Brands We Love.

We recently blogged a bit about branding and brands. This week we wanted to continue the discussion by listing some of our favorite brands and why we love them.

Now, before we dive into the discussion, it must be said that there are very specific reasons that these brands are on our list. It has nothing to do with what they sell, what their stores look like or whether or not we frequent those establishments. The reason that these brands are on our list is because we feel that they really have a strong concept of what it means to be a brand and they have been successful in integrating it into everything that they do. Remember, a brand is a really simple thing. It is the reason that you are in business and should really drive all of those tiny decisions towards making your brand stronger.

With that said, we have three brands that we would like to chat about today. The first one is Nordstrom. While it is a very nice department store with lots of high-quality merchandise, that is not really what the store is all about.  Do you know what their brand is about? Well, Nordstrom’s brand is all about customer service. Everything starts and stops with the customer in mind. Nordstrom prides themselves on providing the best customer service in the business. This extends from how clean they keep the store, to the organized racks and the ever-impressive sales associates. Even if you don’t shop at Nordstrom chances are that you are aware of their high-standard in customer service. And that is why we think they have a strong brand. Everyone knows their story without actually being a customer. That is really saying something.

The next brand we want to talk about is Whole Foods. This is another strong brand in our mind. Again, it has nothing to do with how popular they are or how fancy their food is, it has to do with how they manage their brand. They have made their company all about providing high quality, organic and sustainable products to their customers. Their product comes at a premium but that is just another tie to their brand. Whole Foods is willing to put in the extra effort to put better quality products on the shelf. They are not a discount store or a basic grocery market. They have created a new type of premium grocery shopping experience that really goes hand in hand with the Whole Foods brand.

The final brand is one that makes a lot of favorite brand lists. Apple. Now Apple makes some really good gadgets and they have hip stores playing trendy tunes. However, their brand is based on something bigger and yet simpler: the idea of challenging the status quo. They don’t accept that something has to be a certain way and they instead flip it around and innovate. They want to speak to those people who want to be “rebels”, to own a Mac. Apple has been very successful at creating a brand for the few rather than the many. (Although we would argue that many people have iPhones these days.)

Coming up next week we will be talking about branding tips.