Why Great Brands avoid Selling Products

One of the best-known advertising taglines that the world has seen is Nike’s “Just Do It”. Nike became a successful brand with a series of simple ads that showed athletes of all kinds doing what athletes do- sweating, straining, running, grunting. All these athletes in the ads talked with emotions about what they do, and why do it. “Just Do it” was not about the sneakers, it was about values, it was not about the products, it was about the brand ethos.

The “Just Do it” campaign ran for 10 solid years and serves as a prime example of how selling emotions triumph over selling products. As soon as the first ad came out, people wrote Nike and talked about how the tagline helped them to “Just do it”. They talked about how they took up fitness, how they came out of a bad relationship, how they left their bad jobs, how badly they wanted to pursue their passion but couldn’t do it and the brand’s tagline resonated with them and inspired them to leave their comfort zone to do something extraordinary. Since the campaign launch, the tagline has taken on a cultural resonance that remains unique among brands.

We, humans, are emotional creatures. Every decision that we make is based solely on our emotional capacity. Even our buying decisions are based on the fact that how the products promise to make us feel. Does the product satisfy my emotional need? Every brand has a core value. Everything in a company can change over time, for eg, the distribution strategy, product strategy, marketing strategy but the core value of the company should not change. That’s what makes a brand a great success. How a brand makes the customer feel when they buy your product. That’s why great brands succeed in seeking an intimate emotional connection.

Great brands never talk about their products, they talk about the stories, how they exactly make you feel when you use their product. e.g. Nike never talks about its sales figure that they want to achieve a sales target of billions by the end of a year, they never talk about why their air soles are better than Reebok or Adidas, they anyway talk about how their product makes you feel, and why should it matter to you. And Nike triumphs over its purpose of making you feel like an athlete making an emotional connection. Through this type of commitment to creating emotional connections, great brands are always redefining consumer expectations and challenging the traditional norms of their industry categories.