Nestle's Brand is Bench Pressing 100lbs. - How to Strengthen Your Brand

Our house is so brand loyal to Nestle Cookie Dough, we often mistake our dinner leftovers for extra cookie dough!  Ironically, it all began with a national recall!About a year back Damien and I noticed that Safeway was out of Nestle cookie dough.  Sure they had Pillsbury but we assumed we would definitely be able to get Nestle at Giant or Bloom.  The next day we had no luck and continued to have bad luck at Wegman’s, Harris Teeter and BJ’s (yes that’s pounds of cookie dough but we were desperate).  It got so bad that it was time for some Internet research and discovered the nationwide recall due to my fellow eaters of raw cookie dough getting E.coli. Throughout the entire process Damien swore that Nestle tasted better and had a hard time converting to the dark side – Pillsbury.

We eventually resorted to Pillsbury and the commercials lie! It does not make my belly tickle and laugh in good way.  We were forced on a cookie free diet (probably necessary) for weeks.

Salvation came the day “new batch” (as marketing by Nestle) hit the shelves.  Now we buy cookie dough as if we are preparing for the Washington, DC Blizzard of 2010 (26 inches of snow and 4 days federal leave).  So what does this have to do with confusing leftovers? Due to our crazy consumption we have recycled over 5 Nestle cookie dough re-sealable bowls as Tupperware.  And continuous confused leftover spaghetti sauce as a hopeful cookie desert or have to take the dreaded peak under the lid in search of expired leftover mold (yuck!)  However, to be fair we also have 5+ Hillshire Farm Ultra Thin Deli Slices containers serving as yesterday’s dinner leftover vesicle – at least those are clear.  Overall, our obsessive brand loyalty has us confusing which of the many Nestle Cookie Dough containers in the fridge isn’t a whammy”!

Marketing Key: Don’t underestimate the power of a brand.  A brand’s strength is supported by different values honored by its consumers.  Some support a brand for its function, personal history significance, quality, popularity, etc.  How to Strengthen Your Brand

1. Give your brand a personality.  Identify 3-4 characteristics you would use to describe your brand if it was a person.
2. Always communicate in your brand personality.  If one of the brand characteristics is “reliable”  communicate to your consumers in a professional and knowledgeable tone.
3. Create a style guide and adhere to brand standards.  Brand standards will ensure that your brand is always represented in the same manner regardless of who is responsible for the communication.

I know I’m not the only marketer that is brave enough to confess brand loyalty.  What makes you loyal to the brands you love?

 

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