Michael Campion: So let's get to product essence versus brand essence. Talk to me about product essence first and how that relates to positioning.

Bob Sheard: So the product essence is really a function of two questions what do we do the same in our product as everybody else and what single thing do we do differently? And in isolating those two questions, we can define the compelling product advantage. So a couple of brand examples Speedo, it's in the name. Their product essence was they created aqua dynamic swim clothing, but that was what they did the same as everybody else, kind of aqua dynamic with good fit. But the single thing that they did better than everybody else was the elimination of drag. So Fast Skin created the same characteristics as a shark skin. A shark skin basically captures a film of water around the shark as it moves, which means that as the shark moves, it's water moving in water, not skin moving in water. So there's no drag and Fast Skin was able to do that. So in doing that, you got this fantastic product essence that our product has no drag. It's therefore faster than the competition, whilst the competition is doing the same as us in terms of aqua dynamics. In terms of Inov8, which is a brand, they the whole of the running category tends to be predicated on cushioning technology Nike Air, Mizuno Wave, Asics Gel, Reebok Dmx it's all cushioning technologies designed to manage the ride. What Inov8 did is they did cushioning technology as well as everybody else. But where they innovated was with grip technology, and that grip technology meant that they could sell confidence to the consumer, all-terrain confidence. We will maximize your control on any terrain and we'll do cushioning as good as everybody else. So really, that's where the sort of product essence of Inov8 was grip.

And if you take a sort of another example, the magic that was created by iPhone with Gorilla Glass, so that first you know we take it for granted now, but that was magical, that you can move your finger across it and it worked. That was, you know, we do a phone like everyone else, but the thing that we're gonna do differently is Gorilla Glass, and so those are kind of important aspects in terms of product essence. So with Speedo, you've got Fast Skin. With Ino8, you've got grip, and then with iPhone, you've got Gorilla Glass. If we now talk about brand essence, what do you do the same? What do you do differently? How does that connect to product essence? So with Speedo, you know, we've got Fast Skin. It's aqua dynamic like everyone else, but it eliminates drag like no one else and it creates a faster product. It is speed, So Speedo equaling speed. Inov8 - it does cushioning like everybody else, but actually where we're better is grip, and that gives us the brand attribute, the brand essence of control. You get control like no other brand, meaning you're fearless. And then iPhone. You can communicate like everyone else, but the way you communicate is through using Gorilla Glass, which is magical. So we've got the logic of communicating, but we've got the magic of Gorilla Glass. When everyone else was logical, my phone was magical. So you can see there, hopefully, how orienting positioning around clear product essences and clear brand essence is really important, because it defines the very, very clear differences as we start to develop products, and develop comms I think we live in a world that is over indexed on the left brain, logical thinking of technological superiority, which speaks to product essence and not enough to brand essence.

Michael Campion: It's not enough about the speed, the control, the magic that you talked about. What happens to Companies that over index on product essence and not enough brand essence. Too much rational, not enough emotional.

Bob Sheard: Well it's brilliant when you're new to the market and you've got product superiority, that's fantastic. All you have to do is present, you don't even have to persuade, you just present product superiority. The weakness and danger with that is, as competitors pile in after you and either beat you or are as the same as you. You've got no differentiation because you've got product parity then. What you need at times of product parity which happens to everybody, is you need to establish emotional superiority. So what new brands, especially tech brands, should do as they enter the market places, whilst they're experiencing the benefits of product superiority, they should be investing in emotional superiority. Don't think it was an accident that Mac, as they were experiencing the tidal wave of demand that came with iMac invested in 'Think Different', so that when everybody caught up, we were still emotionally and still are, emotionally invested in Apple, because that says that we are different, we think different and created that emotional superiority that still exists over Dell is, still exists over Samsung, still exists over the other competitors out there.