Brands often have easy-to-understand tangible value. If I buy your office productivity software, I can easily share files and work on them with colleagues. Tangible value is transactional. I buy from you and your software and you make me and my colleagues more efficient.
But the real brand magic happens when an intangible value touches a nerve at a more deep-seated level.
When that office productivity software makes employees feel heard, and workers feel more empowered and their day has a deeper meaning, Suddenly what you sell builds a human connection and purpose and that’s hard to calculate.
When your door is no longer revolving with employees leaving – but instead, people apply to get in because they heard you are a destination employer. Well, that’s an intangible value too.
To understand how a brand builds substantial intangible value, you need to speak to and where possible, observe stakeholders so you can understand the deep value they place on your product or service.
What don’t customers tell you when you interview them until you keep probing? What are thought leaders in the industry talking about and how are employees feeling and viewing the mission and meaning in their daily work lives. What trends exist in your category and how does your product or service bend the trendlines?
Intangible Value Cleans Up
One of my first blogposts in 2009, was about my brand of vacuum cleaners.
My first Dyson was a magnificently engineered vacuum. Now, I wasn’t an aficionado or collector of vacuums, but I was not too fond of the old Hoover we had that was as old as water. I’d vacuum for an hour, and the carpet seemed dirtier.
I finally broke down and googled around to find the best possible vacuum. If I were assigned this job in our household, I wanted something practical and easy to use.
Vacuuming is an oddly relaxing chore for me, so I took my search seriously.
Coincidentally, James Dyson’s ads started appearing on TV. And he spoke to my inner desire for vacuum Valhalla.
Dyson is very straightforward about its focus on simplicity and innovation, which it portrays through taglines like “The vacuum that doesn’t lose suction”.
I plunked down $500 bucks and invested in a Dyson, specifically designed for houses with shedding, long-haired cats.
Today, when I use my new purple Dyson animal vacuum, I have a Zen-like experience transporting back to when our daughters were little. As I vacuumed their old, empty rooms, my thoughts wandered back to the hours we spent on their floors playing games, reading books, and throwing paper for our Persian cats to chase.
A rush of memories comes back to me of countless hours sitting on the bed, reading books to the girls in a well-vacuumed room.
The tangible value of my Dyson was that it cleaned the floored and didn’t loose suction. The intangible value was creating a playscape for me to be with my girls.
Somehow, I have this real and odd experience of being transported thirty years earlier when our daughters, Sarah, and Fanny, were little. Using my Dyson is strangely mesmerizing. I never had that experience with our old machine – maybe because I had to focus on its clunky design and that it, well, sucked. My old vacuum and I had a transactional relationship. And not a happy one.
My magical brand experience was like time travel – and when I dyson (yep, it’s now a verb like googling), I have a bit of an out-of-body experience.
Not every brand is magical.
In fact, some products and categories aren’t that deep or filled with emotions. But when you make a product for a specific group of people, you might uncover hidden value deep below the surface. Often, consumers or customers can’t articulate how a product or service makes them feel. But by observing behavior and asking enough questions, you can find some hidden clues.
You may not think often about the intangible value your product or service delivers.
But when you understand it, you’ll clean up.
P.S. – I have purchased Dyson’s for both of my daughters who like me is a little obsessed with a clean floor and time travel.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo circa 1988 taken in Raleigh, NC of me, Sarah, and Fanny taken by my wife, Ra El.
