About Durex condoms (+ how branding works)
The Crucial Thing™ to understand about branding.
Condoms made me understand how branding works.
Here’s the thing:
For some reason, most people strongly prefer Durex over lesser known condom brands.
The product might be exactly the same, yet people can’t seem to shake the feeling that buying the cheaper kind is more risky.
And that’s The Crucial Thing™ to understand about branding:
People don’t pick the “best” option, they pick the safest option.
Branding is not about having the best product.
It’s about having the product that’s least likely to be terrible.
And the more complex our deterrents (like getting an STI, or unintentionally getting pregnant), the more likely we’re willing to overpay for something that’s not terrible: the big brand.
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.
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It’s hard to overstate how important this is.
It is a huge mindset shift.
When people compare your startup company to a much larger competitor, what do they see?
Risks.
Nobody is going to get fired for choosing IBM, Microsoft or Salesforce… even if there is a startup that seems to have a “better” product.
Nobody is going to regret paying $0.50 extra for a Durex condom. But you are going to regret using an unknown condom brand you can’t rely on.
Nobody is going to regret recommending a restaurant to friends that has a 4.8 stars rating, out of 500 reviews.
In a complex world, reducing risk matters.
It makes life simpler if you’re certain that some essential things can be relied upon.
And thus you buy the big, branded player.
Because they’re the least likely to be terrible.
What does this all mean, if you’re a startup marketer?
Invest in social proof
Invest in visual identity & design
Invest in content
Invest in a nicer outfit
Invest in high-quality everything
All these things are signals.
Signals that you can produce quality.
Signals that you’re not here to make a quick buck, and could disappear tomorrow.
Signals that you’re playing the long game.
Signals that you’re investing, and that you have a reputation to protect.
Those are things that people care about.
Because they have to rely on your product—on you—one way or another.
That’s the most helpful lens to view branding through.
(Hat tip to Rory Sutherland for this perspective. For a deeper dive, enjoy this interview)
Cheers,
—Pieter
P.S.
Once we started seeing things from this angle, branding became endlessly fascinating.
If you’re a technical marketer like us… there’s just so much to uncover. Each of those points above—about these brand signals of visual design, content, etc—are worth their own deep dives, that we’ll hope to cover soon!
But we must start with the big things:
How do you build a brand that people want to engage with?
By being useful.
By “front-loading value”.
We’ll explain what that means, in our next email.
Speak soon!