As a very astute business consultant I know points out – every business has a brand. Every business is perceived by those who are in a relationship with it in some way – customers, suppliers, employees, etc. And people who perceive a business hold opinions about it even if those opinions are never articulated. Remember now: people act on their opinions. They will buy from Company A or from Company B based on how they feel about those two businesses. So when the leaders of businesses ignore or neglect their brands, they are really ignoring the relationship they share with their markets. Emphasis on the word “share”. They are taking their customers or clients for granted, or worse. What happens in other relationships, like marriages, where one party takes the other for granted? The relationship becomes sad and troubled or even dissolves.

While at breakfast with some new friends this past week, I happened to once again relay the tale of the six blind men of Hindustan, a famous Indian folk tale. In it, six blind men use their sense of touch to “see” an elephant. I was using the story to illustrate how different people experience brands in different ways and how it’s important to craft brand strategies that will address all those points of view. One of the people at the table very kindly complimented me on the metaphor. And that inspired me to notice that it’s been two and half years since we discussed brand constituencies in this blog. Time to rectify that now. Our tale begins in ancient India …

A few weeks ago, I wrote about charting a course to brand performance. To completely torture that maritime metaphor, when your brand is performing well, it’s like having your boat perfectly outfitted and your course plotted. At this point, your brand should be working efficiently for you. But where are you going? Most owners and managers of small and middle-market buildings have no idea. They point their vessels, imprecisely, toward “success” or “increased sales”. But that’s just like steering toward the horizon. A business needs a more specific goal. And, luckily, one of the benefits of constructing a brand strategy is that the goal becomes immediately apparent. Once you have assessed your products and services, matched up to your market’s values, assessed your storytelling capabilities and surveyed your competition’s positioning, you’ll see a rich goal that is readily available to you. And you’ll have plotted a course to it, one that neatly sails past shallow water and treacherous rocks.

I was in Paris once and ran into a family of American tourists. They had just arrived that very day and were tired, stressed and hungry from their travels. They asked me if I knew anywhere good to eat. First of all, this was Paris. There’s good food everywhere. Serving a bad meal in France is practically a capital offense. But this family was really in luck because I knew just the place. “Yes!” I was happy to help, “I happen to know a fantastic little bistro right around the corner from here. Ask for Marcel. He speaks English. He’ll take good care of you.” But all I got from them were blank stares. Then the mom explained they were hoping for a restaurant more like from home – something like McDonalds. Such is the power of branding that Micky-D’s was their top choice in a city world famous for its spectacular gastronomy. After parting, I felt sorry for this family. I kept thinking of them as missing out on a wonderful life experience, sampling Parisian cuisine. And I started wondering how McDonalds does it. How does their brand wield such power so far from home? But of course I knew the answer because for one week of my life McDonalds held that kind of sway over me, and it was when I was traveling.

What is a brand strategy, really? When one does the research and analysis required, and then writes the final report, one is actually making a business case for why a product, service or company should be positioned in a particular way, vis-à-vis the competition. This is an important first step in any branding or rebranding effort. First of all, the report a vital tool to get buy-in from senior management. With a written brand strategy in hand, one can assure nervous execs that the branding initiative they’re funding will have some basis in fact. It can be made evident that this is not a change-for-the-sake-of-change situation. Any changes will be driven by actual needs, as indicated by market feedback, and not by someone’s whim or individual need to make a mark. Secondly, when the brand strategy is fully articulated, it serves as a guide for all the creative work that is to follow. All the names, logos, websites, etc. can be designed to be integrated with one another and “on-brand”, presenting a unified, consistent face of the business. The products of all the creative will actually work for the business and not be mere decoration.