Ouch! Branding Hurts!
Amongst marketers, branding is one of those things that nobody seems to truly understand and seemingly everybody preaches about (endlessly). In fact, I just googled branding and got 113M hits, with tons selling logos and such. I even saw one for “affordable branding” which - you guessed it - is touting logos. Further, being born and raised in the wide open dusty spaces, I have an instinctive “ouch” reflex anyway. Those cows don’t look too happy to be branded. And, it’s very hard work to round them up and get it done.
The other day a colleague asked, “What’s more important to you in your business - loyalty or branding? My response was you can’t separate the two. If my clients are loyal, well, that’s part of my “brand.” Further, I’d argue that loyalty could be the brand. Logo, schmogo, we’re talking cults here - Apple, Southwest, Harley-Davidson. (Quick test. Don’t look away from this post. Can you tell me what my logo is? It’s right here on this page. And, would it incent you to hire me? Of course not.)
The whole branding dust-up is further complicated by academia. Now, I love learning, but sometimes “the book” can be flat wrong and/or gives people a false sense of security. And, business schools are often ivory towers filled with people that have never actually had to implement out here in uncontrolled, messy reality. Then, way too many tenderfoot MBAs are given way too much responsibility in many companies’ branding/marketing efforts - to their and their companies’ detriment.
Me? I’m pretty simple-minded. I’m not going to wade through “one size fits all” academic formulas or analyses and I don’t pitch such to my clients. This isn’t magic, and there aren’t any silver bullets. “Branding” is hard work and it involves getting to know and appreciating your customers. It can’t be a case of “us” versus “them” or pure “positioning” (Customers ultimately decide a company’s position, no matter how much the MBAs read or get paid. Sell a crappy product, give lousy service - well, that’s the brand. No Super Bowl ad, event, or incentive program can fix it.)
So, got a “branding” issue? Your iron ain’t the problem. It could well be a bunch of cranky cows and inexperienced cowpokes.
Read more: Get Back in the Box : Innovation from the Inside Out
Tom Peters: MBAs, leadership and the lack of reality in biz schools
Grant McCracken’s great post on branding & MBAs Branding the Hard Way
Related Posts:
Advertising does nothing for your brand.
Wave and Particle
So they hate you, so what?
Leaders? Or just pushy people with pieces of paper?
Does anybody not know what this is?
Branding Myths
And - just for fun - more about real cattle branding.
Tags: branding, blogher, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, nobody, nobodies
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February 12th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I really like this no nonsense approach to branding and I couldn’t agree more that many tend to elevate the complexity. At the end of the day, a brand is nothing more or less than the gut feeling that people have about you. They’re the ones with the iron, not your business. They brand you. Sure, you can try to influence how they do it… but the only way to successfully do that is by delivering the experience you promise. Focus on the experience. Deliver it. Watch your brand grow stronger and stronger.