Comments on: Are You Getting To the Heart of Your Brand?

By: Kristi

Kristi — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:54:23 +0000

The Skittles example you give, though, Dick, is a little skewed. In social media circles, with us mouthy folks, sure, Skittles has egg on their face. But to the masses, are they not still branded as sugar candy? That is totally within their “control” – the projection of that tangible image, and whether or not packaging and graphics and in-store displays are tight and colors are right and copy is written as envisioned by the brand folks who came up with it and manage it.

A failed social media campaign is more how I think of the Skittles splashed on every social platform they could find. To me personally, that is more a marketing than a branding issue. Their brand didn’t change, to me, I just find their methodologies at getting in the social space to be ineffective. It didn’t diminish or elevate the physical brand as far as I’m concerned.

I do think Olivier is a great thinker. I’d love to know his take on how we can distinguish where lines are drawn regarding what the “brand” even is.

Thanks for your comment – I do agree somewhat customers will brand you…. it’s a tough call to determine what is accurate, what’s majority perception, and where the real truth is, for me.

By: Dick Carlson

Dick Carlson — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:41:30 +0000

While I think Olivier is a great thinker, I’m becoming more and more convinced that you can’t actually “brand” anything anymore. All you can do is go out there in the market and do what you do.

And your customers will brand you.

I saw this time and time again when I was at Microsoft, where the Marketing Suits would decide that a particular app was for X market or Y users, and then busily go ahead and market to them. That market would completely ignore them, but some other group would hop on the train and love it.

Skittles has now “branded” itself as the company that really sucks at Social Marketing. Probably not exactly what they had in mind, huh?

By: This will happen with or without you. « Marenated

This will happen with or without you. « Marenated — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:03:24 +0000

[...] to close your eyes, walk to edge of the diving board and jump. I promise if you work hard enough, if you engage long enough, if you listen to your customers carefully enough and you present your story powerfully enough, [...]

By: Monday, May 4, 2009 | shiner.clay

Monday, May 4, 2009 | shiner.clay — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:41:56 +0000

[...] Are you getting to the heart of your brand? [...]

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:46:23 +0000

Hey, Kristi. Sorry for an irrelevant comment here, but your contact info wasn’t working. Wanted to make sure you know you made oDesk.com’s list of Top 100 Blogs for Freelancers.
http://www.odesk.com/blog/2009/04/top-100-freelance-blogs/#comments

By: Nicky Tillyer

Nicky Tillyer — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:10:21 +0000

I agree, but the most fundamental part of this is the execution by the people on the front line.

In a company I work with, the 4 partners, 1 practice manager and myself are clear and understand the brand and where we want it to be positioned.

But the staff do not always execute that the way we would like. After numerous training days and motivational speeches…we just don’t seem to get the right amount of buy-in. some of our core staff are relying on the outer leaves of the artichoke to do their branding work for them.

I know more training is probably the answer, but gee how much hand holding do we need to do to explain to these people that they are the heart of the artichoke…not my design work!

By: Kevin Dwinnell

Kevin Dwinnell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:40:24 +0000

Nice post.

Our product is essentially an affinity marketing tool. We rebrand the browser for companies and have found an amazing difference in the end results when the discussion is focused on what’s good for their customer vs how money will be made. They are not mutually exclusive, but mutually dependent.