Strong brands are conceived in vision and born through integrated marketing communications
Wise managers today understand the importance of building strong brands. Strong brands deliver higher profits, create loyal and price inelastic customers, and build long-term value in the business.
What every brand manager should also realize is that each brand owned by the organization also has a unique opportunity to foster the corporate mission and tap the guiding vision of the organization. Brands that do not connect to or support the mission of the organization squander an opportunity to add value to the organization in a strategically significant way.
Connecting brands to the overall corporate mission is smart corporate stewardship since promoting individual brands will also help fulfill the organization's mission.
Pitfalls in traditional brand management
One often sees organizations whose messages and brand values are so far removed from the overall organizational mission that, if viewed in isolation, they reflect no connection to the core values of the organization. This disconnect represents a missed opportunity to build stronger, more valuable brands and organizations.
This gap between brand communication and organizational mission can be understood by analyzing the traditional way brands are managed.
Many traditional brands are individually guided by managers who compete for resources and a greater stake in the power structure of the organization. When brands are managed in such territorial silos, it is far too easy for them to drift further and further away from the company's core mission.
In never-ending initiatives to make their own brands stand out and get noticed within the organization, brand managers are lured into adjusting and "refining" brand communications so they attract attention. These brand managers often fall prey to the temptation to create edgy and progressive brand messages that capture attention and stir passion-but do more overall harm than good because they fail to foster organizational goals or promote core brand values.
In contrast, the goal of solid brand communication strategy should be to support and echo strategic goals and communicate core brand values both internally and externally in a manner that resonates with all stakeholders and sells brand value. This process of aligning brand communications with organizational mission has been defined and is called Top End AlignmentTM .
Brand strategy starts here
Before any marketing communications message is drafted or any specific, individual brand strategy is laid out, you should first explore or re-visit the stated goals, mission, and vision of your organization. Each brand in your portfolio is then examined to ensure that the promises made by each brand are fostering the overall organizational objectives and advancing the principles of the organization's mission. Each brand should support overall vision and mission in some way. By tying brand promises to corporate goals, you are building not only strong brands, but also leveraging your marketing investments to build a company that is worthy of enduring. This is done through the brand audit process.
The brand audit
A brand audit is a comprehensive examination of a brand that will provide a snapshot of where your brand stands today while providing insights as to what new sources of equity might be built upon in the future. During the brand audit, you will uncover your brand's sources of equity and determine the health of your brand. The brand audit will also allow you the opportunity to ensure that your brand messages are connected to your overall mission and supporting its tenets by assessing and possibly refining your brand's positioning.
Only when you are clear that the brands owned by your organization are indeed fostering your mission and have audited your brands do you proceed in creating marketing communications messages.
Integrated Marketing Communications
Effective marketing communication messages communicate brand values that help fulfill the mission of the organization. These messages should be created and communicated within an Integrated Marketing Communications framework that ensures that they remain clear, compelling, consistent in voice, and unified across all marketing communications channels. In short, your brand should be communicating the same things regardless of the communications medium chosen and should be communicated using multiple channels of communication.
It is helpful to create a written list of core brand values and establish copywriting "brand talking points" that act as guidelines to ensure that your messages are communicated in a way that is unified, effective, and emotionally engaging. If you cannot ensure that your brand's marketing communications will be created by a single, highly qualified person or entity then you would be wise to appoint a Marketing Communications Manager for your brand to ensure that the messages comply with brand communication guidelines.
Internal branding
In additional to tying each and every brand communication to core brand values and the overall mission, the wise business leader further understands the importance of hiring and developing people who personally identify with brand values and the mission of the organization.
Internal branding is an essential part of the branding process because without internal brand alignment there is no way to externally project a cohesive brand message.
Ensuring that each and every employee understands the promises the brand makes is essential to the cultivation of organizational behavior that accurately reflects your values, mission, brand, and business strategy.
When employees personally identify with core brand values, they have a much easier time delivering on brand promises. In fact, research suggests that employees who personally understand and identify with brand values have lower stress, get more satisfaction from their work, and even tend to earn more money over time. Encourage employees to "live the brand" and remove obstacles that hinder delivery of the brand promise. Encourage employees at all levels to contribute to and deliver the brand promise. These "aligned" employees will soon become brand zealots and conduct themselves in a manner that is steadfastly consistent with brand and corporate values.
Top End AlignmentTM is a prescription that ensures that your marketing communications are not only making and keep valuable brand promises to your customers but that they are also supporting and promoting the overall goals of your organization. Once they do, you will find that not only will your bottom line benefit but so will you, your customers, and your employees.
Copyright 2004, Dave Dolak. All rights reserved.
