I let out an audible “Wow” at the grocery store this afternoon when I saw how closely my regional chain had mirrored the packaging of GE’s Reveal bulbs with its store brand.
This couldn’t be a more timely discussion on the importance of design in branding. As I’ve said many times before, nowadays, everyone has to be a designer.
I also call this observation timely because I am reading Phil Dusinberry’s agency memoir Then We Set His Hair on Fire. It’s a great read. Among other topics, the author covers his work for GE with the “We Bring Good Things to Life” campaign. This illustrates the core credo of advertisers — that brand building leads to overall equity and loyalty that creates lifelong users. According to Dusinberry, I should buy the Reveal bulbs just because they say GE and keep buying them for life.
Here’s what’s really happening. The first time I bought the bulbs, it was partially because of the GE brand and their commitment to innovation. And these bulbs live up to that — the light is truely whiter. But the next time I went to buy them, I already knew I was pleased with this bulb but I found a generic counterpart for half the price. What could GE have that the store brand doesn’t? Probably a lot but the packaging and it’s superb design moves it into the same category as GE and helps resolve that dissonance.
The Point? I’m not saying we throw branding out with the bathwater. I think that it’s an important tool in builing a remarkable company. But you also have to foster innovation, creativity, AND design (!) at every level in your organization and then keep on innovating after you’ve done it once or twice. Because you can’t rest on your brand name and expect the masses to keep paying twice as much for your bulbs.
