Brand What represents the tangible products, services, and offerings that a brand provides. It answers the question, "What does the brand do?" and showcases the specific solutions it offers to fulfill its mission. The brand What is the most visible and concrete aspect of a brand’s identity, where the target audience directly experience the value the brand promises.
Brand What: Why It Is Important
The brand What is essential because it is the physical or experiential manifestation of a brand’s purpose and values. Without clear, well-crafted offerings, a brand's message can remain abstract. The brand What translates the brand’s mission into something customers can purchase, use, or interact with, providing them with real value. It's the final step in connecting the brand's purpose to customer satisfaction.
How Your Brand What Can Contribute to a Clearer Brand Strategy, Better Brand Recognition and Higher Customer Loyalty
A strong brand What reinforces the brand’s identity and ensures that customers have a consistent and meaningful experience with its products or services. When the products or services are aligned with the brand’s purpose and approach, customers recognize the brand’s unique value proposition, leading to stronger brand recognition. Over time, consistently delivering high-quality products that fulfill the brand’s promise fosters customer loyalty.
Brand What: What Is Its Function?
The brand What functions as the tangible proof of a brand’s purpose and approach. It is through the What that customers experience the brand’s mission and values in action. The brand What not only fulfills the brand’s promises but also provides a way for customers to engage with the brand on a practical level.
Brand What: A Real-World Scenario
In IKEA’s case, the brand What is its wide range of "furniture and home accessories that are easy to assemble and transport." This product offering reflects IKEA’s Why of improving everyday life and its How of offering functional and affordable design. IKEA’s What—the products customers purchase—completes the brand’s story by allowing customers to experience its values firsthand through its accessible, well-designed products.
How to Define Your Brand What
To define your brand What, clearly identify the products or services your brand offers. These should align with your brand’s Why and How and reflect the values and mission you want to communicate. Write a statement that describes your core offerings and how they embody your brand’s identity and purpose.
Brand What: Best Practice
A best practice for defining your brand What is to ensure that your offerings are a direct extension of your Why and How. For example, Tesla’s What includes electric cars and clean energy products, which directly support its Why of accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy and its How of innovation and design excellence. Tesla’s What is not just a product line but a clear representation of its values and purpose.
Brand What: What to Avoid
Avoid defining a brand What that is disconnected from your brand’s core values or purpose. Offering products or services that don’t align with your Why and How can lead to confusion and weaken your brand identity. For instance, a brand that positions itself as eco-friendly but sells products with a high environmental impact will lose credibility with customers.
When to Define the Brand What in the Branding Process
To ensure perfect alignment, the Brand What must be defined during the Brand Strategy Platform, and after the Brand How.
