1. TAG ARCHIVES: BRAND LOVE CURVE
WRITE A BETTER POSITIONING STATEMENT BY
GOING TO WAR WITH YOUR CONSUMER’S ENEMY
14N OVEMBER2012
2 COMMENTS
The most beloved brands are based on an idea that is
worth loving.
It is the idea that connects the Brand with consumers. Consumers connect to ideas more than just
facts about your product. And under the Brand Idea are 5 sources of connectivity that help connect
the brand with consumers and drive Brand Love, including the brand promise, the strategic choices
you make, the brand’s ability to tell their story, the freshness of the product or service and the
overall experience and impressions it leaves with you. Everyone wants to debate what makes a
great brand–whether it’s the product, the advertising, the experience or through consumers. It is not
just one or the other–it’s the collective connection of all these things that make a brand beloved.

2. The best Brand Ideas start with the conquering of the Enemy of your Consumers
As people start writing positioning statements, they normally start off with some feature oriented
things they do better than others. And it normally just sounds like a category feature that everyone
basically does. It’s like saying a car drives. You end up with boring, undifferentiated, features that
you’ve said for years. Consumers don’t care about what you do until you begin caring about
consumers need.
And when Brand Leaders feel stuck I like to ask them: ”who is your consumer’s enemy?” Once you
answer that, you’ll see the ideas get richer. Use the attack of the enemy to generate a bigger idea
which then acts as a focal point to set up your brand promise. You will start to notice that the
answers get better because you are connecting with your consumer because it helps solve something
in their lives. You are now in the consumers shoes.
Here’s a few examples of how it might work:

3. Apple: The enemy of most people who have ever turned on a computer is Frustration.
Nothing ever seems to work and we end up overwhelmed and feeling incompetent.
Along comes Apple who attacks Frustration by making
everything so simple. Everything Apple does is about simplicity, not about technology. Apple
makes me feel smarter. Apple makes it easy for anyone to download songs, edit photos or even
just start using their computer on day 1, right out of the box. Taking that one step further,
Apple’s brand promiseis “we make it easier to love technology, so that you can experience the
future.”
Starbucks: Back in the 70′s, people loved taking a moment early in the morning to sit with their
coffee and morning newspaper. Folgers made millions on the tagline “The Best Part of Waking
Up is Folger’s in Your Cup”. Fast forward one generation and
the new enemy is the insane hectic lives that we all live. We rush to get the kids off to school,
rush to work, rush to grab a sandwich and work through lunch so we rush to every kid event
that night and then slither into bed at 11:15 pm. Starbucks attacks that hectic life with and the
big idea becomes a bit of ”me time”. Starbucks has created a bit of an escape with a euro-flare,
people who know your name, a drink customized to your own desires, a few indulgent treats
and a nice leather chair to sit with your best friend. The Starbucks brand promise is “we give
you a moment in your day where you can just escape and spoil yourself”
Special K: For all of us who have gained a few pounds over the years, we keep going on diets
and failing over again. It’s just too difficult for us to make such a life style change. Diets are just

4. too hard. And we are left wearing our “fat pants”. The
enemy is not being able to squeeze into your favorite pair of jeans anymore. Special K came
along and created the 2-week challenge to attack the enemy, offering the easiest diet that
anyone can do. Just replace two meals a day with Special K and you’ll be able to lose weight.
It’s that easy. The brand promise is “With the Special K Challenge, it’s a diet so easy that
anyone can drop a Jean size in two weeks.”
So who is your Consumer’s Enemy? And how do you turn the attack on that enemy
into a Brand Idea?
Here’s a presentation on what makes a Beloved Brand:
To read and Article on How Brand Love creates Brand Power, follow this link: Brand Love
http://beloved-brands.com/tag/brand-love-curve/