Why Your Brand Is More Important Than Your Product

Push aside your business plan and stop obsessing over
your product dimensions. First, you need to think about
your brand.
“Product first is very retro, very 1980s. We have to put
the idea first,” says Kevin Roberts , who has served as
global CEO of advertising juggernaut Saatchi & Saatchi
since 1997. Saatchi & Saatchi works with more than half
of the biggest 50 advertisers in the world, including the
likes of General Mills, Lexus, HSBC, Visa and Toyota.
Roberts says the first thing any entrepreneur needs to
do is figure out how to get consumers to love you. He
cites entrepreneurial legends like Richard Branson and
Steve Jobs who found success by thinking first about
what consumers want and then “backfilling” into a
product. “You’d better start thinking about how you are
going to create loyalty beyond reason before you start
writing the mechanics of your plan.”
For those hustling to launch a business on a budget, he
suggests getting a group of trusted friends together and
start brainstorming. That’s the kind of brand
development entrepreneurs need. “The passion of three
people who care, they’ll get you started.”
When you have an idea, test it. Put it out to consumers
on the Internet. Real feedback in real time isn’t
expensive, he says. And if your idea fails, move on
quickly and try again. But before you spend precious
time working out the costings, the distribution and all of
the other elements of your final product, make sure
you’ve got an idea that sings.
“What you have got to do is to make your business
promise irresistible. To do that, you need to be looking at
the purpose, the dream. Because people want to be part
of something bigger than themselves now.”
Watch this video to hear Roberts talk more about when
and how entrepreneurs should be thinking about their
brand.