A Counterpoint to the Branding Craze

At the early stages of branding or behavior changing, it is rarely sales or marketing, but both intertwined. Good marketing is really measured by sales, otherwise it is just unsustainable sponsorship. The difference between effective branding and behavior changing is merely a semantic one. It is true that a company cannot simply impose its will upon a consumer the way a rancher can on cattle, but isn’t effective branding about less forceful behavioral changes anyway?

Agree that sometimes we forget what the role of marketing is…its about changing behavior…Such a simple, yet powerful insight

Great thread. Branding & marketing go hand in hand, but the product or service needs to deliver on that brands’ promise. Chris’ examples of Starbucks and McDonalds shine. I remember hating to get McD’s coffee in the drive-through because I’d have to juggle the creamers, sugars, stirrers…then one day, they offered me ‘premium’ coffee and mixed it for me- not only convenient for a change but tasted better too. The branding for this new service came after my user experience. I no longer associate McD’s with a bad experience coffee wise. If they’d marketed their previous coffee without real changes to their product- their brand would have been hurt by the poor taste and sad user experience. Instead, the firm made sure they made positive changes (following the market accordingly) first, then marketed it, reinforcing the brand.
Product, branding, marketing.

Nice discussion! I’m not sure you can so easily discount the power of the “brand”. To Cathlyn and Chris’ case on the coffee at McDonalds, neither of you would have been in that drive thru without their brand to begin with. This gives them the power to try new products. Yes, they need to continue to deliver on the promise, but, be honest, how many times in your life has McDonald’s or Starbucks under-delivered for you personally, and yet, you *still* believe in the brand. We all do. If this Bailout crisis was in Hamburgers, we would all be on the Hill pitching to save McD’s as an American icon. I don’t think we all feel the same about WaMu…:-)

Alan

Good points Alan! I was there based on the McDonald’s brand, and past experience- however, what I noted was a purposefully delivered approach to their new coffee experience. Clearly it was something new, and the staff and mgt had been trained on, and I saw promotions for the coffee service follow later. So it was a beautiful roll out. I think that is what I liked about it. Getting the service first, and then seeing promotions about it later- and being able to say to friends; “Yes, McDonalds’s had changed their coffee. It’s great now.” So my perception of the brand was reinforced.

So do we think brand serves to overpower (or distract from) reality, or is it an expression of it?

I keep reading examples of “branding” that seem, to me, to be examples of glorified “awareness.”. I question whether there are things called “brands” separate from the subjective and real-time redefinition of consumers…

This is a great discussion–thanks for sparking it, Chris (and Jonathan too, of course).

Jonathan asks a key follow up question: “do we think brand serves to overpower (or distract from) reality, or is it an expression of it?” While many so-called brands do distract from reality, a good brand uncovers and then communicates the true character and purpose of a company or organization. As a professional who focuses on the copy/tone aspect of branding, the most important thing I do for my clients is ask lots of questions; the ultimate goal is uncovering that true character. That’s the more difficult, but most necessary, work of branding. If you’re slapping on a facade rather than excavating something real, the divide between brand and action will be gaping.

In this discussion, there seems to be a premise that branding is emotional and action is rational. I disagree. Both are both, just like people are both emotional and rational. Both approaches must be included in a successful marketing mix.

First discussion/comment section I read all the way to the end and everyone in the middle, too!

My 2 bits:

brand – keyword – positioning – association – personal story – elevator pitch

How are these so much different? We seek understanding by figuring out the relative value of someone or something in relation to ourselves.

True, Madison Avenue is divorced from reality, so “Branding” (capital B) is completely different from the reality of needful conversations as in the “Cluetrain Manifesto”. That’s their problem.

“Chris Brogan” is a brand which I follow as he produces routine value which I can use. “Stephen King” is a brand I do not, because I don’t like that genre.

Branding occurs by any name (although some roses smell better than others) – and all of us are doing it all the time. Politics is -rank- in it.

The trick is in taking responsibility for the effect. Corporations which are actively listening on Twitter are getting a clue.

Jack Humphrey, among others, are profiting off this understanding.

Branding got a bad name (even cows don’t like it) because of the lack of responsibility. Trust fails. And so goes their “market share”.

I am devouring JSB’s book right now. There’s more of my highlighting and underlines and notes and thoughts and ideas than typewritten copy.

I’ll defer full comment until I’m done but the one thing that’s coming through straight at me like a 8 ton semi with it’s HIGH BEAMS on is ———> it’s all about…um…ahhh…SALES? Call it branding, call it awareness, call it marketing, call it whatever you want. And pay what you can for it.

If your in chrage of my branding and it doesn’t drive sales, DIRECTLY drive sales, BIG sales…Ricky, you got some splainin’ to do.

Thanks for the thread Chris and JSB – BIG KUDOS to you! Your book’s a game-changer.

Rick Z.

SocialMOO.com was available – perhaps there is an opportunity to create a Bovine Social Network – surely that is the kind of idea where one could obtain venture capital from an idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin.

;^)

Brand building and behavior changing are two separate functions of marketing. Both are vital and important. Behavior changing is the short term, quarterly sales view. Brand building is the long term plan to build good will and drive future growth through brand extension. You need them both.

Behavior changing pays the bills. Behavior changing opens up possibilities and helps companies get through tough times (from a PR perspective) because of built-up good will among the consumers.

Think back to the 80s Tylenol poisoning crisis. The company’s response is now the textbook case for corporate responsibility. However, the product wouldn’t have survived to execute that plan if it hadn’t built up good will over years previously. Imagine if something like that happened with HeadOn these days. Would the company survive, or would everyone simply stop applying directly to the forehead?

“Behavior changing opens up possibilities and helps companies get through tough times …”

Correction: BRAND BUILDING opens up possibilities and helps companies get through tough times …

Robert,
Brand – elevator pitch what is the difference?

Elevator pitch makes me say “wow”. Brand makes me take your phone call.

BIG difference, especially for those here into personal branding.

Alan

I think the fundamental point is that brand is the creation of and the property of your consumer. to talk of branding, brand building, or even brand awareness, without an intimate understanding of how the consumer actually experiences your product or service, is to be dangerously misled.

in the same way that two people can experience the same movie and walk out with violently different reactions, a marketer and a consumer can have vitally opposing expectations and experiences of the same product. so long as brand is relegated to communications and marketing, this won’t change.

it’s also true that brand does not change behavior, it is behavior. this is what i love about baskin. the revolution in brand that he announces is that the organizations who will win are the ones who will use current behaviors to change brand, not the other way around.

http://www.slideshare.net/abluecircle/whose-brand-is-it-presentation