Brand Essence derives from a brand-business’ Brand Promise. To be relevantly differentiated, every brand-business must have a Brand Promise. Brand Promise defines the relevant, differentiating, trustworthy expected brand experience the brand-business will deliver time after time. Brand Promise describes what a brand is intended to stand for in the mind of a specific group of customers.

The Brand Essence is essentially a short-hand, compelling way in which to communicate the Brand Promise Internally. For example, Forever Young was the Brand Essence for McDonald’s Brand Promise. But, it also served as a rallying cry for employees around the world.

Brand Essence must capture the motivating intent of the Brand Promise and the true core of the brand-business.

Sadly, as a phrase, Brand Essence is developing a bad reputation. Brand Essence is marred by many marketers’ mismanagement of their brand-businesses’ relevant differentiation. There is also the issue with marketing itself: a function that has devolved from a profession into a trade. Marketing has, unfortunately, become the trade of managing and executing marketing communications.

One of the worst industries for Brand Essence mismanagement is the hotel industry. As noted in The Wall Street Journal recently, there are “Zillions of Hotel Brands Now.” And, as noted, the growth of these brands are really designed to keep owners (who franchise the hotels) happy. Happier franchisees, happier – more profitable – brand-business owners.

Hotel brand-business owners, such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and IHG, all defend the numerous brands as satisfying guest needs. The hotel executives support the explosion of hotel brands by saying that each one has its own Brand Essence. But, a closer look at the brand-businesses provides little, if any, significant relevant differentiation.

The Wall Street Journal highlights a new entry from Hilton called Spark. As I pointed out earlier this year, Spark is a new hotel brand in Hilton’s Elevated Essentials group of hospitality offerings. The Elevated Essentials category comprises Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton and Spark by Hilton. The overarching description of the Elevated Essentials group is “Signature amenities and services in all the places you want to be.” This is a description based on features, not on benefits, emotional or social rewards.

Hilton executives interviewed for Wall Street Journal reporting rave about Spark by Hilton. But, as one professor in hospitality stated, the more fractionated the hotel brand-businesses become, the more guests face a “confusing sea of sameness.”

For example, here is a snapshot of the brands in Hilton’s Elevated Essentials portfolio:

Spark by Hilton

Spark by Hilton: “Practically inspired. Simply delightful. A budget-friendly stay offering the best of everything you need, done just the way you want.”

Spark by Hilton’s elements are: thoughtful simplicity, reliable service, unexpected touches and consistent quality.

Hilton Garden Inn 

Hilton Garden Inn: “Offering upscale accommodations and unexpected amenities to open up the brighter side of travel and out the best in you.”

“Our goal is to make your stay better and brighter. If something isn’t just the way you like it, simply let any hotel team member know, and we’ll make it right. Guaranteed.”

Hampton by Hilton 

Hampton by Hilton: “Always delivering an exceptional experience you deserve with thoughtful service, free hot breakfast and a warm, friendly smile. Every time.”

Every Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites is committed to the 100% Hampton Guarantee providing an exceptional guest experience and consistent, high-quality accommodations and amenities.”

Tru by Hilton 

Tru by Hilton: “With free pancake breakfast, a playful lobby packed with games and cozy nooks, and fun-sized rooms, you’ll get true comfort and more value.”

“At Tru, we’re rethinking hotel design to deal in trade-ups, not trade-offs. That means more space to spark creativity, more opportunities for connection and thoughtfully redesigned guest rooms that concentrate on comfort. Add in a must-see lobby and you’ve found your favorite cost-conscious hotel.”

What are the relevant differentiation of these brand-businesses? No wonder, people think Brand Essence is a marketing throw-away term.

Brand Essence is so much more important than the hotel industry appears to understand. Here is a true story about how Brand Essence actually works to guide all thought and action on behalf of a brand-business:

In the late 1980s, after its privatization by the Thatcher administration, British Airways (BA) reinvented the trans-Atlantic flying brand experience. Under the stewardship of Sir Colin Marshall and a first rate marketing group, BA made some big decisions about how it wanted passengers to feel about the BA total brand experience throughout the entire customer journey.

BA created a Brand Promise and Brand Essence for each service class. BA decided to focus on highly profitable business travelers who travel frequently back-and-forth over the Atlantic Ocean.

BA recognized the limitations of what can be delivered in-flight after people are fed and settled in for the trip. And, eastbound flights to the UK tend to be overnight flights, so most people try to sleep.

With this reality, BA turned to the on-ground experience, particularly the branded BA lounges. The idea: Start your journey by experiencing BA’s hospitality before you even step into the plane; differentiate the classes of service by lounges providing different levels of catering. End your journey refreshed and ready to go to work by showering, having clothes pressed and proper breakfast.

A 1993 BA booklet available in BA lounges, titled –Step into a new world, It’s the Way we make business travellers feel that makes us the world’s favourite – defined the new business class, first class and Concorde class services. The Brand Essence and Brand Promise for each service class are extrapolated from the brochure:

• Club World (Business)

Brand Essence: Time to think. Time to relax.

Brand Promise: Why? Because you need time to prepare yourself for business.

We offer you a new world of service and comfort in Club World—in the air and on the ground.

• First Class
  Brand Essence: Space to sleep. Space to unwind.

Brand Promise: Why? Important decisions affecting your company’s future? Sleep on them.

Our First Class service is now truly in a class of its own. We give you space to take time out from your hectic business life. We give you time to reflect before you act.

• Concorde

Brand Essence: Speed—the conquest of time.

Brand Promise: Why? Concorde recognizes the value of your time.

Concorde creates more time for you. Depart London 10:30am arrive New York 9:20am.

Brand-businesses are promises of relevant and differentiated experiences. The total brand experience (functional, emotional, and social relative to its costs – price, time and effort) defines the relevant distinctiveness of the brand. A Brand Essence is how to easily, persuasively and powerfully communicate this relevant differentiation.

Having brand-businesses that are undifferentiated are neither consumer-focused nor brand-business healthy. As one Marriott loyal user told The Wall Street Journal, “his recent stay was at perhaps Spring Hill Suites or a Residence Inn,” he was not certain.

Egregious Brand Promise and Brand Essence overlap or genericization is detrimental to the health of the brand-business portfolio. This type of marketing mismanagement can lead to customers perceiving brand-businesses as commodities with no relevant differentiation, putting enduring profitable growth at risk.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Larry Light, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I

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The reality is if you haven’t thought deeply about your brand purpose and values and how these might be used to forge stronger bonds with consumers then your still doing planning but it is not really strategic planning in a brand sense.

Here is a solid example of the impact strategic thinking can deliver. In repositioning the Nike women’s brand we used a technique called depth workshops to deeply explore consumer perceptions of the category of women’s sports and fitness and the role it played in their lives. We compared how this was different from how young men perceived the role of sports. We discovered men view sports very different in a number of important ways. This was critical knowledge because Nike’s brand positioning platform was an all male platform. Product design cues and advertising were intentionally all male. This was causing brand dissonance with women prospects and over a ten-year period a 60% decline in footwear sales to women. We learned that by framing the challenge in the right way that we were able to get an accurate read on brand positioning issues in all dimensions and what to do about it. When Nike acted on these findings it quickly turned around the sales decline and grew 400% in the next five years.

The Inner World Of Value Creation

I started my career in the late 1970’s working for the accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand straight out of college. From there I moved into positions in financial management in a government agency and then inside Nike. In finance at Nike I worked on re-building the core financial control and reporting systems. But, none of the budgeting and management reporting inside our accounting systems revealed how “value” was created with consumers. When I became the director of marketing insights and brand planning at Nike however, I entered deeply into the inner world of how value is actually created.

Consumers notice many “intangibles” in how they size up products and brands. They notice price/value relationships, they notice proprietary performance characteristics, design leadership, brand character and imagination, and the inspirational, aspirational and uplifting nature of the way a company communicates, to name a few of intangibles. In this world of intangibles and branding I discovered that some products and advertising campaigns contained “integrated value” that is, they simultaneously delivered functional and emotional benefits. They weren’t simple or one-dimensional value constructs. I also learned that the more human insight into latent and tacit needs and the more layered the values in a product and / or advertisement the more likely it was to deliver exceptional results.

The ‘Just Do It’ campaign for example contained Nike’s brand essence and a layering of ‘integrated brand values’ over time. JDI was connected to Nike’s brand purpose, which was to bring innovation and inspiration to the athlete in all of us. JDI is now in its third decade. It has consistently communicated that Nike believes everyone is an athlete and can benefit from experiencing the joy of sports and fitness participation. JDI is part of a clearly framed brand platform. This platform builds brand-positioning power over time in a way that never becomes tired or shopworn. It codified a brand mantra or essence, which keeps the brand focused on ‘authentic athletic performance’. This mantra provides an important center to the brand for a variety of reasons.

The Benefits Of Defining Your Brand Essence:

• Locates the source of  ‘identity value’ in a magnetically attractive way
• Provides “little epiphanies” for consumers that puts feelings on barely perceptible desires
• Focuses brand positioning power over time
• Creates creative design, values & brand story guidelines
• Blocks fragmentation of internal energy, chasing disparate projects
• Provides a brand fit screen for new ideas
• Enables brand growth with values and message integrity

Nike’s Just Do It campaign shows how these benefits were simultaneously achieved over a long period of time. Here’s the backstory on the brand brief that led to the creation of the Just Do It campaign. This is one of the best examples that exists in business for how to fight the natural forces of brand entropy.

Brand As The Source Of Growth

In conclusion I’d like to leave you with the idea that your brand is far more than a simple trademark. Your brand is a dynamic symbol, a focusing mechanism and a very powerful tool for discovering business growth related insights. Brands can be used as an innovation vessel that captures the sum total of all experiences and dreams of the people who touch it. Your brand is also a living organism, like a tree. Tree’s start out as seeds and then grow up and out in search of the light. A more intimate understanding of how to use brand planning and innovation tools can help you harness and focus more light (i.e. consumer insight and integrated value) in order to thrive and prosper in good times or bad.

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The implication of this attribute is a functional benefit, which is the second rung on the ladder. And the implication of a functional benefit is an emotional benefit, which is the third rung on the ladder. Finally, the emotional benefit implies the brand’s essence. As the ladder is ascended, the focus is less on the attributes of the brand and more on the role that the brand plays in consumers’ lives.

To illustrate the laddering process, consider how the weight-loss brand Jenny Craig might use laddering to market its weight-control meals. Jenny Craig delivers low-calorie meals that provide the needed balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The implication of these attributes is that they will facilitate healthy weight loss. Losing weight will enhance physical appearance and thus self-esteem, as reflected in greater satisfaction with life. Thus, Jenny Craig’s essence is enhancing the enjoyment of life, which is the consumer’s goal in using the brand.

Brand essence can also be developed by associating a brand with brands in other categories that share a common goal. In a McDonald’s ad depicting a blind date, a young man named Larry calls on his date. He immediately attempts to manage her expectations by clarifying who he is and who he is not. He points out that he is not a doctor, lawyer, banker, or CPA. He is a store clerk. He tells his date that they will not be dining at a bistro, casa, or maison, nor will they be attending the opera, the symphony, or the ballet. Instead he proposes that they drive in his ordinary car to McDonald’s and then go to a movie. The factors common to Larry’s job, car, and choice of restaurant and entertainment imply McDonald’s brand’s essence, an unpretentious place to get a good meal.

The association of a brand with products in disparate categories often results in the anthropomorphizing of the brand. Thus, brands might be viewed as having a gender, age, social class, as well as personality characteristics. Apple is approachable, Burger King is masculine, and Old Navy is family-oriented. Cartier watches are upscale and Timex is for everybody. Thus, in developing a brand’s position, it is important to recognize that the benefits selected reflect the brand’s personality, which is as much a part of the brand as its category membership and point of difference. Indeed, when Levi’s positioned its brand to attract upscale consumers, it dropped its line of coveralls, which implied that it was a blue-collar brand.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider By: John Wiley & Sons, excerpted from Kellogg on Marketing, 2nd Edition by Alice M. Tybout (editor), Bobby J. Calder (editor), Phillip Kotler (foreword by) (c) 2010 by The Kellogg School of Marketing.

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Some examples are “Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance,” “Hallmark: Caring Shared,” “Disney: Fun Family Entertainment or “Disneyworld, Magical Fun,” “Starbucks: Rewarding Everyday Moments,” “The Nature Conservancy: Saving Great Places.” (Typically, it is rare for an organization’s brand essence and slogan to be the same.  For instance, Nike’s essence – “authentic athletic performance” – was translated to the following two slogans: “Just do it!” and “I can.” But, “Saving Great Places” happens to be The Nature Conservancy’s brand essence and its slogan.)

Kevin Keller, brand expert and author of the popular brand book, Strategic Brand Management, coined the term “brand mantra,” which is very closely related to brand essence. The “mantra” concept reinforces the role of brand essence in internal communication. Kevin says, [brand mantra] should “define the category of business for the brand and set brand boundaries. It should also clarify what is unique about the brand. It should be memorable. As a result it should be short, crisp and vivid in meaning. Ideally, the brand mantra would also stake out ground that is personally meaningful and relevant to as many employees as possible.”

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Stories and anecdotes make a point real to people and imbed it in their memories. Brand stories and anecdotes can become legends. As they are told and retold, they can raise the brand to a mythological level. Stories are often told about consumer experiences that far exceed expectations. This could be the result of extraordinary customer service or some other incredible experience with the brand. Going out of your way as an organization to create these experiences will pay huge dividends – word-of-mouth marketing can not be underestimated. Ideally, you create experiences that reinforce your brand’s point of difference.

For instance, a Hallmark card shop owner cared so much for one of her customers that when the customer could not find what she was looking for in the store, the owner drove several miles away to a few other Hallmark stores until she found what the customer was looking for. She hand delivered it to the customer’s house that evening, at no charge, reinforcing Hallmark’s brand essence of “caring shared.” Now that is the stuff of legends. Delivering this type of service, even occasionally, generates significant word-of-mouth brand advocacy.

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