Decision making is at the heart of this common brand problem…
Common Brand Problem Number 35: Decisions that adversely affect the brand are made outside of the brand management context
Analysis: Corporate executives, general managers, engineers, production managers, salespeople, and others frequently don’t consider the impact on brand strategy or equity in such decision making.
Key Point: When making decisions (ranging from mergers & acquisitions, product extensions, and cost cutting to outsourcing critical customer services, producing private label products to fill production capacity, and offering price discounts to meet quarterly revenue goals) – always consider the impact on the brand. This highlights the importance of the CEO assuming the role of chief brand champion—and the importance of creating a brand building organization.
This is brand problem #1 not #35.
If companies could spend five minutes learning how invaluable “branding” is as a business tool the vast majority of M and As that fail wouldn’t happen in the first place and great businesses wouldn’t lose their position of strength in a marketplace so often as they do.
A great example is the devaluing-diluting of the luxury Sotheby’s (Real Estate) brand by its new owners who now have the real estate entity selling “trailer trash” properties along side multi- million dollar mansions and losing market share to Christie’s Great Estates daily. This has also hurt the unaffiliated but name sharing Sotheby’s art auction house enormously.
I have tried to make sure that in every consulting assignment I agree to take on that we address this cultural issue first before doing anything else.
If the client isn’t interested in or diminishes the importance of a corporate culture that embraces and builds its foundation from its brand essence then we resign from the assignment or back out before we officially sign on.
Otherwise the work will never be anywhere as successful as it could be and the consultant is always held accountable.
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Brad -
I think Common Brand Problem #35 reflects a fundamental problem inside organizations — that brand management is not a department, but a philosophy and an agenda that everyone inside the organization needs to be able to understand, internalize and express.
Whether it’s people, resources, systems, processes, technology, finance — eveyone needs to have the tools (embraced by CEO and leadership) that allows them to coherently and consistently build the relationship and financial value of their brands.