Brand Management

The day he walked into the San Francisco 49ers headquarters in 1979, Bill Walsh sported pressed khaki pants, neatly combed white hair and a professorial disposition. The only items missing from his ensemble were an elbow-patch jacket and a bent billiard pipe. He certainly didn’t look like a football coach. He didn’t act like one, either. He didn’t yell. He didn’t scream. He didn’t give rah-rah speeches.

Hotels have experienced significant losses due to coronavirus. But, there are signs of recovery. A report on the travel industry generated by McKinsey & Co., the global consultancy, covers airlines, hotels, vacation rentals, tours and activities, online travel agencies (OTAs), car rentals, and ridesharing and cruises. According to this report, there are “… signs of latent demand for travel: Customers are interested and willing to travel again when they are allowed to do so, even before a vaccine is available at scale.”

Last October, Procter & Gamble shareholders, owner of such megabrands as Tide, Bounty, Crest, Pampers, Olay, Gillette, and Downy, approved a proposal to publish a report on what is being done to address deforestation. The Board of Directors had advised against approving the proposal. P&G uses a lot of forests. There is the Bounty brand (paper towels and napkins), the Puffs brand (facial tissues), the Pampers and Luvs brands (baby diapers), Always and Tampax brands (feminine care), and the Charmin brand (toilet paper and wipes). But, the Board underestimated the power of environmentalism among its shareholders.

Our work and home lives have been turned upside-down by COVID, and many businesses have had to find new ways to sell, service, and operate. Some of these changes – while jarring – may stick after the crisis recedes. But which ones? Will virtual learning become routine? Remote teams? Distance selling?

Let’s start by defining what we mean by ‘brand’? Brand is a term which is often used to describe a business. A brand is not the business. A brand is shaped in the minds of the consumer – through identity, meaning, and experience – so as such the brand is created and not the creator.