Wave and Particle
“God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.” - Sir William Bragg
Makes as much sense to me as anything else. My brain literally hurts when I try to wrap it around things like quantum theory. (My set of brain cells that could even remotely comprehend wave and particle probably died at the Lambda Chi Tradewinds party of 1977).
But, as much as that hurts - I can at least excuse it by the fact I’m not and never have been Einstein caliber. But then I run across a discussion where people are talking about “Brand” “marketing” and “business” as if they’re three separate and distinct things. Uh-oh, I feel another headache coming on.
Over at acleareye, big brain Tom Asacker has gotten into it (nicely) with another branding poobah, Laura Ries. Lots of interesting discussion going on about how “the brand” is more important than the product; marketing (style) trumps substance; being first is better than being best; and so on. Ah yah. Tom, Laura - I think both of you are terrific thinkers (and - ahem - brands), but this is the sort of discussion that confuses the heck out of non-marketers. They just want to know how to build and sustain a business.
So, here’s how I think of it: A brand is everything a company does (not just a logo or a marketing spin piece). Marketing should be inherent to the business, not relegated to a department, program, or campaign. A business plan is (or should be) a marketing plan. After all, as Peter Drucker said, “A business has only two functions: marketing and innovation. Everything else is overhead.”
Related post: Brand - seared into marketing’s hide.
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February 22nd, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Mary, I have been watching the same discussion at acleareye.
My path to business is a strange one; history, classical Greek and the like. I have answers to questions people won’t pay for. But I do know you are right when you say the end result of this a confused bunch of business people.
I think we might be from parallel universes. You say, “A brand is everything a company does” and I tell audiences and clients, “A brand is the one thing you know that informs everything you do.” That’s pretty close to the same notion, or so it seems to me.
I don’t know if Einstein was right, or Newton, or both. But I like the clarity of what you are saying.
February 23rd, 2006 at 7:36 am
Mid-week ‘herding cats’ update…
Everybody’s up and running fast after the holiday weekend we had here in the U.S. I’ll herd a few cats as a mid-week update: Mary Schmidt and Neville Hobson have both recently debuted beautifully redesigned blogs. Shel Holtz and Neville……
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:03 am
Michael,
I too know all kinds of answers for which nobody will pay - a severe lifelong reading addiction and honors classes in things like the “Philosophy of Death and Dieing” doomed me long ago (but I like knowing them!)
Yes, sometimes I think we make it all (life, marketing, business) much harder than it needs to be. Branding can be as simple as returning phone calls and having a live (and nice person) answer the 800 number. It’d be interesting if we could pop over to a parallel universe where - say - Verizon provides great coverage, simple billing (and features), no “gotcha” fine print in the contracts, and always has live, competent, courteous support (and doesn’t advertise). I’d be willing to be my parallel universe life that they’d be extremely profitable.
Thanks for dropping by!
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:12 am
Hi Mary,
I couldn’t agree with your comments more. “The brand” is more important than the product; marketing (style) trumps substance; being first is better than being best; and so on is a bunch of bunk! If you’ve read my articles, books, blog posts, etc. you’ll know that I’m one of the biggest proponents for eliminating the confusing distinctions and focusing attention and resources on what matters most. And what matters most is what the customer feels is value to him or her. Period. That is the essence of a business (a.k.a brand)!
That being said, most business owners still obsess over their “stuff” instead of their customers’ lives. So somehow my message is falling upon deaf ears. And it puzzles me because, as anyone will attest to, my mouth is even bigger than my brain.
February 26th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Which is more important — the brand or the product?…
It was not your usual he said/she said, though it may have started that way. Branding guru Laura Ries, wrote in a blog post, “Building strong brands is the key to success, in our opinion, not better products or better……
February 27th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Mary,
I agree completely with what you’re saying.
I had a discussion with someone who was arguing that communication with the customer was more important than branding. I told him the basis of the argument was flawed. It’s like saying a t-shirt is more important than color. The t-shirt is going to be a color no matter what. You can’t say, do you want a t-shirt or do you want red?
Your communication with a customer will be branded no matter what. You can’t really separate the two. What you can decide is what color it is going to be, and provide it reliably, consistently, and unapologetically.