[The American Brands Council]
Linda Kaplan
Thaler CEO, Chief Creative Officer The Kaplan Thaler Group
In today’s highly competitive, noisy marketplace,
breaking through the clutter and getting
your brand noticed is extremely challenging.
Messages bombard us: from the bottom of
golf cups, flashing on ATM screens, and even
posted over urinals (so I’m told).
So how do you make a great brand in an age
of information overload? Create a big bang!
At its core, a big bang idea takes the spotlight
— too outrageous, too different, too
polarizing to go unnoticed. A big bang helps a
brand explode into the marketplace virtually
overnight. Its huge multiplier effect generates
buzz and talk value and makes the brand part
of the culture. A big bang creates an everexpanding
universe for a product, turning an
occasional user into a fierce brand loyalist.
AFLAC is a great example of a great brand,
growing from 3 percent to 91 percent awareness
in a record amount of time with the introduction
of the AFLAC Duck. Perrier, Starbucks,
and Federal Express are other examples of great
brands, because they forever altered the landscape
by creating a new way of thinking about
a product or service.
