Tag: on brand

IKEA

Clay Christensen pushes product creators to look at their products as a vehicle to get a particular job done. FedEx, for example, fulfills the job of getting a package from here to there as fast as possible. Disney does the job of providing warm, safe, fantasy vacations for families. Great businesses get this concept. And, IKEA is a great example of a great business that does.

On first glance, IKEA is just a simple furniture store. Why hasn’t someone just copied their product line and catalog? IKEA focuses on the job it is hired to do while its competitors define their businesses by product or customer segments (high end, low end, etc.). IKEA gets hired to quickly furnish or re-furnish a house. So, they are designed for just that. For example, furniture is easy to carry, deliver home, and assemble. There is a kids area so parents can focus on the shopping. Furthermore, there is even a restaurant so you don’t worry about your next meal. Finally, lest we forget, they are also very affordable.

My wife and I have been IKEA shoppers since we left home for university ten years ago. So, this isn’t just a cool case study. We’ve visited IKEA in every place we’ve lived – typically within the first week of getting there. Seeing products with Swedish name tags around our home is normal for us. The table and chair I’m using to type this has Swedish roots. I know furniture connoisseurs scorn their furniture. But, we love it. And, here’s hoping we never get too fancy to continue loving it.

IKEA released a beautiful one minute ad about a mom taking her son shopping.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V1V7aToJR0%5B/embedyt%5D

It is a beautiful example of being “on brand.” They get what customers come to them for and keep things simple… consistently. It shows.

On brand

There’s something beautiful about watching behavior that is “on brand.”

A brand, as the tradition definition goes, is a set of associations. Amazon conjures up associations of “value” or “fast,” Ritz Carlton points to “luxury”  and so on.

Another way to think about brands is to equate them to integrity – or the ability to make and keep commitments. When an organization makes a commitment to quality and keeps it, it builds a brand around quality. When a person makes a commitment around enthusiasm, he/she builds a brand around it.

Regular readers here know how much I love “The Piano Guys.” My main association with The Piano Guys is “uplifting.” Their music, their themes, their ideas, their personalities – they are all uplifting. They all tell us to be our best selves – in one way or the other.

So, when The Piano Guys released the song “This is exactly what you want to hear today – Okay,” it was a perfect illustration of being on brand. It was uplifting. Integrity – check.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pBjopDymts%5B/embedyt%5D

Here are a few excerpts from the story behind the song

We’re all struggling with something – a debilitating weakness or illness. Or someone we love is barely holding on.

We watch the news. We see the tweets, the Facebook posts. The YouTube comments! We hear about hate, terror and despair. But just because what sells, what goes “viral,” or what gets attention may try to drown out the good in the world, it doesn’t mean that goodness is gone. Just because choruses of controversy and scandal shout louder than quiet symphonies of service, it doesn’t mean that inside most of us still genuinely want happiness not only for ourselves, but also our family, our friends, and our fellow human beings.

Media can make the world look bleak. They’ve given themselves this job description, in part because there’s a darker side on the surface of human nature that feeds on fear and cynicism. But deep down, we are beings of light. And in the end, since darkness is merely the absence of light, light will inevitably overcome dark.

This is the essence of hope. And the essence of this song. “No matter what you’ve been through, no matter if you think you’re falling apart, it’s gonna be okay.”

Do check it out.

And, of course, whatever you might be going through – it will, eventually, be okay. :)

Thank you, The Piano Guys.