Powerful high-tech brands build equity through a process we illustrate in our brand pyramid, which is based on materials developed by Larry Light. (See the exhibit "How High-Tech Brands Build Equity.") The pyramid's bottom level represents the core product — the tangible, verifiable product characteristics. Many high-tech managers are most comfortable in this space, and, unfortunately, it is where many high-tech products reside. Increasingly, however, high-tech purchases involve not just technologists but also business managers and end users, who are far more interested in what a technology product does for them than in how it works. As high-tech managers come to understand this, many start changing the way they speak of their offerings. Instead of selling "products," they sell "solutions" or "benefits." Such a shift in thinking and in language marks a step in the right direction; in fact, it represents the second level of the pyramid. But it is not enough. The first two levels of the pyramid still embody the elements of product competition, not those of brand competition. Competitors can continually match and leapfrog over one another by offering better and more features and by identifying the benefits of their products for customers. For instance, two manufacturers make Unix-based servers that not only perform similarly but also produce the same benefits for customers-the ability to run data-mining applications, executive information systems, and the like.
The third level of the pyramid is where a company can truly differentiate itself from competitors by providing emotional rewards for its business. How do customers feel when experiencing the functional benefits of the offering? How do customers feel when experiencing the benefits of the brand? Do they feel confident? Productive? Innovative? Caring? Responsible? Successful? It is exceedingly difficult for many high-tech managers to acknowledge, much less embrace, the idea that emotions can be so important to a company's success. But goods and services that reside in that third level are indeed developed and positioned as a way of fulfilling a promise of value to selected customers, not simply as technologies in search of a market. In this regard, Apple comes to mind and also IBM's venerable Customer Information Control System (or CICS). Eckhard Pfeiffer, the former CEO of Compaq, illustrated the important differences between the bottom and the top of the pyramid this way: "Consumers don't go shopping for a 24-valve, six-cylinder, zoo-horsepower, fuel-injected engine. They shop for a Taurus, a Lexus, a BMW, a Jeep Cherokee, a Hummer, whatever. They shop for well-known, trusted brands."
While some may question the validity of that assertion, given Compaq's disappointing recent earnings and Pfeiffer's subsequent departure from the company, the fact remains that Compaq did enjoy considerable success in the PC market for many years. Declining profit margins in the business as a whole, fueled by such strategies as companies actually giving PCs away to encourage end users to get on the Internet, have left the PC market barren of strong brands. Compaq is currently pinning its hopes on translating its promise of value for higherend technology applications. The company's ads boast of its entrance into the enterprise-computing arena, pointing out that 17 of the 20 largest stock exchanges in the world run on its systems and claiming that Compaq "out integrates" the top IT integrators. Time will tell if Compaq can leverage its promise of value in this very different market.
The top two levels of the pyramid illustrate the concept that powerful brands attract and hold customers with their particular promises of value. At the top level of the pyramid is the personality of the brand. It's the characteristics the brand would have if it had human qualities: friendly, warm, caring, confident, decisive, aggressive, or the like. The next level of the pyramid describes the deeper values that the brand reflects. We are particularly interested in reflecting values of the target customer that will create and reinforce brand loyalty. By "values," we mean such things as conservative values, family values, achievement-oriented values, and so on. Taken together, these two levels of the pyramid define the relevant and differentiating character of the brand. In the end, powerful brands enable customers to fill in the blank in the following sentence with ease: "Oh yes, [brand name]; that's the company that __________."
Focusing a company around brand management — getting from the bottom two basic levels of the pyramid to levels three, four, and five — does not mean tearing up the organization chart, forming yet another set of teams to explore a new initiative, or instituting a gaggle of new processes. Business-planning processes and topics are the same in a promise-centric company as they are in a product-centric organization. A brand plan is a business plan. The fundamental difference between a product-centric and a brand-centric company lies in the attitudes of the people throughout the organization — not just in the marketing department — in their understanding of what it means to shift from selling products or services to selling a promise of value.
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