By M. Isi Eromosele

There are world changing brands that ultimately make us willing to pay a premium because we want them in our lives. This is the essence of a highly successful global brand.

How do these brands use creativity and innovation to create that spark of interest and demand?

The world’s most valuable brands spend a great deal of time and money thinking about the way their brands come to life at every customer touchpoint. They spend even more time keeping on top of what their customers’ desire and they meet those desires in unique and inspiring ways.

Successful global brands have embraced the idea of constant change, evolution and innovation and are able to continually meet the changing requirements of their customers.

It is this kind of investment that has put them in the leadership positions they enjoy and it is continued investment that will keep them there.

These brands embrace change. But more specifically, when examined closely, these brands tend to adhere to the following four principles, an approach that keeps them at the forefront of changing the consumer world.

Anticipate And Create Customer Desires

The most innovative brands have the ability to not only satisfy their customer’s needs, but to create a need that didn't exist. IKEA has forever altered the way millions of people purchase furniture.

Most retail outlets employ an open layout of aisles and departments, so a customer can go and directly select the product they want to purchase. But IKEA changed this construct

by anticipating questions from its shoppers:

The one-way store layout that leads its customers “the long natural way” allows them to see how the product looks in staged rooms with various other products that can be part of an impulse purchase. Its flat-pack shipping makes a bookshelf easy to carry on a subway or toss in the back of a small car.

And the always contemporary, stylish good looks of its furniture have positioned IKEA as a lifestyle choice for millions who would not otherwise have access to affordable design. The lesson here can be applied to any brand. What are your customers demanding? And more importantly, what are your future customers demanding? Not just more of the

same.

Incorporate Dialogue With Your Customers

The Jack Daniel’s brand has changed the way it communicates with its loyal customers via its digital strategy and community sponsorships.

As a product that could not be any more rooted in analog traditions of southern liquor distilling, the Jack Daniel’s brand has been able to wisely create a dialogue with its

customers.

It allows its fervent enthusiasts to exchange conversation via social media sites or use its website to learn almost every detail about the Jack Daniel’s brand imaginable. Brands that invite dialogue with their customers must go beyond the ordinary.

They offer substantive stories of what they are doing and how it affects the lives of their consumers. The Jack Daniel’s site goes far beyond exploring Jack Daniel as the man and the myth, highlighting such offline “happenings” as the Sturgis Motorcycle rally, its alliance with the USO support overseas troops, barbeque events and the obvious Jack Daniel’s connection to professional bull riding.

Unlike some organizations that sponsor events that the executives hold near and dear to their hearts (like golfing or yachting), the Jack Daniel’s sponsorships are closely tied to the interests of is customers, helping further fuse the emotional connection they have to the brand.

And when Jack Daniel’s is speaking to its customers in traditional advertising media, it does so in a way that truly connects with their shared point of view. A recent ad during the last French political campaign reads “Champagne is a perfectly acceptable way to celebrate becoming President of France.”

Any brand not thinking about how its can better communicate with its customers is already becoming a dinosaur. A broadcast-based monologue espousing the merits of your brand will leave you talking only to yourself.

Having a relationship with your customers via Facebook, Twitter and the latest social networking platforms is no longer forward-thinking, it’s a prerequisite, espousing the wonderful aspects of their product.

Design A Flexing Brand Expression

In the not-so distant-past, the creation and management of a brand identity were all about consistency. If it was a fun product, it was always consistently fun. If it was a quality product, it was always expected to be solid.

The Big Mac you bought in Shanghai had to taste the same as in London, the e-server you bought in Madrid should operate as well as it does in Los Angeles. A consistent brand look and feel showed the promise of a consistent product experience.

But today, these constructs have changed. Sameness can quickly turn to irrelevance. Consistency can come to reflect a faceless corporation, unable to provide an innovative product or service experience.

As large companies offer a widening range of products, a brand must stretch and transform itself to fit the needs of its expanding consumer base.

Brands that mold themselves in this way to customers’ changing needs should break the shackles of corporate identity manuals and create communications that are culturally relevant and appealing to their audience.

As successful brands continue to grow and evolve, their product offering must widen along with the demographic diversity of their customers. The way a brand looks to its 18-year-old customers buying a $10 product should differ from the $5 million contract it’s selling to a CTO, which should vary from its Olympic sponsorship. Brands must be more flexible than ever before.

Create A Brand Culture That Embraces Change

It is a universal truth that every living organism is in a state of flux, slowly morphing its core DNA to adapt to its outside world, ensuring the existence of its future offspring.

The needs and desires of today’s consumers will surely change and the brands that are meeting those desires will need to evolve and change to meet those evolving needs.

The way a brand is managed and the mentality of the employees must be kept up to date with the evolving needs of its customers. So many once-powerful brands have collapsed in recent years because their employees were unable to evolve their thinking to match the needs of their diverse customers.

Target’s product managers have a knack for being in touch with the latest designers and the constantly changing whims of its customers. Affordable style had always been part of the brand’s core since its beginnings in 1962.

Target has continually created a sense of surprise and delight for its consumers, delivering stylish goods that were previously out of their reach.

This kind of cultural respect for creativity and innovation is often far out of reach of many organizations. When the status quo is deeply ingrained as a culture due to past success, it is often this unwillingness to change that brings a company down.

In the always-on, brand-saturated environment where we all live and work, many of us are trying to tune out and turn off the cacophony of brands screaming

for our attention.

Within a split second of assessing a product or service, or having gleaned reviews online, consumers are now able to mentally classify a brand as something of interest or something to forever ignore.

Global brand managers must think of their brands as living, evolving entities that must develop and grow as they strive to meet the needs and desires of their growing customers.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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