Make Your Brand Matter

CHAPTER 5Selling Experiences, Not Products

Antonis Kocheilas, current Global CEO of Ogilvy's advertising business, has built his entire career on brand strategy, guiding many of the most iconic brands on their path of defining their value proposition and unique differentiation. Working with his teams and clients, he's won numerous awards, including the highly coveted Cannes Grand Prix award and several Cannes Lions for creativity. He also strongly believes that experience is foundational to brand strategy.

When Antonis and I sat down to discuss the focus of this book, he explained to me that brand strategy, historically, was an idealistic manifestation of differentiation. For years, agencies, marketing leaders, and brand managers would work to portray the individual brands as better than their competition, defining the unique characteristics, factors, and commitments that the brand offered above and beyond their competition. This is still the objective of branding today, and while the path may be evolving, the ultimate objective has not changed – the goal remains to create an emotional connection between the individual and the brand that ultimately drives loyalty in its various forms.

COMMODITIZED BRANDS BECOME INVISIBLE

In Antonis's view, the path of branding has evolved to the point that consumers and business buyers now engage with brands without focusing on what the brand is – the brand itself has become somewhat invisible. Antonis explains that we have moved from an ...