Brand Key Workshop

Brand Key

The key to unlock brand secrets

A way of expressing brand positioning so
that everyone can understand the brand
 It establishes a shared framework
and common language for all to use
It defines how brand adds value
 Brand Key
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3. Insight

1. Competitive Environment 2. Target Audience

 It’s a system that helps guide
not only where the brand is today,
but also where it should go
 It ensures continuity in
evolving brands towards a future vision
It shows why someone would want to buy!
In short, the brand key helps unlock growth!
1. Competitive Environment
 Competitive environment

• The market and alternate choices as seen by

the customer and the relative value the brand
offers in that market

• It describes the choices available to the

consumer, with which your brand competes

• Note, it is not a description of the product

category as defined by ourselves
 In other words,
all those who ‘lose’ when we ‘win’!
‘win’
What would the consumer consider to be
an alternative choice to the brand?
 For instance,
what would it be for Pepsi?
2. Target
 Target
• Describes the chooser of the brand
– Who may be the buyer or the user

• The person for whom the brand is – or wants

to be – the first choice
• The chooser should be defined in terms of
attitudes, behaviour and values as well as
socio-economics
• Sometimes, it will be helpful to specify the
situation in which brand will be the first choice
The tighter the target can be defined,
the stronger its appeal can be
 Example: McDonald

• People who can relate to childhood happiness

• Parents who want to treat the kids

• Kids who want to have fun with their meal

3. Key Insight
Key insight is seeing ‘inside the consumer’
Aspect of all you know about the consumer:
- which shows how brand can solve a problem
- or create an opportunity for them
Insight expresses the totality of all we know
from seeing inside the consumer
 The insight is specific
to the competitive situation
and to the target
Key Insight
‘I wish to get married
to a handsome prince’
Key Insight
‘Fragrance of my current talc does not last long
and I miss opportunities to enjoy life’
 Key insight: The process

• Obtaining information about what people think

and do

• Building understanding about why they do it

• Achieving insight into what the business can

do to satisfy their needs & wants in new ways

• Taking action to deliver these solutions in the

market
 How to get an insight?
• What role does category play in consumer’s lives?
– How can the brand improve someone’s life?

• What paradoxes of conflicting needs do people face?

– What opportunities are they looking for?

• When and why is it important for product to work?

– Who will notice?

• What is the standard of excellence in the category?

– Who do consumers envy?
 Keep asking ‘why’
to find the real need
behind an obvious insight
4. Benefits
 Benefits

• These describe the ways in which the brand

solves consumer problems or offers an
improvement in some aspect of their life
– The reasons to buy

• Brand benefits will be functional, emotional

and self-expressive
 Functional benefits
• Benefit based on a product attribute that
provides functional utility to the customer
– Most visible and common basis for value proposition

• Such a benefit will usually relate directly to the

functions performed by the product
• If a brand can dominate a key functional benefit,
it can dominate a category
– Close up and fresh breath
– Surf and stain removal
Remains untouched, no matter what.
 Emotional benefits
• When purchase or use of a brand gives a
positive feeling, that brand is providing an
emotional benefit

• Emotional benefit adds richness and depth to

the experience of owning and using the brand

• Most functional benefits will have a

corresponding feeling or set of feelings
– Freshness and confidence, in the case of DFT
 Self-expressive benefits

• A brand can provide a self-expressive benefit

by providing a way for a customer to
communicate his/her self-image

• Purchase and use of brands is one way to

fulfill the need for self-expression
– Feeling ‘smart’ by buying Surf
– The ‘can do’ attitude by wearing a Nike
Self-expressive Vs Emotional benefits

Emotional Benefits Self-expressive Benefits

• Feelings • Self

• Private products viz., • Public setting / products

books, soaps etc., viz., cars, apparels etc.,

• More transitory • Permanent, linked to

consumer’s personality

• Consequence of using • Act of using the product

the product
 Remember these should work together,
one flowing from the other.
E.g., Volvo is a safe car that makes you feel responsible
5. Values and Personality
 Values and personality
• Values are what the brand stands for and
believes in

• Personality is how the brand behaves

• The brand’s personality is the weighted

average of previous impressions

• In consumer’s mind, these impressions

merge to form an overall concept of what to
expect from the brand
Value and personality traits are what
the brand will live and die for!
6. Reason to Believe
Evidence of why the brand is better
than alternative brands
Superior product details
Expert endorsements
Emotional reasons related to
the values of the brand
Demonstrations
Heritage
7. Discriminator
 Discriminator

• The single most compelling reason for

the consumer to choose the brand

• Selected from all the elements of Brand

Key
– But by not using them all

• It expresses in one brief sentence what

gives the brand its competitive edge
• In choosing a discriminator, the criteria
to apply are:
– Is it unique and differentiated?
– Is it really relevant to the consumer insight?
– Is it consistent with all other elements in the
Brand Key even if it does not contain them all?
Make sure the discriminator is important:
- to capture attention,
- credible enough to be believed
- and different enough to be memorable
8. Essence
The distillation of the brand’s positioning
into one clear, defining thought
 The discriminator tells
what the brand offers
that’s better than competition.

The essence is what the brand is about.

 Of all components of the Brand Key,
this’ll need several attempts and refinements
Dreams of beauty
Confident closeness
Style statement
 Brand Key
6.
a nd Re
e s lity Be aso
alu ona lie n t
V s ve o
5. Per

8. Essence
4. B e r r
en m t o
efi
ts n su ina
. Co scrim
7 Di

3. Insight

1. Competitive Environment 2. Target Audience

Testing the Framework

The Case of Dove Soap

 Competitive Environment

• Dove bridges soaps and skincare

• Many women consider it part of their

beauty regime

• It competes directly with premium

soaps, such as Lux, Pears, Camay etc.,
 Target

• Women who want to care for their skin

• Who want to look and feel their personal best

• Aged 35 – 50

• Beginning to feel the effects of dry skin

 Key Insight

‘Soap leaves skin feeling dry and tight’

 Benefits

• Won’t dry my skin like soap can

• Makes my skin soft and smooth

• Helps me feel more feminine

 Brand Personality
• Honesty

• Purity

• Feminity

• Optimism

• Inner confidence
 Reason to Believe

• Contains ¼th moisturizing cream

• Recommended by doctors / dermatologists

• Indicts other products with clinical proof

• Endorsed by users
 Discriminator

‘Dove won’t dry my skin like soap can,

because it contains ¼th moisturizing cream’
 Essence

‘Restoring feminity’
Tips: To Write a Good Brand Key
Work with a team!
 Build a draft Brand Key,
continually challenging the team
to make it clearer and more precise
Use simple words
that are not
ambiguous.
Keep searching for
a better word
to express the
same idea
The guiding principle is, less is
more!
It really helps to put the Brand Key away
and revisit it a few days later
Positioning, like strategy, is about choice and sacrifice.

The fewer the ideas, the fewer the words, the better!
Remember, what we have seen represents
just the minimum use for Brand Key.

There is no maximum.
The only limit is your own ingenuity!
 Remember,
like a computer, a camera,
or a musical instrument,
Brand Key is a tool,
not a substitute for talent!
 Assignment:
Write a Brand Key for Raymond
 Competitive Environment

• Suiting and shirting fabric and ready

made men’s wear from domestic and
global brands
 Target

• Male

• Sec A and B

• Aged 21+

• Seeking status and lifestyle enhancement

 Key Insight

‘My attire reflects my persona’

 Benefits
Rational
• Style
• Premium quality
• Luxurious
• Perfect fit

Emotional
• Stature
• Elegance
 Brand Personality

• Confident

• Arrived

• Sophisticated

• Discerning

• Sensitive
 Reason to Believe

• Trusted

• Premium

• Lineage
 Discriminator

‘Raymond makes me exude elegance,

feel confident and command respect
thereby allowing me to be a complete man’
 Essence

‘Command respect’
Thanx!
 Do keep in touch
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