A Branding Strategy Horror Story

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  1

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  A smart reader just emailed me this reponse:
  
  
  
  
  I think you've confused strategic execution and strategic planning. Businesses should have a well-defined and understood strategy, generally the simpler the better, and you're right when you say corporate politics often prevents everyone aligning around that strategy.
  
  
  
  However, reviewing that strategy on a regular basis is important unless you live at the North Pole, as your market, technology, competitors and customers will keep changing, not to mention new and hopefully exciting opportunities arise. Change for change's sake (or churn as you refer to it)is completely counter-productive, but regular, constructive asssessments of where the business is and where it's going are essential.
  
  
  
  
  Point well taken. Thanks!

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  Sid Herron10/14/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Here's a clue for all the CxOs out there: when someone who doesn't work for your company hears your cool tag line, and their initial reaction is, "Huh?" you know you've just wasted a large pile of money. "The software that manages e-business!" is a classic case in point. I sell software, and I think I've got a pretty good grasp of what e-business is, but I don't have a clue what that tag line actually means. Next time, just give me the $100 mil - I guarantee I'll put it to better use than that!

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE: Next time, just give me the $100 mil
  
  Me some too.

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  Telamar10/14/08 Report as spam
  4

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Oh yeah, I'm positive that one's finger should always be on the pulse of your business as noted above,, that's common sense (so poorly named), but give me some of the $100M too, I'm with sidherron, I'll make great use of it.

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  enriqueflorido10/14/08 Report as spam
  5

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  The problem here, as I see it, was not the strategy, nor the implementation. The problem arises the minute the CMO thinks that, a structural organizational problem can be fixed with a marketing campaign and/or changing the visual image. The problem here was at the corporate level, not at the brand level. For me the tag line and new image was as good as any other done by a profesional Agency.

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  dochi10/14/08 Report as spam
  6

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Try convincing Coke, Dell, IBM, Jet Blue, Southwest, Canon, Disney and a 1001 other successful branding companies of your argument.
  
  Good luck.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE: 1001 other successful branding companies
  
  Name one, just one, where the branding was a byproduct of a great product. Or a company that successfully leveraged a brand from one market into a completely different market.
  
  
  
  You can't, because such companies don't exist. Branding, as a discipline separate from other business activities, is a fraud. And I'm sure there are many people inside those companies who wish their "branding" group would take a hike.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  8

  CORRECTION TO ABOVE

  Above: I meant "wasn't a byproduct" not "was a byproduct."
  
  
  
  Either we gotta get an editable comment system or I gotta start proofing my comments better. Argh!

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  JeffBrainard10/14/08 Report as spam
  9

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Regardless of what was going on with the management issues the problem with this "branding horror" story is that it wasn't branding. From the way you've told the story all they paid for was a very small component of branding, the external communications. Branding when done right, which is seldom done, begins with research. In fact it has nothing at all to do with a logo, a tagline or an ad.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  10

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE form JeffBrainard: the problem with this "branding horror" story is that it wasn't branding.
  
  So you mean they actually spent more than that? I'm not sure how that makes the investment any less boneheaded.

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  jefflogden10/14/08 Report as spam
  11

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  A good fried worked for an email marketing company. Marketing told the salespeople, my job is to build the brand. Ouch!
  
  The actual job of marketing is to help sales sell.
  
  This same firm just let go of 25% of staff.
  
  Branding burns cash -- that is all.

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  LUXNAV10/14/08 Report as spam
  12

  Product first, then (and only then) spend $100M

  Coca-Cola has a great product, it must be said.
  However, Pepsi also has a great project, and the efforts
  of Roberto Goizueta creating slogans like "Coke Is It"
  and "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" are what gave
  Coca-Cola the edge in the world market, ultimately
  creating the most valuable brand in the world.
  However, the flavored-syrup business is a lot simpler
  than the e-commerce software business, and until
  other companies such as Computer Associates have the
  products to back up their marketing expenditures, they
  should get back to the grindstone and quit wasting
  resources. Products first, marketing second.

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  gsanders10/14/08 Report as spam
  13

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  The problem is that many people misunderstand what Branding truly is. It is not an awareness campaign...which this clearly is. It is a grassroots effort to change the culture of a company to deliver customer centric results. So "Branding" is not the problem, its advertising/marketing agencies loose use of the term and executives lack of understanding. Combine the two, and money will surely be flushed.
  
  And of course in this example, there is a slight ethics issue . Nice post.
  
  Greg Sanders
  Managing Partner
  Sortis, LLC
  Madison, WI

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  14

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE: It is a grassroots effort to change the culture of a company to deliver customer centric results.
  
  I'll explain this one more time. Bundling operational and tactical activities (or other functional business activities) under the "branding" umbrella does not make them one iota more effective. What placing functional activities under the "branding" umbrella does do is encourage marketing to waste money in dysfunctional ways.
  
  
  
  Let me put it another way. Marketing is a service function to sales, not a strategic activity. The only reason for marketing to exist is to generate leads and decrease sales costs. All other marketing expenditures are money down the toilet.
  
  
  
  Here's the link to the original post "Brand Strategy = Marketing Boondoggle":
  
  
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=550

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  Sid Herron10/14/08 Report as spam
  15

  One of the smartest marketing people I've ever known...

  ...is Jim Cecil (see http://www.nurturemarketing.com, and, no, I don't work for him - I just respect him a lot). He specializes in the high-tech field, and one of his sound bites that I've never forgotten is: "The time when you need to be top-of-mind in your prospect's mind is when he needs help, not when you need sales." So, the question is how to create, and reinforce, that mental association so that when a need arises, they think of you. If you're the Coca-Cola company, you can hire Barry Manilow to write you a jingle, and pay the networks to run it so many times that your audience can't get it out of their heads no matter how hard they try. Most of us don't have that kind of budget, so we have to look for other, more affordable ways to repetitively touch the prospect and customer base until they actually start to remember who we are and what we do - and these days we are bombarded by so many marketing messages every day everywhere we look that it isn't easy to get a message through the "noise." Frankly, the best way I've found is through a monthly newsletter that we physically print and mail (not email). We include general interest articles so it isn't all about us, and people actually look forward to getting it. Just this month we've received calls from two organizations that we haven't done business with, but that I've been sending newsletters to for two years. And that's not the first time this has happened. However, Geoffrey's point still stands that we have to deliver a quality product, or it's all for nothing. If the first time you tasted Coke you thought it was terrible, you might not be able to get the jingle out of your head, but you still wouldn't buy more of it!

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/14/08 Report as spam
  16

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE: "The time when you need to be top-of-mind in your prospect's mind is when he needs help, not when you need sales."
  
  If you're product is good enough, his friends will have told him about it.

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  Mz. Sieron10/14/08 Report as spam
  17

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  HA HA HA!!!
  
  Bnet you know ur wrong calling out CA like dat... but who cares this stuff is too funny 2 keep 2 yo-self!!
  
  I forward this link to my Marketing Colleague from SENECA!!!!
  
  I LOVE UR SITExox MZ. SIERON

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  middleaged10/15/08 Report as spam
  18

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  I think you are a bit hard on Branding. From your note CA was run in a desperately bad way, and virtually nothing would have helped.
  
  Throwing $100M on a BAD branding exercise certainly wouldn't.
  
  However brands do work, I would rather buy a BMW than a Honda, even though the latter is more reliable.
  
  Branding is only successful when it enters the mind of the target audience. We perceive BMWs as excellent, as a status symbol and everything. The 'Ultimate Driving Machine' (strapline I know) has proved tremendously successful.
  
  The product does have to match up. BMWs are also reasonably well put together cars.

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  ben_evans@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  19

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  I can't remember who said it, but "Marketing is what you
  do when you have a bad product".

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  neita10/15/08 Report as spam
  20

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Hmmm.... let me think back.... product, place, price,
  promotion.... Marketing 101. Of course product is
  important part of the equation. Your assertion of
  taking care of 'products, employees, and finances' and
  she'll be right, however, is a narrow view. It leaves out
  one important group, among many... Customers! They
  are central to the viability of any brand strategy, and
  delivering on your promise to them is key. The
  creative of the add was actually good.. tag line
  questionable... and timing terrible in this case. Question to finish, would the body shop still sell their
  soaps etc at the same rate if the went against their
  brand promise and animal tested etc??

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  Nathalie Hachet10/15/08 Report as spam
  21

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  You are so right here!
  
  Yet there is this strongly engrained belief amongst senior marketing management that a brand refresh will somehow - as by magic - invigorate flagging sales and generate interest... If anything, it tends to confuse or baffle the employees, their clients and customers.
  
  It is best to leave this costly exercise to the more established thriving 'house name' brands, at the right time (i.e. in times of economic prosperity)!
  
  PS: Time will tell if the recent rebranding of 'Pizza Hut' as 'Pasta Hut' will indeed be a brand benefit or a brand disaster!

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  ayomidee@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  22

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Trust me guys.... the $100 mil was his bailout strategy... it was his last opportunity to mop up some funds for the future cause he knew he was on his way out! lol!

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  victoria110/15/08 Report as spam
  23

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  I do not think that Branding is irrelevant as some have said in so many different ways. The problem I think is that Branding is being seen in the narrow scope of just advertising, tag lines and logos. The definition of branding has gone beyond that to include the way you do business and how you relate with your customers. Even if your product is great, sloppy customer service could ruin a potential sale. I think we should begin to see Branding as a phenomenon that transcends the marketing department, a concept that alligns everyone in the company to how we want to be see by ourselves and to the customers. Whatever resources that is put behind acheiving this whether in-house as internal marketing initiatives or out of house as adveritising etc, when properly planned and executed, is not a waste at all.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/15/08 Report as spam
  24

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE from victoria1: The problem I think is that Branding is being seen in the narrow scope of just advertising, tag lines and logos.
  
  No it's not. Useless and expensive marketing deliverables are the outward manifestation of the idiotic notion that the purpose of a business is to build a brand and sales will follow. In fact, the only purpose of a business is to make sales and brand will follow. If a company focuses on sales and puts marketing in service to sales, marketing budgets focus on lead generation and reducing sales costs.

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  lottob@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  25

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  This is simply one of the worst assessments I think I have ever read. You have not clearly defined what branding is and yet you can clearly say it is a waste of money.
  Our objective in sales is to close deals.
  What makes that much easier is creating the connotation in a clients mind that our product or organization could help the buyer.
  Anything to reinforce this message is good not a waste.
  Now the scope cost and scale of the effort can always be brought into question. The efficacy of the effort can always be brought into question. (Since I cannot recall the one mentioned in the artice I can say it wasnt very effective).
  But an effort that unifies a company by providing directive; supports a marketing intiative by imprinting; one that supports closing deals by creating positive perception prior to the first introduction, are all things that great companies do.
  In that vein, a mission statement, marketing differentiators, standard logos, delivering on client promises, even monthlly newsletters, are all representative of branding efforts.

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  jslocum1@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  26

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Yes, CA wasted a lot of money. Often companies do when they don't align their business properly and position themselves properly.
  
  Unfortunately, Geoffrey James again has shown us he has little knowledge of what he often writes about.
  
  BNET ... please hire someone else for these topic areas

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  hwalters@...10/15/08 Report as spam
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  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  "Branding is for cows. It is something you do when there is nothing original about your product." approximately what Disney said to Eisner before he was removed as Disney chairman.
  
  While I believe the above statement captures my sentiments particularly well, I also believe that marketing creates the "opportunity" to sell. My issue is that all of the marketing departments I've ever worked with are usually very bad at this.
  
  Well executed brands are evocative and I'm not sure I'd want people to think about chickens (unless I worked for Tyson Foods)

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  brandmgr10/15/08 Report as spam
  28

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Geoffrey has it right on the money -- I recognize this example of corporate idiocy from personal experience. My firm is currently undergoing the same half-a**ed attempt at a brand refitting. Spending less than $100K (while in debt left and right), we're also getting a slightly jiggered logo and a new tagline that makes less sense than the old one. In my responsibility as the brand manager, everything I said was politely listened to and then ignored by Marketing. So why did we bother? You tell me, because I can't get a straight answer out of anyone.

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  maggiebmay10/15/08 Report as spam
  29

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Talk about looking at an organization in a vacuum! This assessment of branding is one of the worst that I've ever read and I've read some pretty rudimentary rants against branding. Pick a topic, any topic and I'll show you a company that f'd it up but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. You've got to do better than just find an extreme case of mismanagement to prove your point.

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  chiler10/15/08 Report as spam
  30

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Wow, you clearly do not know what the definition of branding is. A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer. EVERYTHING the brand does makes up that perception - the product itself, the sales team (are they rude or nice), the name, the logo, the price, the packaging, the placement, the promise delivered by advertising. All of these pieces make impressions on the consumer and the sum of these impressions is the brand.
  Advertising is only one small part of the brand building process. Advertising communicates the brand message in a pretty little package to a larger sum of people (targeted audience, prospects) than a sales force can one by one. It makes a promise to the consumer about the product - tells you what benefit you will receive. If the promise and the experience match up - you have a good brand.
  
  That said, this is an example of bad advertising which can be overcome if you have a strong brand - made up of good product, price, placement, sales and management team, etc. But don't think that was the case here.

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  Sid Herron10/15/08 Report as spam
  31

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  
  QUOTE:  If your product is good enough, his friends will have told him about it.
  
  You're correct, in a way.  I also recall Cecil saying that all of his research (much of it funded by Microsoft to study the buying patterns of their customers) indicated that when a technology buyer needed something he had never bought before, the default was to get it from someone he was already doing business with.  If he couldn't, he would ask someone he trusted for a recommendation.  If that didn't work, he would tend to contact whatever organization had most recently marketed to him.  Moral:  Even if you're conducting regular marketing activities, the best case is that you'll be #3 on the list.
  

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  daryush10/15/08 Report as spam
  32

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  you know that branding is not what is mentioned in the article. there is just three small activity ususlly come with branding. also branding is not just spending money, as all of us know.
  what i am sure without brand it is not easy to keep going in industry.
  there is many way to brand, with $100,000 instead $100 million. also a marketing manager who do not care about the cost and do not care about financing it is more probable to plan for deceit instead branding.

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  ldlewis@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  33

  re: brand

  Brand has become another "flavor-of-the-month" adopted by businesses. The argument that it is not real is ridiculous. Many companies brand effectively, and as many said, it's not about advertising. The problems begin when some twit on your top floor hears a 20-minute lecture about it at some conference and decides he's ready to implement it, because it's the "big thing." Tools are only as good as their users. Your example is a clear case of operator error. Using a sledgehammer to carve a pumpkin will give you pulp...or maybe chickens.

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  rianmalan@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  34

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  This story had nothing to do with the issue of branding. Just with stupidity.
  
  Branding is and always will be critical, if understood and managed correctly.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/15/08 Report as spam
  35

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  I respond to many of the comments above in the blog post "Why Marketeers Hate REAL Marketing". Here's the URL:
  
  
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=557

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  Michael.Mattis@...10/15/08 Report as spam
  36

  A dissenting view...

  Over at our business ethics blog, "Where's the Line?" Prof. Dominique Hanssens of UCLA thinks that now IS the time to market aggressively...
  
  http://blogs.bnet.com/mba/?p=160
  
  What do you think?

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  barcodeguy10/15/08 Report as spam
  37

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Ditto on the stupidity. What did PT Barnum say, "There's a sucker born every minute...."
  My hat is off on the salesperson who sold them that piece of swampland.
  
  Geoffrey - You said it all, "If you take care of your products, your employees and your finances, you???ll have as much ???brand equity??? as you???ll ever need."
  
  Good products, and the people and companies behind them are what create "Brands". Case in point, "Can you hand me a Kleenex?", is now considered a generic request.
  
  The notion of "branding" is about as idiotic as "consultative selling". Yes you want your product and company to have a cohesive theme, and message. But that's as obvious as saying sales should be "consultative"
  
  For those of you who find branding important. If your company establishes a "brand" for a product that is inherently garbage, the "brand" doesn't matter. It may in fact, cause consumers to associate that negative "brand" with other company products that would otherwise do very well standing alone.

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  AM2210/15/08 Report as spam
  38

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  You haven't defined what branding is at all, nor have you discussed the merits behind it. For anyone who actually thinks branding is a waste of time you should just look at the massive budgets assigned to it by major companies.
  
  One example is Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Any fool will tell you that Diet Coke (or Coke Light, depending where you are in the world - oh look more branding!) and Coke Zero are the same pointless product.
  
  I bet if we had access to the numbers we'd see that the male target group rarely brought a can of diet coke - because it was branded as a more feminine drink (remember the "Diet Coke time" ads?). So what does Coke do? They make the can black, add a bloke orientated branding campaign (and trust me, those adverts were poor) and partner up with James Bond to create Coke 007. I bet you more blokes are drinking that rubbish now. And that???s what branding can do for you.
  
  The fact is that is is very much another point of view from corporate that fails to understand the need for effective investment in marketing and branding. Even if you have the world's greatest product, not marketing it correctly will mean you you sell f all. Just ask John Pemberton, who claimed Coca-Cola cured diseases and addictions. That netted him 9 whole sales a day of his product for 8 long (and i'm sure, lean) months! I bet the bottom line looked great!

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  susana 34210/16/08 Report as spam
  39

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Hey, Geoffrey!
  Why don't you just accept that people might have different ideas about your judgement on branding?

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  Aimee33310/16/08 Report as spam
  40

  Wow!

  Let's really get to the point. Here is some marketing idiot that took a massive budget and blew it! He Probably got courted by some hot shot ad agency that took him for everything, made him feel important on film shoots and promised outrageous product sales for the "new" brand!
  
  So, am I against branding? Hell, no! I make my living on it. But we are in a new age of responsible marketing!
  
  My favorite spot ever was played during the superbowl! it was colorbars (hello? studio time $2,000 an hour) it talked about NOT using Fedex and not getting their "$1,000,000 spot" in time for the super bowl = Brilliant!!!!
  AND COMPLETELY CHEAP!
  
  Point being-the more people spend on branding the less creativity is used. Just a perception!

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/16/08 Report as spam
  41

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE frin susana 342: Why don't you just accept that people might have different ideas about your judgement on branding?
  
  
  That's like asking a parasitologist why he doesn't just accept that some people are happy having tapeworms, so why not just stop removing them.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine10/16/08 Report as spam
  42

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  QUOTE from (the brilliant) Aimee333: we are in a new age of responsible marketing!
  
  Exactly. We're in an era where it's now possible to measure Marketing, and compensate them according to their actual contribution, not according to some fuzzy self-measurement or according to gross revenue.
  
  
  
  Unfortunately, Marketing as a discipline has tended to attract people who were drawn to a job where they can advance their careers by spending corporate money on neat stuff. These folks, as evidenced by their comments, are going to fight tooth-and-nail from being pinned down into being objectively measured.
  
  
  
  They're scared spitless because the stuff I'm writing about -- real marketing accountability -- is their worst nightmare.

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  Jyo6210/19/08 Report as spam
  43

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  Are we arguing against just 'Branding' OR CEO's, Branding budgets and entire components of Marketing Strategy itself??
  
  While the product, employees and finances managed well [read as customer centric effective management] complete the branding requirements by about 90%, its for creating the exclusivity factor for deeper penetration into the minds of consumers and creating a global impact that Ad related branding campaigns are indulged in. Customer and Communication are the core of any branding exercise.
  
  Unfortunately disproportionate allocation of funds for branding and at times the self-centered goals of certain CEOs in initiating huge branding campaigns, with or without vested interests, has led to huge money drain and meaningless brand wars which at times shake the finances of the Company itself. These factors could always be brought under control by proper checks at the right places.
  
  I do not think we can wish 'branding' away. The purpose of branding is to maximise Sales for the company by impacting the way the customer perceives his benefit from the product and to create a permanent segment of loyal customers. An expensive but attractive communication campaign to win the heart of the customer to pick your product. And Customer 'is' the centre point for Sales.
  
  The extent to which the branding campaign is blown up could probably be blamed on the 'sales effectiveness' of the Ad agency and the success or failure of a campaign on the limitations of CEOs in understanding the impact of the creative proposed by the agency. From the point of view of the advertising agencies, such CEOs are their dream customers, prime revenue generating clients. There is also the factor where the original impressive ideas created by the professional ad agencies are twisted and tweaked to satisfy the [limited] creative streak of the CEO/ publicity department which often do not give the desired results for the proposed campaign. Hence there are various factors which contribute to the failure of a branding campaign.
  
  However given the huge funds involved, the need for accountability is definitely high and Companies should look at aspects like clauses in the agreement with Ad agencies in case of failure of ads to generate desired impact and forming an in-house creative team for the company with a mixture of sales, marketing and professional creative guys to assess and finalise a branding campaign.
  
  On a lighter note, the world would definitely be boring without advertisements, brands, brand campaigns and brand wars!!

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  tesandori@...10/21/08 Report as spam
  44

  RE: A Branding Strategy Horror Story

  There are times, when certain people don't know the real story behind certain actions. I think the money was spent before someone else had his hands on it.