From “No Pain, No Gain” to “Run Easy”

Branding is a funny business, I mean it! It is Negotiation 101 and playing mind games.

It is also the kind of thing that excites me, the idea of reframing and positioning a product with the point of view to engage the consumer, create excitement and leverage from within the portfolio to extend equities.

The title of this essay draw from the recent news on Reebok’s repositioning itself to target Nike. “No Pain, No Gain” is not new news but we how often do we gravitate to the “Easy” and “Convenient” as a trade off, multiplies our available time. Easy sells, convenient works, that’s also why fast food sells, it is also what motivates us to consume the weight loss pills both the ones approved by the FDA and those yet to be approved.

Essentially what smart brand managers try is to reframe a problem to lead the consumer to happy feelings, engage them and overtime translate the brand into a Lovemark.