Kitchen knives, product functionality and psychosocial brand aspects

If you have been following these pieces, you will probably have picked up that I use functionality of a product as a baseline measure of brand sustainability. What does the product do and what functional need does it solve?

A knife cuts ingredients, for example, which gives it a high degree of functionality. If the handle is poorly made and doesn’t fit easily in the hand, its functionality is reduced. Yet people will buy knives with poorly made handles.

Assuming there is a 100% functional variant of a knife with a great handle and sharp blade, the poor variant has a theoretically negative functional component. How do purchasers of knives justify the purchase of the poorer knife when given the choice between the two? The answer lies in the psychosocial aspects of the brand: sense of self and tribal aspects.

According to Kevin Lane Keller sense of self reinforces the perception of how we see ourselves. If a brand adds to our perception that we are of value and reinforces our identity, that has additional functionality. That functionality is peripheral to the product utility but can theoretically be assigned numerical value.

Tribal aspects, ‘belonging’, may also come into play. If a group association is formed by identification with other users of the product and recognition, that can also have benefits. Economic benefits may emerge from group membership, such as preference for associates of the group in business and personal dealings, as well as exclusion of persons who do not have similar affiliation. In the latter case, exclusion can focus resources available to the group where the resources are limited.

So, the sum of value of a brand is the product functionality plus how it influences our perception of personal value plus any value accruing to group belonging,

Using basic workstation computing as an example, all laptops – be they Windows, Mac or Android – must provide the functionality of a productivity suite and internet connectivity. The difference between the psychosocial components of sense of self and tribalism will influence demand feeding into economies of scale, as well as the premium that can be obtained from the consumer’s wallet.

Ethics aside, the question is not whether the psychosocial aspects are correct but rather how they can be developed and manipulated to obtain the best possible outcome. That must be the task of the brand manager.

Baseline functionality places the product in the consideration set of competing products. That functionality is bounded by the limits of acceptable innovation. The laptop can be faster or larger of smaller. Addition of functionality, for instance a camera and mic for online meetings is acceptable. Other functionality, for instance senseless wheels, will fail.

The grey psychosocial areas now need to be considered. It’s not just a question of what is the appropriate emotion, but what is the degree of that emotion? Empathy and emotional intelligence become important. Following the example of the laptop, does the cheaper laptop confer on its user the sense of being productive and economical, two important concepts in enterprise? And does the more expensive laptop give the sense of fraternity with a high-powered professional group?

If the brand manager opts to choose the reverse positions, using professional fraternization for the cheaper laptop or economy and productivity or economy and productivity for the expensive laptop, the likely result will be failure.

Brand functionality is the gateway to the consideration set, but the psychosocial aspects of emotion and tribalism are the keys to preserving long-term success or failure.