Becoming Brand Flexible
It's Spring here in Colorado, and that means things are in a perpetual state of flux. Sunny and warm followed by snow, followed by sunshine once more, with a dash of rain thrown in for good measure. And while this planning outside activities a bit more challenging than usual, it provides us a helpful analogy to think about when it comes to brands.
Brands, contrary to the statements of those who claim to have them completely figured out, are not formulaic.
Brands, contrary to the statements of those who claim to have them completely figured out, are not formulaic. Building, managing and evolving a brand does not come down to a recipe that one follows time and time again, achieving perfect results with each attempt. Sure, past behavior and an understanding of what matters to people helps, but it’s no guarantee that you’ll get what you expect. Brands work with unpredictable creatures living in an unpredictable world. The only way to work with them is to remain flexible.
Traditional thinking puts brand squarely in the hands of marketing departments. Many (not all) would agree that this is where the management of a brand needs to happen. Marketers are (theoretically) the people charged with balancing the opportunities across the category and customer landscape. They understand what makes the company's products and services unique and can find a way to make them relevant to the set of consumers upon whom that a company focuses. It makes them the best equipped people to define, develop and deploy a brand.
Perhaps it’s not THE spectrum, but where does your team fall?
Armed with this expertise and a clearly defined brand – like a parent with a weather forecast – marketers have a choice. In the work Notch focuses on, there are two schools of thought. One school – we’ll call it the Helicopter Parent School of Brand Management – believes that because marketers are the ones who know the brand better than anyone else, they must be highly active in every aspect of how a brand gets used. At the extreme we have the brand cop mindset, in which every brand-related decision has to pass through the brand team, regardless of what it is actually called. The other school – the Free Range School of Brand Management – believes in empowering everyone at the company as a brand owner. The brand doesn’t belong to the marketing department because it belongs to each employee equally. Equipped with a catchy articulation of their shared purpose, people will bring the brand to life whoever they deem fit.
The only way to successfully put brand to work over the long haul is to move across the spectrum, sliding, weaving and jumping to the right approach based on what’s actually called for.
In practice, companies gravitate to one extreme or the other. But, over the years, one thing has become clear to me: there is no optimal school of thought on the subject. I’m not just talking about different companies needing different approaches. I’m not even talking about a single company needing different approaches at different points in time. I’m talking about individual companies needing different approaches at the same time. In fact, the only way to successfully put brand to work over the long haul is to move across the spectrum, sliding, weaving and jumping to the right approach based on what’s actually called for. The organizations that have mastered this flexibility are the ones who develop into highly efficient brand organizations when things are going smoothly, but then can pivot and shift quickly, refocusing on new opportunities faster than anyone else.
Figure out what the situation calls for, and adopt an approach that fits the need.
What does it take to pull this off? It all starts with being purposeful. I’m not talking about “brand purpose”, that term of the moment that I’ve ranted about before. No, I’m talking about figuring out what the situation calls for, and adopting the approach that fits the need. Need to rebrand quickly and get every item on the list converted over? It’s time to put on your helicopter parent hat, make some clear rules and hold everyone to them. Trying to help infuse your innovation pipeline with your brand to create better products? Ease up, train up the product team and let them interpret the brand within their domain of expertise. You’re there to provide feedback, encouragement and support.
Once you’ve developed a more flexible approach to managing brand within your organization, you’ll be surprised at how much easier each day gets. You’ll be able to push in where you need to push in, and get invited in where you want to have a bigger impact.
Four tips for becoming more brand flexible