By Elizabeth Boineau

Spring is upon us, and it is a good time to dust off your brand, flex those muscles and be sure you’re ready for serious play. The competition is coming back out to see how all have fared over the winter and who is going to lead in the months ahead.

Perhaps this is your season to become a “breakaway brand,” as called in a book by Barry Silverstein, The Breakaway Brand Process: How Great Brands Are Built to Win.

Silverstein says a winning brand does not happen by accident but rather by collaborative effort, most often between brand and agency, that follows a specific process and leads to brand success.

I tell clients and prospects frequently that we, as an agency, have a process based on formidable global agency training that really does work. But like any process, it moves in progression over time and takes effort, teamwork, brainpower, energy and a dose of trust.

The results are there; it’s just not an overnight exercise.

Those who seek immediate gratification are inclined to want to skip the steps in the process.

It takes hard work and discipline to succeed, so it is easy to understand the resistance, but going through a more formal branding exercise under skilled direction does pay off.

Here is a look at what Silverstein thinks it takes to develop a breakaway brand.

Vision. Where are you going? It helps to know where you are. What values are the underpinnings of your brand? What challenges lie in your path?

Insight/understanding. A company should take time to understand the category it occupies in the marketplace and who else competes there.

One must be intimately familiar with brand attributes and strengths and what drives profits. Understanding the mind of the target and the marketplace is critical too.

Answering needs and understanding concerns, issues and trends as they arise show a connected brand that stays ahead.

Winning mindset. Vision and insight well-articulated and refined into concise messages that become a filter for all external communications help ensure that a uniform and consistent message about the winning brand will go out each and every time.

Silverstein brings to mind the Nike mindset: Nike changed sports marketing forever by embracing a competitive athletic mindset and the infamous “Just do it” tagline.

Brand truth. Know what the brand stands for and what it means, both emotionally and rationally, to the consumer.

Silverstein says the rational core is what the brand stands for and the emotional wrapping is how the consumer with the right mindset, as determined by the brand, reacts to it.

One example he offers is from Miller Lite beer. When introduced back in 1975, they came out with the slogan “Tastes Great. Less Filling.”

They found a way to appeal to the emotional side with taste and to the rational side with diet beer. They still use the slogan today, testimony to its breakaway brand power.

Miller still dominates the category they created. That does not happen easily nor often, but it is an admirable goal for today’s companies who are doing their best to be brand savvy by staying on top of consumer needs and wants, and are constantly aware of the moves of the competition.

Therefore, the company, service or product that discovers a brand truth and then ensures that the core message dominates all communications and outreach is sustaining the brand and guaranteeing it will outscore the competition time and again.

If you execute on that brand image with passion and style, not to mention consistency, your brand position moves from ho-hum to breakaway, and it is a sure bet there will be many winning seasons ahead.

Elizabeth L. Boineau runs E. Boineau & Co., a Charleston-based strategic marketing communications and public relations firm. E-mail her at eboineau@eboineauandco.com.

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