Below, you will find links to some of the sites, ads, films and more we refer to in our book ‘Brand Elevation – Lessons In Ueber-Branding‘ or related to its content. They are listed in the order in which they appear in the book. You can check out the blog and our Ueber-Channel on YouTube for more case studies, interviews, tools on the subject of ueber-Branding.
If some materials might be more convoluted to access, for copyright reasons. Remember, some Ueber-Brands like to make themselves a bit ‘hard to get’ to be all the more desirable. – Enjoy!
Jump down to materials relating to Part II or Part III of the book.
PART I
PRINCIPLE 1 MISSION INCOMPARABLE – Having a distinct, brand-guiding mission
MISSION ROUTE 1: Following a higher calling
Lisa Rose writes about the “One Year of the Blue Heart of Europe” activism by Patagonia and others in this article on the brand’s website.
The ‘Patagonia Action Works’ sub-site assembles reports, petition letters, links to activist groups and more resources relating to Patagonia supported campaigns like saving the Bears Ears National Monument.
Everlane declares its mission, beliefs and values on this About page of its website.
With a higher mission put at the center of the brand, comes a higher level of scrutiny and critical evaluation of every move that might contradict the declared believes.
This article by Zoe Schiffer in The Verge reports on the controversy around Everlane laying off workers who wanted to unionize at the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
An example from an emerging market. Indian bag and accessory maker Hindsign emphases craftsmanship and ecological sourcing and tanning methods on its brand website, driven by increasing demands and demand from customers around the world.
Another example of “a brand taking a stand” and corporate culture not lining up: Financial services firm State Street placed a ‘Fearless Girl’ statue in front of the ‘Charging Bull’ on Wall Street in 2017. This “statement” drew much PR attention but also quickly backfired for the corporate sponsor as news media like the New York Times reported State Street had faced charges by the US Labor Department for pay discrimination against its female employees.
MISSION ROUTE 2: Reinventing the category
Spotify has created its music platform and given itself a mission that its participants – artists and listeners – can find meaningful and rally around. Its website states it exists “… to unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.”
Seeing the financial strain the COVID-19 crisis put on many artists, Spotify started to allow listeners to donate directly to performers and to match donations to various musician relief funds across various countries.
It seems that Spotify understands the importance to try to live up to its declared mission. Certainly better than another popular online platforms – Facebook – which promised to “Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” but stands accused of forgetting about that mission when divisive hate speech brings in more advertising dollars – even by its employees.
Read this article by Bobby Booker for a local Philadelphia perspective on “Why Starbucks’ #RaceTogether Campaign Flopped.” Hint: Many perceived it as a too casual an approach to a serious social challenge by a casual coffee place.
PRINCIPLE 2: LONGING VS BELONGING – Mediating between exclusivity and inclusion
More on Ueber-Targets from Tory Burch to the Hells Angels on our blog here.
Here is the CNBC article and video by Tom Huddleston about the ‘Peloton Cult’ and its high priests and disciples.
PRINCIPLE 3: UN-SELLING – Mastering the art of seduction
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PRINCIPLE 4: FROM MYTH TO MEANING – Giving the brand soul
PRINCIPLE 5: BEHOLD THE PRODUCT!
PRINCIPLE 6: LIVING THE DREAM – Letting the brand radiate from the inside-out
It looks like Abercrombie & Fitch continues to struggle through the end of 2020 according to this article from its hometown news journal Columbus Business First. Here is our post in 2016 about Abercrombie betraying (vs evolving) its brand DNA and that not foreboding well for its future.
PRINCIPLE 7: GROWTH WITHOUT END – Balancing scaling and brand building
Read about the “10 Principles of Burning Man” here on their website – including the community’s definition of ‘decommodification.’
Finally, here is a post mortem analysis about the demise of start-up ‘Shoes of Prey‘ by co-founder Michael Fox. Quote: “… we shouldn’t have gone down the path of raising venture capital and instead focused on building a strong but smaller business serving our niche of women who wanted to customise,…” We believe they would have been able to extend their business out and grow it – with more patience.
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PART II
The six steps of our Brand Elevation Program can be grouped into three distinct phases, each comprising two steps:
– Dream
– Do
– Dare
Introduction – Brands, Elevated
An interesting further look on the evolution of our economy from shareholder towards stakeholder capitalism and thus the growing role of brands from mere marketing instruments to guiding the company overall is the concept of “Doughnut Economy”, developed by Kate Raworth.
Roger Martin writes about “The High Price of Efficiency” in this HBR article (p.47). https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-high-price-of-efficiency
The interview with Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer at LVMH in Wired magazine about the groups digital transformation and creating Luxury online (p. 49, White, 2018)
– DREAM
Step 1: Set Your Mission
Here is a downloadable sample for a Audit Guide to reveal the company’s Mission and Myth (P 56, Sample Stakeholder Questionnaire) :
p 63, Mission Writing – Guideline for good missions
Here are some resources concerning Market Research Companies (p. 58):
- The top market research companies by revenue as reported by statista.com
- Hotjar, an online research house provides tips on ‘lean market research’, here.
- Kvest provides automated online research, here.
- Plannersphere is a wiki by and for brand strategy planners offering lots of useful articles and presentations, here.
Step 2: Write Your Myth
P 72, Chobani case – do you have something there?
Here is a link to definitions of what Semiology and its key elements and related methods are (p. 73) as well as a link to Prof. Dominic Petman’s homepage..
Read BrewDog talk about the “Legend of the Holy Moose” – their calling – here.
When you tell the story of your struggles against real antagonists, your audience sees you as an exciting, dynamic person. And I know that the storytelling method works, because after I consulted with a dozen corporations whose principals told exciting stories to Wall Street, they all got their money.
Robert McKee, world-famous screenwriting lecturer in a HBR interview (2003)
Here is a link to the full interview with Robert McKee in Harvard Business Review by HBR senior editor Bronwyn Fryer.
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– DO
Step 3: Realize Your Dream
Here is a link to the Glossier website (p. 89), some background on ‘Design Thinking‘ (p. 89) and background on our designer friend Joe Doucet via his website (p.90)
Step 4: Live Your Dream
Lyft versus Uber … “an image can say a thousand words'” as they say (p. 103)
P 107, Simon Sproule podcast
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– DARE
Step 5: Find Your Target
Meet the “best-known team member on the On shoes team: Roger Federer on the brand’s website. As you will read he “joined On not because of any sponsorship, but because of entrepreneurship,” which gives this an entirely different meaning and vibe versus the traditional, paid “celebrity endorsement” practiced by the average brand (p. 114).
Step 6: Ignite All Targets
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PART III
CASE 4 – Starbucks
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Ueber-Brands™ 