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This article for The European Business Review explains why Brand Elevation should be of strategic importance to most brand builders. It also summarizes the three phases that we have learned to be critical in getting a brand closer to that desirable “Ueber-Brand” status. Continue reading
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Dilmah Tea is the pioneer you might not have heard about when it comes to fairer trade practices, implementing sustainable operating processes, educating consumers and to being founded on the belief that purveying a superior product needs to go hand-in-hand with helping to create a better socio-economical and natural environment. Listen to our interview with its CEO. Continue reading
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What Is Luxury? (How) Does it Evolve? — There might be as many definitions of Luxury and Brand as there are people on this planet. They are something very personal but also (mostly?) social. This article reflects on how our notion of prestige and luxury evolve (and die) It also offers a framework for how modern prestige brands can be created. Continue reading
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How can Gen-Zers be Climate Activists and Fast Fashion followers – all at the same time? It starts make sense when you look at it from the perspective of of how Gen-Z – and really everyone else , too – construct their idea of self, form their tribes and when considering how social media or super fast supply chains act as enablers… Continue reading
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Can all products and services be elevated to become meaningful brands? That is one of the questions JP and Deborah discuss in this interview for The Internationalist. Continue reading
The Freitag brand lives a dream all of its own
Here is another installment in our little ‘Questions to Answer’ series, which is designed to help you think through how to elevate your brand. They are taken from the more complete set of questions in our book ‘Rethinking Prestige Branding.’ But note: Ueber-Brands* need to be ‘beyond compare’ and that means beyond following rules or applying standards. So your questions – and certainly some of our answers – need to go beyond the norm, the predictable to take your brand ‘ueber’*.
A brand can only be experienced as authentic if it has a Mission and Myth that go beyond the material (see the separate set of questions to help define those). And the more holistically mission and myth are used to guide all the brand’s manifestations, the more it becomes a ‘dream come true’ and shared – be it in the store, office, plant, at events, through ads, art collaborations or through other expressions of the company’s believes and culture.
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This article by Wolf and JP on Brand Elevation and how it relates to managing external crises appeared in SMU’s Asian Management Insights magazine in May 2021. Continue reading
Wolf and JP had the honor and much fun discussing the art and science behind ‘Brand Elevation’ with leaders who work on brands that know a thing or two about Dreaming, Doing and Daring – the three phases of Ueber-Branding we describe our new, step-by-step guide. Continue reading
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“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” might have been the mantra for some brands in 2020. They have shown strength and taken steps to further elevate their brand in the mind of their key constituents as this talk/article seeks to illustrate. Continue reading
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Australian social enterprise ‘ThankYou.’ leverages a mix of mythology, passionate appeal and social shaming to get consumers, their customers and competitors to buy, sell and – maybe – license the brand.
Is that brilliant activist brand- and business building? Or is the concept of a ‘brand with a higher purpose’ being abused to bully your way to growth? Continue reading
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S’well brand founder Sarah Kauss explains how she transformed water bottles into becoming meaningful and must-have fashion accessories and her vision for the brand’s future. In this interview, you will hear many of the principles of Ueber-Branding and how they are being applied. Continue reading
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In the land of bags, ‘Freitag’ stands for ‘messenger’, ‘made in Switzerland from recycled truck tarp’, ‘designed by the bros’, and … “slightly fucked up,” as ‘Lead Link’ tells us . And he is not only talking about the bags, but also about the brand and company culture, as you will hear in our interview with Oliver Brunschwiler. Continue reading
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In in the land of Ueber-Brands, staying quiet, keeping some people away and putting a breaks on consumption might be what is needed to stoke the desire, keep prices at a premium and protect those sweet margins. Continue reading
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Alison Cayne, founder of havens Kitchen, shares how she navigates through this crisis, setting her organization, business and brand up to not only survive but thrive, where possible. And she does so in her own humble, ethical but efficient and entrepreneurial way. Continue reading
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Alison Cayne, Founder of Haven’s Kitchen, a cooking school and packaged food purveyor in New York tells us how her brand is made for ‘hustlers’ like her. This story is about a purpose-led and disciplined approach to brand- and business building, sans the ‘unicorn’ glazing. Continue reading
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Felix Ahlers, CEO of European frozen foods company FRoSTA tells us how he evolved and elevated the mission of the industrial food processor to: “Preparing meals the way grandma would” – using only natural ingredients and no synthetic additives. He shares lessons learned along the way that traditional manufacturers struggling to adjust to peoples’ desires for a wholesome lifestyle and a healthy environment should learn from. Continue reading
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Only a product that is unique, substantial and superior is good enough to elevate a brand and support a lasting myth. Ueber-Brands put their goods at the center and on pedestals (at least metaphorically) so they can be paid tribute to.
Here are a few questions you should ask yourself as you seek to create a product that truly manifests your brand. Continue reading
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Traditional firms feel the heat from the exploding businesses of platforms and look to become one themselves. Platform businesses are all about participation and should be about positive relationships – desirable ingredients for strong brand equity. However, many platform brands are not used because we like or respect them. How can traditional brands get into the business of platforms and how can one get platform branding right? JP had a discussion on the subject with Erich Joachimsthaler at Vivaldi Group. Continue reading
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TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky tells us about how he is pushing “Eliminating the Idea of Waste” and his brand to the top of mind of consumers and packaged goods manufacturers alike. Without spending a dollar on advertising but by expending lots of energy and creativity against a vision he wants us to share. Continue reading
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Telling a compelling story that is relevant, relatable, memorable and sharable is key for any brand. But to become an Ueber-Brand you need to elevate your story to a ‘myth’. Answer to a higher truth or guide with social value.
Here are a few questions you should ask yourself as you seek to create a myth and with it a deeper meaning to your brand. Continue reading
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Airbnb’s former Global Head of Community – Douglas Atkin – tells us about how he helped the platform find a purpose and the central role it- and engineering social Trust have played in making Airbnb an Ueber-Brand. Among many other insights. Enjoy! Continue reading
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How leverage people’s desire for inclusiveness and community while at the same time create a sense of exclusivity? Create some tension that makes people long to belong? It is a balancing act that brand owners need to master if they want to be about more than ‘price and performance’. Continue reading
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Ben & Jerry’s Global Social Social Mission Officer Dave Rapaport tells us what it takes to be an authentic, purpose-led but profitable brand. Hints: Do not mix purpose and promotion – in a marketing kind of way – and stand up to be counted… when it really counts. Continue reading
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UEBER-BRANDING SOCIAL ENTERPRISES? – Absolutely! If people are not aware of social enterprises and their causes, then their possible impact remains limited. Using the ‘Ueber-Branding’ approach makes particular sense, since social enterprise comes with a desirable element in their DNA which other companies often lack: A higher purpose. Hear more on the subject in this interview. Continue reading
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How can Brands seduce rather than sell? – Here are some of the critical questions you should ask to see if your brand does what it takes to be admired, desired and bought into rather than needing to be promoted to be sold. Continue reading
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Peter Rahal, co-founder of RXBAR tells us how the nutrition bar made its swift ascent from idea to a brand so appealing that Kellogg had to buy it for $600 million four years later. Continue reading
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After promoting ‘Like-A-Girl,’ ‘MeanStinks,’ ‘Boss-vs-Bossy,’ ‘SorryNotSorry,’ ‘ShareTheLoad,’… social messages on its Always, Secret, Pantene, Ariel… brands, respectively, P&G is at ‘social issue advertising’ again as it “bravely ignites this dialogue [about ‘toxic masculinity’ as the WSJ put it] with its … Continue reading
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Advertising a higher brand purpose can create appeal and elevate a brand. But done wrong it can backfire, create disillusionment with the brand and damage engagement on the purpose. The key lies in the doing vs the saying, as we will see. Continue reading
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Ever noticed that some of the brands we pay a significant premium for don’t actually feel like they try hard to sell us on their product? These brands – we call them ‘Ueber-Brands’ let their visible passion for the product do most of the talking and sells us. They make their product the ‘holy grail’ and behold it as if it was a revelation. Continue reading
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How can Brands appeal through authenticity? – A brand mission must be lived to be taken seriously. A myth must be embraced to work. A lived and felt purpose is what people experience as ‘authenticity,’ the ‘truth’ behind a brand. Continue reading
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An interview with Prestige brand creator extraordinaire Ramdane Touhami. He is the mind and myth-maker behind brands like Cire Trudon and L’Officine Universelle Buly. You will also find plenty of background materials in this podcast note. Continue reading
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If you live in the US and have any interest in ice cream – or consume social media with any regularity (and the two seem to correlate) – then you will have heard about ‘Halo Top’. The premium ice cream’s … Continue reading
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Let’s qualify that headline right away, to avoid being accused of ‘click-baiting’: The leadership structure we researched was specifically that behind iconic, mission-driven brands that have seen sustained sales growth while being able to demand a premium price versus the … Continue reading
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In order to be credible and thrive, ‘niche brands’ (be they ’boutique’, ‘craft’, ‘local’, ‘organic’…) must make sure that they let their particular brand myth and engaging mission guide them in everything they do. They must do this not only … Continue reading
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Can the Ueber-Brand principles be applied to B2B brands to elevate them in the minds of professional buyers and make them ‘priceless’ – or at least less dependent on pricing? The short answer is “Absolutely, Yes!” But, we know, people are hungry for examples, so we talked with Christopher Harrold, Creative Director at Mohawk how this fine paper maker is not only surviving but thriving in an increasingly digital world. Continue reading
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Few brands are born Ueber-Brands. Like most humans, most brands start out wanting to do a good job and establish themselves. It’s only later that some of them feel the need to ‘dig deeper,’ find a higher calling and sharing … Continue reading
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Can Ueber-Branding be applied to any industry and brand… and people? How do Ueber-Brands elevate themselves above the rest? How do they attract people? – Not only as buyers but as employees? … These are just some of the questions Patrick Brigger asked me in this interview. Continue reading
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The expert Book review site ‘getabstract’ gave us a pretty rare 8 of 10 rating and felt compelled to interview us about modern Prestige branding afterwards. We (humbly) thought our answers are well worth sharing with our readers, too… and … Continue reading
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‘Brandless’ is the only ‘brand’ you can buy at the eponymous e-grocer that carries the same name. As co-founder Tina Sharkey explains, young ‘Brandless’ is not about the absence of identity or meaning and being a brand in that sense. … Continue reading
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Venerable Tiffany & Co is facing a dilemma and declining sales – and that for a few years now. On the one hand it believes that it has lost its cool among the young and with it cultural relevance, desirability … Continue reading
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Cadillac separated its commercial team from the General Motors headquarters in Detroit, formed a stand-alone unit and moved it to New York City in late 2015. This move was not driven by organizational and business considerations, alone. In fact, a … Continue reading
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I had one of those ‘Eureka’ insights the other day when I saw the latest Trader Joe’s ‘Fearless Flyer’ on our kitchen table: Trader Joe’s has made a great business out of morphing their foods into ‘Significant Objects’ that we … Continue reading
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Victor and his wife Sarah are in love with making jeans the old, slow way in their Raleigh Denim Workshop. They sewed them themselves and proudly signed every pair when they started out in 2007. But in the meantime, they … Continue reading
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Rogue researchers at Nestlé had tinkered around with the coffee capsule and brewing technology that was to become Nespresso since the 1970s. At that time, Nestlé dominated the soluble category, but that category was stagnating. It took Nestlé over a … Continue reading
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In this article for the Journal of Brand Strategy (Henry Stewart Publications, Spring 2017), we examine how some modern prestige brands go beyond traditional strategies of luxury marketing like exclusiveness, provenance or precious materials to make us want them. They create “meaning beyond the material” by redefining their categories, setting new standards and – for the best among them – by embracing and living ideals people aspire to. – We call them Ueber-Brands, as you likely know by now Continue reading
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Uwe Ellinghaus is CMO of Cadillac and on a mission to revive this icon of American luxury. But rather than starting with automobiles, his vision of Cadillac is one of “an experience that young people associate with modern luxury, … of a brand that … Continue reading
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“Yeah, but how ‘live a dream’ when the product is ‘generic’? I am not in Luxury, Lifestyle or Fashion!” That’s how some clients respond when we talk about giving their brand meaning beyond the material. – Well, how about a ‘juice bar’ that feels like it stole Abercrombie … Continue reading
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As we work with clients on elevating their brands two questions arise repeatedly: Can ‘ueber-branding’ be applied to more ‘technical’ categories – beyond luxury or lifestyle? And do Ueber-Brand products HAVE to be premium priced? The short answer is ‘yes’ and … Continue reading
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Yes, Burt really existed. The wild-bearded man on the brand’s logo was a documentary photographer turned beekeeper after moving from Manhattan to Maine. He left behind the trappings of a rather privileged upbringing to live in a converted turkey coop in the backwoods (where he … Continue reading
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Prestige brands don’t have it easy. We don’t want them to sell to us (in fact, they should ‘un-sell‘), but we love for them to seduce us. They must make us desire them, not just need them, for only then might we be willing to … Continue reading
Ueber-Brands™ 