Branding And Morality

Branding And Morality

As with any discipline, branding can be used to help people and society or it can be used in a way that hurts them.

How can branding be helpful? It can:

•    Clarify or highlight a product’s or organization’s most distinctive advantage(s).
•    Rally employees around the organization’s mission or vision.
•    Improve an organization’s profitability, market share or market value.
•    Create relationships with customers.
•    Make promises to or covenants with customers.
•    Overlay an attractive personality on an organization or its products and services.
•    Entertain customers.
•    Make an organization or its products or services more likeable.
•    Simplify customer choice.
•    Help create healthy relationships with and the loyalty of customers.

How can branding be used in a way that harms people or society? It can:

•    Accentuate people’s fears, phobias or insecurities.
•    Contribute to increased cravings or addictions.
•    Sell people goods and services that they really don’t really need.
•    Be the “lipstick on a pig.” That is, it can be used to dress up an inferior product or service.
•    Create strong desires for products that are actually harmful to people or society.

As I think you know, branding can be a very powerful tool. I hope you will use your branding skills to benefit people and society and not to harm them.

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Brad VanAuken The Blake Project

2 comments

  • Wayne Attwell

    August 20, 2009 at 5:02 pm

    I feel very strongly about the morality of branding. As brand marketers we definitely have a moral obligation regarding the message we portray, especially as we have the skills to create believable fantasies about products that influence consumer decisions.

    I wrote this blog post when my father died of lung cancer recently (mainly due to smoking Camels).

    http://www.boldhorizon.co.nz/brand-marketing-blog/index.php/wayne-attwell-blog/tobacco-marketers-are-lying-swines

  • Michelle Chun-Hoon

    August 21, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Many people think morals and branding are two things that do not always get along well, but I personally feel that people should have high morals in branding and advertising like they would with anything else. Other people and companies will respect you more for having morals and it really says something about your business. If your business upholds strong morals people will have more faith in you and see you as a strong brand that does not need to bend down to using unmoral tactics.

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