How Does a Commodity Become a Must-have Brand?

Must-have brands. Ooh, just the the thought of having one.

Enough to make a grown CEO cry.

MUST-HAVE BRANDS. A SHORT HISTORY.

Old Spice.

Oreo.

GEICO.

Each of these brands is a household name, the goal and hope of nearly every company or its CEO.

So how the heck does a brand achieve this highly sought-after objective?

A STROLL THROUGH BRANDING HISTORY

Old Spice has been around since 1938 (and in fact started out as a woman’s deodorant first one year earlier). And they’ve embraced their quirky existence in culture, with great copy lines like, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”

Oreo was introduced March 6th, 1912. Yet it’s so culturally hip today. Even with the newest introduction of Oreo Thins using an ultra-hip musical cover of the theme from the movie 2001.

And GEICO (which stand for Government Employee Insurance) was founded in 1936 by Leo Goodwin Sr. and his wife Lillian Goodwin to provide auto insurance to federal government employees and their families. Today it’s owned by Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most successful investors in the world worth an estimated $74.7 billion USD.

So, even though these three brands are each around 80+ years old, they have navigated their brand voice, their relevance and their persona so well, they feel as young and fresh as a newborn startup.

So, what can a men’s deodorant, America’s favorite cookie, a gecko and insurance teach us about branding in today’s marketing environment?

And how is it that the most successful and conservative investor in the world owns a company whose brand is quirky, unexpected and bizarre and outstandingly successful? And what does this have to do with the top five insurers controlling more than 50 percent of the market while the top 10 control 70 percent nationally in the United States?

Most importantly, what are the two rules to navigating your brand to that goal of being highly sought-after?

To answer this, social marketing expert Ted Rubin and I sat down for Episode 5 of The David and Ted Talk Show to isolate:

What elevates a mere commodity from the pack to become a super-brand, one that has consumers craving it, devouring it and coming back for more. In short: a must-have brand?

Here is what we uncover:

What insights do you get from this dialogue and analysis? Please reply below and let me know.

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THE DAVID AND TED TALK SHOW

What if you could gain access to a couple of the brightest minds in social marketing and branding? You’d either be a good friend, a colleague, a client, a family member or a subscriber to my YouTube channel.

If you didn't catch previous episodes of The David and Ted Talk Show, here's a small recap?

• The first episode covered the horrendous Chipotle campaign that followed their health scares.
• The second episode covered the use of humor in branding.
• The third outlined a vital secret every brand needs to apply.
• The fourth covered Pirch, a retailer that refuses to sell anything online, selling leading kitchen, bath, outdoor & laundry brands in an elevated shopping experience—that’s breaking all the rules and breaking all records in a $40 billion category.