There is no question that we are living in an era with an excessive focus on profit and competition. And the world of brands has also changed dramatically as a result. The development and influence of social media shows just how significantly.
The brand as the heart of a company, embodying vision, values and identity, seems to have fallen by the wayside. Many CEOs, even Chief Branding Officers – and unfortunately their advisors – seem to have forgotten the importance of brand and the need for effective leadership.
It would be helpful to take a look at Simon Sinek’s leadership concept “The Golden Circle” with WHY, HOW, WHAT (note: the order is often mixed up).
“A brand is a relationship – a relationship for the long term” (Vilim Vasata). “Gaining public trust is the basis for marketing” (Hans Domizlaff, 1939).
Brand values such as credibility, trust, sincerity, authenticity, quality, innovation and sustainability are the foundation of all brand work. With “brand orientation” as a strategy, Mats Urde, Johan Gromark and Frans Melin also defined the organizational foundations in the 1990s.
And David Aaaker, the “Father of Modern Branding”, developed all the building blocks for successful branding with his model (see the bestseller “Aaker on Branding – 20 Principles That Drive Success”) back in 1991.
OK, you can’t take practical experience for granted. But basic knowledge is. So why are the necessary topics apparently no longer relevant? Although there are plenty of “tools” available (and certainly also reputable consultants for whom professional brand management is part of their “craft”), people often prefer to get involved in dubious procedures.
As we all know, the fish stinks from the head. So is it ignorance, inability, blindness or ignorance when CEOs refuse to play their role? How else can “brand” be organizationally subordinated to marketing? How can “We only use the term sustainability in marketing”, “Our company is successful even without a brand”, “For us, brand is a marketing tool” and many other stupid things be communicated? Why has orientation and grounding fallen by the wayside? What are the motives?
Especially in a world characterized by short-term profit thinking and superficial marketing, it is crucial to recognize the true meaning of brand and brand management.
Instead, some (brand) consultants are constantly “selling” truisms as the yellow of the egg, incessantly blubbering the most stupid interpretations of “purpose” (no more and no less the socially relevant corporate purpose – public perception), babbling endlessly about “brand-oriented communication”, “orchestrating brand experience” (wow, how do you do that?), “Purpose Marketing”, “Post-Lockdown Marketing”, “Customer Centricity” (a mendacious phrase focusing on how to take money out of customers’ pockets as continuously as possible). About “data & algorithms with the aim of sales performance”, brand management as a “technical” discipline, “from brand management to brand activism”, etc., etc., etc. Yes, they even invent new, obscure fields of work, believing, for example, that “business-driven branding” (what is that supposed to be?) is more likely to lead to consulting mandates? Companies, on the other hand, rely on influencers, which is really no longer comprehensible from a brand perspective.
One gets the impression that it is no longer about the cause – about the brand (even if not every brand is a brand) as a distinguishing feature – but rather solely about money. The main thing is to make money. Or, as Jonas Jansen noted in the FAZ in May 2019, “The main thing is to make a ruckus”. Recommended: “If they go low, we go high – If the others can’t behave, we respond with decency and style” (Michelle Obama). But: attitude, backbone, honor, decency, style (speaking of style: sneakers with a suit and unbuttoned shirts seem to be enough these days) and truly sustainable strategies – not to be found. Very worrying, but also somehow fitting for the current desolate situation. But please don’t misunderstand: “The purpose of business is business”, as Milton Friedman once said. Logically, nothing works without money. Ultimately, it goes without saying that revenue trumps expenditure without exception, even if our current government obviously takes a completely different view. “A New Normal” would be called for at all levels.