This week at Judge we'll have the chance to meet Kevin Roberts, who is CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi. He's the creator of a powerful concept that is intended to change the aim of brands: Lovemarks.
Now, the problem with such concept is that it is a little misleading. People at first glance believe that it means that if you can get your brand to the very heart of people, to appeal to their most intimate nature, you can skip the rational issues and get them to choose you, no matter the situation. The usual example is Apple, a powerful brand, well known, and one whose supporters
(should I say fans? lovers?) will defend against all winds, and should never betray.
But that is just half of the story, as I discovered today. Being myself an economist, I can’t accept the idea of having people acting irrationally in the long run. I know there’s passion in many of our actions, I understand that human nature is unstable and may make some unreasonable choices. But the thing is, sooner or later they stop and think... and if you want your brand to succeed, you need to be appealing in that moment too. I know my wife does love me, but I’m sure that when our car should fail, she’ll call the mechanic and not me, because beyond love, she needs to be assured of the results she’ll get. She’s rational. So if you think that a brand needs only to be loved for its appealing style, you’re doomed.
Well, the thing is that getting to read more of KR’s work I found that he has the same idea too. He defines Lovebrands not just as the ones you love, but also as brands you highly respect, meaning that they can deliver good results. Regretfully many of his fans seem to miss this part of the message. Maybe it’s because the idea of a “fun” brand is more lovable than the idea of a “respected” brand. The creative side usually has more charm than R&D, not to say market research, logistics or product design, or even distribution chain.
Furthermore, I believe the concept of being respected does not fully cover this “delivering” ability. I’d like to use the word “Trustworthy” or even “Faith” instead. One of the main functions of a brand is to fill the gaps of knowledge and information we have. Many times I’ll pick a brand because I believe (Hope!) the product sponsored by that name is reliable, that it will work for me even though I’m not an expert in that field. Brands convey trust, thus leading to Faith. On the other hand, if I’m an expert on some field I may not have brand as an important aspect of a decision.
Let me use the Apple example again, since the world of computers is one where you can see this
working. Some experts will gather all the pieces and build their own machine regardless of brands, while others, like me, will have to rely on somebody else to do that. Now, I believe Apple to be a powerful, appealing and respectable brand. Their work has been wonderful in the last 30 years (except that period they had Steve Jobs out), we all know that the Windows concept was born there, and Ipod has been a milestone!. Dare I say it’s a Lovebrand, and I do love it. Furthermore, if I was a designer or a musician, I’d most probably own one. But, I didn’t pick Apple when I bought this laptop. And that was because it is well known that the mainstream goes with PC, and that people that have Apple devices are always dealing with incompatibilities issues. I simply don’t trust it will be useful for me since I wouldn’t be able to deal with more incompatibilities on top of my own. That is, there’s love, but not trust (faith, reliability, confidence.... pick your own).
Having said that, what is most appealing in KR’s work is that he is creating ideas, opening dialogue. Trying to understand the way we are communicating through brands, messages, advertising and marketing. Beyond the precision of any concept, what one may understand from the use of certain word or the other, the real fun lies in looking to the horizon and beyond, to the way people providing services or goods and the people buying them are going to connect to each other. After all, brands are just a way of having people talking, and I still believe there’s no bigger value in the free market concept than someone being able to convince another person to give away part of his/her wealth in exchange for a “promise to deliver”, and have that done again, and again and again. And understanding the way in which that relation of Hope, Faith and Love works is a fascinating endeavour.
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Update 27/9: I've received written feedback from KR, who got a look at a printed version of this post. His words: "Andres, Rock and Roll!!!! I like it"
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