Brand Makeovers: Lars Lehne of Incubeta On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize Your Brand and Image
Start with your customer — The most important aspect of creating an effective, strong brand is to really understand your customer. You have to deeply understand what makes them tick and what inspires them. Great brands reflect their customers and identify with or even create Zeitgeist. The good news is that businesses have tools available that enable them to understand their customers in a much more detailed way than ever before. Social media especially is a game changer for brands when it comes to understanding customer sentiment. It says a lot about who you are analyzing — the way you present yourself in social media.
As part of our series about “Brand Makeovers” I had the pleasure to interview Lars Lehne of Incubeta.
Lars Lehne is Group CEO of Incubeta. He has an extensive background in the marketing and digital industry having previously spent four years as Global CEO at SYZYGY, a publicly listed WPP company. Prior to which, he spent seven years at Google as Country Director Agency DACH, paving the way for the tech giant quadrupling revenues in Germany. With over 30 years of industry experience, Lars also held various senior management positions in agencies including Maxus, GroupM, Carat and MEC.
Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Originally, I wanted to be a graphic designer. While preparing my university applications a professor of mine at an evening art school told me that while I was quite talented, he didn’t see me making any money at my level. He cheered me up by encouraging me to join the advertising industry instead. He said, “People like you, who are good at many things, but not exceptionally talented in one specific skill, can have a great career there.”
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing or branding mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my early days as a media planner I was lucky enough to work for Swatch. In an attempt to create noise for the brand, we negotiated an ad to be printed diagonally across the magazine centerfold. The idea was so successful that we won awards for it, but the internal fall out behind the scenes for ruining the original campaign design, which had not included a diagonally placed watch, was unimaginable. Not only did the watch look different, but the logo had to be placed somewhere else, some of the copy got chopped off. In the end, however, it was considered very creative and resulted in a lot of buzz.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?
The tipping point would probably be the moment in time when endurance, experience, passion and age came together. It was at this time that an opportunity to revive an old legacy brand from GroupM called Maxus came my way. I was given total freedom about how to do it. I started on my own, cycling to pitches in the city and arriving for presentations with a helmet under my arm. It was great fun and at the same time, surprisingly successful. Less than two years later I was headhunted by Google for a very senior position in DACH and that changed my career entirely. For me, success was all about timing and actually enjoying the process.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m blessed to have so many new and exciting things on my desk right now. From exciting acquisitions and joint ventures to the development of groundbreaking proprietary technology. The latter is actually set to be a game changer for us as a company and likewise for our clients. Our “Seamless Technology Suite” will truly help businesses to overcome many of the barriers to growth, enabling them to do things they couldn’t do before, such as manage their search capabilities holistically across paid and organic and allow them to drive personalization at scale without compromising consistency and quality.
What advice would you give to other marketers to thrive and avoid burnout?
Burnout is a highly individual phenomenon and there isn’t a silver bullet to solve for it. But I’m happy to share a few things that help me deal with stress, uncertainty, constant change and maybe even fear. Stay curious, embrace change, seek for positive rather than negative stress, work on your time management and always build in enough time for things that distract and cheer you up. You are the master of your schedule, so build any given day and week in a way that you are capable of coping with and don’t forget to bake in enough time for yourself. A highly respected colleague at Google once told me that what isn’t in your calendar isn’t going to happen. That means if you don’t plan for lunch, exercise or breaks from email you will end up being stressed and unsatisfied.
Ok, let’s now jump to the core part of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define the difference between brand marketing (branding) and product marketing (advertising)? Can you explain?
I’d argue that for both brand and product marketing to be successful they should be closely connected. The brand won’t be honest if it isn’t true to the product and conversely the product marketing will be less effective without the credibility of a strong brand. Advances in technology have made it easier than ever before for marketers to link their brand and product marketing using data to create a joined-up customer journey.
That being said, building a successful brand marketing strategy requires a different approach to building a successful product marketing strategy. The best brands were built from a strong and consistent identity. If you think about the likes of Apple or Coca-Cola it is easy for customers to quickly recognize the key traits of their brand, whether it be tone of voice or use of colors. Contrary to this, the best product marketing strategies connect with consumers by driving high levels of personalization, adapting messaging based on customer groups and stages. In short, the brand marketing is the overarching ‘what we stand for’ with the product marketing being ‘why that matters for you.’
Brand = future and sustainability
Product marketing = sales and distribution
Can you explain to our readers why it is important to invest resources and energy into building a brand, in addition to the general marketing and advertising efforts?
Building a brand is the Holy Grail of marketing. Once a brand is successfully built many other marketing functions become much easier. Building a brand ensures credibility and builds trust amongst consumers. A strong brand is like a lighthouse in unknown or troubled waters. A strong brand creates a feeling in and of itself. An effective brand will increase the impact of advertising, increasing engagement as well as conversion rates. As a result of this a strong brand will lower the required investment in paid media.
Let’s now talk about rebranding. What are a few reasons why a company would consider rebranding?
There are several reasons why companies might consider rebranding. First and foremost, the world is constantly evolving and it is important that brands remain relevant to consumers as tastes change. The world’s most successful brands are constantly tweaking elements of their design and messaging to ensure that they remain relevant.
A rebranding may also signal a change in direction for a business. Apple famously used their ‘Think Different’ rebrand to relaunch what they were all about, positioning themselves alongside counter-culture. This rebrand wasn’t just done for external purposes, it set a new tone and direction for the employees of the company.
Finally, a rebrand may be appropriate when a business is seeking to create clarity on what they stand for. This can be important for businesses that have resulted from mergers or conglomerates who are looking to consolidate their positioning.
- Internationalization
- Innovation
- Competition
- Lifecycle
- Zeitgeist
Are there downsides of rebranding? Are there companies that you would advise against doing a “Brand Makeover”? Why?
If you have succeeded in building out the core functions of successful branding there is, in fact, a lot to lose by rebranding. A brand serves as a sort of lighthouse for consumers. It attracts, gives direction and has earned the trust to do so. It sticks out amongst competitors and ideally becomes the first choice, like a lighthouse is in troubled water. It has built up that necessary credibility and trust over time. Undergoing a rebranding puts those achievements at risk if it is done poorly or doesn’t respect the heritage of a brand.
Ok, here is the main question of our discussion. Can you share 5 strategies that a company can do to upgrade and re-energize their brand and image”? Please tell us a story or an example for each.
- Start with your customer — The most important aspect of creating an effective, strong brand is to really understand your customer. You have to deeply understand what makes them tick and what inspires them. Great brands reflect their customers and identify with or even create Zeitgeist. The good news is that businesses have tools available that enable them to understand their customers in a much more detailed way than ever before. Social media especially is a game changer for brands when it comes to understanding customer sentiment. It says a lot about who you are analyzing — the way you present yourself in social media.
- Love the details — The personality of your brand stems from the detail, the things that it is very easy to gloss over. The use of different type-faces, colors and tone of voice all help customers to understand your personality even if that understanding is subconscious. Think in customer journeys and picture your brand in this journey. Try to exceed customer expectations at every step in the journey.
- Be ruthlessly focused — When creating a brand, it can be easy to try and incorporate too much and dilute the personality that you want to reflect. Great brands create clarity through simplicity, and part of the way they achieve this is by being ruthless about what they include and what they exclude. The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said: “Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away…”
- Consistency is king — Whilst personalization can help brands drive improved results from their advertising it’s important that your brand remains consistent. Branding tells people what you stand for and if you start to deviate from this then your overarching message can be easily lost.
- Know who you are and who you are not — Great brands are true to the business that they represent and they have a clearly defined purpose. The Disney brand represents excitement and imagination because they are key values of the business itself. Disney’s purpose is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling…” — clear, simple and on target. If you build a brand that doesn’t reflect who your business actually is then customers will quickly figure it out and lose trust.
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job doing a “Brand Makeover”. What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Having spent half of my career traveling the world I have a natural closeness to airlines. As a German, one tends to use Lufthansa more frequently, but it was more than just the patriotism that made me admire the brand and its heritage. The brand became my travel compass, my backbone, my safety net and even home away from home, considering how much time I have spent with the brand. So, when a few years ago Lufhansa did a complete makeover I was very curious to see how and what they would come up with. As a marketer and a fan, I was absolutely thrilled by the result. Andreas Schlaubitz, the CMO at the time, phrased it very well when he said: “we are standing on the shoulders of giants.” Everybody on the team was well aware of the heritage they were about to change. They owed this brand to many of their predecessors and it was the respect they paid to the past which laid the foundation for success. Very nicely transformed and adapted to a more digital world, letting the brand assets shine better on screens and uplifting the brand with an upgraded color scheme that highlights their value and quality. If I compare the “old” to the “new” Lufthansa I can’t wait to finally go back to travelling with one of my most favorite brands.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
When I attended the “House of beautiful business”, an alternative business summit in Lisbon during the Webex 2019, I bumped into Laura Franois who gave a fantastic keynote on the idea of circular economy in the field of fashion and design. When I came back I did some more reading about the topic and got familiar with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which specifically focuses on driving the idea of a circular economy where economy & design is thought and built out, holistically, following three principles:
- Design out waste and pollution
- Keep products and materials in use
- Regenerate natural systems
Ever since, I’ve been absolutely fascinated with the idea and would love to get people to think more in “circles” and create awareness about the impact of their actions and behavior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCRKvDyyHmI&t=7s
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have always admired the idea behind the following quote: “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” It’s all about believing in yourself and your ideas, it’s about rolling up your sleeves, without fear of mistakes and about acting quickly and embracing change rather than protecting the past.
How can our readers follow you online?
Readers can follow me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-lehne-6636233b/ or on the Incubeta website.
Thank you so much for these excellent insights! We wish you continued success in your work.
Brand Makeovers: Lars Lehne of Incubeta On The 5 Things You Should Do To Upgrade and Re-Energize… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
