How to Start Building a Brand: Find Your Insight First

When I talk to people about building a brand, “where do I start?” is one of the most common questions I hear. To answer it, we need to talk about something a lot of people forget: the process of finding an insight.

The consumer insight

What is a consumer insight? Put simply, it's the seed a purchasing need grows from. Sometimes a consumer can tell you exactly why they buy a given product or service. But in plenty of cases, they don't fully realize it themselves. A marketer who uncovers an insight and turns it into a product has a real shot at standing out in the market with it.

Classic theory talks about the four “Rs” of a consumer insight:

• Reality means the consumer insight has to address a real need held by real users. It can't be made up (I'd love to be able to hang upside down for two hours a day).
• Relevance means the insight can be tied to a specific category. A desire for world peace might be real, but when it comes to what we're supposed to do about that desire – that's where the problem starts.
• Resonance means the insight should stir emotion and have conversational value – in short, viral potential. “Let's clean up the oceans” is an example of a general desire; “let's get rid of the plastic straws that kill baby seals and turtles” is the same thing, but wrapped in a far bigger emotional charge.
• Reaction is, finally, the aspect of the insight that pushes us toward taking concrete action. This is exactly where a product should step in, one that addresses the previous three elements.

The brand you're building should answer the question “who do you help, and with what?” An insight is a method for finding that answer. Let's talk through a concrete example. But first we need to talk about whether you want to be a fox or a hedgehog.

Are you a fox or a hedgehog?

Say you make tea. Your target audience is… everyone who drinks tea? Wrong. Framing it that broadly at the start of a business means you're competing with everyone and not really doing anything well. Find one group you can satisfy better than anyone else does. This strategy is called the hedgehog strategy, and it's the opposite of the fox strategy. What do these two approaches look like?

Let's start with the fox. When it hunts, it tries lots of different things. It steals birds from nests, chases small rodents, sneaks into farms… That keeps it alive, but it never puts it at the top of the food chain. When it comes to defending itself, the fox uses a similarly scattered strategy. Sometimes it growls, other times it bites, and other times it just runs. The fox is moderately good at several things.

Now look at how the hedgehog defends itself. It curls into a ball, sticks out its spines on every side, and… that's basically it. The fox can try all sorts of approaches to a hedgehog, but if the hedgehog spots the fox in time to curl up, it's essentially safe. The hedgehog is exceptionally good at one thing.

When you're starting to build your brand, finding the one thing you can be exceptionally good at beats chasing after many things you'd only be moderately good at.

Is your product for a fight or for a date?

Let's go back to our tea. If you're looking for a way to help real consumers with real needs, take a close look at their rituals. Think not just about what they do, but – above all – why. In 2008, the agency BBDO published a study called Ritual Masters. In it, they classified several deep-seated reasons (which they called “rituals”) behind why consumers do what they do. Pinning a product to a ritual (known as “ritual positioning”) is a way to make sure your product meets a real, deep need. So what are these reasons?

• Battle prep is a ritual in which the consumer gears up for something that will demand extra effort from them. A client meeting at work, a long car ride, spring cleaning – these are just a few examples. Tea? Energizing, sharpens the mind…
• Feasting is a group ritual in which we simply celebrate being together. A family gathering, celebrating a signed contract with colleagues, a group trip to the mountains. Tea? Brewed in a big pot and poured out into mugs or cups.
• Beautifying is about building your appeal to others. This is when you think about a great figure, skin, hair, nails. You want to show off your status or independence. There are already teas on the market for this. Take bloating, for instance – make sure your stomach won't look like a balloon on your date.
• Returning to camp is a moment of winding down, a bit of time for yourself. The shift from your “public self” to your “private self”. Can tea come along for that? Of course. So can hot chocolate, wine, your favorite couch, a book, a newspaper… You get the idea, right?
• Insuring the future is a ritual where you do something today so nothing bad happens to you later. Tying a product to this ritual is really about scaring consumers a little. We buy better locks to protect against burglars; toothpaste protects us from cavities, or from a dentist visit altogether. Tea? Only the kind loaded with antioxidants that slow aging and help prevent cancer.

Which ritual do you want, and are able, to pin your product to?

Tea for the family

All right, we don't want to be for everyone. We know consumers reach for tea for different reasons, so we pick the “Feasting” ritual and… start observing. This part matters a lot: it's hard to invent a better way to satisfy a consumer if you don't really get to know them first.

A tool that helps you organize research like this is the empathy map. Sit down next to someone making tea for a group of people and ask them the following questions:

• What do you see? For example: I see a pot I'm pouring boiling water into, I drop in two tea bags (because there's too much water for just one), I add sugar, lemon…
• What do you hear? I hear the kettle whistling, water bubbling, friends or family laughing in the next room, the spoon clinking against the pot as I stir the tea.
• What do you think and feel? I feel frustrated, because every tea bag is wrapped in its own paper sleeve. That's good if I want to make sure it's fresh, but when I have to drop several bags into the pot, it's more work.
• What do you want or need? I'd like to make the tea quickly and get back to my friends. I'd like to be able to leave the bags in the pot so the tea keeps getting stronger.
• What frustrates you? Besides the paper sleeves? I get frustrated by the little strings, which are supposed to make it easier to pull the bag out but always end up falling into the pot, because it's deeper than expected (so the string is too short) and the stream is stronger.

Now think about it: what should tea made for a bigger group look like? A round bag, no string, packaged in a single cardboard box… An empathy map also gives you a ton of material to use for creative and communications work. Sounds, words, situations… From this point on, everything gets a lot easier.

Now define your target audience…

Now go back to the start. Armed with rituals and an insight, define your target audience.

• People who make tea for friends and family (Feasting).
• Women with non-standard figures who want to look good on the beach (Beautifying).
• Polish students getting ready for their Erasmus exchange abroad (Battle prep).

…and what you want to help them with

A brand's vision and mission very often reach beyond a single product. We've been talking about a tea bag, but notice how you can map an entire company mission along the lines of rituals and the hedgehog strategy.

• IKEA: returning to camp. We help make your camp a place where you feel good. Our hedgehog strategy? The smallest packaging, the lowest costs, the biggest selection.
• Google: battle prep. We organize the information you need when you're getting ready for things that matter to you. Our hedgehog strategy? The simplest homepage, the biggest database.
• SAGA: feasting. We help groups enjoy each other's company over tea. Our hedgehog strategy? The most convenient bag for brewing in a pot.
• Urban Legend: beautifying. We help women of every body type look gorgeous on the beach. Our hedgehog strategy? The best research, based on the most honest feedback (gathered over prosecco).

So, what do you say? Shall we build a brand?