If you’re a fan of there being a big idea at its heart of a brand’s customer experience, and love quoting inspiring examples, this book’s for you. Festooned with fresh up to date case studies on idea-centric brands as diverse as Giffgaff and citizenM, it paints itself in inspiration.
But in terms of using that paint to create a whole coherent picture, you’ll have to do a little of that yourself. It gets a bit messy in places, but there’s some good learnings to be had.
The core thought, that ‘purposeful brands’ ‘stand up, stand out, and stand firm’, makes sense: Have an idea, deliver it through innovation in customer experience, and commit to it within the business culture.
The word purpose is the red herring. If you replace ‘purpose’ with ‘brand idea’, the book makes total sense. If you’re looking for a guide on how higher-order purposes get created, what a good one looks like, and what it means for the business, then look elsewhere. This book is more focused on how a sense of purpose should drive a far better customer experience and therefore business success.
The book depends heavily on verbatim case studies told by individuals at the companies concerned – including Premier Inn, London 2012, Timpsons and the fascinating small British flooring company Altro. Inspiring, though the downside of using only the verbatims is that it therefore loses clarity on what the strategy actually is for each brand, and lacks clear signposting of conclusions right until the last couple of chapters.
Saying that, several conclusions still leapt out throughout the book, not least these 3:
Firstly, that your customer’s experience of your business creates your brand, at all touchpoints not just through your communications. Brand = business. Always worth repeating as we all know business leaders who still don’t get it.
Secondly, that this ‘customer experience’ should be rooted in one big belief-driven brand idea, to drive every aspect internally and externally. Ideas have direction and energy – allowing you to be tight on the vision, and loose on how the team makes it happen.
Thirdly, that it’s vital to have leaders who totally commit to that big idea, to make everything happen. What really comes through is the commitment and passion of those interviewed. No ‘caretaker’ managers here, no over-reliance on backward facing analytics and assumed norms. Genuine bold fresh thinking to inspire us all.
So if you choose this book for a long haul flight, you might at least arrive with an embarrassment of ideas of how to make your business radically better at the whole customer-focus shebang. Or, possibly, realise that where you think you’re being a bold leader, you’ve really not even scratched the surface…
Reviewed by Liz Tinlin of GreenBabel, specialising in purpose, positioning and positive action. Follow her @greenbabel
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