I’m reading the book Disruption by Jean-Marie Dru — it’s about time, I know – which was a pretty famous advertising thought piece back in the 90s. Even creative directors referred to it and they’re not ones to readily admit being inspired by other CDs. Live ones that is.
And Mr. Dru talks about two elements of an ad: the idea and the execution. The idea is the demonstration of the product value and the execution is the creative surround. So for Charmin bath tissue, said Mr. Dru, the idea was “squeezably soft” and Mr. Whipple was the execution.
Brand planning for me follows this route for the most part, though I use words “claim” and “proof.” The claim is the “idea” and the proof is the “execution.” But in my world the execution is very organized. Organized by selling schema in the form of three brand planks. For a commercial maintenance company I wrote a brand brief that likened the company to the Navy Seals of maintenance. The planks were Preemptive, Fast and Fastidious. When the client presented the company online, in brochure, ad or in person, the presentation was always cloaked in one of these three principles. The company prevents problems through forethought, is absolutely quick to react, and precise and fastidious about every job. Like a Navy Seal. This is a coda employees need to live by and one that customers find easy to grasp and hold on to.
In branding, Claim and proof, well thought out, works every time. That’s disruption! Peace!