Creating Brands that Stand the Test of Time
Building and managing a legendary brand takes discipline. Defining a brand with voice and personality is the easy part. However, finding the consistent embodiment of these attributes in ongoing marketing efforts can be a difficult process. Over time, a brand begins to take on a life of its own so it is best if it is closely managed by a trusted steward.
An iconic brand equals a series of consistent impressions over time. Whether your customer is watching a TV spot, seeing your billboard or looking at your print campaign in a magazine, each touch point creates an impression. To establish legendary status, it takes support from the highest levels of a company to keep a brand healthy for the long haul. The more buy-in for brand building there is from senior management the faster a brand will become an icon.
Target, Nike, Coca-Cola are all examples of strong brands. The stewards of these brands take a deliberate focus any time a customer has an interaction with their employees, visits their Web sites, or purchases their products. They know that how their staff behaves or the feelings that their stores or headquarters evoke all reflect on their brand.
When management teams make poor decisions about customer experience, get careless in the look-and-feel of stores, or allow random product changes to be made, the erosion of a brand can happen quickly. This has occurred with many highly sought after brands such as Coach, Burberry and Kmart. Luckily, a strong iconic brand can rebound although it can be painful and expensive. Careful planning, buy-in from the top levels of the company and discipline can help your organization and brand avoid these mistakes.
---Carla Stratfold, OnRequest Images
About the author
As CEO, Carla Stratfold brings more than 20 years of experience to OnRequest Images, a provider of custom photography for some of the world’s leading brands.
Editor's Note: this is a guest blog post. Marketing News encourages its readers to submit guest posts to stimulate discussions on its blog.
Comments
I appreciate this post, some nice fundamental reminders. And speaks beyond just consumer brands as well; in our experience (new business for marketing services companies) an agency brand, for example, can suffer the same kind of erosion through poor decision making. Seems like a simplistic statement, but you'd be surprised how often agency principals forget this basic tenet.
Posted by: Lee Mcknight Jr | July 30, 2009 11:29 AM