BUILDING VALUES INTO

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

TO CREATE BRANDS
The FUNCTION of a product or service is what it does - its purpose, its raison d’être.
Function is always needed by users.

Function does not exist in a vacuum. There will always be a context, a purpose, a place, a
situation, a process or a system in which the need arises to have the function provided and to
experience its benefits. This demand and supply equation will change through time. So a
dynamic model is required if the user’s evolving needs are to be met adequately over the
years.

Both the FUNCTION and the USER will perforce change as the MARKET develops or
matures and competition intensifies. The theoretically IDEAL BRAND LEADER will
employ MARKETING and GROWTH STRATEGIES which manage this inevitable change.
The task is to maintain the PRODUCT/USER BRIDGE. This ensures that dominant market
leadership continues in old markets whilst new products, businesses and markets are being
developed. The linked concepts of BRIDGING and BRAND POSITIONING are key to
understanding and managing the successful design, testing, launching, building and
maintenance of tomorrow’s market leaders.

FULFILLMENT OF FUNCTIONAL NEED involves 10 major components

FUNCTION must be:-

1 systemicly relevant; System Need®. System Context
2 process related; Object(s) of Process
3 wanted; Desiring. Projecting.
4 conspicuously seen to be done; Design Attributes
Saliency. Perception.
5 thought to be done; Judging. Observation
Reasoning. Proof
6 felt to be done satisfactorily. Impressions. Fashions. Aesthetics.
Attitudes. Tastes. Emotions.

 USERS are individuals, each with their own personal, often private, needs, dreams, hopes,
fantasies, senses, abilities, anxieties, convictions and fears.
 For a product to become a BRAND LEADER, the Product’s FUNCTION must be designed to
BRIDGE perfectly to the user’s PSYCHOLOGY.
 COMMUNICATION and PERSUASION STRATEGIES have a vitally important part to play.
They help to create THE BRIDGE MATRIX which can best reach the majority of users.

FUNCTION’s performance against key CRITERIA OF EVALUATION:-

7 has its value, usefulness and Standards. Utility

effectiveness measured by users; Comparisons. Choices
8 is made personally and Empathy. Self-image
psychologically meaningful; Sentiment. Fantasy
9 can acquire symbolic and ritualistic Symbolism. Ritual
overtones and value; Role. Characterisation
10 can engender powerful symbolic convictions, Brand Personality
images and beliefs about the brand Brand Loyalty
delivering the Function to regular users. Psychological Reinforcement

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The KEY CRITERION OF EVALUATION (E) enables USERS to choose that FUNCTION (F),
delivered in a BRANDED PRODUCT, which enables them to best satisfy their BRIDGED
FUNCTIONAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL (P) NEEDS at any particular state of NEED AROUSAL.
This state, their MENTAL SET, is actually a moving target. It is rendered static by “snapshots” taken
for CORPORATE PLANNING purposes.
© Norman Strauss, 1982, 2010