Greed Is Good

“[Brand desire]…is the passionate feeling for acquisition and experience of a product or service which is driven by a set of connected factors that are intrinsic and also extrinsic.” Nicholas Ind, co-author of Brand Desire: How to Create Consumer Involvement and Inspiration, discusses how more than ‘want’ or ‘need’, ‘desire’ entices consumers to brands. And how brands should cultivate desire to build a stronger connect and engagement.

- Nicholas Ind

Which brand do you desire most? It is a question that we have asked people time and again. There are some suggestions that come up fairly consistently, such as Apple, sports brands such as Adidas and Nike, car brands such as Audi and Porsche, and fashion brands such as Prada and Levi’s, and also some unique ones—for example, one person told us about his experience of a patisserie in Lisbon, Portugal. What are as interesting as the choices though are the explanations—linkages back to family and childhood, the sensuality of experience, and the way that brand reflects who you are and who you would like to become. Perhaps not surprisingly, the language people use is often emotional. For some, there is a sense of aspiration but little fantasy for the unattainable. This research led us to wonder whether desire for a brand (not a ‘need’ or a ‘want’ as is often used in marketing, nor ‘love’ which is more enduring) was important and could it be nurtured and managed by brand owners?

To validate our ideas about brand desire, we drew on an attitudinal study of some 8,000 consumers that has been repeated regularly since 2010. This work demonstrates that the value of a brand is built on two pillars: brand pressure which is concerned with awareness of a brand and its availability; and brand desire which is concerned with performance, personality, and emotional connectivity. Not all brands score high on these measures—some are good at pressure but weak in terms of desire and some are niche players (through strategic choice or lack of resources) that are strong on desire but weak on pressure. Leading brands though (what we call ‘desire leaders’) excel at both pressure and desire.