Apple and WWF: Both brands of desire. A lesson for other NGOs?

Indeed, they are both proven to be desirable brands – strong brands that encourage consumers to Think, Feel and Act differently. The new Brand Desire 2012 research from Clear, shows that Apple is in the top 3 in the world in all 3 areas, and WWF is a winner in making people Feel differently.

Interesting, because if you ask WWF people, their biggest worry is how to shift people into Acting – whether for economic, social or environmental motivations, they face that challenge across all their campaign work. Where they’ve had big wins in the last few years is using other partners to evoke action – in particular working with businesses to create new opportunities for more sustainable development, for example with the ‘water footprinting’ work they champion with the likes of Unilever and SABMiller. Their business partnerships, for example with Sky, have worked well to broaden appeal and understanding of what WWF does. They have genuinely built an engaging and desirable brand, that most difficult of tasks in the charity sector.

Much as they have their own challenges to deal with, WWF provide a valuable lesson to other NGOs in how to engage people, listen to the market, and build an offer and approach that genuinely creates positive feeling and action. Any NGO who believes “brands are evil” (and there are many), needs to realise that a brand is simply an experience-predictor, that embodies a whole range of perceptions, feelings and experience in each consumer’s mind. “It’s not what you say it is, it’s what THEY say it is” (thank you Marty Neuimeir). If more NGOs could to take on these learnings to connect with the general public in a more positive engaging way, and build their offer, partnerships and approach accordingly, rather than treating ‘brand stuff’ as something the comms department do (but no-one likes)… then perhaps they too could be helping people Think Feel and Act differently, which surely is exactly what they exist for…

Apple, on the other hand, continues to dominate consumer’s perceptions of what a desirable brand is – winning as most attractive, most talked about, most want to be seen it, and most want to hear about. What more can a brand ask for?!

If you want to know more, keep your eyes peeled as the full study launches tomorrow – quick headlines are available here. Thanks to Clear Ideas (M&C Saatchi owned marketing consultancy) for such a robust and interesting worldwide study – 22 000 consumers in 6 countries investigating 555 brand…