Managing A Brand Successfully
By David Brier
President and Creative Director, DBD Intl,
Ltd
To better manage your Brand's "fate," here is a checklist for managing or affecting the building of a Brand. Basically a "things-not-to-do" checklist, the "Seven Sins of Branding," should help make any Branding efforts succeed with greater ease.
Brand Sin #1: The 'Superior Product' Fixation
In our global marketplace, the apparent differences between products has reached an all-time pinnacle of gray, meaning the differences aren't so black and white. So he who gets to the market first and stays present (and with online media increasing every hour of each day, the battlefield is grimmer than ever), can outsell a similar product that is vastly superior. With the lines of communication around the globe literally a click of the mouse away, one can no longer rest on one's laurels for very long.
To be 'better than' doesn't mean as much as it used to. The solution is first, creating a true Brand and second, ensuring that that image connects your product – not simply it's superior attributes – to your audience. Successful examples of this are Nike's "Just Do It" and Apple's "Think Different" campaigns.
Brand Sin #2: The "No-One-Can-Touch-Us" Syndrome
This pitfall rears its ugly head whenever a company reaches any level of complacency. Xerox and IBM are two examples in which each had reached an enviable level of Brand equity. But time, technology and trends didn't and don't remain the same.
IBM's famous striped logo was introduced over three decades ago. Only now is IBM using design and Branding to reclaim their heritage. Their new e-business campaign is simple and phenomenally effective, positioning e-commerce with IBM. Why now? Because IBM found its mind share amongst net users was low. One could say IBM had had "e-nuff."
The son of IBM's founder, Thomas Watson Jr., stated over 35 years ago, while chief of IBM, "In the IBM company, we do not think that good design can make a product go od.... But we are convinced that good design can materially help make a good product reach its full potential." Isn't it time we all listened?
Brand Sin #3: The Brand Called "Fear"
Simply, if you're overly
concerned about what associates think versus being overly concerned about
your Brand, getting anywhere near Branding is a bad career move for everyone
involved. The opposite side of this coin is a firm belief in one's product,
a willingness to deliver what's promised, and a strength of conviction.
One doesn't need to be an ogre, but one must believe in one's actions.
That doesn't include being overly concerned with internal political popularity
contests. Looking over the best Brands, the majority came into existence
driven by one person's vision, and belief, in that Brand's potential and
their persistence in seeing it through.
This cousin to complacency – essentially an unwillingness to investigate,
evolve and challenge – has killed many possibly great Brands, leaving
only the competition happier, and stronger.
Brand Sin #4: Ignoring The Design And Image Your Brand Conveys
You've seen these products. You've maybe even bought them. They're everywhere as products – and nowhere as 'Brands'. Go into a store, any store, and look. You'll find a ga zillion products. You'll also find many great products, but most ignore the importance of their design and image – and only a handful have become great 'Brands'.
What part does image play in the real world of Branding? Everything. Fact: Minute Maid found that other orange juice companies were "borrowing" their signature black carton. What once was a point of distinction had now become "generic." Add to this the expanding choices given to consumers-bottled waters, flavored waters, iced teas, and bottled coffee beverages-and retaining market share had become a major issue for Minute Maid. The answer? Revamp the Minute Maid packaging line. The outcome? Volume sales increased more than 24%, with convenience store sales exceeding 34%. When you're dealing with 28 million servings per day, a mere one percent increase, 280,000 more servings per day, is considerable
Brand Sin #5: Brand Schizophrenia and Anarchy
Imagine this conversation: "Oh, you want to change the golden arches to day-glo pink? Sure, no problem." Not in this lifetime. You might as well print a new resume and look for another job. The arches have become a key component of the McDonald's Brand.
The confusion between building a Brand. being consistent, keeping a Brand alive and reinventing a Brand can be so mish mashed that disaster strikes. Random change is not the same as planned evolution of a Brand. Boring, stagnant messaging is not the same as Brand consistency.
A good rule of thumb is one laid down by Sir John Egan, chief executive for the world's leading international airport group, "Defining the experience that customers want becomes a criterion by which you can judge the design work you commission."
Other points to consider
are, "Does this effort contribute to our brand image and equity?
Does this dilute our brand position? Will this enhance our consumers 'experience'
of our Brand?"
This is all based on the fact that there is a foundation to build a Brand
upon.
Brand Sin #6: The Human Connection Ratio
The frailty of a Brand is in direct ratio to the extent a Brand fails to connect with its consumer. Flaunting one's wares is about as popular, and effective, as cramming in a term paper in overnight. What's good for Visine sales (remember "Takes the red out"?) isn't necessarily good for the grade.
Every strong Brand has in some way become a product that represents what that customer is seeking: ease, convenience, power, stamina, pride, beauty. But in each case, it's the human factor that can be missed. Every product does have, as its end use, a human who is buying the product for a reason. Find the reason, keep it on personal terms, and you're well on your way to avoiding this pitfall
Brand Sin #7: Forgetting Where Brands Live
If you were to ask Brand managers where Brands live, they might say, "On the shelf with our product. In our annual report. In the people that work here." Wrong. That's how a Brand gets built, not where it lives.
Brands do not live anywhere but in the minds and hearts of the consumers and prospects. The job of true Branding is to get your product to the point of having an army of believers who stand by your Brand, and what it means, in their mind.
The job of Branding is to get in the front door and become a comfortable fixture in the mind of the consumer. Avoiding these seven pitfalls will help.
