First - simple model

So there's absolutely nothing complicated or new about our first model - but it's an interesting framework at least. There's no harm in asking "where on the spectrum does my brand sit?" and "what would happen if we tried to shift where we are on the model?"


BIg brands may well be happy in defining the category expectations. Advertising is good at this. It's easy to tell people what to look for - and surprisingly easy to convince them that this criteria is natural. As a kid I spent days seeing whether I could "Pinch more than an inch" in a bid to determine whether I needed Special K. And longer counting the perforations in my tea bag.

So if you're a brand leader you may want to settle for telling people what it is that your brand does - and encouraging them to seek out only those things. In our example, bathroom tissue, that means having people look for Soft, Strong and Long.

Now HOW you tell people to look for that is up to you. You may want to demonstrate all three - the Andrex / Scottex puppy does this beautifully. An aside here - I was once told by a semiotician that the Andrex Puppy wasn't just a tool to show how long and strong a roll of bathroom tissue could be; but that it represented 'Anarchy of the anus"... one of the few creatures that's allowed to soil the house at will and still be loveable. But I digress.

Of course most brands aren't brand leaders. The traditional model here would therefore ask you to either "Attack a weak link" or "Outflank the opposition"

Attacking a weak link usually means choosing a single category attribute and arguing (or these days PROVING) that you're better at it. That you're softer, stronger or longer. In essence you're telling a story of what the clever people in manufacturing have done TO the product to make it superior. It may now be through-air-dried for extra softness, or cross-plied for extra strength. How you prove it doesn't matter - so long as you do. This is a very unsubtle form of jujitsu. You take something that the big brands have spent time and money claiming is important to the category and then say "Yup, and we do it better"

Innovation agencies often come in here - the Cross-Ply thought coming from 'steal from another category' session that cost a six figure sum and involved numerous heart shaped post its, no doubt.

Another place that the Innovation Agencies love is 'Out-flank' - this is all about finding new pillars upon which to build the category. It may be that your toilet paper is more decorative, or recycled or quilted. What matters is that it's new and that somehow it makes sense. Easier said than done, but done well it's really effective. Still in the 'what the product does' section but it manages to bring some news to the category. You saw it in detergents when they went from 'whiter' to 'better against lingering odors" -pow there's a whole new niche out there.

So you can talk about what the product does (reshaping expectation if necessary) or what you've done to the product to make it do what it does better. So far, so 70s.

If you're an A-Team / McGyver type you could take a step into the 80s and talk instead about how the product makes you feel. Or more often about the kind of life that the product is a gateway to. That toilet tissue can make you feel like a more caring mom, it can make you feel environmentally conscious (and smug as a result), it can make you feel like a style maven (my tissue and drapes match) or it can make you feel sophisticated (it has a touch of Myrrh you know) but it's all about imagery. Get the right spokesperson onboard, pay attention to production values, limit your distribution and choose your font with care, tone, style and attention to detail is key here. You need to be able to smell the attention to detail.

And then there's the 90s model. The late 90s model. Talk about the brand's purpose, its cultural significance and its role in the world. Having a living founder to embody those values is great (Branson wants to stick it to The Man, his are Robin Hood brands - Jobs is all about liberating creativity - Nielman does believe that nobody should be afraid of the airplane's Call Service button). The key here is to have that belief filter down into EVERYTHING that you do. So if you're a brand that's out to eradicate beauty stereotypes and promote real-types you'd better have a foundation, sponsor research, pressure the fashion industry and never, ever launch face-lift or anti-aging products) If you're there to Help 15 year old boys in the mating game you'd better follow through. And that's the issue with trying to place yourself into culture - if you don't really believe it, if it's a cocktail party belief - you'll be exposed faster than Britney's minge in a crowd. So if you decide that your toilet tissue is on a mission to eradicate Colon Cancer you'd better be giving away some proceeds, funding research, writing about it on the packaging and co-packing with fiber rich foods; or it's over for you.


Okay too much talk about something that's not new... next we'll talk about what happened in the early noughties "Total Brand Surrender" and what happens next.... gripping huh?