Brand seems to be disappearing. Or at least the idea of brand as a framework for decision-making, culture building, strategy focussing and communicating.
Partly, this is because the design industry has done a really good job of owning brand – and so organisations equate brand with visual identity. Partly it’s because marketing has had so many new channels to consider over the past couple of decades, it’s sometimes forgotten about the more fundamental things. But also, because brand consultants and strategists have made a dog’s dinner of describing what brand is and why it’s effective.
Put two brand strategists in a room together and have them describe “brand purpose” and you’ll see this in full force. Cliched industry expression (bring it to life, live your brand, you’re your story) will bump up against unprovable business promise (direct impact on revenue, business success) very quickly. And there’s a strong chance they won’t agree on what brand purpose means anyway.
No wonder some people think brand is bullshit.
Which is such a shame – because done well, brand can be a powerful and profitable system for organisations to operate within.
If you want to shape and align the intangible side of your business – its culture, ethos, communications, personality and relationships – without using the b-word, this post is for you.
We very often don’t use the b-word. Instead, we describe brand like this…
Who we are, what we believe, the way we work and the difference we make
Instead of talking about vision, mission, values, purpose, essence, relationships – and all the other names given to the elements a brand system can contain – we talk about these things:
- Who you are
- Why you do what you do
- What you believe
- The ways you work
- The difference you make
Why do we do what we do?
“Why?” is a powerful question that sidesteps jargon like “brand purpose” and “brand essence”. It’s also likely to be the most differentiating thing about any company. What you do can be copied. How you do it can be great, but is unlikely to be unique. Why you do it, however, is likely to be unique to you.
Let’s imagine an organisation that’s built an analytics platform that allows farms to track stock movement and field use. The natural thing for the developers of this technology to do when they’re describing themselves is to think about “what” they do. So their name and strapline is:
STOCKCHECK
Analytics for livestock farmers
But Stockcheck describes “what” they do – and what they do is being copied. Animalcheck Analytics, StockPlatform, StockTech have recently entered the market. All these offers focus on “what” the organisations do, which makes it really difficult for farmers to choose the best option for them.
Stockcheck is also missing out on opportunities to build a strong, internal culture – and to have a simple system to aid decision-making. “Analytics for farmers” gives them no internal guidance for decision-making, communicating or anything else.
So the marketing team at Stockcheck decide to get a brand agency to help them develop a new position and presence in the marketplace. But they warn the agency that their teams are made up of rational-thinking scientists and analysts, who think brand is a waste of time and money.
Forewarned, the agency doesn’t use brand terms when it engages with the teams. Instead it simply asks teams at Stockcheck to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing. “Why do you make this AI platform?” they ask, “What problem does it solve?”
And the answer they reach is this: We do it to improve animal welfare because it’s easier to stem the spread of disease if you can pinpoint exactly where animals are and have been.
Their “why” becomes: Animal welfare.
Or in brand terms, their “purpose” becomes animal welfare.
And as they agree this, the teams also acknowledge that there are many other potential markets outside of farming that could benefit from the software. Maybe scientists monitoring wildlife colonies. Or wardens keeping wild animals safe from poaching or disease. The software could help to show that a new road might cut across migratory routes. Or that newts wander further away from ponds than previously thought… which means that town planners, developers and real estate investors all become potential clients too.
All of which means that the focus on “Stock” is limiting. So they rename and develop a new strapline:
TRAX
Welfare first
If the people you’re trying to get involved in brand are put off by the terminology, then switch to talking about “why”. Ask them to switch their focus away from “what” their organisation does – and even “how” it does it – and instead, think about “why”.
“Why” gets to the essence and purpose of a brand, without using the b-word.
What is our ethos?
Every company – especially smaller companies and start-ups – know they are different. And it’s not uncommon for companies to try to set themselves apart by saying that they are “friendly”.
In this context, the word “friendly” can mean one, some or all of these things:
- We care about our customers
- We do a thorough job (unlike our competitors)
- We’re emotionally invested in our customers
- We’re flexible
- We view our customers as humans not numbers
But everyone says they’re friendly.
To develop a more distinct market position, a brand consultant may want to articulate a brand purpose and values. But she knows the teams she needs to talk to won’t warm to the b-word, so she talks about “ethos” instead.
Talking about an organisation’s “ethos” gives our consultant a way to talk about brand purpose and values without mentioning the b-word. Ethos is the spirit and attitudes that characterise an organisation.
For TRAX (our imaginary animal tracking AI specialists), their purpose is: Welfare first.
This isn’t simply a throw-away line. It’s a unifying thought in all these situations:
- Business development: Does an area of activity currently under consideration help us to deliver an agenda of Welfare First? If it does, let’s explore further. If it doesn’t, perhaps it’s not for us.
- Recruitment: Does this person care about using her skills to promote welfare? If not, then she’s maybe not the right fit for us.
- Culture building: If we’re about Welfare First and this truly means something to us, then we should invest in team welfare too.
- Communications: We need to be sure that whether we’re telling suppliers about changes in terms and conditions – or advertising a new product – we couch our communications in terms of welfare first.
It works so well for them that they decide to use Welfare first as their strapline too.
Our brand consultant uses all the feedback and insight she generates to articulate the organisation’s values too. They eventually become:
- Intelligence – they provide intelligence and they work intelligently. They’re thought leaders.
- Agility – their offer gives its users the ability to flex and pivot… and they are themselves agile in practice and outlook.
- Pragmatism – they understand the real worlds their customers operate in.
These concepts then become part of “how” TRAX does business. They prioritise intelligence. They insist on agile ways of working. And knowing their customers’ environments becomes a way of doing business – so their customers aren’t surprised to see TRAX people out in the field.
Because TRAX knows its people aren’t into brand, they don’t even call these characteristics “values”. They simply call them “The way we work”.
What are we like?
Brand personality describes what an organisation is like to work with. It’s an important part of “how” it works. There could, for example, be a number of businesses that share the same values, but because they have different personalities, they deliver their products and services in very different ways.
For example, if two companies both believe passionately in working sustainably and promoting sound environmental practices, they may share almost identical values. However, if one company has a personality that is young and irreverent and the other’s personality is traditional and conservative, they may appear in the marketplace as very different entities, with very different styles of communicating and different priorities in decision-making.
Personality traits also help you to articulate visual identity and tone of voice accurately.
And if you want to avoid the b-word, it’s simple. Just ask what a company is like. Ask what it’s competitors are like – and then in guidelines, start with a heading that reads: “What we’re like”.
What’s our role in our relationship with our clients?
In a traditional brand framework, this is often termed “relationship to clients”. It’s an important aspect of brand because it helps to focus teams on how they can best help customers. It also helps to frame the way an organisation talks to its customers.
But if you need to avoid the b-word, then simply talk about roles and relationships.
If, for example, your business is a vintage tea shop and your role is to reassure, comfort and indulge customers, you may decide that your relationship with customers can be defined as: Favourite Auntie.
However, if your role is to protect your customers’ high-tech networks from all possible threats, your role could be defined as: Guardian of the Galaxy.
Our invented company TRAX could decide that its relationship with customers is best defined as: Expert Colleague. In other words, they’re part of their clients’ extended teams. They can be relied on to provide knowledge their clients don’t have or find difficult to get.
Brand without the b-word
It’s a shame that brand has no body or organisation that speaks for it, or sets standards for it, independently of design or of management consultancy. And it’s a shame that partly as a result of this, brand consultancy is sometimes thought of as wishy-washy, silly and a waste of time.
But if all it takes to convey the value of systematic, branded thinking and working is losing some of the standard jargon, then we’re happy to put it in the bin.
Because whether you use branding terminology or not – and whether you even talk about the system you’re developing as a brand at all – what you’re creating should be a valuable business asset.
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