Over the last week or so, our first few Summit Sneak Peeks have given you an inside look into some of the incredible speakers that will be taking the stage at Zignal Summit 2019. As we get closer to Summit 2019, we’ll continue to introduce you to our speakers, but will also preview the critical themes that will drive the keynotes, sessions and conversations at the heart of Summit 2019. In this Summit Sneak Peek, we’re exploring one of the key throughlines of Zignal Summit 2019 – brand association.

Brand association can be loosely defined as the images, emotions and/or stories that a consumer envisions when they think of a brand. Crucial to the long-term success of any company, brand association makes a brand memorable in the often oversaturated minds of consumers, critical to motivating sales and beating out competitors.

While a good product obviously plays a key role in defining an initial brand, marketing and communications are essential in fully defining brand association – or, in other words, defining what a brand stands for.  

Running With It

Nike, for example, is incredibly adept at cultivating a very specific – and successful – brand association. Imagine you are shopping for a new pair of running shoes. You’re in the sporting goods aisle, staring at option after option, brand after brand, of running shoes, momentarily overwhelmed by choice. All of a sudden, you spot a section of shoes adorned with a signature swoosh and think, “That’s the shoe I need to help me run faster and run longer.”

Employing iconic motivational motto “Just Do It”  and a plethora of celebrity endorsements, Nike has defined its brand to be synonymous with the gritty strength of hard work, the elation that comes with hard-won results and the promise of elite athleticism – everything a consumer wants to feel and envision when they are shopping for running shoes.

Nike is also well known for its social justice campaigns. Take, for example, the company’s recent Colin Kaepernick campaign. While controversial, the campaign aligned and resonated with the core values of younger generations, who are increasingly utilizing social responsibility and corporate citizenship indicators to help determine where they should shop. 

Join Us at Zignal Summit 2019

From initial topic discovery to visual asset creation and measurement, cultivating brand association requires strategic and thoughtful work to maintain a consistent, specific and positive tone across an entire brand.

If you would like to learn more about what it takes to create a killer brand association, we hope you will join us at Zignal Summit 2019, taking place April 25th in San Francisco, where we will be discussing in-depth strategies and considerations for the cultivation, care and measurement of brand association in a new age of media and communications.

If you haven’t registered yet but would like to join us for Zignal Summit 2019, please register here. To see more details about Zignal Summit 2019, including a full list of speakers, please visit the event page.