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| Conscious Branding vs. Unconscious Branding |
- We liked this title because of the great visuals that come to mind; marketers inadvertently hit on the noodle, that kind of thing. But the topic becomes serious when you consider just how many branding messages are being set loose in their respective brandscapes that pose real threats to the corporation's bottom line. In Think #4 we discussed how to grade a branding effort. This time we'll focus a bit more on the kids in the back of the class, and what can be done to help them.
As you read the four examples of "unconscious
 branding" below, keep in mind two of Mr. Murphy's laws:
"When you can't decide, you're still making a choice.
"Nothing is foolproof because fools are so ingenious."
Random Branding. If a marketer isn't familiar with brand harmonization, identity and positioning, it's a fairly safe assumption that his brand won't have any of these attributes. The results are unimpressive advertising returns, inefficient media buys, poor brand awareness, low perceived value, and worst of all, an overall impression that nobody is steering the corporate ship. Think what must go on in a consumer's mind when the logo is one shape on the signage and another in the print buy and entirely different altogether on television. A best case scenario might be that the consumer doesn't make any connection between these three poor, disparate impressions. The worst case would be, of course, that this is exactly the device they use to remember - and they don't expect the brand's product to have any more reliability or consistency than the branding itself.
Stealth Branding. A marketer in such a position couldn't be blamed for wanting to shut down communications entirely. Wouldn't it be better just to "wait it out" until a conscious brand foundation could be soundly laid? The question is, what happens to a company when they cease communications efforts while pondering their next move? You guessed it. Consciously or unconsciously, their branding marches on, and impressions continue to be made. Except now those impressions are more along the lines of "whatever happened to those guys?" How many times have you come across a product and were suddenly struck by how long it's been since they've made an impression on you? At this point, don't you wonder what setbacks the company might've suffered over the last few months - or years? Ultimately, didn't it cause you to wonder if the product itself hadn't been degraded in one fashion or another? After all, why would a sound product simply drop off your radar altogether? It's something to think about when someone suggests scaling back the marketing budget to help nudge the quarterly profits.
Sloppy Branding, aka "Consistency is for wimps. An effort is being made, but how well, and for how long? Even in the most casual survey of your own brandscape, it's likely you'll find an abundance of poor harmonization, inconsistent personality, multiple tag lines, and poor brand stewardship in general. The results are the same as above: savvy consumers who either aren't registering impressions, or else are registering impressions - and not the ones the CEO had in mind when she hired the brand manager.
Doh! Branding, aka "Please pardon us while we momentarily forget our own message." Even if your branding is King of the World, this is one that could actually happen to you. You're a sophisticated company with sophisticated Brand Managers and everything is going along smoothly until that one day when somebody decides something brilliant along the lines of, say, "isn't time we reformulate Coke?" Alright, we were trying to avoid naming names up until this point, but this celebrated example speaks to the point. It can happen anytime, anywhere. The more people there are working on your brand, the more difficult it becomes to stay true to your strengths. In this case, Coca-Cola realized in no uncertain terms that their consumer was much more loyal to Coke, their core brand, than the brand management was itself.
So with all these pitfalls and pratfalls awaiting the most diligent brand manager, how does one ensure that the Branding effort is entirely deliberate - conscious! - and not drooping somewhat about the head and shoulders? At Kilmer Kilmer Marshall Duran, we suggest a Brand Building Blueprint. It's a working, living document that begins with a Brand Audit, which evaluates your current Branding and Brandscape. We take into account your target audience, competitors, industry trends and other factors which influence the success of your Brand. Then we help you determine what the ultimate focus of your brand needs to be. Finally, we write it all down with a big, fat magic marker on the largest blueprint paper we can find. That way, all relevant parties always know what your corporate strategy is.
No matter how conscious they are.
Kilmer Kilmer Marshall Duran is a strong advocate of the power of branding. To learn more, please call us at 505.260.1175 or 800.260.1165. Our e-mail is kilmer@k2md.net.
© 2001 Kilmer Kilmer Marshall Duran, Inc.
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