A new mandate for marketers is emerging. The proliferation of smartphones, and now wearable technology is increasing our ability to do things. In the process it has increased our expectations of what brands too can do to provide genuine utility.
Marketing then must being to think beyond conventional brand metrics but also how a branded utility can engage a deeper, and more daily, relationship with people.
In creating Fuelband, Nike has achieved exactly this. In a way that's completely in sync with its brand purpose of inspiring the athlete in each of us, Nike has used utility to go well beyond what a conventional brand campaign has been able to do, and deepen both its commitment to brand purpose and its relationship with people.
This is the inspiration for every brand-owner, to address a simple but critical new question: how can the brand's purpose inspire us to be even more useful for people?