From the point of view of the buyer, all those toasters are going to blend into one another and make what should be a simple purchase just a shot in the dark.  And when you think about it, aren’t many of the products we buy just like toasters?  Fact is, it’s pretty tough to differentiate your product based on physical features.  Even when you do come up with something different and better, it is going to be quickly copied by your competitors and become just another dial or button.

All those buttons and dials are designed into toasters to increase the number of choices you have.  Trouble is, that many choices makes the final choice harder, not easier.  That’s where your brand comes in.  Where products are designed to increase choice, your brand is designed to simplify choice — in other words to cut through all those dials, buttons and slot to make your product stand out.  And one of the key components of your brand is to do something your product and its outstanding features cannot do — to make your toaster unique.

Uniqueness, it turns out, mostly resides in the mind of the buyer, not in the features of the product.  So, the challenge to being unique is to understand your customers well enough to know the rational and emotional components of their decision making.  You might say that there is nothing emotional about a toaster.  I’d say that is true only because toaster manufacturers have allowed it to be so.  If a processor (that I can’t even see) in my computer  can cause me to have feelings of trust and confidence, surely a toaster that helps prepare breakfast for my family and kids can also elicit powerful emotions and give me a great reason to look for that brand of toaster.

And finally, look at those toasters again.  Who made up the rule that the brand identification on a toaster must be so small?  Is Nike shy about the size of its “swoosh” on shoes or apparel?  Does Marriott try to hide its name on buildings, or does 3M try to make the 3 and the M as small as possible?  Maybe toaster brands ought to show a little more pride — and maybe they will once they have a brand that stands for something people value.

Value in its simplest terms is “What you get for what you pay.” It all seems very simple and easy to understand. I spend $1.50 for my favorite soft drink. When I am hot and thirsty the cold soft drink is refreshing and enjoyable. If that is what I wanted, it was a great value for a $1.50. If I am at a ball game, in great seats near the field, on a hot, sunny day, I am willing to pay $5.00 for the same soft drink. $5.00 is also a good value. The product I got in both cases was essentially the same. Why would I pay over three times more in one situation and still think it was a good value? In both cases, the soft drink was wet, cold and tasted the same. What makes the value more at the game? Context!

Value can go up or down depending on many things separate from the actual product itself. The location, conditions, convenience, style, and presentation all make a difference. Value, it turns out, isn’t a fixed number for an individual. It isn’t a cold hard number or fact. Value is all about the perception of the customer in the context of the moment. If I perceive the soft drink to be just the thing I need at the ball game to quench my thirst, I am willing to pay more for it. Especially if the game is great and I don’t want to leave my seat. The soft drink is a good value.

As a brand manager, we strive to have our customers perceive our brand as the best value. When we market our brands with the context in mind, we can charge for the value we create. Always ask “what is the context” to unlock all the value you are creating?

Awareness, unfortunately isn’t the best predictor of sales. Hearing about the brand doesn’t provide enough knowledge to buy. The marketer must strive to develop brand familiarity with the potential customers of the brand. Familiarity is a higher standard than awareness, it is a measure of the knowledge and understanding the customer has about the brand.

My son said, “Dad, you are making this too hard. Have you heard of Snoop Doggy Dogg*?” I said “Yes”. He asked, “What kind of music does he play?” I said “Rock.” My son said, “No, he plays rap, you are aware, but not familiar, you wouldn’t know which section in the store would have his music.” He is so right. We want to build familiarity so customers have the information they need to make a purchase.

Our goal is to focus on the key messages that build understanding and knowledge. The ideas that reinforce why the brand is relevant to the customer and different from the competition increase familiarity and help move the customer’s desire to purchase.

*Snoop Doggy Dogg changed his name to Snoop Dogg in 1996

Having your customers perceive your brand, as the best value, should be the goal of every business leader. Best value doesn’t mean lowest price. Consistently delivering a relevant and differentiated brand experience that exceeds the expectations for the brand drives brand loyalty. Creating, reinforcing and growing brand loyal customers increase share of your customer’s purchases and increases market share.

Great strategies, positions and creative communication investments all to often are diminished by launches that can’t deliver on the brand promise. We strive for ensuring a quality brand experience increases sales and can actually reduce operational costs.

Using proven techniques for better market understanding, analytic frameworks for diagnosing and improving brand health and experienced experts for solving challenges, we help our clients consistently deliver brand experiences across all every customer touch point.

• A brand is nothing more or less than a promise
• This promise resides in the hearts and minds of your customers and your prospects, who are looking across the market to find a  brand that resonates with their wants and desires, and that fits with who they perceive themselves to be.

To impact your market, you have to understand both the rational and emotional sides of your customers, and you have to lead them to your brand by taking a stand for what your brand will be. Such a stand requires that you make tough choices about your brand — the toughest being the development of a single-focused brand promise.

This brand promise is the golden thread that weaves through everything touching your customers’ experience. This promise will need to resonate across all your market segments, and with your company leadership and employees. The promise will lead to value propositions you will form for your different markets, as well as key messages you will use to communicate about your brand.

We have created a brand development methodology that calls on you to take leadership for your brand by setting a vision for what you want your brand to be. We then get direct customer/prospect feedback on your ideas, so that in the end who you want to be matches with who your customer want you to be and believe you can be.

The golden thread weaving a great brand promise to customer satisfaction is strong execution right down to the smallest detail. At Merton Adams we setup systems, processes and structure by training staff, creating incentives, rewarding behaviors and designing metric systems that help our clients exceed expectations at every customer touchpoint.

Let Merton Adams help you deliver a world-class experience.

Businesses that deliver the best value create, reinforce and grow brand loyal customers to achieve sustainable, profitable growth. Growing market share and share of customer together is the path to healthy growth. Increasing share of customer from brand loyal customers drives profitable growth. Loyal customers value the products and services from the brand and are willing to pay more and buy more from the brand.

Increasing share of customer from non-loyal customers requires lower prices and lower margins driving growth without profit.

Not the lowest price! The best perceived value isn’t necessarily the lowest price! A product or service that has a low price but doesn’t meet the needs of the customer won’t a perceived as the best value by the customer. Products and services that do meet their needs at a fair price will be perceived as the best value if the customer knows about all the services.

Aligning the functions of the organization to consistently deliver a relevant and differentiated brand promise at a fair price builds customer loyalty to the promise of the brand.

We help our customers identify segments, position their business and brands to be special and deliver the experience that delivers the best-perceived value to their customers.

The Merton Adams team will work with you to help you be create the expectations and deliver the experiences that create, reinforce and grow brand loyal customers, the foundation of sustainable, profitable growth.