What makes a brand tick, how do you define it, what could it possible be worth to your organisation? You probably get as much answers to these questions as the consultants you ask.
We need to turn to metrics and analysis. According to Brand Orientation Index, (A Swedish research project which purpose is to identify the link between brand orientation and profitability), states that a company who actively work with their brand is more profitable. That is one aspect. Another study shows that companies with a vision-lead culture significally outperforms those without . (A Harvard Business School global study by John Cotter).
Now we are on to something, but is a brand and a vision enough?
Well you can obviously get ahead of some of your competition, but todays market place is competitive.
The expression "business never sleeps" has been around for years. But the expression "brand never sleeps" is equally important. Brands today have to be innovative as well, branding is a daily struggle against competitors and the race for consumers is constantly ongoing, if you fail to deliver upon their expectations they will take their business elsewhere.
Still with me?
So how do you do it, well we could probably start with how not to do it - by being traditional in your approach.
The usual pitfalls:
Human resource takes care of business and employee culture.Marketing takes care of brand platform.
MGMT consultants make the business strategy.
All good initiatives but to many times handled and developed in separate silos with no coherence between. This have to be a top prioritisation for the organisation. Work across departments, align initiatives, engage people within the organisation they are and possibly could be your biggest asset.
But also try to have the outside inside perspective, how to people outside the organisation look upon your organisation. Is your business as clear to them as it might be for you? Metrics and valid KPI's are fundamental, constantly measure peoples relation towards your brand. How you approach them, how do they react to that and adjust if performance is poor.
Differentiate vs. category benefits
Tap into the start-up aspect of business, how do they stay relevant, do they have a masterplan from the start? Atleast they have a product or service that clearly differentiates them from the opposition.
Instead of talking category benefits, talk differentiation.
Imagine this , if we where to launch a new brand, product, or service, would people support our cause if we were to put it out on Kickstarter? LEGO did it and turned crowd-sourcing into their next winning platform with LEGO Ideas. Everyone can contribute, builds relations even stronger with the product and brings real brand equity back to LEGO.
Another example, If you have a bank and want to challenge the traditional banks out there chances are that you probably will not stand a chance in competing in the same category. You simply don't have the organisation nor the money to disrupt the category. But when if you neglect the traditional category. Take your traditional business but add the innovative force of e.g digital with the toolset of design processes or/and innovation you might tap into new fields that none of the old banks have the chance to compete with. If your're doing your strategy well you can find yourselves in a whole new segment that is on safe distance from the traditional competition but will close access to the consumers that probably are more eager to save their money in a new type of disruptive bank with promises of taking care of their business with no overhead fees, just making them use the bank in the way they want it the most. Top that off with a service offer based upon customer needs and deliver upon that, then you have the business of tomorrow.
