It's a Brand New Day. Branding with Strategic Public Awareness. - Issue: 2001 Qtr 1
In the land of strategic public awareness, the branded man is king. Permit me to explain.
Remember black and white television? Remember when "cable" meant "telegram" and "fax" meant the opposite of "fiction?" Remember when watching a Fox network might get you slapped in polite company?
Times change. Distinctive characteristics become commodities. And commodity equals death by a thousand cuts. Having a web site does not replace having insight.
Successful strategic public awareness programs must master the art of brand thinking -- the capacity to come up with new and innovative market positions, together with laser-beam-targeted ways to market and promote them. Brand thinking produces a continuous flow of valuable ideas -- your most important asset. And not just any ideas, but ones with specific application to the brand promise. Ideas that further the brand's promise to deliver.
What is brand thinking?
Think of it this way: Some of us spend a lot of time trying to look good. We are concerned about our appearance; about how we appear to others.
But what's more important is what people say about us when we're not in the room, when we can neither see nor hear them. Controlling what people say about you when you're not in the room is known as branding. This is also known as water cooler conversation,or word of mouth. In short, reputation. And you can't buy it through advertising alone. Reputation comes with consistent delivery (indeed over-delivery) of the brand promise. The brand promise is a promise to deliver.
Branding has three steps.
The first is Awareness (I Know You). Do people know you? The second is Amity (I Like You). Do people like you? The third is Emotion (I Want You). Do customers want you? Think about it.
But there are two main obstacles -- human nature and competition. As far as human nature is concerned, it's like John Bissell wrote recently in the magazine BrandWeek, "Little of what any company regards as differentiation is relevant to the typical client." Sad, but true. And the competition, needless to say, is out there defining their own message and, as a consequence, blurring your attempts to do the same.
There is nothing more powerful in the marketplace than a brand that has won a share of mind and is positively identified and defined by customers. How do your customers identify and define you?
I recently represented the Dalai Lama on his visit to the United States for the "Transforming the Millennium" tour. During a "client lunch" at the Tibetan Cultural Center, where we were served by Tibetan monks in saffron robes and sandals, I very politely told the Dalai Lama's brother that our task was to brand His Holiness' message of world peace.
The old man smiled at me and said, "That's been the task of the last 14 Dalai Lamas."
Share of mind
Our children are the consumers of American history. Ask them who won the Battle of Bunker Hill and they will teach you a valuable lesson in branding.
The hero of Bunker Hill was the American colonist William Prescott. He's the one who said, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Who won the Battle of Bunker Hill? The British did. But who won the battle for the colonists hearts and minds? In the long run, the loser of the battle won the war because they won share of mind and share of heart.
Share of mind won the American Revolution. Share of mind is branding. Share of mind comes from awareness.
That's why you must think brand all the time. You must feel brandall the time. But most importantly, you must make your brand strategy actionable. It's all about action. Everything else is just talk.
Be the Brand? Absolutely.
Back to top