Sep 08, 2006, Posted by Mike in the category, 0 Comments
We’re in the middle of a logo redesign project for a client, which has me deeply immersed in the brand vs. logo world, so this post will have nothing to do with video production, or will it?
I’m rereading bits and pieces of some of my favorite marketing books, and the one I always seem to end up with is Harry Beckwith’s Selling The Invisible. Maybe it’s his style, maybe it’s his content, but Harry always seems to be able to sum up exactly what you’re thinking. Case and point:
A service is a promise, and building a brand builds your promise.
- Page 154, Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Amen Brother Beckwith! There are many, many, many books out there that talk about building a brand, maintaining a brand, building your brand identity… but I think Harry sums it up pretty well.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for non-marketing folks is in understanding what us marketing types are talking about when we use the words brand, brand identity, and branding. I came across a piece by Michel Hogan on the Change This Newsletter titled: We Need a New Word for Brand. In her “manifesto” (as they call them at Change This) she gives a great, brief history of what a brand is and is not, and
We need a new word for brand, and “Bob” will have to do.
Well, in reality, we don’t need a new word for brand—another clever name just to be different
isn’t going to help anyone. Instead, what we DO need is a new understanding of what brand
truly is.
I’m as guilty as the next marketing guy in using the term brand interchangeably with the word logo, but in today’s reality, they are 2 different things. Quoting liberally from Ms. Hogan’s manifesto:
Brand is not a veneer to be applied to the company with the goal of presenting a certain image. With no apologies to the agencies and design studios that lay claim to the creation of brands, brand is not something that can be created—EVER! The roots are inside the company, and can only be uncovered or identified. And only once it is uncovered can brand grow, flourish and become real to everyone and sustainable over time.
Translating this into the real world: let’s take a look at that specialty printing vendor I used for the first time a few weeks ago:
Their Logo
- Fairly straight forward logo, features the type of product they manufacture with their name in the center. Nothing overly creative about it, but a substantially solid logo.
Their Brand (as I see it)
- At least 6 unreturned phone calls
- A 5-week production schedule for a 1-color print job
- The wrong color paper used
- No proofing of the job before they ran it
- When I brought up the fact that the job was done slowly, and incorrectly, their response: “Sounds like a rerun. We’ll have to get paid for that.”
- And this was the owner! Not just some frazzled sales guy. The freaking OWNER!
Hmmm, what do I think their brand is? Will I remember their name when I need to do a similar job? You bet I will, and it will only be to cross them off the vendor list. That’s their Authentic Brand, but I have to give them credit, I will remember them.
I’ll close with one more from Harry Beckwith:
Assume your service is bad. It can’t hurt, and it will force you to improve.
- Page 6, Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
And one from me:
Ask yourself this before you answer a client: “Would I do business with a company that would say that to me?”
How can I put this delicately?
