Is your Company committing Brand Suicide?

Brands are undergoing a seismic change in how they are defined, built and shared. Branding has moved from a broadcast model where think tanks and experts spend mountains of resources building what they want consumers to hear, believe and associate with their products. The broadcast model relied on traditional broadcast media (TV, Radio, Print, etc.) for distribution. This media was outbound focused and not designed for feedback. That has all changed and in the new model you are no longer in control of your brand. Using old branding techniques are not only ineffective, but can actually cause major damage to your brand.

So if you are no longer in control of your brand, who is? The answer your community now owns it.

How did you lose control? The method of communication changed. We have moved from a broadcast model of communication (few to the masses) to a distributed model (any to any). The increase in bandwidth to consumers allows anyone to communicate to anyone else both peer to peer or even one to the masses through blogs, video and other forms of media. From this new form of communication, communities have evolved. What used to take a lot of effort to find is now a few keywords and mouse click away. Users are doing more and more of their own research and finding, even preferring, voices outside of your company that brand your business!

Since I have lost control of the brand should I take back control or just give up?

The answer is neither trying to control your brand or just plain ignoring how communities are branding you is equivalent to brand suicide. Just because you are no longer the dictator of your brand doesn’t mean you cannot have a huge influence on the brand even be the driving factor.

First, branding is still hugely important to any business. Over 80% of all product launches fail and a major factor in that is poor branding, so it is clear abandonment is not an option.

Second, control is not an option in the new communication model. It is impossible to stop people from talking, sharing, giving opinions, etc. and for those companies that try to control the communication it is actually proven worse than if they would have just ignored their community.

Thus, you must jump in and become part of the community, or one of the voices.

You need to openly and honestly become a listener and contributor in the conversation that is your brand. These discussion will happen on your website, in social communities, in the blogosphere, on twitter and YouTube. You must develop a presence in these and other areas where your customers and potential customers communicate. Areas where they have open and honest dialogue on what they think and feel about your products and company. These discussions will include real experiences, plenty of emotion, feedback more clear than any focus group and you must listen, learn, evolve and communicate in these discussions.

Ultimately your Brand will be defined by your Behavior

How you choose to react to this new unfiltered dialogue will ultimately define your products, company and brand. If you are branded as the fastest service and your community ranks you as slow, guess what your brand is to your customers and those searching you out? A quick study on AT&T changing tag lines from “less dropped calls” to “more bars in more places” is a great example of community branding, do you think the community is buying the new spin? While possibly accurate do I really care if I have three bars when I drop a call on my iPhone?

So what do you do?

You need to develop a branding plan. If you are an existing company the first place to start is with your current brand and what is the market and your community saying about your brand. You need to map your claims against the community perception, which is reality for all intents and purposes, and document the deltas.

Next review each part of your brand and decide where should you be? Do you need to step up your game and deliver on your messaging or are customers leading you to a message that may better fit your product or company. Don’t over look those areas that there is little to no feedback, there could be areas that you are over delivering on that the market sees low to no value.

Consolidate your findings and have an open dialogue with your community. Acknowledge that you have heard them, report your findings and listen to see if you captured what they are seeing, experiencing and yes feeling. Once you have confirmed your findings it is time to plot a path for change.

Making the changes and doing so in an open, honest and public manner will accomplish several things for your brand.

First is better Alignment. Now what you say, what the market wants and what you deliver are more closely aligned. I say more closely because for most companies this is a moving target.

Second Credibility. With the alignment above your branding now resonates with your community and is easily verified when new potentials research your products and company.

Third Loyalty. All consumers are looking for a company that gets it and when they don’t quite get it are willing to listen and change. This method of improvement in products and companies builds brand loyalty. Consumers know that if there is a delta in their needs and your solution they have a higher likelihood of getting what they want from a company that is plugged in and willing to make changes. For those customers that have changes they suggested make it in to a product, they are almost as good as family.

Look at Microsoft’s latest Ad Campaign for Windows 7 the message “I recommended that” or “that was my idea” is the meat of the campaign. Microsoft is trying to brand Windows 7 as a product that they have listened to the communities feedback and while they can broadcast that message ultimately the usergroups, blogs and community will be the final judge on whether or not their behavior earns that brand.

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Tagged as: branding, Business, marketing