Brand management then becomes the organizational framework that systematically manages those customer-centric processes. It aims at gathering intelligence, allocating resources, and consistently delivering the brand promise over time at each contact-point with the customer.

Does Branding Apply to Us?

The concept of branding applies to any individual, organization, product, or service, as long as there is a transaction between human beings. Indeed, branding relies on fundamental principles of psycho-sociology – essentially the way our memory processes, stores, and recalls information. Not to actively manage one’s brand name is therefore the equivalent of putting one’s head in the sand and wishing for the best.

Many law firms, for example, assume that branding would negatively impact their reputation. However, branding should not be confused with television commercials. Whereas relationships and quality work are still fundamental to the success of a law firm, brand management can help a law firm in many ways, including (1) making clients more loyal to the firm as a whole than to specific professionals within the firm; (2) communicating a focused message to attract new clients, who increasingly shop around for razor-sharp legal expertise; (3) retain talent and attract bright new graduates, for whom the reputation of a firm is often an important non-cash factor.

Along the same lines, branding can usefully help David defeat Goliath when an asymmetry of resources makes the battle seemingly one-sided.

In 1981, the mighty IBM Corp launched the IBM Personal Computer -- the smallest IBM computer to date -- at the aggressive introductory price of $1,565. The IBM PC became an immediate success and an industry standard, epitomized as Time magazine's 1982 "Man" of the Year.

Apple Computer needed something radically novel to counter the new IBM PC. Unfortunately, Apple's own new products, the Apple III and Lisa, missed an opportunity to make much of an impact and were received with a cold shoulder. Working with Frog Design, an industrial design firm, Apple decided to wrap its innovative technology into an equally innovative product design that would contrast with the boxy IBM PC. This collaboration gave birth to the original Macintosh, which is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

There are branding steps that can have a considerable impact on revenues without the need for big budgets, such as the brand positioning strategy, the naming of the product, the packaging design, the delivery process of a service, the consistency of the brand experience at each contact-point with the customer, to mention a few.

How Long Does It Take to Build a Brand?

It takes as much time to build a brand as it takes a person to build a reputation. The difficulty is not as much to perfect a strategy as to be focused, differentiated, and consistent everywhere, every time. Will it take one, five, ten or over twenty years? That essentially depends on the memory and openness of the brand's audience.

For instance, it took about 15 years for Nike to build one of the strongest global brands, thanks to (1) a focused brand positioning, (2) consistent 360-degree delivery, and (3) its association with All-Star basketball player Michael Jordan. BRS (Blue Ribbon Sports) first used the Nike brand in 1971, and introduced the Air Jordan in 1985. By then, all the pieces fit well together, from the brand strategy to the product's air technology to distribution in over 40 countries. Revenues soared from about $1 billion (1985) to over $9 billion (1997).

Nike truly distinguished itself in its ability to deliver a consistent message across 360 degrees. Indeed, over a long period of time, Nike consistently delivered its brand message at each contact-point with its customers, from product, to advertising, to distribution, to merchandising, to website. For example, fans of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls could enjoy a remarkable consistency between Niketown and Nike's TV commercials, as the gothic atmosphere depicted on the small screen could also be experienced three-dimensionally by the visitor at the Niketown store on North Michigan Avenue in the Bulls’ hometown.

How Can Non-marketers Contribute to Branding?

Marketing and its sister branding are too important to be left to marketers alone. In a corporation, it is everybody's business to be cost-conscious as well as customer-driven. In fact, it is the purpose of brand management to transform a company into a customer-centric organization to the point where the traditional walls that separate functions become permeable.

In a customer-centric organization, management can thus be defined as a discipline of action that integrates holistically all the corporate functions to deliver systematically value to customers beyond their expectation.

Although the development of a brand strategy typically involves a limited number of executives and their aides, the successful implementation of a strategy is everybody's responsibility. Indeed, a major source of failure in the attempt to build a great brand is the lack of consistency among all the contact-points with the customer. In such a case, the brand message makes a promise on which the organization does not fully deliver. A sure way to ensure that the customer will consistently enjoy the brand experience is to implement processes throughout the organization.

In the demanding hotel industry, for instance, the Ritz-Carlton has demonstrated that -- with customer-driven targets, metrics, and processes -- the same high quality of service can be delivered all over the world, day after day.

Although the word process may connote something cumbersome, most processes can be (and should be) simple to the point of becoming second nature. As such, processes become like the syntax that children learn to align words into meaningful sentences. They allow entire organizations to communicate with their customers more effectively and convincingly.

Readers may also enjoy What Makes a Brand Great by the same author, and brandchannel’s Glossary for helpful definitions of branding terms.     

[3-Nov-2003]