7 things Star Wars taught me about branding #StarWarsDay
Assistant Director for Marketing, Rhian Williams, draws parallels between the Star Wars universe and the marketing of a brand.
- Simplicity:
In an age of information overload, less is definitely more — the central premise of the Star Wars films is simple: good Vs evil, and they stick to it as their recipe for success. George Lucas envisioned Star Wars as a western in space, and used elements of martial arts films and war films, all genres where good vs evil is often a key theme. So keep your brand strategy simple and understandable. Don’t over-complicate it.
2. If your brand is strong enough, you can deviate from it:
The Star Wars brand has successfully introduced prequels, sequels, and now the Anthology films, all different elements of the same central brand and it works! Why? Because the central brand platform is so strong that they can deviate from it with relative ease. If you develop and cement a strong enough central brand strategy, it should allow you to deviate from your main campaign, targeting different markets effectively with their own unique proposition.
3. The way your brand values are ‘lived’ and breathed by your workforce, is more important than a logo:
The brand of the Galactic Empire is consistently represented by Darth Vadar’s men in the way they look and behave. From Stormtroopers and Biker Scouts to TIE Fighter Pilots and AT-AT Drivers, they all have an uncanny similarity that can be felt by those ‘outsiders’. Getting the buy-in from your own staff to your brand values and enabling them to live and breathe those values when interacting with your customers is more important than the logo you stick on stuff (although that’s important too!)
4. Do your research:
At the end of Star Wars Luke fires the shot that destroys the Death Star. The rebels only know about this weakness in the Death Star because of the story told in Rogue One — basically, a rebel engineer working on the design of the Death Star deliberately included an easy way for it to be destroyed. Without knowing this tiny piece of crucial information, their strategy would have been doomed. Doing appropriate market research to inform your brand strategy is vital. Don’t base it on hunches and intuition.
5. If your brand is strong enough, you (might) be able to make mistakes:
The Phantom Menace (Episode 1) is generally considered the weak link in the Star Wars brand, but people still watched it because the others were so strong. However, an even better example of a weak link is the Star Wars Holiday Special, which was made for TV in 1978. It featured all the cast of the original film in a nonsense story about ‘Life Day’, a Wookiee version of Christmas, that Chewbacca wants to get home for and spend with his family. There are elements of a variety show with comedians, music and other stuff. George Lucas was not involved and has said many times that he would like to destroy every copy that exists. It’s terrible, really bad — but people watched it.
6. Uniting your workforce behind a focused strategy
Your brand should be able to successfully unite your workforce behind a tangible business strategy. The Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire are both crystal clear about what they are trying to achieve and are passionate — and deadly — in their relentless pursuit of their goal.
7. Team work across all channels:
The Rebel Alliance is a perfect example of team work — they’ve got each other’s back (well apart from Lando Calrissian). At the end of Star Wars, it looks like Han Solo has taken his reward for rescuing Princess Leia and cleared off. Luke is flying on his mission to blow up the Death Star and at the crucial moment it looks as if Darth Vader is about to catch up with him and stop him. Just as Vader gets him in his sights and is about to fire his lasers, Han reappears and shoots the TIE Fighters backing Vader up, distracting him and sending him spinning off into space. Luke is free to fire the shot that destroys the Death Star. Taking a collaborative approach across all marketing and communications channels and teams is crucial, irrespective of who ‘owns’ them, and will propel your brand into the stratosphere…or rather into a galaxy far, far away….
