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Creating an innovative brand is a great way to build loyalty with your customers. For many companies, brands are the single most valuable asset. But once you’ve created a brand, that’s where the challenges kick in. And it can be a real headache if you don’t manage brands correctly.
These challenges come from both inside your organization as well as outside. For example, one of the most common problems marketing leaders have with brands is what I call brand chaos. It happens when new brands start popping up almost out of nowhere. And sadly, they have no consistent look or feel to your other brands. Then, one day, you’re flipping through your product catalog and see a mish mash of products and brands that having nothing to do with each other. Your brand architecture is in a state of anarchy.
How does it happen? Well, marketers love to create brands. It’s fun and exciting, and they like creating ones that are distinctive and unique. Let’s face it, they want to put their mark on something.
So they get together with their design team and branding agencies and throw a lot of money creating the next big thing. If left unchecked, you’ll experience brand chaos. It’s expensive to fix, and it can really confuse customers on what your brands mean.
Another common brand problem is when employees take one of your brand marks and create their own adapted version of it. In other words, they make it look different than the official version. A sales rep might put an altered brand mark in a presentation, or a marketer might change it slightly to fit on a package. The sources of this problem are many.
Brand chaos can also stem from things outside the company. If your competitors start attacking your brands by depositioning them, you have to fight back. For example, a competitor might begin an advertising campaign telling consumers that the benefits of your brand just aren’t that important. This type of depositioning strategy can lower your brand equity.
Another common problem is when some company copies your brand and creates counterfeit products and services. Consumers don’t know the difference, so you lose a sale each time they buy a fake product with your brand on it.
So how do you deal with these challenges? First, you need to create a Brand Book. Just as the name implies, the brand book is the complete story of the brand and all the elements that go into it.
It establishes strict guidelines on every aspect of how a company’s brand will be managed. This affects everything from how the logo can be used, the look of a website, how social media is used, advertising, product design, and so on. For details on how to create one, see the course, Branding Fundamentals.
Second, you need to appoint a strong brand champion, someone who is senior enough in your organization to regulate and monitor brand compliance and stop anyone who violates standards in the Brand Book.
And finally, you need a strong legal team, internal or external, that will go after counterfeiters or anyone that hijacks your brands for their own use.
Great branding is about making and keeping promises in a consistent way. That’s why great marketers do whatever they can to prevent brand chaos.

Think about the last time you bought something and ask yourself a simple question: why did I buy it? Well, the answer most certainly is that you felt you needed it. Something motivated you to shop for that item, buy it, and use it. Consumers only buy things when they’re motivated.
Understanding consumer behavior starts with understanding motivation. If you know what drives people to buy products and services, you can make sure your products and services have the right features and benefits people want. But it’s more than that. If you also understand how that motivation to buy develops inside a person, you can communicate more effectively what your products and services do. You’ll understand when people are most likely to buy, and that helps you market to them more effectively.
First, let’s look at some definitions. You need to understand the difference between needs and wants. Needs are a perceived lack of something. Needs are the basis of all motivation. When you sense you’re missing something, you become motivated. If you become motivated enough, then you want it. Wants are the specific satisfiers to fill that gap. In other words, when consumers sense a gap in something, they first ask themselves, “Do I need this?”. If so, they move from needing it to wanting it. They are motivated!
So how do you motivate a consumer? You have to show consumers how your products and services connect to the things consumers want. For that, you use a tool called Feature Benefit Laddering. Think of Feature Benefit Laddering as unpacking your product or service by starting with its primary features and how they connect to the benefits they generate and how those benefits ladder up to the values people want.
Here’s an example. Imagine we’re selling drill bits. How do we motivate consumers to buy drill bits? Here’s my Feature Benefit Ladder. Think of the steps of a ladder. At the bottom rung is your product. Right above that are its main features, sharp spiraling edges, length, material, and so on. Then, above each feature is the primary benefit it delivers. In the case of a drill bit, that is simply a hole. Keep going, and you see that you can do a lot of things with a hole, including hanging a picture, and so on.
To motivate consumers, we start by showing how their homes would be more comfortable if they just had memorable pictures on their walls, pictures like family vacations and so one. That makes them realize they’re missing something. Then, we have to show them how drilling a hole lets them hang that picture. That activates them to want a drill bit to fill that need. And finally, we direct that want to our specific model of drill bit and show how ours does it better than the competitors.
Great innovators motivate by activating needs and directing wants. You create a feature benefit ladder starting from the bottom up. But then you motivate consumers starting at the top and working down.

The SIT method is great for creating exciting new products and services. Now I want to show you how to apply these techniques to digital assets. For example, let’s apply the Attribute Dependency technique to a website. You start by listing the internal and external attributes of the site like the one here.
Internal:
1. color
2. design
3. graphics
4. information
5. link locations
6. page loading speed
7. contact information
8. length of text
External:
a. number of visitors
b. type of visitors
c. location of visitor
d. SEO page rank
e. search requests
f. type of browser
g. type of computer
Next, randomly pair an external attribute with an internal one. and imagine a relationship between the two attributes. For example, “location of visitor” and “graphics,” meaning how the information is displayed on your website. As the location of the visitor changes, the information and graphics that you display on your website changes. Why would that be valuable? In what situations would it make sense to have that relationship in place?
Think about it. Imagine if your customer is browsing your website right inside one of your retail stores. Perhaps you would change the kind of information and graphics you would use to show your products. What if they were browsing your website from one of your competitor’s stores? Could that change how you display competitive pricing information? What if your customer is browsing within a healthcare facility, or from an airport, or inside a restaurant? Would it change the products, the prices, or other service elements that you display? It just might. Applying attribute dependency can make your website responsive and adaptable. It services your clients better by understanding more about them.
Let’s apply this same approach to a social media application. For this example, let’s use Facebook. Here are the internal and external attributes of a Facebook Page.
Internal
1.number of friends
2.wall postings (by you)
3.pokes
4.status
5.years on Facebook
6.gender of friends
7.degree of friendship
8.emotional state
9.nature of friendship
10.age
11.current location
12.current activity
13.photos with other people
External
a.time
b.likes
c.size of friends’ network
d.wall postings (by others)
e.status of friends
f.friend’s demographics (age, gender, etc)
Let’s imagine a relationship between “likes” and “wall postings.” There is no relationship there now, so let’s imagine one. For example, as the number of “likes” increases over a particular period of time, your wall postings change. Why would that be beneficial? Perhaps you would put different products or special promotions there once you reach a certain level of likes. In other words, you change how you engage with your customers who visit your Facebook page based on how they engage. A relationship between these two attributes would give you a cue to know when it’s appropriate to do something different on your page.
Let’s go further with digital innovation and look at mobile apps and how to apply SIT techniques. For these, I like to use the Task Unification technique. We create a virtual product by saying: the App has the additional job of addressing this business issue. The trick is to pick an app that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue now. That’s where you find some surprising innovations.
Let’s do an example. Imagine your company makes a household product that helps get rid of odors in your home. It’s a spray product that you would use to get rid of odors from your cat or dog. Imagine you’re the marketing manager for this product and you want to find creative ways to promote its benefits.
First, find a list of mobile apps. Pick one of these randomly and plug it into the phrase: “the app has the additional job of promoting my product.”
Here is an app called Micello, a provider of comprehensive indoor venue mapping. It’s like Google maps only for in indoor spaces like shopping malls or airports. You imagine this app has the additional job of promoting your spray for pet odors. What would be the benefit? How it would work, and how would it increase brand awareness of your product? Suppose this technology is used to create an internal map of your home. What if it could also track where your pet spends its time as it moves from room to room. Perhaps the app creates an odor heat map of where the pet has been so that you know exactly where to spray the product. I love this idea because it’s both functional and it reinforces the brand promise.
Task Unification can help find new uses for existing apps, and it can help you create completely new apps.
Your digital assets are just as important as your products and services. Using the SIT Method will unlock more value for your customers and find new ways to engage them more effectively through digital channels.

Dear Mr. Boyd,
My Wharton interview was conducted in a group format in which we were asked to conceive a new conference to host at the business school. We went around the table, each candidate offering a different idea on which topic would most effectively engage students and faculty. The ideas reflected the respective backgrounds of each candidate – a “Big Data” conference from an IBM analytics practitioner, a “Health and Wellness” conference from a self-described ‘yogi,’ a “Healthcare” conference from a healthcare consultant, and so on.
I was the last to offer an idea – an “Innovation” conference.
I continued to offer examples in which each candidate’s idea could be included within the theme of innovation. I suggested that students and faculty would not only benefit from appreciating the existing business priority to be continually innovative, but also by learning the tactical skills to become intentionally innovative themselves.
My interview group agreed on an “Innovation” conference, refined the idea, laid out the conference logistics, and pitched it to the interviewers. One month later, I was exploring Philadelphia with my family as an accepted member of the Wharton MBA Class of 2018.
You are one of the few people who have encouraged me to admit that I want to do great things in my life. I did not always have the courage to proclaim this. When I say it aloud, it fills me with energy. It makes me hungry to acquire knowledge, inspire breakthrough, and create impact. Thanks to you, I feel that I am on my way.
I thank you for your guidance, advice, and support over the years. I promise I will put it to good use!
Thank you!
Paul Carey, Jr.