How to Build a Brand and Charge Whatever You Want

I am just returning from a few days away from the desk in the mountains of Utah snowboarding all day and going to bed at 8:15. It was awesome. I was at a globally-known ski resort called Park City, and the experience was fantastic (in no small part because of the 7” Park City got on Sunday night on top of the epic winter they’ve had in the Rockies).

For the prices they charge to ride at Park City, I somewhat expected helicopters to be dumping snow through the night to give us fresh powder despite God’s whims with the weather. But they didn’t. I thought maybe the lifts would have heated seats to keep me warm in between runs. But they didn’t. I thought surely the mountain lodges would be far superior to anything I’d ever experienced (maybe there would even be enough tables to accommodate the lunch rush). But they weren’t, and there wasn't. 

It turns out that no matter how nice a resort is, they can’t control the absolute most important thing for ski resorts: the weather. They also have the same lifts that all the other ski resorts I’ve been to have. They can’t even begin to compete with a far lesser-known resort up the highway (Snowbasin) in terms of the quality of the mountain lodges. 

So why is it that almost every time I’ve told someone I’m going snowboarding in Utah for as long as I can remember they’ve responded with, “Are you going to Park City?” The answer, my friends, is the power of a brand. 

Using Park City as a reference, let’s examine how the best companies in the world have built trust, loyalty, and pricing power through the power of branding. 

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The Best Brands Know Their Endgame

Aligning with our Authentic Marketing framework, the first step to building a successful brand is creating a business strategy that gets executive leaders aligned on goals and objectives. I believe that marketing strategy and business strategy have to be one and the same. In Park City’s case, their strategy is to build a world-class resort that brings in affluent travelers from across the globe. 

Let’s rewind the clocks and examine another brand who knew their endgame: Apple. 

Steve Jobs was one of the most brilliant visionaries this world will ever see, and he has plenty of stories to back that up, but I want to focus on just one. When Jobs was building Apple, he had several opportunities to do what every other computer company was doing: allow third party vendors to build software to run on the computer’s hardware. Jobs refused, even though this created negative repercussions in the short term that allowed Microsoft to earn market share. Jobs dared to be different because he was clear that Apple’s endgame was to be a company that owned the entire consumer tech stack with a fully integrated experience. Their marketing strategy supported the vision and executive leadership knew the endgame. This wasn’t a decision made on a wing and a prayer, this was calculated and intentional.

And it worked.

Today, Apple has a dominant position in the market as a result, and their fully integrated consumer tech stack is a huge part of the reason why. Their strategy was a long-term one, but the integration that Apple customers experience leads to high switching costs and network effects, making Apple customers some of the most loyal in the country. Had Apple been led by a CEO who was searching for short-term wins and an approach that matched the market, we may have never gotten the iPhone.

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Brands Don’t Appeal to Everyone

LVMH, Rolls Royce, McDonald’s, and Trader Joe’s. These four companies each have an incredibly strong brand, despite targeting vastly different groups of people. 

If LVMH, who controls luxury brands such as Tiffany & Co and Christian Dior, began rolling out product lines and brands focused on appealing to the ‘overeducated and underpaid’ demographic that Trader Joe’s sought out to serve, the results would be disastrous. 

If McDonald’s tried to capture some LVMH’s market with a new Wagyu burger and waiters wearing suits, the effort would become a laughingstock. 

If Rolls Royce tried to introduce a budget-friendly sedan, they would turn away the market of people who have bought their vehicles since the beginning. 

For Park City, they know that their audience is affluent individuals from across the world who want a world-class experience. That experience isn’t just on the slopes, but in the spa, at restaurants, and at the shops as well. 

The reason that Park City, known as a premier global ski destination, isn’t at the top of my list of ski resorts is simple: I am not their target audience! 

I prefer the long tree runs of Snowbasin, the steep terrain of Snowbird, or the all-around greatness of Wolf Creek. But most of the people who I met at Park City would not. They don’t want to wake up at 5:30 am to drive 30 minutes to the mountain each morning. They prefer the ski-in-ski-out, the 5-star restaurants, and the thriving downtown within walking distance of Park City. So while the best brands don’t appeal to everyone, they appeal emphatically to their target customer. 

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True Brands are Authentic

It is really easy to examine the success of another company’s marketing tactics and campaigns and want to copy what they’ve done. For weak brands looking for short term wins, this is common. But for strong brands that are seeking long term success, this strategy falls short. 

Remember Coinbase’s Super Bowl ad in 2022? The one with the floating QR code that bounced around in mystery for 30 seconds and went insanely viral? That ad would not work for JP Morgan-Chase. It also wouldn’t work for Microsoft. But for Coinbase, a front runner in a brand new industry clouded in mystery, hype, and big promises, that ad was authentic to their company ethos, their operating industry, and the distribution channel (the Super Bowl). A lot of companies tried to run the QR code playbook throughout 2022, but none even came close to Coinbase’s success. 

Or remember Apple’s Mac vs PC commercials where they pitted the cool guy persona played by Justin Long against the boring nerd played by John Hodgman? Those ads worked wonders to drive Apple’s brand image as the innovative brand of choice for iconoclastic difference-makers. Those ads would’ve been terribly ironic and likely unsuccessful if they were advertising IBM. 

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How Any Organization Can Build Their Brand

At Courtside we serve our customers via our Authentic Marketing framework.

• Know your endgame
• Understand your audience
• Execute with authenticity

Begin by examining your goals and long term vision for your business. After you’ve plotted your endgame, work to understand the key stakeholders you need to engage to bring your vision to life. This could include customers, employees, investors, government officials, etc. Every marketing activity you do should be focused on targeting one of these stakeholders. 

Next, begin to conceptualize opportunities that have the lowest utility, but highest impact to drive your organization forward. In other words: what takes the least amount of time that will drive the largest marginal impact? Start there and get more complex (and expensive) after you have some wins under your belt. Remember that building a brand takes time, and requires long term focus. 

Not quite sure where to start? The Courtside Group offers our Authentic Marketing assessment for free to qualified prospects. We come in (or have you visit us) for a 2 hour planning session to develop a strategy and identify tactical action items that can help you make progress in the next 90 days. Learn more here by getting in touch with the team.