In a brilliant twist, the experts have bottled an end and sold it as a means. From Obsessive Branding Disorder, by Lucas Conley. Published in Fast Company Magazine
It's a breath of fresh air to read an article that turns the branding industry on its ear with just a few key phrases. Corporations throw millions every year at their brands, and only the best and brightest have much to show for it. Some marketing companies bill themselves as "brand re-establishment experts," when all they really do is rearrange sales pitches. The 'branding' industry tries to make a verb out of a noun, a means out of an end.
What does it really mean to even have a brand, anyway? Is a brand really just a smart corporate marketing package, a consistent design, a memorable logo slapped on everything from lunchboxes to toilet paper? Is the average person really that easy to fool, or is it really all about what Mr. Conley bills "Business 101":
Remove the hype, and branding is just commonsense strategy, rebranded. To successfully build a brand, says INSEAD marketing professor Amitava Chattopadhyay, "is to communicate your key value proposition to the key customer segment, and do so in an integrated and consistent way." Conley
I'll translate the marketspeak for you, in case you didn't quite catch that. A brand really is all about providing good products and services for a good price (value) to your target customer, consistently, in a way that ensures your target customer actually knows about it.
I've been talking about this concept for some time, but I have a slightly different take on the big picture. To me, a brand is really less about the communication and more about the reality. The sales pitch is only genuinely successful when it is supported by an underlying excellence. Or to put it another way, you can make a lot of hot air, but unless you really have something of quality to move, you're not going to get anything very far for very long.
Every company can always benefit from Business 101. Remember, this will be on a test.
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