Branding 2.0?
There is a shift underway in how people are talking about corporate brands; a shift that is going to result in the next generation of branding. After years of brand being the big idea, leaders want more. They’ve got their new identities, taglines, brand evangelists and guidelines, and they’ve even done some training on “what does the brand mean for me.” But there is something missing…
Mangagers are not talking about the brand in the business planning process, the agenda in R&D hasn’t changed and they still have an organization structure that aligns to products not customer segments. The folks in Marketing who ran the brand project have moved on and no one really remembers what the big deal was. Simply put, the organization is not synchronized with the brand, in deep ways that ensure that the proposition is real and defensible. What happened? What didn’t happen is the question. If branding has got a bad name, it’s because too often the brand is treated as a marketing/design project and not a deep organizational challenge. The work to knit the value proposition to the structure, culture and processes of the organization has to happen to make the brand promise real. I’ve watched even the most visionary brand gurus make this mistake. The effort stops short of the most important step–making strategy real.
I think of organizations as made up of communities of interest–customers and consumers are two of them, but there are many inside the organization, as well: line and corporate groups at every level who need and want a sense of purpose to do what they do. After twenty years of working with organizations on change management and in market and brand development, I’ve discovered that nothing creates a sense of purpose like a clearly articulated value proposition, competitive positioning and brand promise. These elements becomes the magnet that everyone lines up to, and they are more powerful motivators than the usual: maximizing shareholder value, satisfying stakeholder needs, delighting customers and so on.
Maybe this time, with Branding 2.0 we’ll get it right–from the inside out.
