The Fact: Building Brand

Hello, I'm Joan Álvarez, co-founder of Putos Modernos, trained as a journalist and now an entrepreneur.

Personally, let's just say I'm a bit weird and, professionally, the common thread in my work is turning advertising into something else.

Brand or product first?I don't think you need to choose.

They're both really important.The brand alone is just a hollow promise, while a product with no brand becomes mere merchandise.

Therefore, there must be a balance between them.In fact, neuromarketing says that people buy brands and use products which means that they tend to decide emotionally rather than rationally. Much more than we'd like to admit.

That's why having a good brand becomes essential.High-quality products are no longer enough. You need to create that intangible value known as brand.

Brand has many definitions.One of my favorites is product plus magic.the Vicio case A good example of brand building and intangible value building is Vicio, with which we've sometimes worked.

With every burger they sell comes a bit of their brand.

And what proves that Vicio is more than just their products is that they wanted to build a brand which, in their case, was related to being both saucy and cheeky.

They want to sell burgers as if they were something forbidden,as if it were a drug or porn.

Their name is self-explanatory.That's how you create a brand even before determining the product or changing it in order to build a good brand.

Few burger joints have built this level of excitement this fast and that's much more about the brand, as the product is not new at all.

The product already exists, it's already being sold and it's trendy, but Vicio sells it in a unique way.

That uniqueness involves the brand, it involves making a piece of meat feel magical.

Have you ever been asked to promote a bad product?

People in marketing aren't the ones who decide or estimate the quality of the product.

That's the market's job.We should assume that the product that's making it to the stores is good: there is financial backing and intent to offer something to the market.

Releasing a product is a way to try to provide a new solution.

A better solution or a cheaper one. In other words, it helps bring something new.

Now then, there sure are products that comply with quality standards but wouldn't connect with an audience.

Poor, non-resonating communication with the audience is related to brand-building. For example, we have iPhones or Apple's products.

Technologically speaking, they don't tend to be the best when talking about resolution, hardware or compatibility.

However, they were the first tech company that started treating the brand just like in other sectors.

How do you build a brand?Brand-building is not easy or quick, as it basically depends on long-term commitment.

One way to make a brand endure is focusing on less, but doing it well.

Especially when you don't have a good budget to do much.

Doing too much without a budget or clear insights usually means spreading your efforts too thin, spending whatever budget you have which has limits, whether it is a big budget or not on erratic, different stuff.

Putos Modernos vs. other marketing agencies.Putos Modernos is an example of a very unique marketing agency.

It's not like the others, at all.We like to say that it's not only an agency.

We are the fusion of a marketing agency and a media outlet or a content channel, as we have our own audience.

And as long as we have it, we have to create our own content.

That is what we try to transfer to the brands."We are a hybrid between an agency that can offer creative services and a way to give them exposure", we say.

And there lies our uniqueness.That turns commercial projects into more than mere assignments in which a provider follows the instructions of a customer to the letter.

It ultimately becomes more of a collaboration between two brands: the one looking to sell their products and the one that provides their space and voice to do so.

Like a magazine. When you run an ad in a magazine, there are some where you can't just use any brand or any style.

You have to adjust to their policies, which may be related to indulgence or male lifestyle, no matter the magazine the topic or the worldview.

The same for Putos Modernos.Putos Modernos has its own style, which is mainly related to humor and self-parody.

Autos modernos would be a self-parody of modernity from within.

A brand must understand that and that we're not just after their money, but their kinship, as well.

We want to create content that helps both of us grow and that stays important to our audience.

If we focused on making money only by making non-important content to our audience, it'd be a short-term gain for a long-term loss.

Mere spam, that is.We truly believe that we can transform our ads into content.

I'm not saying that we should change the other brand's own style.

We use our own voice to say what a brand truly wants to say in a new way. However, this doesn't mean that we're ignoring their own style or brand-building at all.

Which brand has surprised you the most to work with?

We're really glad whenever we work with a seemingly unexpected one, and I'm talking about sectors that feel very different from what you'd expect from us.

Usually, the brands we work with are beer brands.I'd say that we've been contacted by most of them already.

There are two reasons why we like being contacted by a bank a business school or a tech company, which seem more conservative.

First of all, we find it challenging. Something brand new.

Surprising a more conservative sector can be both a challenge or a piece of cake.

They're conservative for a reason, and there lies the challenge.

Banking is like that because they safeguard our most sacred asset and a very conservative one: money.

However, starting or moving a small business in a conservative sector, towards something more disrupting or surprising or unexpected can also be very rewarding.

For us, getting a six or seven out of ten in a very daring sector has definitely way more credit than getting a nine out of ten in a sector where that's the norm.

If we got contacted by Red Bull, for example, we'd know that we'd be more free, and that'd make things easier for us.

It is also a challenge to do something new in a category like that, where everything has already been done.

Therefore, you have the wind at your back already because there's a client waiting in a category where that's almost predictable.

I find it more impressive having people say "Boy, who'd say that's a bank?" without preconceptions about the bank credibility.

What does a good brand do?I'm not a huge fan of giving tips,but focus on being in the 20% of brands people want to exist.

There are so many studies which say that the 80% of the brands aren't important at all.

If they suddenly disappeared, nobody would probably miss them.

We need to be in that 20%.And what do the brands in that 20% have in common?

They create important content, they express their purpose and they're unique.

Being yourself equals no rivals.First goes realness, then brand awareness and last but not least, take your time.

When someone is starting out, they may become obsessed with promptness or run out of patience.

Brands don't work in the short term.They're more like love rather than like sex.

Buying people's attention is the easiest way.It's a cakewalk.

Charming someone is harder, has way more merit and calls for far more tools.

If there was a third element in this so-called war between product and brand, it'd be the audience.

Product, brand and audience.Nowadays, getting an audience of your own also matters since they make you less dependent on paid channels.

Whether you like it or not, you need a communication channel, and you'll need a well built audience.

In other words, all the good examples we've mentioned so far, starting from Vicio to, if you like, Putos Modernos itself or even Factorial, we're all building our own audiences.

That's what needs a brand, don't you think?Some Love Brands or whatever you call them need people, supporters.

And nowadays it's harder to have them, but it's also easier than it ever was as long as the channels are free of charge or affordable.

If you build a good brand and you offer satisfying content you'll build your own audience, making you less dependent on paid channels and be able to speak in your own voice.

Indeed: product, brand but also an audience you need to build as a part of the product and your brand's outreach.

Great. We have this one.