Experience?
Identity!
An opinion of Michael Ostertag
The industry is feeling a change. Again. Rumour has it that the royal road to success leads through experience. Every brand is charged with a promise of adventure, satisfaction or security. It all depends.
I see it differently. Don’t get me wrong – I love adventures, contentment and security, but I also love something else: honesty. Authenticity is a value and a promise in which everything else is included, because you mean what you say and stand by who you are. My thesis is therefore: Identity BEATS Experience, because identity gives security. Experiences are only meaningful if they are unmistakably tied to a brand.
I don’t want to wait until the question Identity VERSUS Experience is decided by the market. Because I see it as my actual job in a creative agency to communicate brands in such a way that they are understandable and sustainable.
Authenticity is a value and a promise in which everything else is included, because you mean what you say and stand by who you are. My thesis is therefore: Identity BEATS Experience, because identity gives security. Experiences are only meaningful if they are unmistakably tied to a brand.
Michael Ostertag | SCHMIDHUBER
What makes a brand credible?
At SCHMIDHUBER, a creative-analytical experiment always comes first. We ask ourselves the classic basic questions: What is a brand? What makes it credible? What distinguishes it from its competitors? What associations should it evoke in the customer? Or formulated differently: What is the identity of the brand we are communicating?
A leap back in time is helpful to understand in which direction our industry is developing. It is no longer enough to use the unique selling proposition of the brand essence as an argument to force the customer’s buying decision. The design, user-friendliness, technical possibilities and forms of presentation of the suppliers of a product group are too similar for that.
Distinctive features about the consumer product are not a sufficient brand message. In addition, the speed innovation launches is now extremely high. Focusing on a specific product does not seem to make much sense for this reason alone.
Really?
Does it have to be like that?
Yes and no. Yes, because what the modern understanding of brands could assume for a long time, namely that their success is shown by the fact that a target group recognises them by their product characteristics, is no longer valid on its own. No, because it is at least as relevant that target groups differentiate in a much more sustainable way. Today, customers are no longer mainly interested in distinguishing themselves through a brand; the offers are too similar for that and the customer is much better informed. Purchase decisions therefore depend on more than a brand promise, they depend on the brand delivering what it promises.
Experiences strengthen the brand if they are related to it. Only identity has become obsolete. And experience will follow. That’s why we check the enthusiasm for experiences and always think about the necessary feedback to the brand. So that it doesn’t get lost in the fair of possibilities. At SCHMIDHUBER, we call this renitence: we notice trends and stick to using the existing possibilities to turn them into opportunities. With common sense. With experience and passion. Honestly.
”Wir nehmen Trends wahr und bleiben dabei, die vorhandenen Möglichkeiten zu nutzen, um sie in Chancen zu verwandeln. Mit gesundem Menschenverstand. Mit Erfahrungswerten und Leidenschaft. Ganz ehrlich.“
Michael Ostertag | Partner bei SCHMIDHUBER
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Michael Ostertag
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