Can your brand become so meaningful to people that it literally gets under their skin?

In the early part of his book, Growing Small Businesses Into Big Brands, branding expert Jack Sims relates the story of a friend of his who was an absolute believer in the Ralph Lauren Polo brand. This friend dressed from head to toe in Polo-logoed clothing.

One day Jack watched his friend join a volleyball game on the beach and upon removing all of his Polo outerwear, the friend revealed that he had the Polo logo tattooed on his chest.

What is it that makes somebody so fully identify with a brand that they want to project the attributes of the brand into their lives and onto themselves? Think about this for a moment. People actually want to find brand values that they can hijack for themselves.

These kinds of brands so fully promise value using unique attributes that true brand believers adopt those values and attributes for themselves.

And therein lies the magic of truly powerhouse brands. These powerful brands promise something unique and they provide identifiable attributes that people just want to latch onto.

There are so many products in the marketplace that often entire categories have become commoditized. "Brands" that compete in these categories are virtually indistinguishable from one another. How many brands claim to be the complete solutions provider in this or the leader in that or the best in the other?

We are living in an age of over-communication. After a while, marketing messages all start to sound alike and we become cynical toward all of them. Advertising clutter is everywhere and we are actually become more and more oblivious to things at which we stare directly.

What is the answer?

Certainly not more and more messages or bolder and bolder advertising.

No, the answer is that we need to create brands that offer consumers unique value. We need to create brand attributes to which people are drawn.

In a crowded marketplace of "me too" products and services, we consumers are all starved for brands that give us something to latch onto. We all want brands that connect with us so that we can co-opt some of the brand attributes for ourselves and mutually connect with them. In a world of brands that are all screaming for our attention, we are looking for brands that mean something special and quietly whisper in our ears and speak to our hearts.

We all want to be able to say, "In a world of sameness, this brand is mine because it is different. Let me tell you why..." Once we hear ourselves begin that conversation, we will next hear ourselves mostly talking about ourselves without even realizing it. We're just using those powerhouse brands as a proxy.