Brand! Hold Tight or Let Go?

A million dollar question: "Is it better to control every aspect of a brand, or encourage advocates to be creative with it, when brand success is at stake?"

The usual comment I hear when joining a company is that the marketing team is no more than the Branding Police, with a crayon set! This contentious insiders’ opinion has been levied at the B2B marketing leaders of these Fortune 500 companies because they are viewed as sticklers for conformity, demanding a tight hold on their work hoping to ensure a broad stoke of consistency. Much of my former employer’s branding efforts had been rigid and conservative, positioning themselves in a competitive market, yet restricting their narrative to a set audience with repetitive stock images, a technical tone of voice, and an uninspiring boiler plate message. But with a market cap value of €36B, why change!

Needless to say these B2B organisations are not alone in their fascination with control! Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) the B2C fashion retailer has held fast on its brand identity for over a decade. This fashion house positions exclusivity as its differentiator with its choice of high end locations, louver covered store windows and bare chested models known as “Brand Representatives” at the front door. But with an unwavering hold on their brand identity, A&F in 2011 tried to control its image by even attempting to pay people to stop wearing their clothes! But even  ruling with an iron fist it was unable to control the plummeting A&F share price, which fell from $84 to $14 seeing CEO Michael Jeffries step down.

Starbucks continues to go to great lengths to evolve its brand and the Starbucks experience. A recent loosening of the brand has been to de-brand, removing the logo and brand name, and to remodel the stores as local coffee houses “Inspired by Starbucks” serving wine and beer, and hosting live music, along with poetry readings. This loose approach has allowed Starbucks to break from their norm and consider their future brand experience alongside their customers and employees.

In the digital age, brand is more than a logo, colour pallet or a bare chested model. Today brand is the very essence of an organisation, its culture, its purpose, its past and its future. Customers and employees seek to identify with and be identified by the brands they associate with. It is the information age, where a brand can be amplified or damaged in 147 characters or less.

In some of the companies I’ve worked with, I’ve found the embryo of their future brand identity hidden in plain sight. However, this embryo sits undeveloped and invisible, camouflaged by those failing to look for it. With a marketing team focused on pitching the products and driving the metrics, customers and employees are shortchanged. This identity vacuum and stagnation is further exacerbated by a rebellious culture, ready to flex the brand narrative to suit their opportunistic needs. These communities clash at times, as Management fail to tackle what's needed, preferring to stick with the status-quo rather than driving a brand identity revolution and allowing marketing to hide behind their processes. 

I, as many do, see the future role of brand leadership to fulfil a far more inclusive role, one that nudges and steers the brand rather than controls it with a whip and an iron fist. Organisations’ need to ensure their Brand is entrusted to a leader who can think beyond yesterday and consider the role to be fuelled by the following four characteristics:

1. Creative Leadership - no longer preoccupied by defending an organisation’s position in the market, but is constantly reviewing a sense of purpose for the organisation and its narrative.

2. Coach - no longer the dominant custodian of an organisation’s identity, but an enabler of an experience, willing and wanting to evangelise the value and culture of the brand with all stakeholders. 

3. Brand Scout - someone who looks beyond their organisation’s bubble and seeks to understand how the brand is perceived (and misperceived), seeking other brands to partner with, so as to accelerate growth and opportunity.

4. Brand Strategist - the long-term champion, creating balance for the CEO whose leadership team will often be preoccupied with short-term gains. To work towards creating an organisation-wide climate of Brand-led Leadership. 

But with all things, it is fair to say that some companies will be slow to recognise the changing dynamics and continue to hold tight to their brand, controlled by an authoritarian brand manger. However, some organisations will let go and evolve the activity to be an inclusive one, whereby those petri dishes of ideas will be cultured, pushing the brand ever forward by an inspiring brand leader. As suggesting otherwise would be as ludicrous as believing acting fiscally responsibly in an organisation should be contained to the CFO!