Eye on Entrepreneur > Brand Idea

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Have you ever looked at a great ad or new product and asked the question: “How did they ever come up with that?” Mesmerized by the relevance or attraction of the product or the message, we quickly assume that it came from some spark of creative genius by one of those unique “creative types.”
That is simply not the fact.

The reality is that great ads and new products come out of first determining what it is we want to communicate, and only then applying a creative solution. These two steps, the ‘what’ and then the ‘how,’ are not a 50/50 endeavor. Believe it or not, it is truly an 80/20 effort, with 80% of the effort focusing on defining the ‘what,’ and 20% of the effort being the how.

What are we talking about?

On Leblon Cachaça, we knew that our ‘what to communicate’ was much more than simply ‘the best Brazilian Cachaça Rum in the World.’ We needed to create a higher level ‘Brand Idea’ – something that brings the product solution to an emotional, human level, making the product relevant to the life, style, and personality of the consumer. The Brand Idea must be related to something insightful, and deeply relevant, to the consumer.

To create a Brand Idea, you need to think in short-hand (three words max), then long-hand (a paragraph). For Leblon, our Brand Idea is Sensual Natural Togetherness. This is the short hand idea – three simple words. We went on to write the long hand as follows (note: before we had a name, bottle, product, or anything, this is what we wrote):

“This brand is based on the experience of a group of friends from around the world, and the weekend they had last year on the beaches of Leblon. Sitting back, sipping caipirinhas and sharing great stories, enjoying warmth and friendship. This brand is based on that moment on Rio de Janeiro’s Leblon beach.”

Our selection of words is very important:

1.	Togetherness was the most important word of all, and it was based on our belief that our crackberry lives are leading to less and less personal connections, and that consumers needed solutions to facilitate and encourage social connection. In other words, unlike vodka, which is all about sitting powerfully at the end of the bar posing to the world, we wanted our brand to be the opposite: all about we, not about me.
2.	After Togetherness came Natural, an adjective that not only describes the naturalness of our fresh sugar cane-based Cachaça Rum, but how the brand as a person behaves and acts – natural and humanlike, without pretenses poses or prejudice.
3.	And lastly, Sensual – a further embellishment on Natural, but particularly important given our premium positioning and the cliché assumptions that consumers have about Brazil being an overly sexually charged culture. As a premium brand, it was very critical that we show a sophisticated, warm side of Brazil, and not the typical Carnival bacchanal.

Is that it? Almost. Once we had the Brand Idea written, we then went to pictures, bringing the Brand Idea to life. Like the words in our Brand Idea, we spent a ton of time selecting our pictures. Together, the words and the pictures create a ‘Brand Concept,’ from which all creative can flow. Everything. From Live Love Leblon, to the use of Pantone 382C as our core brand color.

If you get this right, you are almost guaranteed to have a marketing campaign or new product that works: communicates, creates relevancy, and stimulate a response: desire! With your concept in hand, you are now prepared to brief your creative resource – copywriter, artists, graphic designer, advertiser, whoever. They understand exactly what the goal is – the ‘What’ – and you are guaranteed a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts for the "How." -- Steve Luttman is the CEO of Leblon