Strong brands don’t create rituals – their adorers do!

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: September 18th, 2006 | 0 Comments | Posted in: Uncategorized

Over the last 20 years building global premium consumer brands, I have found that it’s interesting that the rituals have been created.

What is particularly interesting is that the most powerful of the rituals or behaviours were not created or dreamt up by marketeers, but by the adorers of the brand itself – it’s customers and consumers.

Take for example Guinness, famous in it’s ritual about how to pull a pint of the black stuff with a 2 part pour, particular standards for the cleanliness of the lines, glassware and even the perfect angle to hold the glass to create a perfect pint.

I remember when a competitor came into the market – in fact they had been there for some considerable years with a brand that was by far from making any impact in the market.

But that all changed ….… when a ritual was created and then the previously un-trendy product all of a sudden became the “in thing” to drink.  All down to a ritual that was created with consumers about how to drink the product in an unorthodox way which caught the imagination of consumers.

It is easy to brush off the ritual as a fad but a smart brand owner will seek to uncover insights to determine what is at the root of the ritual and what might that mean for the further development of their brand.

So the questions for you as a leader of your professional services practice building a strong brand are:

• what rituals do you see in the way that your clients connect with your brand?
• in what way have they created rituals around your competitors brands?
• what insights can you unearth about what your clients needs or wants that they are looking to have served?
• how can you respond at pace to this insight?

Keep an open mind to what you might uncover – it could be the secret to unlocking real growth.