Branding is D.E.A.D
By Andy Wright
At least I hope so…I’m reading more and more opinions on how branding is dead. A fair proportion of online, marketing and design experts agree that branding is no more. I agree with them and I hope they’re right.
At least in their definition of the term. If branding is:
- A new logo and corporate identity produced by a major ‘branding’ firm; or
- A marketing campaign to generate awareness.
A new logo
I’ve heard one too many times a phrase along the lines of “Branding agencies are dead now that social media and user generated content have emerged,” or “What a waste of money. X brand spent over $200k on their new logo / branding.” The one’s that did charge $200k for a logo should die, and good riddance.
Unfortunately, what many fail to realise is that not all of that $200k went into drawing or type-setting a logo. Most of it went into developing and researching what the brand stands for (or should aim to) in the hearts and minds of its potential customers.
Control of branding isn’t being handed over to consumers with the emergence of social media. But the reputation of a brand is certainly more transparent than ever. This doesn’t mean we as brand developers don’t hold the starting pistol and decide which way the race is run.
Apple is a great example. By planning, designing and directing the experiences we have with their brand they consolidate their reputation for great looking design, usability and customer service. Sure they make mistakes (pricing of the iPhone, design flaws in the macbook, iphones blowing up?) but their management of these issues has on the whole defended their equity.
However, if Apple ‘crowdsourced’ the design for the next nano, or a new identity for iTunes would they still be in control? Would the enthusiastic individual designer be aware of the typical nuances of the Apple consumer? Would they understand what makes an Apple customer buy their products over Sony and vice versa? Would saving $198k be worth it?
Branding in this case doesn’t start and stop with a logo. It starts way before and will continue for as long as the brand’s leaders commit to growing the value of their business.
A new brand campaign
How many times have you heard a client, agency or ad sales rep say “It’s a new branding campaign,” and sometimes accompanied by “so they’re not worried about the response.”
I really hope ‘branding’ campaigns do die. It’s ‘half a job’ branding. Talking about the same product, with the same features and same benefits – but now with much higher expectations thanks to your campaign. At the same time it’s blissfully unaccountable. Measured only by a change in perception or even just an increase in awareness.
If your branding campaign doesn’t start way before the 30 second spot by evaluating your brand and the value it can add to your customers then it shouldn’t be called a branding campaign. It’s bad marcomm’s, short-term and has only a limited (if any) effect on your brand’s reputation.
If truly embraced, it could be – a new service, product or improvement that makes your customer feel more confident amongst friends, ahead of the game, like their saving time, appreciated by someone, or that they belong. It could be communicated by an ‘advertising campaign’, a social media campaign, PR and search engine marketing. But importantly it came from one central branding idea and it will seek a response. Ultimately an increase in revenue for the brand and a growth in loyal customers who choose it again and again.
So, next time you hear that you need a new ‘branding campaign’ or a new ‘brand’ have a think about what that really means. It’s not one-off, a chance to stamp your mark on a new role, or a way to raise awareness without promising sales. It’s a commitment to delivering tangible value to your customers and your business.
If you disagree, then feel free to join the others in chanting, “Branding is Dead.”
Brandhabits
Allow me to indulge an interesting view point on your comment:
“Most of it went into developing and researching what the brand stands for (or should aim to) in the hearts and minds of its potential customers.”
I’d like to believe that most of the $200k did go on researching, but after a recent conversation with an ex MD of Landor, one of those typical big-wig brand agencies for whom the bells should toll for the bad name they have given branding – it appears that a typical scenario would see the $200k being carved up based on $140k on creative and perhaps $60k on research. The 70% of the budget would be spent on probably 4 or 5 creative teams spending hours coming up with 1000′s of options that would be whittled down to 3 options. Sure they’ve spent some of the budget on research, but most of the money is spent ‘wasted’ on creative. Creative, which at the end of the day – a client subjectively decides which one they think is the prettiest one. No offence to clients out there.
It makes no sense why budgets continue to be carved up so disproportionately – the most important aspect to the branding process is the research taken to understand the hearts and minds for which the brand is destined for, yet, we as ‘agencies’ are programmed to place the biggest part of the budget into creative beauty pageants.
I believe that fat cat creatives days are very much numbered. I by no means suggest that we don’t need a strong creative director at the helm… but I’d like to propose that we don’t need armies of overpriced, overrated art directors burning through budget on piles of concepts, of which a client will only ‘buy’ one.
The concept of crowdsourcing to develop logos is an inspiring and refreshing testament to the world is become flatter and flatter. Armed with a creative brief that hits the spot – because the right amount of money has been spent on research and strategy – there’s a creative revolution taking place NOW – it’s all about truly getting the most out of your budget and reversing the wrong.
Websites like http://www.crowdspring.com enable designers – hungry, enthusiastic and diehard to make a buck – to bid on work, sometimes for as little as only $1000. Suddenly the budget is not only stretched further, but has global reach to all ends of the internet allowing the widest possible degree of creativity to be realised.
What’s important is ensuring the work is on brief – so yes, bring in your Creative Directors and the like, to help make recommendations, and shortlist the work that comes back in, but don’t piss away your budget on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of concepts that end up in someone’s bottom drawer (and will probably be dredged back up again for the next campaign).
So I think crowdsourcing has a place in how branding (at the logo end of the spectrum) gets done.
Apple is the holygrail of brands, but there’s a lot of success stories out there with brands who do handover their R&D to the hands of the consumer and are able to evolve their brands, product extensions and ultimately create a brand experience with their consumers akin to “lovemark” status. Check out what Lego do: http://mindstorms.lego.com/Press/2057/Open%20Source%20Announcement.aspx
Thanks so much for your comment I really appreciate your opinion. I knew that this might be a more hotly debated subject than some of my other posts.
I agree with many of your points. I’ve also worked at one of the types of agencies you’re talking about. The truth is, a lot of time is spent on creative. Sometimes too much of this time is spent on junior designers brainstorming and concepting, only for a senior designer to come along and crack it within a few hours. However, every project is different and the final design might actually take weeks or a few hours. You can never predict this. So agencies set a fee up front for how long they think it should take.
The other point I’d like to make is that a lot of these designers understand and have a lot of experience with the process, brand and market (or at least they should). Like anything you’ll pay more for experience and expertise. That’s not to say that designers on crowdsourcing sites aren’t experienced, I think there are just fewer of them.
I like the Lego example and I think this shows what a passionate and loyal community can achieve. If your brand has this and they have expertise, you absolutely should tap into it.
Thanks again for your comment. Hope you enjoy upcoming posts…