5 Branding Lessons That Solopreneurs Can Learn From Jeep

“ America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare, as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule, and as agile as a goat.”
—War correspondent Ernie Pyle, describing Jeeps

I bought a slightly used 2010 Jeep Liberty in December, because I needed a vehicle that I KNEW could navigate ice-covered, snow-packed roads, day after day. I live in Minnesota, in a town that doesn’t use salt on the roads. Driving the streets of Owatonna in the winter is like off-roading, with ruts, moguls, drifts, unplowed residential areas, and the occasional pothole where the snow has melted. I traded in a nearly new Kia Sorento SUV that on snowy mornings couldn’t climb to the top of the street in front of my daughter’s elementary school.

Since purchasing the Jeep, I have learned that Jeep owners are loyal and enthusiastic, supporting a $500 million cottage industry of Jeep accessories. I also learned that Jeep is the second-most-recognized brand in the world, after Coca-Cola.

I think it’s worthwhile to look at the branding lessons we as solopreneurs learn from one of the most successful brands ever created.

• Don’t abandon your core competency. In Jeep’s case, core competence is the ability of its products to go anywhere. And I mean anywhere. Not every Jeep model is capable of going off-road, but the soul of its brand (the Wrangler) is largely unchanged from the vehicle that the U.S. Army commissioned to help win World War II. Jeep can play around at the fringes of the brand with vehicles like the Compass and not antagonize the Jeep base too badly. But if it ever stops altogether the making of go-anywhere vehicles, the brand’s loyalists will turn on whomever owns Jeep (now it’s Fiat), and it won’t be pretty.

• Don’t mess with the symbols that identify your brand. The symbol that unites all Jeeps is the iconic seven-slot grille.

• Tell your creation story. Jeep continues to use World War II imagery in its advertising, because its birth story resonates. How well does it resonate? I met a man this winter who lived behind the Iron Curtain, in Czecheslovakia, and escaped to the West in the early 1980s. When he lived in Czecheslovakia, he drove a Jeep because to him it represented freedom and the defeat of totalitarianism.

• Acknowledge your tribe. Be like Deborah Meyer, vice president and chief marketing officer for Jeep, who says of Jeep: “It’s a really tribal brand. People become part of a club. You drive your Wrangler and other Jeep drivers wave at you. You wave at other Jeeps. You have that whole sense of community.”

• Ignore the haters. Consumer Reports has been a consistent Jeep critic, largely because Jeeps don’t rank well for gas mileage, and because Consumer Reports pits Jeeps against car-based, highway-only SUVs. The CR rankings ignore why most people buy Jeeps, so Jeep has ignored Consumer Reports. The result: Jeeps followers love the brand even more.

What Else?

What other lessons can we learn from Jeep? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.