Oto Beverages | Using Brand Strategy to Build a Company
Challenge
Oto was a startup beverage company focused on developing an innovative alternative in the growing market for enhanced water beverages like Gatorade and Vitaminwater. Oto’s product concept was a far more sustainable beverage option with health and well-being benefits, which also aimed to promote personal hydration by making the act of drinking water more interesting.
Oto would operate in an extremely competitive market with established brands. As a challenger, Oto couldn't rely on large traditional marketing campaigns to establish a brand identity. Therefore, alternative approaches were needed to connect with consumers and promote the brand message.
The concepts of external branding (image and messaging) versus internal branding (ethos and shared goals) would be considered for their strategic importance. Insights from research would be used to develop brand design guidelines – beyond marketing efforts, these guidelines would also influence business and design decisions to help ensure a holistic user experience with a product that delivered on brand promises.
Research Approach
Initially, literature was reviewed for an overview of branding topics and an understanding of the power of effective brand strategy. Key themes could then be identified for further investigation through primary research activities like interviews in order to develop a more complete understanding of requirements and approach. Literature was also used to begin understanding the needs and characteristics of the brand’s audience: health- and sustainability-minded consumers.
To validate theoretical findings from literature and web research, observations, interviews, and focus group sessions were conducted with three distinct groups who could offer different perspectives on the impact of branding as it exists in practice. By then analyzing their reflections and comparing the findings with literature, the goal was to uncover the most important insights that could then be used during brand development efforts.
Three groups of brand experts interviewed for insights:
Experts in brand design and messaging
Businesses in health and sustainability
Potential Oto consumers
Collecting and Analyzing
Data collection focused on understanding successful brand approaches, target user profiles and lifestyle characteristics, and the competitive landscape in which Oto would compete. Literature and web reviews helped focus the research scope for primary research activities like interviews. For additional contextual knowledge, competitive brands were analyzed for messaging, business culture, and graphical approaches.
Data was coded to uncover key themes within literature and from interviews and observations. This information was then correlated to pare down to a set of core principles that should be used for developing a brand strategy that engages potential consumers and distinguishes the brand from competitors.
Connecting the Data
Several themes grew out of data analysis, with the primary insight being that powerful brands are ones that “connect” with users on multiple levels. Visual models were then generated to help better understand how to facilitate a strong relationship between the Oto brand and users, as well as creating visual summaries that could convey this knowledge with the team.
Brand themes:
Build trust – be credible in actions and messaging; provide effective solutions that solve user needs and match values
Internal culture – the entire organization has to believe in the purpose and values to facilitate a connected brand
Understanding – identify what is truly important to the user, such as convenience, and provide solutions for them
Informative – users are looking for information to check brand credentials or to research product and brand claims
Approachable – make the brand easy to connect with and share in order to help build a community of advocates
Using Insights to Drive Strategy
Research confirmed that brands that succeed in making deep connections with their consumers, focused on their internal beliefs before investing in image and advertising. The research also identified that a strong brand foundation is effective as a tool for evaluating strategic decisions regarding product details and operational design, in the context of the relationship to brand and consumer ideals.
Building on these insights, an initial development focus was on capturing Oto’s brand ethos. The goal was for strategic product and operational decisions to be filtered through the “lens” of the brand. It was understood that claims made about Oto product offerings or corporate values would be investigated by a customer base that actively seeks information. Therefore, effectively conveying values to Oto’s current and future value chain would be critical to ensure consistency and honesty. A “Brand Manifesto” was developed as a means of documenting the brand ethos.
Beyond internal operations, the Brand Manifesto also guided the external brand communication strategy. Interaction with customers through such elements as graphics, marketing, product form and function, all needed to convey the brand essence to ensure it would resonate with the audience. Embedding the internal brand ethos in Oto’s external expression was seen as critical for achieving a strong brand-customer relationship.
