Brand Admiration: Why Some Brands Are Loved Unconditionally (and What You Can Learn From Them)
You're hours away from taking the trip of a lifetime to Europe. French vineyards. Swiss mountains. Greek islands. You've saved up all your vacation time. You can't wait!
You're about to walk out the door, and your phone buzzes. It's a text message from the airline.
The plane that's supposed to take you away to paradise has been taken out of commission because of a mechanical issue (that's their fault!), and you can't leave until tomorrow.
How would you react in that scenario?
If you're like most of us, you'd lash out—demanding accountability from the airline and airing your grievances to anyone who would listen.
But one airline's flyers tend to respond very differently.
The Power of Trust, Love, and Respect
Unlike most of its competitors, Virgin America—which has finished atop the annual Airline Quality Ratings for four consecutive years—tends to catch less flak from customers when something goes wrong. Take, for instance, this recent exchange via Twitter:
Josh Zywien is a content marketer who writes for MarketingProfs: Made to Order, Original Content Services, which helps clients generate leads, drive site traffic, and build their brands through useful, well designed content.
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Well, I downloaded the white paper and I will probably buy their book because I am a sucker for any new brand book. Over thirty years, I have quite a stack, each promises new thinking. But permit me to be cynical.
"Admiration" is simply another abstract level added on top of the brand jargon heap that clients are supposed to juggle. You can find it in the writing of Drucker, Porter, Kotler, Aaker, and a host of lesser knowns. Of course it can be supported with tons of research. Go to Amazon (powerful, but not sure admired) and check out the authors' other selections: Brand Relationships, Brand Attachment, Brand Meaning, Brand Management (this last one really needed some imagination). Me thinks this is another way to repack thinking, add a twist and sell it as a front-end to a consultant relationship. I get it ... wish I would of done ...and actually admire it. All the stuff that gets you admired, is all the stuff that separates strong brands from weaker copy cats - our business has simply dumbed down what strong means. Now we seem to imply there are levels of "strong."
There is more than enough room to help clients and marketers see, understand, and do the basics that lead to strong brands. Really "admire" - in your gut - your customers and you stand a good chance of being admired as a brand. Be tuned to what is valuable to customers. Make something valuable. Pay attention to the experience around the product. Deliver consistently. Connect emotionally. Communicate clearly.
The Virgin tweet examples in this article come from this point-of-view. So when is the new book out, I want to buy it and add to my stack.
Hi Mike
The book will be out in a few months (Wiley is publishing it). Yes, admiration is a word people throw around, but this book is first to make clear what admiration means. Anyway, I'll let the authors know you find it interesting.
Thanks, Allen
Thanks for reading, Mike! Trust me—I'm as much a skeptic of "new" marketing and branding concepts as anyone. And I couldn't agree more with your second to last paragraph.
That said, I read the manuscript and I came away very impressed with how the authors present and package the research behind brand admiration. It's not a composite of regurgitated ideas repackaged as something new. The book is chock-full of great examples and actionable takeaways that can be applied to virtually any business. Some of the basic principles might seem obvious on the surface, but if they were easy to execute then every brand would be admired. This book is an effective, easy-to-follow roadmap for doing the things—some of them basic, some of them more complex and nuanced—that lead people to feel empowered, enabled, and inspired by a brand. Those feelings yield admiration, which in turn yields loyalty and advocacy.
So, yes—I understand the instinct to be cynical. But having read the book, I highly doubt you'll be disappointed. Thanks again for reading through the post and sharing your thoughts!