I have always been passionate about branding. I consider branding both an art and a science where I have the opportunity to combine both my humanistic and scientific backgrounds. 

I’m fascinated by brands that are magnetic and aspirational: capable of engaging clients, proposing an original point of view and influencing the social context. 

According to my research these brands are selected for the symbols and the meaning they deliver with their brand promise, allowing clients to feel gratified, to express their identity, to signal status or manifest a sense of belonging to a community. 

I call them symbol intensive brands.

The brand guru David Aaker has developed the symbolic benefits scale that I used as a starting point of my framework on symbol intensive brands. Symbol intensive brands deliver emotional and social benefits. 

It’s not about what the brand does but what the brand stands for. 

 

How do we recognise a symbol intensive brand?

Clients become ambassadors, fans, brand champions declaring that if the brand were to cease to exist, it would have a negative impact on their lives.

In the book, written in 2013 with Antonio Marazza from Landor&Fitch, we have defined 4 categories of symbol intensive brands: authorities, lifestyles, cults and icons.

We have designed a map to position brands according to the way they create symbolic content.

Want to know more about symbol intensive brands? 

Read my interview for SDA Bocconi Insights. 

Read the Article by Antonio Marazza for Forbes