final spine = 0.453125" “Marty Neumeier brilliantly groks how changes in The rise of branding, now fueled by social media, A WHITEBOARD OVERVIEW BY MARTY NEUMEIER An explosion of connectivity, and the power it the ‘human capital’ of customers can transform has placed the future of companies firmly in the hands AUTHOR OF THE BRAND GAP gives customers, is turning companies upside the brand equity of products and services. of customers. This is the brand flip, a pan-industry down. The question isn’t WHETHER your industry THE BRAND FLIP is the investment manual for judo throw that’s taking down some companies and will be disrupted, but WHEN. marketers who want to make that human capital raising others to the status of superstars. Customers are no longer “consumers”. even more valuable.” WHY CUSTOMERS They’re people with hopes, dreams, needs, and Today the choice is simple: Flip or be flipped. W N MICHAEL SCHRAGE, RESEARCH FELLOW AT MIT SLOAN SCHOOL, AND AUTHOR OF NO RU COMPANIES emotions. They exercise judgment, indulge in WHO DO YOU WANT YOUR CUSTOMERS TO BECOME? In this refreshingly clear book, Neumeier shows you FLIP BRAND THE —AND HOW TO PROFIT FROM IT whims, express personal views, and write their INSIGHT how to make the leap to a consumer-driven future with own life stories. “ ! Marty Neumeier brings incisive clarity to lightness, power, and grace. Transform your brand into BUY JOIN that disorienting encounter between real people, They don’t brands. They brands. FLIP a mini-movement—one that customers will eagerly They want a vote in what gets produced and how societal change, and business strategy. Just !” co-create, grow, and nourish with profits. RIC GREFÉ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AIGA, THE PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR DESIGN it gets delivered. They’re willing to roll up their sleeves—not only by promoting the brand to their “Brilliantlygroksthe‘humancapital’ofcustomers.” “Marty Neumeier is a master storyteller, making NEUMEIER MARTY friends, but by contributing content, volunteering MICHAEL SCHRAGE, RESEARCH FELLOW, MIT SLOAN SCHOOL this powerful book as enjoyable to read as ideas, and even selling products or services. it is illuminating. The psychology of consumers “Timelessmarketingwisdomappliedtoatrickyfuture.” This is your tribe. How will you lead it? ROGER MARTIN, MANAGEMENT THINKER, AUTHOR OF THE DESIGN OF BUSINESS has fundamentally changed over the last decade. Marty takes the ‘daunting’ out of the daunting “Ireadthisonaplane.Insanelyexcellentbook.” “Marty Neumeier does it again: with his finger task of adapting to this change.” JOHN SPENCE, TOP 100 BUSINESS THOUGHT LEADER firmly on the future of branding, he shreds KIT YARROW, PH.D, CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF conventional marketing wisdom. Read this book. DECODING THE NEW CONSUMER MIND It will inspire you to build the brands of tomorrow.” NIRAJ DAWAR, PROFESSOR AT THE IVEY BUSINESS SCHOOL, AUTHOR OF TILT “Get smart: Read THE BRAND FLIP and learn a) why customers want to take over your brand, facebook.com/newriders “An exhilarating dive into the big new truth: and b) how to help them do it.” @newriders companies don’t make brands, customers do.” P , CHIEF EXPERIENCE OFFICER AT GREG ETROFF GE ROBERT JONES, STRATEGIST AT WOLFF OLINS AND PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA US $24.99 CAN $30.99 ISBN-13: 978-0-13-417281-1 ISBN-10: 0-13-417281-7 CATEGORY: BUSINESS / MARKETING 52499 LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE www.newriders.com COVER DESIGN: MARTY NEUMEIER 9 780134 172811 9780134172811_cover.indd 1 6/23/15 2:03 PM THE BRAND FLIP THE BRAND WHY CUSTOMERS NOW RUN COMPANIES—AND HOW TO PROFIT FROM IT A WHITEBOARD OVERVIEW BY MARTY NEUMEIER THE BRAND FLIP WHY CUSTOMERS NOW RUN COMPANIES—AND HOW TO PROFIT FROM IT A WHITEBOARD OVERVIEW BY MARTY NEUMEIER NEW RIDERS FIND US ON THE WEB AT: WWW.NEWRIDERS.COM NEW RIDERS IS AN IMPRINT OF PEACHPIT, A DIVISION OF PEARSON EDUCATION TO REPORT ERRORS, PLEASE SEND A NOTE TO [email protected] COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY MARTY NEUMEIER ACQUISITIONS EDITOR PRODUCTION EDITOR DESIGN DIRECTOR NIKKI ECHLER MCDONALD DAVID VAN NESS MARTY NEUMEIER PROOFREADER INDEXER DESIGNER LIZ WELCH REBECCA PLUNKETT IRENE HOFFMAN NOTICE OF RIGHTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR OTHERWISE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER. FOR INFORMATION ON GETTING PERMISSION FOR REPRINTS AND EXCERPTS, CONTACT [email protected]. NOTICE OF LIABILITY THE INFORMATION IN THIS BOOK IS DISTRIBUTED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY. WHILE EVERY PRECAUTION HAS BEEN TAKEN IN THE PREPARATION OF THE BOOK, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR PEACHPIT SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY WITH RESPECT TO ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED OR ALLEGED TO BE CAUSED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY BY THE INSTRUCTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK OR BY THE COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED IN IT. TRADEMARKS MANY OF THE DESIGNATIONS USED BY MANUFACTURERS AND SELLERS TO DISTINGUISH THEIR PRODUCTS ARE CLAIMED AS TRADEMARKS. WHERE THOSE DESIGNATIONS APPEAR IN THIS BOOK, AND PEACHPIT WAS AWARE OF A TRADEMARK CLAIM, THE DESIGNATIONS APPEAR AS REQUESTED BY THE OWNER OF THE TRADEMARK. ALL OTHER PRODUCT NAMES AND SERVICES IDENTIFIED THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK ARE USED IN EDITORIAL FASHION ONLY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF SUCH COMPANIES WITH NO INTENTION OF INFRINGEMENT OF THE TRADEMARK. NO SUCH USE, OR THE USE OF ANY TRADE NAME, IS INTENDED TO CONVEY ENDORSEMENT OR OTHER AFFILIATION WITH THIS BOOK. ISBN 13: 978-0-134-17281-1 ISBN 10: 0-134-17281-7 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY TRIBE PREFACE You hold in your hand a book. But what is a book? Is it something you BUY or something you BECOME? To many authors and publishers, a book is 75,000 words on 300 pages held between two rigid covers that measure 6 by 9 inches. Or, it’s 75,000 electronic words that can be resized, cus- tomized, read, and annotated by the user. Every book is both container and content. The container is what gets made, advertised, sold, and distributed. If it looks like a book, feels like a book, and downloads like a book, it must be a book. But what about the content? What if some peo- ple view a business book not as a trophy on their bookshelf but as a step change in their career? What if some people—and here I mean you—want the most inspiration in the least number of hours? In that case, a book needs to have the least number of words, not the most. It should be designed to stay in your mind, not in your hand. It should get you out from the covers and into your projects as fast as possible. And it should reveal its deeper wisdom reading after reading. This is the book I tried to write. It’ll require two hours of your valuable time, which I don’t take lightly. But if it’s the book you need, it’ll pay you back for years. —Marty Neumeier CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 10 NEW REALITIES 8 PART 1 FLIPPING THE BRAND PRODUCTS A MEANING 19 TANGIBLE A IMMATERIAL 24 SELLING A ENROLLING 28 COMPANY IDENTITY A CUSTOMER IDENTITY 32 BETTER PRODUCTS A BETTER CUSTOMERS 36 CUSTOMER SEGMENTS A CUSTOMER TRIBES 40 TRANSACTIONS A RELATIONSHIPS 46 PART 2 LEADING THE TRIBE AUTHORITY A AUTHENTICITY 51 COMPETING A DIFFERENTIATING 57 PROCESSES A VALUES 62 FEATURES A EXPERIENCES 68 PUNISHMENT A PROTECTION 77 PART 3 DESIGNING THE WAY FORWARD DECIDING A DESIGNING 85 PLANS A EXPERIMENTS 92 OVERCHOICE A SIMPLICITY 100 STATIC BRANDS A LIQUID BRANDS 104 STORYTELLING A STORYFRAMING 114 PURCHASE FUNNEL A BRAND LADDER 120 TAKE-HOME LESSONS 131 RECOMMENDED READING 134 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 136 INDEX 139 NOTES 145 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 146 THOSE WHO INITIATE CHANGE WILL HAVE A BETTER OPPORTUNITY TO MANAGE THE CHANGE THAT IS INEVITABLE. —WILLIAM POLLARD INTRODUCTION One of the more stunning insights in the theory of management came from Peter Drucker, a practical visionary who changed business discourse with his 1973 book THE PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT. He said that a business has only one valid purpose: to create a customer. What’s more, he said, if the purpose of a business is to create a customer, then it has only two basic functions—innovation and marketing. Innovation produces the products, and marketing tells the stories that sell them. These two activities drive results, and all the others are costs. Drucker was ahead of his time. The discipline of branding had been stuck in the Industrial Age, and lacked strategic subtlety. He couldn’t have known that someday it would gather up the very concerns he was talking about—innovation, mar- keting, and the primacy of customers—into a tool- box of principles that could be studied, practiced, and improved over time. Or that the word BRAND itself would become shorthand for the Drucker way of thinking. Thirteen years ago I tried to redefine branding in my book THE BRAND GAP, and took it further in my next book ZAG. As of this writing, THE BRAND INTRODUCTION 1 GAP’S principles have been viewed online by more than 10 million people, and ZAG has been named one of the top 100 business books of all time. These volumes have stayed relevant, and continue to form the basis of my work. Then why write another book? Because the rapid advance of technology, rather than making THE BRAND GAP and ZAG seem dated, has made them seem timid. For me, they occupy the odd position of being visionary and incomplete at the same time.