What is brand anyways?
Every few years, companies take a look around them and see their brand in total disarray..
…every week, their production agency produces 100s of banners screaming “50% off.” Shop managers print “Store Hours” using Microsoft Word and stick them proudly on shop doors. Internally, very few people (even senior leaders) can recall what their brand should stand for or what it means, and customers don’t associate much with the brand beyond its functional value (a good burger, slow money transfer, very luxurious rooms, terrible in-flight chicken masala, etc…)
The board then decides to issue a “rebrand” RFP. A few weeks later, a brand agency walks in, audits the mess, and promises the board that all the company’s problems will be solved by defining a new all-encompassing brand purpose along with a shiny new identity. And yet, every 5 years or so, boards call upon the same brand consultants to save them yet again from the mess they’re in.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Why does this happen? Why do brands get muddled over time? Why do well intentioned brand purpose statements and visual guidelines lose their way?
Brands are alive and life is complicated.
Companies are living breathing entities with all the complexity of living organisms. Marketing teams, sales teams, internal comms, corporate comms, physical stores, web stores, mobile apps, product packaging, form design, employee behaviors… once you’ve tallied the permutations of a brand experience, you start to understand the sheer level of complexity involved in delivering a coherent brand experience. This is super hard to design for and even harder to implement.
Brands are infinite.
Brands go through good and bad times. They may need to communicate during a crisis or respond to an unexpected competitor. Brands are also made up of 10s, 100s or 1000s of people who interact with each other and with customers, which produces an infinite number of permutations.
“Brand” itself is ill-defined.
Ask 12 people what they think a brand is and you’ll likely get just as many answers. If you look at companies tasked with bringing the brand to life, you’ll find the same disparity. Brand agencies think brand is about purpose and visual expression. Digital and retail agencies think brand is about experience. Advertising agencies think brand is about campaign idea, while PR agencies associate brand with key messages. Media agencies, the last ring in this needlessly long communications chain, define brand in terms of awareness and association. Consumers (when we care to ask them) don’t care that much and want something that will help them solve a problem or fulfill an immediate need.
When I worked in brand consulting, clients would often ask well intentioned questions like “Is a brand about differentiation or distinction?”, “Does a brand reflect who we are today or what we aspire to become?”, “Is a brand designed for employees or customers?”, “Is a brand about expression or experience?”. My answer, and as I suspect most brand strategists’ answers, is a cop-out through a disingenuous “both” …
So where do we go
from here?
Realize your brand will never be perfect
Even Apple, the gold standard of brand coherence, has chinks in its armor. Its apps break down, iCloud doesn’t sync, a software update renders your iPhone unusable, Apple stores are out of stock etc… but because of its significant earned brand equity, consumers are often more willing to forgive Apple.
Ensure your brand builds more positive than negative equity.
Avoid internal fatigue
Some brand elements should be sacred; those elements that make a brand distinctive and recognizable to customers should not change unless they present negative associations (old, outdated, out of touch, etc.) while experiences and expressions can evolve over time.
Don’t change for the sake of change.
Start with the consumer
This last point is arguably the most important. We often overestimate the importance of our product or brand in our consumers’ lives. Think about it; if you go to a widget company every morning, you’ll assume the world revolves around widgets (swap burger, bank, or any other category for widget and you get the idea). Instead, focus on your customer’s job-to-be-done, which could be emotional or practical, and help them achieve that using the experiences, expressions, expectations and exchanges that you enable, design or drive.
