prized than creating an iconic brand. Yet the two dominant branding models are not designed to do the job.
The first model, mindshare branding, is one that companies have long relied on. It treats a brand as a set of psychological associations( benefits, emotions, personality). The second model, purpose branding, has become popular in the past decade. In it, a brand espouses values or ideals its customers share. Over the past 15 years I’ ve developed an alternative approach— cultural branding— to turn what was once serendipity into a rigorous discipline. Let me illustrate how it works, using the transformation of Jack Daniel’ s from a near-bankrupt regional distiller to the maker of the leading premium American whiskey.
Whiskies compete to be perceived as upscale and masculine. In the 1950s the major brands sought to align themselves with the male ideal of the day: the sophisticated modern corporate executive. Jack Daniel’ s, a small whiskey targeted to upper-middle-class men, was being trounced by the national competitors. How could it break through?
Mindshare-branding experts would advise the company to convey, very consistently, the key brand associations: masculine, sophisticated, smooth-tasting, classic. But that was precisely what Jack Daniel’ s was doing— its ads mimicked the national brands’, showing alpha executives drinking smooth whiskey. And they didn’ t work. Purpose-branding experts would encourage the firm to champion its core values. With that approach, the focus wouldn’ t be much different: Those values had to do with producing classic charcoal-filtered whiskey for a sophisticated drinker.
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