Distinctive Brand Behaviours - a new way to think about Health and Wellness marketing
What are distinctive Brand Behaviours and why are they important to health and wellness marketers now?
Distinctive brand behaviours are ways of a brand acting that are consistent across marketing channels, product, distribution and tone. They guide how a brand acts in such a way to bring greater memorability, cut through and tackle the barriers and opportunities an audience may have to shopping a brand’s products.
Many of you reading this may feel that this is familiar territory: “aren’t you describing distinctive brand assets?” Well no, Distinctive Brand Assets are something different, here is a readily available definition:
“Distinctive brand assets are elements that trigger the memory of a brand and all its attributes and associations. They are slogans, logos, fonts, packaging, sounds, music, and other elements directly associated with a brand, even when there is no mention of its name”
Distinctive brand assets are additive; they should be memorable in the sense that overtime they leave an indelible sense that a brand meets an audience’s needs in a way that is motivating, relevant for the category and different from the competition.
Why is this important now?
It’s always been important but it’s becoming more so in the health and wellness category for the following three reasons
i) The gravy train of cheap customer acquisition through Meta platforms and Google is over. Last year’s iOS update and inflation on the cost of media has meant that a blasting away with DR campaigns on IG and the like just isn’t the weapon it once was.
ii) Unfavourable clutter: today’s health and wellness brands compete fiercely for available disposable income already, but in modern marketing where digital rules, they rub shoulders with dozens of other brands in the social and pre-roll feed. Some are credible brands but many are bottom feeders, drop shippers or other nefarious also-rans. This is not good company to keep.
iii) The economy and pressure on brand investment: marketing teams may struggle to justify brand expenditure, particularly as they may be taking a step away from a largely performance relationship. By adding ‘building our distinctive brand behavior’ to the discussion it is possible to add a qualitative case (on top of the commercial one) of what the next cohort of customers needs to see and how you can cut through.
Nine Distinctive Behaviours to Reach Your Target Audience and outmanoeuvre the Health & Wellness competition
There are nine distinctive Brand Behaviours and these are divided into three categories: High energy, Nurturing and Rational.
Above: The nine distinct Brand Behaviours being embraced within the Health & Wellness space.
Let’s briefly go through each behaviour (more detailed case studies and full debrief is available - just email me)
Spotlight
When your people would benefit from seeing a topic normalised or brought out into the open.
Celebrate
When your audience sees joy in what your brand or category can provide. Can also be used to go ‘all in’ on an unorthodox product.
Challenge
Your people want to push themselves when they’re using your category’s product, doubly effective when there are communities who’ll respond to the competition.
Authenticate
When people need the authority of ‘Backed by Science’ to take the plunge or if it plays in a delicate or possibly misunderstood space.
Educate
When a gap in people’s knowledge presents a barrier to their health and wellness and you’re better positioned than most to provide that knowledge.
Collaborate
When people would benefit from gaining a fresh understanding of how to use your product, or new access or credibility. It can also help a loved brand find new audiences or uses.
Support
The people you want to reach would benefit from ongoing assistance to meet their goals. Can often help reframe the business that you’re in and open up opportunities for services.
Customise
People have been made to work hard to meet their goals with other offerings in the category; here is the chance to show that your brand is different in that you’ll move to them.
Specialise
The people you want to reach have highly specific needs and your product or service can meet them.
Best Practices for defining your brand distinctive brand behaviour
Defining your distinctive brand behaviour, comes down to understanding the perfect meeting of:
Motivating the consumer
Difference vs the competition
Being true to your brand and / or product
Start with the consumer - is yours a product with high barriers to entry in terms of understanding? Or is it easy to grasp with quick substitutes - these are all considerations.
Then onto the competition - no brand executes one behaviour alone (though some are pretty single minded). What we see is that there’s typically a ‘major and minor’ in how brands behave, where a particular trait spikes and there are other elements at play also. It’s important to understand the behaviour profile of your competitive set - there may be traits that are hygiene for your corner of health and wellness but there will be opportunities to zig while the others zag.
Finally, bring your understanding of consumer needs and the profile of your category with an honest reflection on the nature of your brand and product. It must feel right and be something that you feel confident that the rest of the organisation will buy into and execute.