Great Brands Make Us Bigger

Go read gapingvoid. Or Halley’s Comment. Or Seth’s Blog. Or Tom Peters. Or any other blog you can’t go a day without reading. It might be a stretch to call these four blogs “brands,” but the fact is, after you get done reading them, there’s a good chance you feel bigger than before you started. Expanded by the ideas, wisdom and energy imparted by their brilliant authors.

Great brands make us bigger. They open doors in us. Doors to the parts of our soul we didn’t even know existed. Or doors that we closed a long time ago because it wasn’t safe to let those parts of us come out. Or doors we closed just because we don’t live there any more - mentally, emotionally or geographically.

Scott Goodson, writing in reveries, states:

“The best brands add value and meaning to people’s lives. They develop a relationship way beyond the sale.”

I think back to the Anheuser Busch, “Honoring Our Troops” Super Bowl commercial. It opened some doors in me. My down-home, Midwestern roots. My eight years in the US Navy and the sense of patriotism that goes along with it. Although I rarely express those parts of myself (because I no longer live in that world), they’re in me, and they always will be.

Will I ever drink a Budweiser beer? Probably not, but after watching the commercial, I feel bigger. In some ways more proud and in touch with lost parts of myself. But what value does that have to Anheuser Busch? Well, other than me blogging about it, not much. To me, it’s priceless. There are, however, plenty of patriotic beer drinkers who still reside in middle America. Think they’re closer to Budweiser products because of that commercial? I do.

Jennifer Rice, What’s Your Brand Mantra:

“Successful brands allow customers to assign their own meaning to a product or service, which gives them a feeling of ownership and self-expression.”

THE HUGHTRAIN: “THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN IS INFINITE.”

Watch an iPod commercial. The product is about so much more than THE PRODUCT. The gadget. The gizmo. It’s about the door it opens in you - the fresh, young, hip space in your soul that you visit occasionally, but should probably visit more often. It’s about the part of you that’s liberated whether you ever actually buy the product or not. It’s about how much bigger you feel because of the entire iPod experience.

Read a Tom Peters rant. Disjointed. Erratic. Energetic. Buzzing along like he does. Like a double shot of espresso chased down with a 40 ounce Red Bull. But it starts the synapses firing off in your brain like Jiffy Pop jumping out of the pan. And you feel bigger. Your mind feels bigger. More alive.

WELCOME TO XYZ COMPANY. HOW MAY WE BLAST OPEN SOME DOORS TO YOUR SOUL TODAY?

That needs to be the mantra of every business trying to make it in the 21st century.

Kathy Sierra from Creating Passionate Users:

“The more you learn, the better you are at something. The better you are, the more engaging it is. If you can help people have more of that feeling, they won’t talk about how good you are– they’ll talk about how much they kick ass.

“And that’s a powerful formula for creating passionate users.”

Great brands create passionate users.

GREAT BRANDS MAKE US BIGGER.