affiliation: people are usually raised up with their religion, just like they are raised up in an environment
of brands that their moms or dads prefer. Then the kids grow up and a wide spectrum of results from
children remaining true to their parents to rebellious anarchist kids who follow nothing from their
environment. Just like brands.