Mixed Thinking.
How Well The Relevance Methodology Goes With Other Theories
The Relevance Methodology’s goal is to define, create and bring to life a brand’s relationship to an important group of people.
By doing so it expands the brand’s marketing activities, that aim for classical objectives such as awareness, image or sales/users, with a set of behavioral strategies, that allow it to build on the aspect of relevant relationships.
To simplify its thinking the Relevance Methodology works with a 7 steps framework.
Although the thinking behind the Relevance Methodology has been developed independently from existing other theories, it has of course its influences from contemporary brand thinking and can be compared to some other theories.
In this article I will map the following models over the Relevance Methodology:
The “Golden Circle” by Simon Sinek
The purpose definition “Verb. Target. Outcome” by Pascal Finette, Singularity University
The “Limbic Map®” by H.-G. Häusel
The idea of “Human Brand” (various)
MORE INFO:
- The origins are explained in the book “Beyond Digital — A Brand Approach For More Relevance”:
www.beyonddigital.de - Additional info, downloads and free online tutorials can be found at:
www.relevancemethodology.com
(1) Golden Circle
Sinek says, successful innovative companies or leaders think from the WHY, the purpose, in the middle of the circle, outwards. Everyone else thinks WHAT first (product, service), and then HOW (USP).
- In the RM the WHAT is reflected in the first part of the Brand Essence: “A simple description of what the brand does”.
- The HOW is represented in the 2nd part of the Brand Essence: “Why is that good and/or different (USP)?”
- And the WHY is the Brand Belief: “Why does the brand do, what it does?” — money and/or product are never part of the Brand Belief. It’s the underlying motivation that gives credibility to the company’s endeavours.
Sinek explaining the Golden Circle in a TED talk:
https://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4Brand Essence and Brand Belief in my online tutorials:
Essence: https://youtu.be/2OIOX7_nhcw
Belief: https://youtu.be/trvYj_SK8jw
(2) Purpose
Everyone is talking about purpose recently. Finette uses this simple and beautiful way to build a brand’s or a company’s purpose:
VERB + TARGET + OUTCOME.
- In the RM the VERB can be found in the Behaviour, where the Role that the brand wants to play in people’s life is translated into verbs.
- The TARGET is represented in the Core Target Group that is the first part of the People section in the RM
- And the OUTCOME sits at the end of the Roadmap of the RM. It shows the journey the people are on and what steps they need to take in order to get to the goal = outcome.
Check out episodes 8 and 13 of the RM online tutorials: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1dYXg_4AeJ-v6wOqL678emLbODKQd_YN
(3) Limbic Map (R)
Brain studies have shown that people have the feeling of having made a reasonable decision when it is in accordance with their emotions — which live in the limbic system. Häusel drew this map of all our emotions, called the Limbic Map®.
- In the RM we can use the Limbic Map® in the beginning of the brand part to find emotions that the brand wants to be identified with — as a starting point for Brand essence and Brand Belief/ Purpose.
- And we can use it a 2nd time in the beginning of the people part, to see where they stand emotionally.
- And maybe there is even an overlap between brand and people — or if not we might get an idea how to achieve one.
Check out episodes 5 and 7 of the RM online tutorials: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1dYXg_4AeJ-v6wOqL678emLbODKQd_YN
(4) Human Brand
Brands have to be and to behave like human beings in today’s world. People want to talk to brands, brands want to answer — they have a voice and an opinion and they take part in conversations on a large number of platforms and in many occasions.
Brands have to learn how to be more human.
I was in touch with this theory for the first time while teaching at IED Madrid. My students had this subject in their curriculum. The term is used in many different ways.
Here it does not describe how a human becomes a brand, but the opposite: How a brand becomes human!
- In the RM the aspects of Human Brands are reflected in the areas Role and Behaviour
- Role describes the kind of relationship the brand wants to have with its people
- And Behaviour gives a code of conduct to a brand — to inspire a certain behaviour in everyday brand life.
Thank you very much for reading.
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you want to discuss aspects of the Relevance Methodology or if and how it could help you with your brand challenge.
kai@platschke.de / www.platschke.de
Here is the same content at presentation deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wFP0AXpgcUeLRTTneszkMuSwJYZXVP7TRjNgs7kGMv8/edit?usp=sharing
