Zag, Marty Neumeier’s guide to differentiation for high performance brands.
I’m structuring this one as a key takeaways list. It’s a short read, very well suited for revisiting in the future to check in on the quality of the brand being built.
This is my first run-through.
Page 7:
Reduce clutter – clutter comes in multiple forms in the marketplace, but the ones we have control over are feature clutter (too many features in a product), message clutter (too many elements per message). Takeaway: Single big features, simple clear messages.
Page 20:
Brand is the customer’s gut feeling about a business. Never to be confused with what we tell the customer. How our message is received, and how they stack and combine to produce a gut feeling is hard to predict, but key to work on. Takeaway: brand isn’t the latest ad or the company identity. It’s the sum of all touches combined into a fairly simple gut feel.
Page 21:
If I buy this brand, what will that make me? A question people ask themselves subconsciously when figuring out what products to buy. It’s not a question of solving a problem, it’s a question of tribal association. Takeaway: at the Trendhim brand level, go WIDE with tribal association. At the product level, go CLEAR with tribal association. The product filter is stronger with us – wearing a product is a clear identity marker. Buying with Trendhim is more diffuse.
Page 27:
If the ambition is to scale enormously, actually do something unique. If we’re sharing the cake… well… then we’re sharing, not eating it all up. If there’s a competitor that does it better… If we’re not doing something interesting, winning and holding the attention of a marketplace that has a 1s attention span will fail. Takeaway: Do actual unique things. Provide a unique reason to buy.
Page 64:
There are some circumstances that favour the leading brand. Of these, the ones that seem to apply to Trendhim are:
- Advantages are unprovable.
Takeaway: The less tangible the advantages of the product are, the more the customer will lean on brand to make their choice of product.
Page 65/66
This product is the only category that does something/has something for someone in location who desire of customer in time/macro-trend
- E.g. This watch is the ONLY watch that has memento mori and a big skull on it, for young wannabe stoics in pretty much the world, who want to show off their overt stoicism in a time where faith is in decline and other methods are needed for grappling with the meaning of life and death.
Trendhim is the only category that does something/has something for someone in location who desire of customer in time/macro-trend
- E.g. Trendhim is the only DTC men’s accessories store that develops an encompassing range of unique accessories for men globally who want to express their identity, in a time where identity is up for experimentation and diversity is on the agenda.
Takeaway: Know what it’s for.
Page 81
Who’s the enemy?
Takeaway: By defining an “out” group, the “in” group is clearer. The out group might just be those who do things in the old way.
Page 91
Have relatively few visual assets that repeat everywhere. Key visuals must not be so many as to be cluttering.
Page 96
Map it to touchpoints.
Page 100.
Why will people come back?
Takeaway: Have a decent answer to why people will come back. Not a loyalty program, or another type of ratchet.
Apart from these little nuggets, page 138 is where the checklist and summary starts, which is freakishly magical.
Win.