“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.” David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising
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This is the first of two articles on this brand.
If you’re looking for the video that launched this brand, click here.
If you’ve ever sought out how to get your customer’s attention only to have the answer slip through your fingers, this post is for you.
It gives you the tools to successfully capture your customer’s attention and be their brand of choice. (Some of this project uses principles Nike has used to create its world-class brand.)
This is a proven method. Read on to see an actual example hot off the press.
Capturing Your Customer’s Attention:
Easy If You Know This One Skill
The following short story tells you all you need to know.
Recently, I was asked to brand a new water product specifically formulated for athletes for natural, rapid recovery.
No caffeine. No sugar. No carbs. Nothing.
In other words, they discovered the actual source of why athletes take a long time to get their “second wind.”
After collecting some incredible insights into what drives athletes, I developed the product name and even more importantly the tagline that mirrored the aspirations and values of the athletic mindset, a detail too often overlooked by startups and brands in general.
So I told my client we needed to further ask actual athletes these questions:
- “Why do you do what they do as an athlete?” and
- “What’s your goal? Your agenda?”
…just so we could isolate and crystallize their exact impulse and motivation.
After asking various questions, crystallizing their passion, and narrowing it down to something in their language (as stated by advertising legend David Ogilvy above), it finally came down to two words, “Defy limitation.”
Nothing excited the athletes we spoke with as much as those two words. Not by a long shot.
This became the anchor for the name, the slogan, and the overall brand personality.
Thus, the brand was born.
The product descriptor closed the loop: “Earth’s 1st water formulated for athletic performance.”
Note this is for “athletic performance” versus just being for athletes (which would have excluded some who may not have considered themselves “athletes”). Subtle but vitally important.
With that, we could now do more than just talk as a brand.
We now had the tools, and message, necessary to be heard.
If You Can Count to Three, You Can
Learn to Command Their Attention
Looking at what was done above, how did we develop a brand and message that resonated with the target audience?
It was achieved (as will be shown below with the whole campaign) in 3 steps:
- We were interested in what our audience had to say, not just in what we had to say
- We asked them what their actual below-the-surface need was
- We developed the brand after we understood that need, in their language.
In other words, you must first realize you don’t know it all. You may know it all about your product but you must learn about your audience.
Secondly, you must find out what they say, and more than that, dig deep until you’ve gotten to the core.
Lastly, intelligently work out how to say it in a way that stands apart from your competitors (remembering not to water it down with cliches that lessen your brand’s impact).
Want to See an Example
How This is Done?
What you see below is the logo and the package design.
This is followed by the poster campaign below that will follow after the launch of Defiance Fuel, as a flanking tool.
The logo and tagline:
Here is the package design:
And here is the poster campaign that captured the essence of the brand:
And last but certainly not least (this is my personal favorite, note the lower right-hand corner logo):
This leaves me with only this question: How will you defy limitation for your brand message to capture your customer’s attention?
If you don’t have an answer to that, then let’s talk. (And if you haven’t seen the video that accompanied the launch, click here.)