The Brand Gap

The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier is essential reading for any designer in a consumer-facing business.

As my series of 'interesting books' continues, a pattern is emerging — I find that the most interesting books to read as a designer are ones that shape your understanding of the world and how people behave — as it is here where you will find the point of difference that will make your product stick.

With that in mind, let me present to you The Brand Gap — a timeless read on how to bridge that gap between business and the customer through disciplines that will help you to build a brand.

There is the globally applicable adage we often use in technology — "The purpose of a system is what it does" — to remind us that it doesnt matter what we say, if 'the system' does something different, then that's what it's purpose is. It's power is to face facts and get out of internal speak: company values and principles that simply don't stand up to the light of scrutiny of what we really provide to our end users.

Here, Marty introduces his own: A brand is not what you say it is — it's what they say it is.

Again, a cold reminder it doesnt matter what you might say internally, what you write in pres-decks, or the company mission statement you point towards as your north star — simply look at what your customers are telling you, and that is what you are.

Dont call it a case study

I have a lived example of this — at Treatwell we had a problem, after years of focusing on growth through offering discounts, customers come to perceive us as simply that: where you go to get a discounted beauty treatment.

To build meaningful loyalty with both salons and customers in a competitive industry, we needed to offer more.

As a brand voice, we needed to be that person you know that was both well informed about where to go and what to try, and understood what you were really looking for. As a proposition and service, that was through inspiration, choice and trust.

Translated into a digital experience, this led us to:

Overhauling our search and discovery experience

An image-led discovery feed, customer-centric search and filter attributes, and map-based browsing with estimated travel times.

Redesigning our reviews experience from the ground up

Turning Reviews from a retention-tool (and quickest £5 you've ever earned) into a meaningful driver of user-generated content that would drive the very USPs we believe differentiate us: inspration, choice and trust.

Closing thoughts

The power of this book is its timeless advice.

So, say you're a booking service that wants to be known for your choice curation, but customers simply see you as where you go for discounts; or you want to be known as the to go destination when buying a gift, but customers only know you for one category in particular — the good news is you're already listening to your customers.

The same 5 disciplines (Differentiate, Collaborate, Innovate, Validate and Cultivate) first published over 20 years ago will still get you on the path to both understanding your point of difference, and excuting on it today.