Edward Cervantes and my podcast about business and culture is on it’s second episode.
In this episode, Edward has his mind blown at the scale and growth of the Esports industry. I find it pretty crazy as well, but I knew about some of the numbers around the industry size and prize pools.
Bottom line: esports is going to be as big as an industry as any of the franchise leagues for traditional sports are right now: NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.
The interesting thing about sub-brands is their effect. They change the perceptions and expectations of the parent brand. Used effectively, this can be advantageous to enter a new market where you have to talk to a different type of buyer than your parent brand usually talks too.
Lenovo is a large, multinational computer hardware manufacturer that services the business market. They are used to talking to the head of IT for large corporations and medium-sized businesses. Since IBM sold them the ThinkPad brand and business, they have become the defacto in supplying IT guys with the hardware they need to keep companies running.
But what if they sold gaming computers too? Well, they do.
Gamers are a totally different type of buyer than IT guys. Ironically, IT guys are probably gamers, but even the same person will be in a totally different mindset at work than at home playing games.
The Lenovo Legion sub-brand talks in a totally different way than the rest of Lenovo. Their colours are vibrant on a black background when the rest of Lenovo is corporate black, white, blue and grey. The language they use in their copy is way more aggressive for the Lenovo Legion sub-brand relative to the bland and corporate language elsewhere.
The Lenovo Legion sub-brand is interesting because it exercises all of the interesting things a sub-brand can do for a parent brand. Bottom line, it speaks to a totally different audience than the parent brand: Lenovo.
An interesting, illustrated way into the science of behavioural economics.
I read and reviewed “Amazing Decisions: The Illustrated Guide to Improving Business Deals and Family Meals” written by Dan Ariely and illustrated by Matt R. Trower.
Here is a video outlining my thoughts on the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ucN9LIfHMc
Buy the book here: https://amzn.to/2n1VhD0 (Amazon Affiliate link – I make a small commission)
It is a book that continues and applies Dan Ariely’s work in behavioral economics. He is fighting the idea from classical economics that we are all perfectly rational actors who only seek to increase our own wealth and wellbeing.
This book is unique. It is jam-packed with science and real-world advice, but that content is conveyed through a fictional story illustrated in a comic book style. It defies the conventions of business books, self-help books, and comic books.
The book is interesting, and I recommend it. There is a lot of actionable advice in here and helped me consider using social norms to help shape behavior as opposed to making everything a transaction.
The book has a clear thesis: both social norms and market forces can be powerful motivators/deterrents but never should the two mix, or you will get unexpected and strange results. You might end up promoting a behavior you are trying to deter. People often use market tools like costs, fees, and penalties when building and relying on relationships may be cheaper and more effective.
It’s not a perfect book. In the first third of the book, the protagonist fumbles through his life, trying to apply market tools to his personal life. This is meant to motivate you to consider the social motivators all around us. But the main character is so socially inept that he is hard to empathize with. It just doesn’t ring true.
Also, there is a constant dynamic where the “social norms fairy” argues with the “market norms fairy,” and social norms always wins. I take the point of the book, but it would be nice to see a study or two where market tools were the appropriate option. Let the “market norms fairy” win once and a while!
On the whole, it is a good book and worth a read, especially because the barrier to entry is so low. The book is relatively inexpensive, very approachable, and readable in one sitting. It is an excellent way into science literature for someone who has a hard time with science books and scientific papers.
My ongoing podcast with Edward Cervantes just launched with its first episode.
In the first episode, Ed and I talk about the “We The North” slogan. Is it a cultural movement or genius-level marketing by Sid Lee Toronto. Whatever you think of it, it is hard to argue that the rallying cry did not contribute to the Toronto Raptor’s 2019 NBA Championship win.
Brand essence is the reliable feeling fans of a brand come to expect when they use products or see media from that brand. Every valuable brand has a well-defined brand essence; it is the most defensible part of brand equity.
So which was my favourite brand essence of the brand I looked into?
Monstercat = Losing Yourself in Music
Monstercat is a Vancouver based music label that is known for EDM music. They have adjusted the music label business model to work better with the production of EDM music and the preferences of the artists. Instead of signing artists to a contract, they buy the distribution rights of individual tracks. They add value by getting great illustrators and designers to do the art, putting it up on streaming sites, and managing the copyrights and licensing for YouTube, movies, and TV.
While they don’t explicitly state that their brand essence is “losing yourself in music,” it is a common feeling I and many of their fans have come to expect. Their music varies by genre and emotions attached to the songs: Chill Out songs can mellow you out while Drum and Bass are good songs to work out to. But you can lose your sense of self and surroundings in any one of their songs.
Brand Association definition noun. A concept, emotion, object or image, linked to the brand via memory. “There is a brand association between Quiksilver and surfing in customers minds.”
Creating links between a company and other concepts is what a designer should be doing all the time.
My background is in Industrial Design. At the Carleton SID (where I earned my bachelor’s degree), we learned how to take people prior knowledge and associations and leverage them to make easy to use products. Red equates to stop in everyone’s mind, so having a red button that stops something just makes sense. There is no point in trying to build a new association.
Using that sense to create brand associations is what I can offer a new company as a brand designer. I can use pre-established associations in peoples minds to give a new brand desirable qualities.
For example, when I designed the Strike Team logo for a competitive eSports team, it was determined that a sense of dominance and authority would be advantageous for competition.
What already has a sense of authority and dominance? The police. So the questions becomes: what design elements commonly associated with the police can we use in the logo?
In the final product, the answer to that question was the colour scheme. I did try other logo concepts where we used the shield shape of a police officer’s badge, but another direction was chosen.
Amateur designers design to aesthetics, but pro designer are problem solvers. I throw no judgment towards designers just starting out; there was a point in my development where I added gradients to everything because that is what people seemed to like the look of. I’ve moved on.
How do you create the correct brand associations for a net new brand? That’s just another problem that an expert designer could solve.
You can have a good company with a bad name, but it’s growth will be inhibited. A name is an opportunity to signal what your brand is about; in this case, we want to signal two things: 1) snowboard /ski lifestyle and 2) personal care products.
We used the Multiply Method to generate names. We came up with a list of words associated with mountain sports, and a list of works common in personal care. We combined the words in a table. After brainstorming hundreds of names, we eliminated them based on workability, length, domain name availability, social media handle availability, and the opinions of our stakeholders.
We arrived on a great name and registered a 7-letter .com domain (through!) But you are going to have the read the article to see the name.
A strategy is the best position for success, and tactics are how you plan to get from where you are to that ideal strategic position. How do you create a plan to build a lifestyle brand? Work backward. You may not have the domain knowledge to know every step. Ask your suppliers and hire consultants. Write action-oriented steps; resources and timing will come later. This can be overwhelming work so take your time.
A product label is what you name your product in to communicate to customers what they are buying. The product label sets the customer’s expectations.
Some industries have set product labels that rank in a hierarchy, e.g., motel, hotel, resort. Marketers can add adjectives to product labels that modify expectations, e.g., performance tires.
Setting an expectation and not meeting it in reality damages a brand. It is common sense that delivering a level lower than expected is harmful, but it is also wrong to deliver a higher level. People are most comfortable when they receive what they were expecting, and a higher level of service is not repeatable because it becomes a new standard. Instead, we want to aim to meet expectations plus add elements of surprise and delight. Just be honest with your product labels.
I published an article on Brand Marketing Blog about how different font types are perceived, and how this can be leveraged in logo design to change the perception of the brand.
